Moment in Time

Vampire Weekend

"You know you still haven't told me where your fascination with murder comes from," Beckett told Castle.

"It happened during one of the times Mother was on the road when I was young," Castle began. "I think I must have been about seven. One of the drunken maniacs mother hired to take care of me, a Mrs. Munch, took me to the park, but she had her brown bag with her and wasn't really paying attention to me. I wandered off and I found a thick clump of bushes. It was fall and they were all kinds of crazy colors. There were a couple that were bright magenta. To me, that looked like an alien landscape."

"You haven't changed much," Beckett interjected.

"Anyway," Castle continued, slightly annoyed, "I decided I was on the planet Purp. I was hiding in the bushes, waiting for the planetary brigade to come rescue me from the space raiders. I saw something. There were a couple of men talking. I didn't understand the language they were speaking so I pretended it was Purpish. I called them Zap and Zip. Zap was showing Zip something on a piece of equipment. I didn't know what it was, but it had buttons and a little light on it, so I pretended that it was alien technology. They left after a little while, but I stayed in those bushes for hours hoping for some more aliens to show up. When it started to get dark, I went to find Mrs. Munch. She was asleep on a bench, still holding the bag she hid her bottle in. I woke her up and we went home, but I was hooked.

I talked her into coming back the next day. It didn't take much. She got to spend the day drinking whatever was in that bottle and really didn't have to worry about me. I'd heard her on the phone with Mother describing how much fun I'd had in the park. I guess she figured she'd found an easy gig. I found my bushes again and waited for Zap and Zip. After a while I got a little bored, so I had Griselda join me."

"Who was Griselda?" Beckett asked.

"She was the princess of planet Moros. She had great powers, appearing and disappearing at will."

"So she was an imaginary friend?"

"If you have to put it like that, yes," Castle answered. "Griselda and I hid in our secret fort on Planet Purp waiting for the planetary brigade and seeing if we could spy on the space raiders Zap and Zip. They showed up, but Griselda couldn't understand them any better than I could."

"That does make sense," Beckett put in. "It's hard for an imaginary friend to understand a language you don't speak."

"You'd be surprised," Castle told her. "My imaginary friends could do some pretty incredible things. They still do."

"That I believe," Beckett smirked. "But what does all of this have to do with your fascination with murder?"

"I'm getting to that," Castle told her. "I'm just laying the groundwork. "Griselda and I watched Zap and Zip all week to see if we could figure out what the space raiders were planning. I think I must have had a cold or an allergy or something, because on the last day my eyes were itching and my nose was stuffed up. Griselda tried to stop me, but I sneezed really loud and Zap and Zip heard me and came to the bushes to find Griselda and me. She was able to use her powers to disappear, but I was caught by the space raiders.

Zap had a hand over my mouth and was holding on to me really tightly while he talked to Zip. I guess they were trying to figure out what to do with me. I was really scared and I wasn't thinking about the planetary brigade anymore. I would have settled for the police or even Mrs. Munch, but there was no one around. Zap kept holding me and he and Zip got me out of the park and into a car. They took me to some building near the docks. It might have been an old warehouse or something. I don't know. They tied me up and put me on the floor. They still seemed to be arguing over what to do with me. Zip left for a while. Maybe he went to make a phone call. Anyway, when he came back, he pointed to me and talked to Zap some more.

I seemed to be on that floor forever. It was really cold and I had to pee really bad. I asked Zap if I could. He understood me, but seemed to think it was funny. I was lying on that floor shivering, freezing, wet, and frightened out of my mind, when another man came in. He spoke the same language that Zap and Zip did. He might have been the one that Zip called. He had an air of authority about him. Zap and Zip looked at him when he talked. He pointed at me and said something. I have no idea what it was, but it sounded dangerous and Zip and even Zap looked upset. Zip argued with him a little bit, but it looked like Zip was on the losing end.

Zap pulled out a gun and aimed it at me, but just then there was another man who came from nowhere. He was probably about six four, but to me he looked like a giant. He had a knife and jammed it from behind into Zap, Zip, and the other man. He killed them all to save me. Then he took me back to the apartment Mother and I were living in. He didn't go in. He just dropped me off. Mrs. Munch was there, with a cop. She was really angry, She thought that I had wandered off and made the whole story up because I was ashamed I'd wet my pants. She sent me to my room to change and made me stay there. Then she called Mother to have her talk to me on the phone. Mother thought I'd made the whole thing up too."

"Making things up is what you do, Castle," Beckett comforted.

Castle started to laugh. "That's right, it is."

Beckett sputtered. "Castle, I am so going to have to get you back for that."

"Fine," Castle said. "Remember the party's at nine o'clock and costumes are mandatory."

Beckett rolled her eyes and stalked off.

Castle sat for a moment beside Beckett's desk, picturing the man who had saved him. He had seen him one other time, when he was ten. The man was at the library and had handed him a copy of "Casino Royale."

A/N If Castle's language seems a bit choppy, I was thinking about him telling this as he saw it through his eyes as a seven year old. It gave it a different voice. I hope you didn't find that distracting. Tomorrow's chapter should be another request story, if I can figure out how to do it. There are about 8 days left to the Nerd HQ campaign and they are only at about 28% of their goal. If you want to help, now is the time. Tweet me at CheerfulChemist for a URL.