The Vigil

Introduction:

Story as old as time, the old man teaching a younger man some skill or talent. This might strike a little closer to home as it's about a grandfather teaching his grandson how to survive. This story came about after I read the synopsis of a story in a bookstore recently of monster hunters set in Victorian Era England. I imagined them running around with lanterns to light their way and non-tech weapons. Kind of along the lines of old vampire novels where the hunters used stake and hammer. This is that story.

The Story:

GRANDPA SAT WITH HOLDING AN OLD CANDLE LANTERN. He had a thick chain wrapped around his right arm, which caused his bicep to bulge because of the weight. It was so strange seeing the frail-looking man carry around that heavy chain. And he was obsessively watching the tree line. He puffed his pipe that he held with his chain-wrapped hand. Blowing out a big fog of smoke. “Grandpa, what are you doing?”

“I’m watching,” Grandpa replied.

“What are you watching for?” His grandson asked.

“The monster,” he growled.

“What kind of monster, grandpa?”

“The kind that eat little children.” Grandpa brought the lantern towards his grandson in a grand sweeping motion. The lantern was squeaking as it swayed from side to side once his dramatic gesture was done. The light it cast dancing across the space beneath them. His grandson’s eyes went wide.

They sat there for a moment — both studying each other. Grandpa’s eyebrows were so thick and long that they fluttered out on either side of his face like the fragile wings of a moth. For a long moment, the grandson was unsure what to do. He just stared, trying decide if Grandpa was serious or not. Grandpa broke the tension by sucking another drag at the end of his pipe. His grandson giggled, “Grandpa, you know that monsters aren’t real.”

Grandpa released the smoke he was holding in his mouth. It floated out before him and his grandson couldn’t help but notice that it appeared as if the smoke had formed into shapes — a man with a chain and some monstrous creature locked in combat! His grandson shook his head, figuring it was just his over-active imagination.

“I’ve worked hard for you to believe that.” Grandpa said. He took another puff and let the smoke dance out before them quicker than his other drags. “This will be the last night you believe that, I’m afraid.”

His grandson looked up at him, not sure what Grandpa meant. Truth be told, the grandson was certain that his Grandpa was “losing it.” Ever since his father died, Grandpa spent a lot more time with him. They spent most nights just like this, sitting at the top of this tower, telling stories, his Grandpa smoking and swinging the candle lantern from side to side. The grandson was meant to just listen. “Your Grandpa won’t be around forever,” was what his mother always said when he groaned that hanging out with Grandpa was boring.

Something caught the grandson’s eye. Tree branches moving! “Grandpa!” He pointed.

“Yes, I see it.” Grandpa put out his pipe and set it down on the arm of the chair he’d been sitting in. His grandson watched as Grandpa tightened his grip on the chain and moved towards the ladder that led to the ground. “Stay here,” Grandpa warned.

“What are you going to do!?” The grandson asked.

“Just watch. Don’t close your eyes, and don’t blink.”

Chain wrapped around one arm and lantern in the other, Grandpa climbed down the ladder of the skinny tower. “Grandpa!” His grandson called.

“I said, stay here.” Grandpa said with finality. “And watch.”

What came out of the woods was unlike anything the grandson had seen in his wildest nightmares! It was monstrous and seemingly made of shadows! He’d later discover that it was actually covered in black scales. The thing was monstrous! Nearly as big as the trees that it was slithering between. It hung at the edge of the tree line. It seemed to know that Grandpa was there — and seemed apprehensive.

The grandson watched was the creature used its many clawed hands to grip the trunks and branches of the tree around it. It was hard to tell if it were touching the ground or if it was simply twisted in the trees. It moved like a snake with a thousand arms, like a twisted Chinese version of a dragon. It had eight or maybe twelve eyes, all glowing, all looking towards Grandpa hungrily.

“Grandpa!” The grandson cried.

Grandpa stood only inches from the ladder. “Just watch. Do not close your eyes!” Grandpa held the lantern out before him.

The grandson had a hard time not closing his eyes. The fear the beast brought out of him curdled in the pit of his stomach and clawed up his throat, threatened to cause him to wretch! A tongue! A long, blood-red, slippery tongue, slithered out from between the monster’s lips and flicked side to side and then slurped back in. The grandson wanted to close his eyes. It got harder as the monster slithered from the trees. It was like an elongated spider, and moved in a zig-zag motion like a snake.

