The Book of the Watchers

Chapter Four

The drive was long and tedious. I slept for a few hours, until we stopped for lunch to go over the battle strategy, as I had taken to calling it. Danny referred to it as the ‘plan’.

We pulled into a jauntily decorated roadside diner. The parking lot was sparse apart from what appeared to be a broken down truck and an SUV with luggage and pillows stacked in the back. Inside was just as deserted. There was no air conditioning, and the employees were crowded around a tiny fan, beads of sweat trickling down their faces. One was fanning herself with a paper plate.

“Let’s grab a seat before the midday rush.” Danny murmured sarcastically, guiding me to a booth in the far corner. The out-dated red vinyl was torn, and foam was forcing its way free through the hole, but it was the place that offered the most privacy. The storm had withered to an overcast grey sky, but the heat was intense.

We sat facing one another on the sticky seats, and a waitress scurried over, giving me a sour look before beaming at Danny, sweat beading on her upper lip. “What can I get you, sweetheart?” She gushed, tossing her damp blonde hair over a shoulder.

Danny grinned at me before answering. “I’ll have a turkey sandwich, and my fiancée will have…?” He glanced at me and raised his eyebrows. The waitress scowled visibly at the mention of ‘fiancée’. 

I frowned at him briefly. “Same here, and a glass of water, please.”

The waitress scurried off with a final flick of her limp, sweaty hair.

Danny was studying me, his hands steepled on the table. I couldn’t help but notice how a few strands of his hair spiralled into a superman-like curl on his forehead. It made him look like some sort of superhero. Or super villain.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” He asked me for the zillionth time. “It won’t be easy.”

“Dude, there is no way that I’m letting my mother fend for herself with Shortstop. I always knew he was a creep, but after what you’ve told me, I’ve updated his status to mega creep. Possible psycho, considering he has my mother tied up in his basement.” A few of the employees glanced over at me with mild interest, but the fan soon reclaimed their attention.

“Okay, fine. So tell me everything you know about the layout of his house.” Danny upped the wattage on his gaze to scorching in its intensity. I fumbled for words, and ended up having to look away, blushing.

“Well, it’s a two storey house, the regular suburban type, with a two car garage and a basement. I’m not sure if there’s an attic.” I paused as a different waitress returned with my water and two sorry looking turkey sandwiches. Neither of us touched our food. “There’s a small backyard with an oak tree growing in the back corner. As you enter the house through the front door, the kitchen and living room are straight ahead, down a medium-length hall, and the first door on the right leads down two sets of stairs to the basement. The rest of the downstairs area is just a bathroom and an office, both doors on the left. The stairs to get to the second level are in the living area, and it’s a spiral staircase. Upstairs is a bathroom and three bedrooms. His is the one with the double doors.” I took a sip of my water. “That’s just about it.”

Danny nodded, taking it all in. He gazed out the window behind me, formulating a plan. After what seemed like hours, his gaze returned to me. “Okay, here’s the plan. Our advantage is that he doesn’t know that you have me.  He knows you’re on your way; and that you’ll go down to the basement as soon as you get into the house, assuming that’s where your mother will be. If he has any sense at all, he would be in the house, waiting for you to go down to the basement so that he can lock you in. I doubt that he knows you’ve discovered your powers. So you’re going to act perfectly innocent; you’ll head down to the basement, calling out softly for your mother. My bet is that he will have moved her, on the off chance that you escape, so that you can’t take her with you.”