Sitting in a car on a chilly night, eating some cold Chinese food Bekah waited. She sighed a bit as she moved the remnants of the carton around with her chop sticks. Most people had somewhat normal family business they went into, mom and pop stores, restaurants, hell multimillion dollar corporations. Not her family. No they were Watchers for about five generations now. She knew things about certain Immortals that of most others didn't. There were a few things she wishes she could wipe from her mind completely. But that's what you get when you're teenager wanting to stick it you your parents when they tell you not to look in those files. Nights like tonight wouldn't be so bad if this Watcher thing paid, luckily with her connections she could at least get her travel expenses covered. Everything else was up to her.
But that's where having friends comes in handy. Rob was able to point out a bookstore that was looking for some part time help. The pay wasn't much, but it paid her bills and the hours were flexible enough that she could do her other job with minimum hassle. She just dreaded the day she was in the field and her boss would call her to come in for an extra shift. Considering how close she got sometimes Bekah was jumpy enough as it is. And with her assignment, the less attention you attracted the better.
An alley lit up briefly and she paid real close attention. A stray bolt of lightning shot out here and there. But she knew it wasn't lightning. That was a Quickening, an Immortal just died. And she knew it wasn't him. What she saw, while impressive in it's own way, she knew it wasn't his. For some reason she thought his would be more… earth shaking. After a few minutes a man with dark hair and wearing nothing but black or dark clothing under his trench coat walked out of the alley. He looked around, more than likely to see if anybody was unfortunate enough to see that. Then he walked away. Bekah took out her digital camera and took a quick couple of pictures for the records. Michel Dijkhuizen, everybody said if she was smart she would be very afraid of him. But for some strange reason she couldn't figure out she wasn't.
And there was enough stuff in his file to give a person nightmares for the rest of their life. She went into the job fully prepared to hate this person for the duration of the assignment. Then he rescued her, stranger still he knew her name. That freaked her out more than the attempted rape and the massacre that followed. After she calmed down she went into Dijkhuizen history for the past twenty seven years. She didn't remember meeting or seeing him before. Then again he was somebody you tried to blank out of your memory if you did meet him. Finding nothing in the records she started to search through her father's files. She knew from personal experience that some Watcher didn't report everything they saw. Outside of Rob nobody knew Dijkhuizen knew her name, and she swore him to secrecy about it. Her superiors would have pulled her off the assignment before she could even argue for her own safety. Then she would never know how he knew. Unfortunately her Father's files didn't say anything either so she was still in the dark.
A couple of day after that she was able to get a spot on the rooftop of a building next to the converted warehouse he was living in. Using a telescopic lens she was able to get a look inside, well a look inside the library or whatever he called it. She saw him come out of a side room. Although it was a quick glimpse inside she could see a couple of swords hanging on the wall, that had to be his trophy room. Bekah had read reports of him taking trophies from Immortals he's killed. Usually it was a sword, but occasionally he'd take something else like that chair he was currently sitting in. It wasn't all the time, usually with an Immortal he found interesting or particularly challenging. Dijkhuizen had taken a book from one of the selves a moment prior and started reading it. Bekah got a close up of the book, "What the hell?" He was reading a book of poetry. What freaked her out even more was the fact she had that same book. Although she had a feeling his copy was older than hers. A closer examination of the bookshelves revealed more books on poetry. She was stunned this wasn't in any reports she read on him. But for some reason it seemed right to her.
To make matters worse the dreams started again. Back when she was a little girl she used to have such vivid dreams. Dreams of another time, another place. In those dreams she was older, everything was wilder, more savage. Yet it felt so right at times it confused her. In those dreams Bekah was drawn to a figure cast in shadows. Everybody was afraid of him, except for her. No she felt nothing but love for him. When she started middle school the dreams slowly faded away. In high school she started dating, but none of them ever lasted more the three dates. The boys she was with didn't feel 'right' somehow. Bekah couldn't explain it, most of her friends and family said her standards were too high. For a long time she thought they were right, but still she couldn't find anybody who felt 'right' to her.
After she was assigned to watch Dijkhuizen they stared again. This time she put it down to the fact she read too much about him in too short of time and it triggered an old buried memory of the dream. Except now they were even more vivid and she was even closer to the man in the shadows. The dream was so real she could hear the individual conversations in the background, see the birds fly in the air, smell the meat cooking over a pit of fire, feel the cool air against her skin. A couple of times she thought what she was dreaming was real and her real life was the dream. Yeah she needed to see a shrink all right.
