The Watcher - Part 4
by Sean Dunne
Welcome home, Chloe.
Where are you?
I’m here… somewhere…
Watching you.
How did you escape the basement?
Through the door.
Same as you.
I locked the door.
Are you sure?
Positive.
Then it’s a mystery.
How fun.
Have a nice chat with daddy at the train station?
How do you know about that?
It’s what I do. Remember?
How could I forget?
Do your best not to.
I can’t trust my dad, can I?
He’s not what he pretends to be.
Did he kill my sister?
No. Your sister is alive.
And well?
Well… she’s alive.
Promise?
Not if I can help it.
But I haven’t lied to you yet, have I?
I don’t think I’d know if you had.
No, probably not.
Why not go to your room, Chloe?
So you can catch me?
I don’t think so.
What my dad did disgusts me.
But I won’t let you take me…
Just so you can punish him.
You think you have a choice?
I outsmarted you once…
I can do it again.
I’m over 3000 years old, Chloe.
Do you really think you can fool me?
I did fool you.
Did you?
Or was there something…
I wanted you to see in that café?
You couldn’t have known.
If you say so.
Tell me then…
If you’re so clever…
Why haven’t you caught me?
That’s funny.
The apple doesn’t fall far, does it?
What does that mean?
It means you’re making the same…
Incorrect assumption your father did.
What assumption?
That I’m here to snatch you away.
That’s one promise I will make.
I will not take you, Chloe.
Not if you go to your room…
And let your father pay his debt.
You’re really not after me?
So I keep saying.
Dad said he didn’t do it.
Do you think that will bring your mother back?
No.
So do what I say.
I’m going.
But if your purpose isn’t to take me…
Then why are you here?
This time, your father pays in kind...
For his little… indiscretion.
This time he pays with his life.
And I’m here to see it happens.
Jesus.
Where are you now, Chloe?
In my room.
But I think you know that.
I do.
Look out your window.
I see you down there.
Yes. I’m here.
Trapped in my gaze.
Here we are...
Back at the beginning.
And nothing has changed.
Not so.
As a matter of fact…
Everything has changed.
How do you figure?
We’re not alone now.
Daddy is home.
I know.
I hear him calling me.
He thinks you’re in the basement.
That’s good. He’s safe down there.
As long as you’re out there.
Do you care if he’s safe?
Yes. Even though I hate him…
And blame him for all this…
I won’t let you kill him.
Another false assumption.
What is?
That I’m a Killer.
You said you’re here to see that he dies.
I did.
So I’m here to see he doesn’t.
How will you do that?
Like this. By watching YOU.
Keeping you there…
Until the police arrive.
I called them myself this time.
I know. I hear them.
The sirens are close now.
Drowning out your father’s screams…
Echoing up from the basement…
As he’s torn limb from limb.
What?
I told you we aren’t alone anymore.
What’s down there with him?
A Killer, of course.
And in this fairy tale…
A Killer can only kill another killer.
So if daddy really was innocent…
You know he’s not.
Then you know what Killers do.
Please don’t.
It’s done, Chloe.
He’ll never kill again.
Pls God, no.
You’re asking the wrong guy.
Your father is gone.
And now I’m alone in the world.
But do you care?
Of course not.
Because for all your pretense…
About honesty and saving the world…
You’re nothing more than a distraction
Masked in ugliness and cruelty.
A Peeping Tom…
Powerless to do anything yourself.
I never claimed to be more.
Then tell me…
If you didn’t take my sister, what did?
I’d rather not say.
I answered your riddle earlier.
You’ll answer me now.
What took her all those years ago?
A Snatcher, of course.
A what?
Watchers watch.
Snatchers snatch.
All it takes is a closet left open…
Just a crack.
A foot hanging over…
The edge of the bed at night.
Or a father who…
Locks his little girl in a room…
To protect her from...
Himself.
And POOF…
That girl is gone.
Gone where?
Sorry to say, I can’t say.
And I can’t stay.
We’re out of time, Chloe.
You’re not going anywhere.
I am.
I have work to do.
Other names, other debts to be paid.
The world will be seeing…
A good deal more of us very soon.
I’m not letting you go.
And how will you stop me?
You can’t move…
If someone is looking at you.
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
What?
You don’t really believe that.
You said so yourself.
No, you told me you can’t.
You lied to me.
Not true.
It is true.
Now you owe me a wish.
And I want my sister back.
Not so hasty, Chloe.
I told that lie to your father.
Fifteen years ago.
That shouldn’t matter.
But it does.
All that matters here is...
That I never lied to you.
Why did you tell him that?
Because I knew I’d be back…
I knew he’d kill again.
And he did.
Then HE told you that lie.
But WHY say it at all?
That’s the fun part, Chloe.
That’s the trick.
What trick?
You said I am nothing more…
Than a distraction. Well…
I’ve found the best way to do that…
The best way to keep a human from…
Seeing what you don’t want them to see…
Is to let them believe…
They are the one controlling you.
No.
Yes. You were never in control.
That’s not fair.
Fair and true are not the same.
But to what end?
Why do YOU want ME here?
So I wouldn’t go to my dad?
So I wouldn’t run to the basement…
And have to see him being murdered?
No. That would have been fun.
The reason, silly girl, that I want YOU…
Looking at ME is to keep…
Your focus off the Snatcher…
Creeping up behind you.
App