My Book of Short Tales and Poems

Hero's Watch

            Ben took a long sip of his coffee as he readjusted the falling newspaper in his hand. There wasn't much interesting, just stuff he already knew and was keeping an eye on. The hero, Flaming Sun, had died during a hostage rescue mission, leaving his team in mourning. Some more dramatically than others. He let out a groan as the sound of creaking metal reached his ears.

            He slowly rose to his feet, trading his coffee and paper for a large flashlight and baton. Stepping outside of his small guard house and walking to the cemetery gates, he lifted his flashlight to expose the figure posed atop the wrought iron. "Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." The darkly clad figure didn't respond continuing to silently brood in that very precarious pose. "Sir!" he spoke louder and more sternly. "The cemetery is closed! You need to leave!" The man silently looked at him, before turning forward again, appearing to mutter some kind of self-monologue to himself.

            "That's it!" Ben took the rubber tip off the end of his baton to reveal the electrical metal barbs hidden inside. With a series of annoyed grumblings to himself, mostly about the annoying new age of young anti-heroes, he pressed the button on his baton and placed the electrified prongs against the metal fence. A small jolt of electricity went through the wanna-be anti-hero, just enough to cause him to fall off the fence and onto his back on the ground outside the fence. He quickly stood up, brushing himself off and attempting to regain his lost pride and brooding air. "Next time try monologuing or brooding or whatever it is you anti-heroes like to do somewhere else!" The darkly dressed man gave Ben an annoyed look before slipping off, attempting to blend into the shadows but ultimately failing.

            Ben shook his head dismissively, scratching at the gray stubble  on his dark, weathered face as he turned back to the guard house. A small meow stopped him from walking inside. A small black cat sauntered up to him and began rubbing against his leg, letting out a low purr. "Well, hello there," he reached down to scratch the top if its head. "Have you come to visit someone?" The cat headbutt his hand with a happy meow before it began to walk further into the cemetery. "Well, I'm sorry, but we're closed for the night. You can come back in the morning."

            The cat appeared to ignore him as it continued to trek onward. "I know that's you, Shadow Shifter," Ben said with a sigh. "Don't make me get the squirt bottle." The cat turned back to him with a growl before slowly growing and shifting into the form of a young woman. Her hair was as dark as the cat's fur had been, though her eyes seemed to shift colors, changing from yellow to green before finally turning to black.
            "How'd you know it was me?"
            "I won't reveal my secrets. I may be old, but I'm not dumb."
            "Come on," she groaned, "just five minutes! I have a hunch and I need to look into it."

            "Well, you'll have to check on that hunch when we open in the morning. Now go on and get! Before I get the hose instead of the squirt bottle!" Shadow Shifter growled out an annoyed response, making Ben wish he understood Spanish better, before turning into a crow and flying away, leaving him to go back to reading his paper in the guard house.

            About an hour later, Ben was alerted to something happening at Flaming Sun's grave when a jet of fire erupted from the still fresh earth. He pressed a button to alert the paramedics and grabbed a security blanket to help in the meantime. With the flaming grass and, well, live man in the crater-grave he didn't even need a flashlight to help guide his way, though he did have to maneuver around the flames.

            Approaching the flaming, hyperventilating man, the remains of his destroyed coffin laying in pieces around the hole, he gently called out to him to alert him of his presence.
           "Where am I?" Flaming Sun desperately asked him, "What happened? What's going on?"
            "Calm down, son," Ben tried to soothe, sitting down on the edge of his former grave after stomping out some of the fire. "Everything's gonna be alright. Good news is, you're alive. Bad news is, you were dead for about a week, and you nearly burned down half the cemetery. The paramedics are on their way to come help you though." At this point, the flames covering Flaming Sun's body had begun to go out, enough that Ben  was able to approach him and put the security blanket around his shoulders.

            He was eventually able to calm down Flaming Sun enough to explain what had happened, or at least what he knew. "You know, you're the closest we've had to beating the record of shortest time a hero has come back from the dead," he attempted to joke.
            "Oh really?" Flaming Sun happily, yet still shakily, played along. "What's the standing record?"
            "Three days. They were going for a Jesus-style resurrection I think, though without any of the miracle-working or angels." He was happy when Flaming Sun laughed at his joke. At least he had calmed down enough to actually joke along. Always a good sign.

            He happily stuck by his side, partially to keep him level-headed in case of a relapse into nearly having a panic attack and partially just to keep him company until the paramedics arrived, where they would check to see if he was safe and free of any lingering effects of having died. They arrived soon after and wheeled Flaming Sun off for evaluation at the hospital, leaving Ben to go back to the guard house. Just another normal night shift.