The Watch – Part 100:

The roof fell down on top of us, creating a huge dust cloud that engulfed both of us, preventing us to see any further than our noses. I heard loud bangs and crashes as bits of wood collided with each other and the floor. The entire abandoned station had collapsed.

The dust was thick and took a very long time to clear. I struggled to breathe properly. I was coughing and spluttering, but I was alive.

Then I heard someone else coughing and spluttering, signalling their being alive, which was all that I wanted. The floor around Amy had broken and fell down into what must have been the basement below. Amy would have followed if it weren’t for me having a firm grip on her arm. I was so relieved that I was able to act quickly enough to secure our safety. I had giving myself the power of strength to enable me to keep certain bits of the roof from crushing us. I didn’t activate indestructability so many splinters were digging into my hand, cutting deeply, causing pain all throughout my hand and wrist, getting worse each second I keep a hold of what’s left of the roof. I hoped that Amy hadn’t been hurt in anyway, but the dust refused to clear quickly to let me see properly. Eventually, the wind shifted it enough for me to gain some visibility back and observe the situation.

For the first time in minutes, I was able to see Amy through the ever thinning dust. If I hadn’t grabbed her arm, she would have and either broken a few bones or worse. She slowly recovered from the shock of the building falling down on top of her, slowly realising that she was still alive. I could tell that she was trying to figure out who had a grip on her arm and was keeping her from falling down. From her perspective, the dust was still rather thick, but eventually it cleared and she was able to see me, holding onto her arm and keeping a few pieces of very heavy beams up without showing any struggle. Naturally, she thought the dust and the shock of the situation was playing havoc with her sensors, but after a couple of seconds of trying to clear her eyes the best she could, she noticed that nothing changed.

‘Sebastian?’ she asked before coughing violently.

‘Can you move your feet?’ I asked before Amy starts asking questions.

‘I… I think so,’ she said, testing to see if her trapped foot is now free. ‘Yes,’ she said with a sore through.

‘OK,’ I said. ‘I’m going to pull you up slowly now,’ and I pushed what’s left of the roof to one side. I had to act so quickly, all did was activate the strength without increasing it to what I actually needed, which is alright for keeping these pieces of wood up in the air, but moving them to one side was when their true weight started to kick in. I groaned as I used all my strength in my arm to drop it to the right of us. It crashed to the floor, kicking up another cloud of dust, but was less thick that before. It didn’t reduce visibility so I didn’t worry about it too much.

‘On three,’ I said. ‘One. Two. Three,’ and I heaved Amy up until she was at the same level as I was. She placed her feet gently onto the floor. She couldn’t believe what was happening. The look on her face told me that she has about a million questions going around in her head all at once, but, and I didn’t know whether it was the dust playing distorting the look on Amy’s face, but it looked as if she wasn’t as surprised as she should be.

‘Come on,’ I said, ‘let’s get away from here,’ and we climbed from the wreck of the station and onto even ground where I saw Oliver standing on the other side of the road with a phone in his hand, talking fast and acting all scared. I wanted to shout at him and tell him that it was wrong for him to leave us in that building without helping us, but I was simply too exhausted from being scared and worried. Amy was safe and that was all that matters now.

Our clothes were covered in dust and dirt. They had completely changed colour, and so had our hair.

‘Ow,’ Amy grunted.

‘What’s the matter,’ I said hurriedly.

‘My foot,’ she said, limping in pain.

‘You need to rest it. Sit over there and I’ll call an ambulance to have them take a look at it.’ It was covered in blood. The broken piece of wood must have successfully taken a large chunk out of her ankle during the fall. It may look worse than it is, but Amy’s limp is contradicting that. She hopped over to the fence and sat down with a bump as her other leg gave way. She was shaking like a leaf and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was as white as a ghost under all that dust.

‘Can you breathe alright?’ I asked.

‘I think so,’ she said. She coughed once more, but it wasn’t as violent as before, which was a good sign.

‘Oh my God,’ a person behind me said. I turned around and saw a worried looking woman behind me. She looked to be about in her fifties, skinny and had jet black hair. ‘I watched all of that from my bedroom window,’ she explained. ‘I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I knew it would go at some point, but I wouldn’t have thought anyone would be inside it when it does. Are you alright?’

‘We’re fine,’ I said, knowing that ‘fine’ mean as fine as can be, but the woman knew that and continued.

‘I’ll call an ambulance,’ she said fishing out her phone from her pocket.

‘No need,’ Oliver said beside her. She jumped when she realised someone had snuck up on her. ‘I’ve already called them. They’ll be about twenty minutes or so,’ he said.

‘What about the police?’ the woman asked. ‘They need to be alerted so they can caution this place off so that no one can come and go snooping.’

‘I’ve called them also,’ Oliver said. He has, in my mind, redeemed himself.

‘Sorry,’ the woman said, ‘I never introduced myself. I’m Jo.’

‘Nice to meet you Jo,’ I said.

‘You might want to put some pressure on that ankle,’ Jo said before I could say our names.