Getting out of bed and trying to get the kink out of heck from her neck from the late night car surveillance she headed for her computer. Bekah still had to log in her report from the previous night, and she wanted to check on Dijkhuizen file. Just in case he did something while she was asleep, which was often. Bekah winced as she checked the time on her computer, it was almost noon and she had to be at work in an hour. Munching on a pop tart while she quickly typed her report she saved it to the computer planning to send it in after her shift. Then she saw an addition to his file. "And Rob complains about Harris," she said to herself.
It wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be, part of her was convinced it was going to be about some other poor smuck that was unfortunate enough to run into him. No this was sent in from the younger McAllister's watcher, Radcliffe. McAllister and Dijkihuizen apparently both discovered the older one and Harris talking to each other. And there was a video file too. She clicked on it and waited for it to load. Her player popping up she saw Harris and the older McAllister soon enough, they were in the middle of the screen. She didn't see the younger one but her assignment was in the lower corner listening. From the look of things he was far enough away that they didn't sense him or they were so engross in their conversation they didn't notice. Out of curiosity Bekah raised the volume to see if she could hear what they were saying. It was faint but she could just make out what they were saying over the slight squeal of the speakers.
"You shouldn't have involved the Sister!" Harris yelled.
"Quiet boy," The older one said. "You were the one who one who went behind my back and started talking to that half Irish bastard."
"Only because you brought in Big Evil." Big Evil, that was a new one to her.
"Do you think I would actually fall into one of your petty little games? Or that I would actually bother to sully my hands on a watered down Scotsman?"
"Seems to me you don't like to sully your hands on anything," Harris said walking past him.
"Be careful about what you say Harris. Remember who you're talking to."
Harris stopped. Bekah recognized the look on his face, he sensed Dijkhuizen then he saw him. A smile growing on his face he said, "What are you going to Malcolm?". Losing the smile he looked deadly serious as he turned back around, "Set you little humans after me?"
"What?", Bekah was confused.
"I know my stalker would love to get his hands on you," McAllister said. "But he's holding off because of some punk in his organization." Holy shit, he was talking about the Watchers. "But from what I understand they have bigger fish to catch." With that he walked away.
Harris looked behind him, Bekah could see the smile on his face, "I'm sure they do." In the lower corner she saw Dijkhuizen contemplate what he just heard and walk off in another direction. Bekah immediately shot an e-mail to Radcliffe, just to see if he got that Watcher reference too. This was big if Malcolm's Watcher was working with him. She couldn't wait for a response, she had to get dressed and head for work.
Work was a light one. Not a whole lot of people were coming in. And there was no shipment that day either so the most they could do was go around and put back any books that were misplaced and read a magazine or two. Good thing the main boss was gone today otherwise they couldn't even do that. "Anything good in the tabloids?" Bekah asked as she went back to the counter.
"Just the usual," her friend Tammy said. "But I'm digging this necklace she's wearing."
Peeking over her shoulder Bekah saw the necklace in question, it was a plain gold chain but it looked outstanding. "Now that's a classic look. Simple but elegant." Then something weird happened. Bekah was wide awake and she was back in her dream. It was getting late in the day and the man cast in shadows was at a river. He was washing something, it was a gold chain. He pulled it out and gave it to her saying something.
"Bek, you ok?", Tammy said waving a hand in her face. "Bekah?"
"What…?", she snapped out of it trying to remember where she was. "Yeah Tammy I'm fine."
"Why don't you go get yourself something to drink or something, just to get some air. You look like you need it," Tammy told her. "We're super slow today I can hold things down until you get back."
"Yeah... thanks," Bekah said as she headed for the door. "I'll be back in a moment." Running into the nearest women's restroom she splashed some water in her face. What the hell was that? That's never happened before. She needed something a little stiffer than the drinks they served in the food court right about now. As it was it took a few minutes to get her nerves under control. Heading back to her job she tried to joke about what happened. "I guess that necklace was a bigger stunner than I thought." Tammy gave a half hearted laugh, yeah she wasn't feeling it either. Didn't help matters any that she happened to turn her head and see that book of poetry Dijkhuizen was reading the other night.
That night she started surveillance on Dijkhuizen again. Luckily it was a clear night, she hated doing this in the rain, it made her job that much harder. Which was weird because she usually loved the rain, always had. But something still felt wrong tonight, something she felt before but she wasn't sure from where, or what. It was like there was something in the air. Where did she feel this before? Deciding to do her surveillance on foot this time around she stayed far enough behind him to keep him in view. And she had her hand wrapped around a can of mace in her pocket just in case. He went around the corner and she quickened her pace a bit so she wouldn't lose him. But she stopped when she saw a guy across the street. She knew him, he was a fellow Watcher. Bekah thought his name was Steve. He said something on a cellphone then went in the same direction Dijkhuizen went. By the time she hit the corner she saw a couple of more people she knew.
