The Watchers Read Online Free PDF Page A

collecting her purse and box. “At least you
get to go home and take a nap,” he said as he stood up.
    She followed suit. “Yep. No Hampton to
give me grief today.”
    “ How is the new hire
working out?”
    “ She’s right out of high
school, perky and blond, and since she must have a social life,
Hampton’s making me work weekends now because I’m too old to have a
life.”
    He laughed. “You’re not
old.”
    “ Compared to an eighteen
year old, I am.”
    They left the restaurant and he
glanced up. Curious, she also looked at the clear sky.
    “ Have you seen the way the
alien craft looks as it hovers over a big city? I hear those things
span a good three miles.”
    “ I’ve seen the pictures. I
don’t get it though. Why would they hover there?”
    He shrugged. “The gods have returned
to watch over the affairs of men?”
    “ Or so they
say.”
    “ Whatever they are, they’re
not friendly.”
    She shot him a good look. “Is that
alien still watching you at night?”
    “ I’ve tried going through a
night without the pills, but I woke up and couldn’t move. It felt
like I was back at Area 51.”
    Her jaw dropped. “Alex, why didn’t you
tell me sooner?”
    “ Nothing else happened. It
took me five minutes before I could move, and you bet the first
thing I did when I could was swallow one of those
pills.”
    “ That’s awful.” Hearing
this made her experience with Devon seem minor. She couldn’t
imagine having one of those things hovering over her like that. And
as she scanned Alex, she didn’t detect anything sinister around
him. “I wish we hadn’t gone to Area 51. I should have insisted on
it.”
    Alex smiled and patted her on the
back. “That thing was by my bed before that incident, remember?
This isn’t your problem. It’s mine.”
    “ It seems like there should
be something you can do to stop it.”
    “ That’s what the
psychiatrist is for. I have an appointment with him this week. The
prescription he has me on helps.”
    “ Does it?” Could it be that
simple? A pill and all the problems went away? At least until it
was time to take the next one?
    “ I just take it one day at
a time. I’ll see you around.”
    She said good-bye and watched as he
went to his car. She focused on him, trying to detect a demon
lurking around him, as she’d seen around Devon on a couple
occasions. True, she didn’t see the thing hovering around Devon at
the capitol, but there was something seriously wrong with him. But
Alex was a good guy. He didn’t go around telling governors they
might want to harm people to get the masses to
cooperate.
    The masses. That was how Devon and
people of his ilk saw normal, everyday people like her and Alex.
Like her and Alicia. They were just numbers. Easily expendable.
Like sheep for the slaughter. She shivered. The masses not
cooperating? Send a diversion? Send out sound waves to lull them
into a false sense of security. And if they start waking up to what
was going on, find a way to get them back in line. She wondered
what the governor was going to do.
    She watched as Alex drove past her. He
waved and she waved in return. There was nothing unusual about him.
No dark shadow. No creepy feeling. He turned out of the parking lot
and onto the main road. She shook her head. What was she missing?
What was it she didn’t understand?

Chapter Five

    Alex tried to move in his sleep but
couldn’t. His eyes flew open and the alien was sitting on his
chest, its cold bony fingers wrapped around his throat. He
struggled to breathe, but the fingers dug into his skin, cutting
off his airway. He unwittingly recalled the three aliens at Area 51
who hovered over him. They held something over his nose and mouth
so he couldn’t breathe.
    Unlike then, he wasn’t strapped to a
metal table. No. He was home in his warm bed, and this alien was
trying to kill him! Fear gripped him and held him securely in
place, and as much as he wanted to fight back, to defend himself,
he couldn’t.