“Ahhhh!” The grandson cried.

“Don’t look away!” Grandpa screamed.

The monster moved with lightnight speed, but, remarkably, Grandpa was faster! He unwound the thick chain from his arm with expert grace. It arched around and Grandpa used all his muscle to cause the chain to flashed forward, towards the monster, like a whip! The chain snapped like thunder, smacking the monster on its black scales. It cried in pain, a tiny wisp of smoke rising from where the chain met scale, and it recoiled back towards the trees.

“I see you, monster!” Grandpa said in a cadence that seemed ritualistic.

The monster had retreated to the trees, coiled once again with its serpentine body and many arms around the branches and trunks. The grandson almost closed his eyes when it whipped its tongue out again. “I — I can’t do it!” The grandson whined.

“You keep your eyes open boy!” Grandpa snapped. “I see you!” Grandpa repeated.

The monster pressed its face out into the moonlight. This time it was rounded — humanoid. This caused the grandson to look closer. Its many eyes closed but two, it had a nose, and a calm smiling mouth, much smaller than it had been moments ago. The black scales seemed to bleed away to a tanned, almost caramel, skintone. The eyes were so big, so green. The grandson’s breath caught in his throat, “Mom!?”

“No! Grandson! Don’t believe it!” Grandpa cried. Grandpa started moving towards the monster, swinging his chain to its full length over his head. “That is not your mother!” He sent the chain whipping towards the monster, but this time his aim wasn’t as good.

“Grandpa!” The grandson called. Before he realize it, he was climbing down the ladder.

“Grandson, no! Stay in the tower!” Grandpa could hear the monster giggling softly to itself. It seemed excited that he was about to get another of the Vigil’s progeny. The more and more that his grandson believed that the monster was his mother, the more and more the creature took on her features, albeit in a much grander scale. It was like seeing a giant version of his daughter-in-law, kneeling topless at the shadowy edge of the wood.

The grandson was running across the open space between the tower and the woods now. “Grandson! No!” Grandpa tried without success. His grandson was too stuck in the monster’s tricks. “No,” Grandpa was almost crying. “You have to see it.” Grandpa turned his anger towards the monster that wore a woman’s beautiful face. “You can not have him!” Grandpa seemed to open his eyes wider and hold the lantern up towards the monster. It was focused on the boy. It wanted his grandson as it had already enjoyed his son. “I see you demon!” Grandpa shouted.

Suddenly, Grandpa could feel his eyes blaze with power. It was like he’d flexed a new muscle that he never knew he had. His eyes were glowing in sparking white beams of power. “I! See! You!” He screamed, putting everything he had into it. His grandson was so close, too close to all of the monster’s grasping hands!

The monster seemed unsure of Grandpa’s new display of power, but it was too focused on the boy. He was too close! Eyes hungry. It was a woman’s face now, but it had too many eyes — and some of the face had become blotched by black scales. The monster was losing its focus. “I see you, bitch!” Grandpa spat. The beam of white light flared and caused the monster to completely lose its womanly shape and pull into the darkness of the forest.

“I see you!” Grandpa’s voice wasn’t only his own, it was amplified by the voice of all the past Vigils, all speaking their mantra. He hadn’t noticed it, but he was floating, just inches off the ground, but his toes weren’t on solid ground. The monster screamed and sunk deeper into the forest. Grandpa knew that it went back to wherever it came from. His grandson was safe. And he fell to the ground like a heap of wrinkled skin and old bones. And everything was dark.

“Grandpa!” His grandson cried. He ran towards him, kneeling beside him. He ran his arm underneath Grandpa’s head, but Grandpa couldn’t see his grandson’s face, he could only feel his touch, and hear his breaths.

His grandson held him. The grandson could feel the weakness within his Grandpa. How had he been so strong just moments ago? “Grandpa?” He whispered the question. His voice was uncertain because he noticed in the dancing candlelight, that Grandpa’s eyes weren’t really focusing in the right direction.

“It is your turn.” Grandpa said. “This is how it is passed.”

“What? …Grandpa?” His grandson said nervously. Something seemed so final about what Grandpa was saying.

“The power will pass to you now. You are the witness. There can only be one of us.” Grandpa reached up and cupped the side of his grandson’s face. This would be the only way Grandpa would see his face going forward. His grandson wiped the sweat that had formed in beads on his forehead. “The monster will be back. You must protect the town. You are now the Vigil.”