The Heroes We Weren't

Chapter 13 - Hello, Peaches

A storybook should be read from a parent to a child; to reveal a world of tiny trolls, flower sized fairies and heroic heroes. When said book is closed, you re-enter the real world.

This wasn't the case for Adam's book. The illustration of the pocket watch told me that the contents of this one were far from fantasy.

"That day at the police station," Adam continued his story-telling, "Mrs. Garcia told me everything she knew of the dream world." He turned the pages. "A world created to prevent unfortunate death."

I let out a sarcastic huff; from what I had seen of the dream world, it surely was a 180-turn from 'preventing unfortunate deaths'.

"There were two groups of people." Adam stopped at a page to point to an underlined word.

"Fortune tellers," he continued, "meant to foresee accidental or health related deaths of the innocent."

His finger moved along the page and stopped at a circled word.
"And Watchers of the Night - meant to wander the dream world at night to prevent the foreseen deaths from actually occurring."

Deaths foreseen, set to be prevented. Sounded an awful lot like my Déjà vu's, just with the lack of a fortune teller and a happy ending.

"The watch," Adam pointed to the object next to the book, "was a string of communication between the fortune teller and the watcher. This way, the seer could report where the watcher was supposed to go, and the later could alter the minds of those in danger. Simply to tell them to avoid certain accidents or to go see a doctor on time."

The bedroom door opened before Hyun-Soo had quietly passed us (just to leave for the hallway). I reached over for the watch and caressed the small crack of the glass. First now did I notice that there was another crack in the corner of it.

"But-" I said, "if the fortune tellers were the ones to control the orders of the watch, how come Mister Johnson is using it now? Is he a fortune teller as well?"

"Highly doubt it." Adam shook his head. "You see, Mrs. Garcia came to me in fear that someone had altered the watch. For that someone to be able to use it for orders too awful for its original purpose."

"Mister Question mark." I mumbled to myself as I bit my lip.

"So," I continued, "a world used for good was turned into something bad when Johnson got his hands on the pocket watch."

"Correct. Garcia herself had tried to stop him for two months before she gathered the courage to even come see me at the station."

I nodded.
"You said you used to work at a police station? But you left it a few weeks ago?"

He thought about it for a moment.

"Around two or so weeks ago - that is when I first met her." He nodded. "You can imagine my boss' face when I told him that I was going to pursue this specific case - To haunt down an unknown man who was ordering evil upon the world of dreams." He chuckled, but a sense of desperation hid behind his words.

"Sick-leave," he continued, "that's what they called it as they had me dismissed. I recently moved to my private office - I am quite unable to let such an interesting case slip between my fingers, you see."

The pieces did come together; I had met Adam the day I had searched for the florist, but his office had been but an empty room the day I had first met Mister Johnson. Hyun-Soo re-entered the living room - one arm into the sleeve of his leather jacket, the other pulling the piece of clothing over his shoulder.

Going somewhere. 03.25am.

Adam wasn't interrupted by the other man's presence, and continued with his explanation.