Amy looked up at Jo as if she had just come out of a deep daydream. ‘Sorry,’ Amy said faintly.

‘You need to put some pressure on your ankle to stop the bleeding as much as possible,’ Jo said. ‘I’ll get you a blanket to wrap around it,’ and she started to run off before spinning around on the spot. ‘Sorry,’ she said again, ‘I never let you introduce yourselves, did I.

‘I’m Sebastian and this is Amy,’ I said.

‘And I’m Oliver,’ he said.

‘Nice to meet you three,’ she said before spinning around once more and running across the road to grab a blanket.

***

The firefighters were the first to arrive as they were just down the road, but the ambulance and Police both turned up at the same time, which is pretty rare, but it happened today. The police roped the entire area off and asked all the necessary questions to Oliver as to what happened. I also noticed that Jo was talking to various Police Officers and paramedics as well and from the looks on both their faces, it was a serious conversation. I was too far away to hear any of it, but in the end, the Police Officers and the paramedics both nodded before ending the discussion and walking off to attend to other matters.

The paramedics attended to Amy’s wound by taking off Jo’s now blood stained blue blanket and wrapping it up tightly in a lot of bandages. They took a good look at it and said that it wasn’t infected nor was going to become infected so it was Ok to head home and get some rest, and not to put too much pressure onto it for a while. I did question why they weren’t taking her straight to hospital, but they said there was no need, which was strange and probably going against their standard routines. The paramedics also treated Amy’s shock, calming her down gently and making considerable effect. She explained the situation away, not giving any information relating to my powers, which I was incredibly grateful for. The firefighters spoke to Oliver, who explained that there wasn’t anyone else inside, just us three. Everything felt so surreal, it was as if I was dreaming.

It didn’t take long for everyone to complete their tasks and we were allowed to go home. Surely the Police would want us to stick around some more. Why am I worried about what doesn’t concern me? Amy survived, Oliver survived, that is all that matters. I’m not about to tell them their job. At this point in time, all I do want to do is go home.

I held Amy’s hand to keep her balance as she hobbled away slowly. Jo very kindly invited us in for a strong cup of coffee and some rest, which we gratefully accepted. Her place was calm looking, with white walls and cream furniture. The sofa was incredibly comfortable, but I knew that whatever surface I sat on would feel tremendous.

‘What were you thinking going into a place like that?’ Jo asked rhetorically. We didn’t try and explain away our reasons as we knew the dangers and fully accepted all responsibilities for our actions. Jo headed to the kitchen and put the kettle on. ‘It’s extremely lucky that you survived that.’ She continued spooning two teaspoons of coffee into the cup. Amy looked at me, and that’s all that needed to be said. I still haven’t been able to disable my powers – I still have superhuman strength, but now that Oliver is around, I don’t want him in the circle as well.

We sat in silence as the kettle boiled. Jo handed us a cup of strong coffee each, which we sipped slowly. The coffee was far stronger than I have ever tasted in my life, but it did help massively with regaining my energy, and by the time I reached the bottom, I felt as if I was a bit back to normal. Even though I have superhuman strength, the adrenaline of the situation sapped all my energy out; as well as worrying over Amy.

‘Thank you,’ Amy said, ‘it’s very kind of you to invite us in.’

‘Oh, no, it’s not a problem at all. I’m just glad that you managed to get out of their without serious injuries or worse. You should consider yourselves very lucky, indeed.’ Amy looked at me with an expression that was half thankful, half curious. ‘Now, do any of you need to phone anybody?’ Jo asked.

‘I think that would be better if I did that later,’ Amy started to explain, ‘that way I’ll be able to get my words straight the first time round.

‘Whatever makes you happy,’ she said without kicking up such a fight. ‘How about you two?’

‘I agree with Amy,’ I said.

‘I’ve already done so,’ Oliver said.

‘Good,’ Jo said happily. ‘Now I think that before you get back to your homes, you should clean yourselves up a bit. You look terrible. I don’t have any clothes that would fit you I’m afraid so you’ll just have to make do with the ones you’re wearing now. I’ll wash them for you, of course. I do have an extra pair of pyjamas for you, Amy, but all I have left is two pairs of dressing gowns for you two, if that’s OK.’ Oliver and I both nodded at the same time. We weren’t worried about what we had to wear, we were just pleased that we could get out of these clothes. ‘Now,’ Jo continued, ‘because you’ve got the full brunt of it all,’ she said to Amy, ‘I suggest you go first and get that leg cleaned as best you could. You can use whatever shower jell you want and please take your time. The last thing I want you to do is make yourself in even worse.’

‘Thanks, Jo,’ Amy said smiling.

‘It’s no problem at all,’ she said again and Amy disappeared into the bathroom to get herself washed up. ‘Just hand me your dirty clothes and I’ll put them in the washing machine for you. Because they looked rather beaten up, I think I should do them separately so that they can get the maximum clean possible, plus I don’t know what colour they were originally and I don’t want them to run and have you boys wearing pink clothes, now do we,’ she said making us chuckle a bit. Amy wasn’t wearing any pink clothes, and I wasn’t wearing any red or white clothes, but the point still stood.

