Star Charm: Opal
Quote:
The Watcher in the Mud (13) : With so much rain lately, it's not surprising to find muddy patches throughout the city. Aside from being very slippery, there's nothing notable about most of them. Most. At first, there's only the strange sensation of being watched--and then, you see why. The eyes. There are eyes in the mud. Two, staring up at you, and nothing else. No face, no form. Sometimes the mud is totally flat, sometimes it's sunken into the ground a bit, sometimes it's built up like a small hill--but the eyes are always the same. Blinking, occasionally. Tracking you. Moving, if they need to--with surprising ease. Kick them, disturb the mud, or try to bury them, and they'll simply roll or swivel back into place to continue watching. Even if you try to leave, they'll move until they run out of mud--and then watch until you disappear from sight. If you linger long enough, the eyes will eventually grow heavy and slowly close before sinking beneath the mud.
“Here boss, catch.”
That was the only warning Ben got before something small came flying at him, he did catch it but looked down at the small opal Star Charm confused. “What’s this for?” He asked, looking up at one of the guys who was working on their most recent site.
“Figured your girl would like it.”
“Ah,” He was still just as confused but still pocketed the little trinket. “Thanks,” The young man offered his appreciation before focusing back on the clipboard in his hand. “Has the supplies come in?” He focused on work because if he didn’t then his mind would shift to things that would take up his whole day. That is how his entire day went, focusing on work with the odd moment of down time when his thoughts started to drift, only to be yanked back on task. It was summer so his days were long, filled with hard hours on job sites or even harder hours in a suit. That particular day was on a site, moving equipment, directing personnel, and even helping out when needed. It was definitely required because if he just ‘slipped’ he would definitely be spiraling mentally.
The rain had made the site an absolute mud pit, and after yet another stuck truck he had called it quits and sent the majority of the crew home. There were still a few who were working indoors but the ‘general laborers’ couldn’t do anything in this muck until it dried out. However, because there were still people on the site Ben had to stay as well. He was in charge after all. After a good thirty minutes just staring at the computer Ben gave up and went to sit outside, at least he could get some sun, what little there was due to cloud coverage, and maybe clear his head.
Three months. Only three months along according to the doctor. He knew what they needed to do, hell, it was the plan all along, but he had thought they would have a bit more time. Ben was certain they would have more time. He still had another semester to go and Abby… s**t. Ben sighed and mulled over the next steps. It wasn’t like he was unhappy about it, in fact he was pretty ecstatic. But it also wasn’t planned… not that they were doing anything other than trusting modern medicine on that one. It shoved all the wedding plans into hyper drive, or just straight out the window, and they still hadn’t told the extended family. Mostly because how do you exactly break that news? ‘I knocked her up?’ ‘We anticipated the wedding a little too much?’ Hell, damn near everyone already knew that.
“God,” He muttered, “I’m screwed aren't I.” He knew there were several people who would be rather unhappy with him, but only because the wedding didn’t happen first. Ben was so lost in his own thoughts that it took longer than it should have for him to realize that someone, or something, was looking at him. At first he figured it was one of the workers in the building but when he didn’t see anything, the young man started to visually look around the work site. It wouldn’t be good if they had a fence jumper. It wasn’t until he spotted some slight movement out of the corner of his eye that he looked down and spotted it, or rather them. A pair of eyes. Two eyes staring up at him out of mud. Nothing else. Just the eyes. No face, no form, no nothing.
When he shifted closer the eyes shifted as well, not much but just a bit closer. Like it was mirroring him. If he got up and started to pace the eyes drifted across the mud following him. Watching him. Always watching. Sometimes the mud was flat but when he got closer it built up a bit, like a small hill or mound. However if he got too close the mud went concave and sunk into the ground a bit. But it was still watching him. Ben ended up poking the mud with a stick, watching the eyes move around, rolling and swiveling only to return to the place they were before. He tried burying them with more mud, even tried to remove mud, but nothing worked.
“Boss?”
A voice cut through his thoughts, his head shooting up and the shovel he had moved on to dropped, the mud on the end spatting into the mess he had made. There was one of the remaining crew standing on the path they laid down to walk through the site, watching him with concern and confusion, their tool bag in their hand.
“Uh… I dropped something and was trying to fish it out.” Ben explained even as he grabbed the shovel and put it away with the rest of the tools. “You all done for the day?”
At the confirmation from his guy Ben quickly wrapped up and after a last walk through to make sure everything was buttoned up he headed to his car. The eyes were still there, they were every time he glanced over at them, but no one else seemed to see them. Was he the only one? Or was it something to do with the fact that he was an officer? Could it be the magic in him that was causing the issue? And what would it do to his kid? Since both parents were ‘magic’ as it were. Would any child he have with Abby also come out with some kind of power? And how exactly was he going to handle that?
Oh great! Now he had more things to worry about.
Ben scrubbed his hand through his hair, hissing in annoyance when he realized he had just styled his hair with some of the mud that was still on his hands. He was going to shower either way but damn it, the day just wasn’t going his way. Annoyed, concerned, worried, and now muddy the young man climbed into his truck and slammed the door. With one final glance over at the eyes that were still watching him he pulled out of the lot, only pausing once he reached the street to lock the fence behind him.
And even then, he could see a pair of eyes in the mud watching as he locked whatever it was behind the fence. Ben just flipped it the bird before climbing back into the truck and heading out. He really did have too much to deal with and as long as the eyes didn’t do anything to his construction site, he was willing to leave them be. But he still hoped they would be gone by the time he got back in the morning. He didn’t want to have to explain anything to anyone… he was already going to have to do that for a very different reason sooner rather than later anyway.
