THE WATCHMAN

Unpaid debt

Everyone in the room stood shell shocked at what just happened. They just stood there staring at Dutchess Murillos' lifeless body on the ground and the blood flowing out of her body.

Lord Murillo let out a scream of pain and didn't even mind that Tina Gyang still had him at his neck he wrestled out of her arms and ran towards the body.

"No baby! Please baby, No, don't do this to me!". He cried as he picked her up in his arms futilely trying to wake her up. He did not even bother about checking out for the shooter he just held her in his arms and cried as he sat beside her.

Sergio Angel and Tina Gyang carefully walked towards the door. As they approached the door he could see bodies of dead Watchmen who were guarding their cell on the floor.

Julio who was standing behind them was so gripped with fear and shock he couldn't think of his next course of action. He understood he was now in a very bad position as his protector Lord Murillo was now occupied with greater problems. He had to wait for this one to play out and hope it came through for him.

Sergio Angel and Tina Gyang crossed over Lord Murillo and his dead wife who were at the doorway to get to where the dead Watchmen were and began to disarm them of their weapons.

When they were done arming themselves, they turned around to see Lord Murillo, but he, his dead wife, and Julio were nowhere to be found. All they saw was the pool of blood on the floor.

"Where did they go?" Sergio Angel asked surprisedly.

"I have no idea! They were right here, behind us! Tina Gyang replied. Equally shocked at what had just happened.

They went back into the cell to check, but there were no signs of any movement or anyone in the cell. They had just suddenly disappeared!

*********************************************

Susan sat on her bed staring at the card. She sat for hours, waiting for the guards to return but they never did. Then she thought to herself. "It's better, I take this chance at freeing my son and revenge and end up losing my life in the process, than I sit here and wallow, waiting for the day of my death! If I perish, I perish!" She said.

She then slowly got up from her bed and walked up to the door. She swiped the key card against the door and it clicked and opened up. She peeped outside to see if anyone was hiding somewhere

When she was convinced the coast is clear, she stepped out of the room onto a long corridor with several rooms on both sides.

She knew she would have to go up because even though she was blindfolded whenever she was being brought to her cell she took note that the elevator was always in descent.

She decides against using the elevators as they could draw people's attention to her. She decided she would use the stairs down the corridor.

It was going to be a long climb up, as she was several stories underground but it was something she had to do so as not to attract attention.

She climbed for several minutes and still wasn't close to ground level. She stopped to take a breather. At that moment she realized something.

She had not encountered even one Watchman since she started her climb. There wasn't a sound anywhere. Whether on the corridors or the stairs. There was absolutely no movement. It seemed everyone had disappeared.

Susan knew it would take ages to get to the ground level at this rate of her climb. She then decided to take her chances by using the elevator. Even with the danger of her escape being discovered.

As she stepped into the corridor, he head began to feel woozy but she carried on walking towards the elevators. But the more she tried to reach them, the farther they got. At this point, her head was spinning. Suddenly she fainted and fell to the ground.

She woke up in a strange dark place with hills everywhere. She realized was alone in this place, as there were no other traces of life around her.

"Could this be a dream?" She thought to herself.

She began to wander around to see if she could find her way out of there, but the hills seemed to go on for ages.

She sat to take a rest and suddenly three old women appeared to her.

She tried to get up and run away but seemed to be paralyzed all over. Great fear gripped her.

"Susan!" they all chorused "Who are you?" she asked as she was trembling all over

"We are the Fates!" They announced. "We have brought you to this realm to collect our due!"

"What due?" She asked looking confused

"The life that is owed us! This is what we have come to collect. And surely we must receive our due!" They sternly chorused and suddenly disappeared.

Susan sat there confused and shivering all over. She had just seen the Fates! That was definitely not a good omen. "And what due were they speaking about?" She thought to herself.

At that moment, she heard some footsteps and low growls behind her, she quickly got up and turned around to see what was making those sounds, but all she could see were rocks.

"I thought there was no life here..." She thought to herself

Suddenly a tiger jumped out from behind one of the rocks. This tiger had a mark on its forehead. The same mark she saw on the Fates.

"I guess I'm the due, the Fates were talking about then". She said to herself "Well I didn't make a deal with you guys, so I'm not going to accept my life being the payment for a deal I have no knowledge of!".

She stooped to pick up a large rock which she would use to fight back as had no weapons on her so there was no way to defend herself.

The tiger was pacing around her in circles, waiting to attack. Then it crouched and suddenly sprung in her direction. She rolled under it and quickly got to her feet, as it landed and was already launching another attack on her. This time she shifted her weight so it missed her again, but she was close enough to land a heavy blow to the head of the tiger with the large rock in her hand.

This seem to rattle the tiger only a little, and when it had shaken off the effects, it was even angrier.

It charged at her once more which made Susan take a step backward. As she took the step to stabilize herself, her leg stepped on a stone and she tumbled backward. The Tiger pounced and was about to land on top of her when a wooden stake suddenly pierced its hind leg.

The tiger let out a loud cry as it lost its bearing as it was about to land. Susan quickly rolled away from its landing point.

Suddenly the image of a man holding another wooden spear emerged in the distance.

The tiger became completely distracted by this new personality and even in its pain, it charged at him.

He didn't move an inch as the beast got closer and pounced on him as both of them fell into the depression below.

Susan could hear grunts and squeals as a battle ensued between man and beast. After a while, there was silence. Susan was unsure who the victor was, so she approached carefully. She was limping on one leg, as she had sprained her ankle in the fall.

Suddenly the tiger emerged from the rocks and gave a loud squeal before falling to the ground and becoming still.

Susan walked up to the fallen beast and found that it had a deep wound in its chest. Probably from the spear in the mysterious man's hand. It was dead.

"He actually did it! He killed the tiger!" She said in relief.

She then heard footsteps within the rocks.

"Hello? Who's there? She asked. You can show yourself, I just want to say thank you for saving me..." She said in a low tone.

"You don't have to thank me, a very familiar voice and the image emerged clearly from within the rocks.

Antonio! Susan exclaimed.