***

As soon was the warm water hit my back and washed all the dust away, it was an instant effect. Now that I’m here, I can deactivate my superhuman strength. The running water tumbling over my head opened up my mind, letting so many thoughts in at once. Dare I say that I had predicted that Amy would find out without me telling her. I should have analysed the situation a lot more than I did, but my curiosity blinded me from the inevitability. I should have said something. I should have been more adamant towards Oliver keeping him from going upstairs. This isn’t his fault. The station would have fallen down anyway. If he didn’t help it, Amy and I would have come back day after day until it eventually fell down.

When Amy stepped out of the shower, she appeared to have done a lot of thinking. She looked at me, silent, blank, as if she had worked out stuff, but didn't want to show anybody that she knows my secret, and that those answers generated more confusing questions. When we're alone, I can ask her what what her opinion on all of this is. The more I see that blank expression, the more emotion I can detect, as if she was subtly telling me that she was going to walk away. I can't jump to conclusions. What has happened has happened. If she decides to walk away, then I will just have to accept that... but I can't help but think that she will turn her back on me forever. For a very brief moment, I actually thought about giving myself the ability to hear her thoughts, but that would have been a severe breach on her privacy, and I'm not that sort of person and I hope that Amy doesn't see me as that sort of person. 

My natural sense of time kicked in, making me wonder how long I’ve been in here, so I switched off the water and stepped out, grabbing my towel as I did so and started to dry myself.

Jo had washed our clothes. They were currently spinning around in the tumble dryer. We sat on the sofa, wearing pyjamas and dressing gowns. In any other scenario, this would have been incredibly funny and weird, by considering what happened just before, we didn’t care what we looked like. We were just pleased to be resting.

‘Do you have a laptop?’ Oliver asked.

‘Yeah, why?’ Jo asked.

‘I need to send some pictures to these guys from my camera via E-mail,’ he explained.

‘Oh, sure thing,’ she said, grabbing her laptop from under a pile of papers and handing it over.

‘Thanks,’ Oliver said, opening the lid and starting it up. ‘Sorry about the mess,’ she said, ‘I’ve been doing a lot of work from home lately.’

‘We didn’t even notice,’ Amy said truthfully.

‘Well, I guess it’s tidier than I thought,’ she smiled. Oliver connected to his E-mails and plugged in his camera. He extracted the photos and video from his camera to his E-mail and clicked the send button. I told him my E-mail address and the pictures and video were sent in a matter of seconds.

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘That’ll help a lot.’

‘So what were you doing there anyway, I never got around to asking?’ Jo asked curiously. We spent the next few minutes explaining everything about our projects. Of course, Amy and I had to leave out a lot of details, but we still made the story come together easily.

‘Well, next time you want to do a project, make sure it’s somewhere that’s newly built,’ she said pointing to us. She looked at the clock on the wall just to the left of us and said. ‘Now, I don’t want to dwell on the matter anymore than you do, so I know what we can do to take our minds off of it.’ She stood up and walked over to the TV, turning it on. ‘Do any of you like Mrs Brown’s Boys?’

We nodded excitedly.

‘Good,’ she said simply. ‘Then sit back and enjoy because it’s going to be a good evening, after which, your clothes should be ready to be worn once more and you can then get back to your own homes.’ I know that Amy still has many questions that she so desperately wants to get off her chest, but the thought of forgetting the whole thing for a while was too tempting to let it pass by.

***

We were much happier and relaxed after Jo’s hospitality that when we had gotten ourselves dressed back into our clothes that were now really clean and smelt fresh, we left knowing that we can go home without having any after effects.

‘Well,’ Oliver said, ‘I guess this is where we part ways,’ he said. We were standing outside of the block of flats facing what was left of the abandoned station. Everyone has left of the night, leaving behind something that had a lot of history behind it. All the dust had either settled or floated away, allowing us to see all the broken and twisted pieces of wood laying in a sad heap on the floor. The smell of the dust was still thick in the air. The sun was low enough to make the temperature drop considerably, although it might be due to the fact that we were in a nice, warm apartment for a few hours or so, but either way, it still wasn’t that cold, but comfortable.

‘I think so,’ I said.

‘I’m not sure how to say goodbye,’ Oliver said. I know what he means. We’ve been through so much in such a short amount of time that it feels bad to leave acting as if it was just a general get together.

‘I guess we just say goodbye,’ Amy said.

‘Well, goodbye, I guess,’ Oliver said.

‘See you around,’ I said.

‘I hope we do see each other around,’ Oliver said, smiling and he headed off, leaving for his home.

‘What do you want to do?’ I asked Amy. ‘Do you want to go home or spend another night in the bed and breakfast?’

‘I wouldn’t mind another night,’ she answered with all of her weight on her right leg, ‘if it hasn’t already been taken by somebody else that is.’

‘There’s only one way to find out,’ I said, and we walked back to the Thorne, arm in arm. I was just waiting for a bombardment of questions from Amy and I know that Amy is waiting to chuck them all at me as soon as she gets the chance.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)