"What in the hell?", she muttered as she continued to watch. Dijkhuizen stopped and looked around, almost like he knew something was up. He went into the alley, a few moments later Steve and the others followed him in. She should have called her superiors, let them know what was going on. Instead she followed them in, and hoped she wasn't going to regret this. When she found them she saw other people she knew surrounding him. For some reason Bekah stomach started to feel queasy.
"Hello abomination," she recognized Trevor Rader pretty quickly, then she remembered he was Malcolm McAllister's Watcher, oh God.
"You're definitely the most well dressed set of thugs I've come across," Dijkhuizen sneered and gauged the situation.
"Oh we are much more than that," Trevor said as they got a little closer. The immortal drew his red colored sword. A couple of them moved back a step or two. Trevor stayed put not looking impressed. "What's wrong abomination? Not used to seeing anybody not cower in fear of you before."
"Then why are you starting to sweat?", Dijkhuizen taunted. Somebody tried to sneak up behind him. The next moment he was down on the ground dead with a huge gash in his chest. Blood starting to pool around the body he turned to face Trevor again. Again she flashed back to her dream, the man cast in shadows was surrounded by a mob, a mob who wanted him dead. Bekah came back to her senses and looked behind her. She was positive somebody was about to capture her from behind but nobody was there. Trevor pulled his hand out of his pocket. A device was in his hand as he pointed it at Dijkhuizen. Two wires shot out and hit him, one in the chest the second somewhere in his coat. Still there was enough juice going through the tazer hook to drop him to his knees.
"No," Bekah whispered.
"Take his head," Trevor demanded, "now!" Bekah wanted to rush and stop them but she couldn't move. Dijkhuizen yelled as the electric charge ran through him again. Still he could drop his sword in such a way that it cut the line in to his chest. That done he grabbed the other wire and pulled it out of his coat. Trevor started to back up this time, fear etching his face. "Get him! Get him!"
"Raagh!", Dijkhuizen swung his sword wildly, Steve was unlucky enough not to move in time and was almost cut in half. The next instant he sliced the head off the other one. Bekah should have been afraid of what she was seeing but she wasn't. In fact she was smiling and silently cheering him on. Another came at him with an axe in hand. Dijkhuizen swung up and was sprayed with blood. The man held a blody stump while most of his arm and the axe lay on the ground. He kicked another Watcher in the gut before ramming his sword into the axe man's forehead. Punching another in the face he ducked as somebody else she knew jumped at him. Dijkhuizen grabbed him by the back of the head and smashed his face into the brick wall. A bloody smear followed him as he slid to the ground.
Trevor grabbed a board and came at him. Dijkhuizen batted it away with his sword and kicked him to the ground. He continued to massacre the rest of the Watchers while Trevor crawled away muttered, "Damn it McAllister why did you get him involved?"
"McAllister?", DIjkhuizen said as he pulled his sword out of the last one. He stepped over bodies and body parts as the Watchers lay there dead or dying. Trevor held on to his cross for dear life as he tried to back into the wall. Grabbing Trevor by the collar he hauled him to his feet. Trevor pissed himself as he stared into the eyes of Dijkhuizen. "Malcolm McAllister? He sent you?"
"Yes," Trevor nodded readily. "He sent us to kill you. That has to be worth something." Bekah was stunned, he was working with McAllister.
"It is," DIjkihuizen said. He let him go. Trevor started to run. He didn't go far as a red blade ran him through. Getting into his ear Dijkhuizen said. "I'll make your death quick." Removing the sword Trevor dropped to the ground. Walking over to another body Dijkhuizen wiped his sword on the body of one of the fallen on the ground then proceeded to pull the tazer hook out of his chest. Then he looked over to Trevor, after a moment he started grinning. She wasn't sure why but he went back over to Trevor picking him up and throwing him across his shoulder. Bekah hid behind the wall as he looked in her direction. When she looked back he was gone.
It took several hours but she finally found him in an old abandoned factory near his warehouse slash apartment. Admiring Trevor cross in his hand Dijkhuizen leaned against a pillar. She found Trevor's body lying on the ground. What was he planning on doing? She nearly jumped out of her skin as Trevor breathed in and came back to life. He got to his knees and looked very frightened. He didn't seem to realize Dijkhuizen was right behind him. He threw the cross to the side and drew his sword out of his coat. Trevor looked behind him and tried to scream but nothing was coming out. A sick grin on his face Dijkhuizen simply said, "There can be only one." The next instant he took Trevor's head and started to absorb his Quickening. Bekah found herself smiling, she was actually glad Dijkhuizen survived and taking revenge on the ones who tried to kill him. Why was she smiling at that?