The Watch – Part 127:

‘What do you have that he wants?’ Tom asked me. Does it really matter that Tom knows now? It’s not like I can try and say that I don’t know what this man is talking about or say that I don’t have anything he wants; I know that he knows that I have the watch. Should I really just reveal my secret here and now in front of Tom and Alex? But what happens if I don’t?

‘Your face is filled with many questions,’ the man said, smiling. ‘What do you plan on doing, and please take your time on figuring that out. I have all the time in the world. Well, I say that; I actually mean, until I get bored, and that can be anytime. So, yeah, please think quickly.’ He sounds insane. His smooth movements and long, elongated pronunciation of each word are designed to try and intimidate me. The thing that attracts my eyes the most, however, is the staff he holds in his left hand. The more I look at it, the more I get that same feeling I got the first time I saw the watch. That same, strange feeling that I still haven’t been able to describe properly. Does that mean, there is more to that staff than meets the eye? I’m hoping that I’m not going to find out, especially when Amy, Tom and Alex are standing right beside me. I don’t want to endanger them, or anyone or anything for that matter.

‘Oh, how confused you look right now,’ he said softly, darkly, smiling. ‘It’s so much fun to watch. But time’s a ticking and you’ve done nothing but stand there, motionless, and I would hate it if I were to be forced to take drastic actions.’

‘If you don’t leave us,’ Tom shouted, ‘we will have no choice but to call the Police.’ I don’t think the Police can do anything about this, and that statement was confirmed by what the man said next.

‘I don’t think you know just how bad of an idea that is, do you?’ he said, looking at Tom directly. It was the first time I’ve ever seen Tom as scared as he was now. I didn’t blame him. The look that man has in his eyes is pure madness. He then looks at me in the eye and all I see is nothing but fire, mysticism, darkness, and insanity. No, not insanity, but… definitely not normal. I don’t know what it is, but I’m not going to stay here to find out. It’s time to act.

‘Whatever it is that I have you want; I’m not going to give it to you. I’m sorry, but that’s that.’ He changed his smile to a serious scorn. ‘Now, if you would kindly leave us be, there will be no trouble.’ I doubt trying to be reasonable will help me, but maybe it will give me enough time to compile a plan.

‘Oh,’ he said, faking being hurt. ‘Oh, that just hits me right here,’ he placed the palm of his hand onto his heart, ‘I just wasn’t expecting to be turned down so harshly. I’m going to need some therapy to deal with these deep, emotional scars that you’ve inflicted upon me.’ Ok, now he’s milking it a bit. He’s not going away unless I give him the watch, and judging from the way he’s acting and everything else about him, his hands are the wrong hands.

‘How will I ever heal what you’ve cut,’ he said so poetically before standing up straight once more. The next thing that he said was rather clichéd, but it did drive the point of what he was about to do next in all the way. ‘Oh, I know.’ He tipped his staff down so that the red gem at the end was pointing directly at us. It started to glow brighter, probably meaning it’s charging up. That can’t be good.

‘Er, I think we should run,’ Tom said to everyone, backing away slowly along with Alex who looked scared and confused. Amy, who had some idea what was going on – I can only assume – looked at me with an expression that told me, ‘you know what to do.’ Is she saying that I should fight this man? To be honest, he’s setting things up so that I don’t have a choice in the matter.

‘How about some magic to brighten this day up a bit,’ the man said as the bright crystal-like thing continuing to grow brighter.

‘Sebastian,’ Amy said, giving in and backing away also, ‘if you’re about to do something, you had better do it now.’ But what do I do? I turned on the spot to try and figure out an angle, but all I found was Tom looking at me with an extremely confused expression. He’s silently asking what Amy means. I looked into his eyes, silently saying as best I could, that I will explain everything later, just bear with me for now. I rolled up my sleeve to reveal the watch.

I felt something grab my back. Something strong, stopping me from moving my hand any closer to the watch.

‘You don’t want to be doing that,’ he chuckled behind me. I turned my head and saw that there was nothing grabbing my back. Except there was. An invisible hand. Magic?

‘Sebastian,’ Amy cried out. I snapped my head towards my three friends and saw that they were no longer moving backwards. They were forced to a standstill. Rigid, as if whatever has a hold on me has also got a tight grip on them as well.

‘Now,’ the man said, ‘if I let you go, are you going to learn from your mistakes.’ He was taunting me, mocking me. I can’t give into someone like that. Someone like him must never lay his hands on the watch, that’s just a no brainer. But what will happen if I refuse?

‘I won’t let you take my watch,’ I shouted.

‘Oh,’ he said, confirming that he heard me, ‘and do you want to find out what will happen if you refuse one more time?’ That was a threat I cannot let happen since I just know that it will be directed towards my friends. If only I could get my fingers close to the watch, I would be able to activate the necessary commands to put a stop to all of this, but I’m still stuck in this now rather uncomfortable position. My arm started to ache, and whatever has a hold on my back wasn’t going to loosen up any time soon.

‘Don’t you dare hurt my friends,’ I shouted.

‘Then give me the watch, how hard is that for you to figure that out,’ he said taking a cheap shot.

‘Never,’ I screamed.

‘AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,’ Amy, Tom and Alex both screamed in unison. They were in pain. Being crushed by an invisible force field. Their limbs being forced to bend in ways they weren’t meant to. And I can’t do a thing about it except watch and feel psychological pain.

‘STOP,’ I yelled. And it did. But I knew that it would only start up again. Then the invisible hand turned me around on the spot so that I was facing him.

           

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)