MOVING ON WITH MY LIFE

  It felt good getting back to work. Leon and I always met at a local coffee shop before starting the vampire shift as our coworkers called it. Coming back from vacation, my desk was probably littered with vampire pictures and cards. Once someone put Count Von Count the Sesame Street Vampire on my desk. Since then, no matter where I hid it, the doll always appeared tucked in my pencil holder, under papers, or sitting in my coffee cup.

  Leon sat across from me with a worried expression. He swirled his spoon round and round in the coffee cup.

  Finished with my meal, I leaned back and watched him. “Alright, tell me. Are you transferring to the day shift? Got tired of prowling the dark side at night?”

  “No, nothing like that.”

  “You and Amy good?”

  “Yes,” he smiled at her name.

  “Ok, then spill it.”

  “I ignore a lot of what happens with you; the knife, disappearing wounds, and Vics dying from head trauma. But if we are to keep working together, you need to tell me the truth about what is going on. I can’t continue in ignorance.”

  I glanced around, studying who sat near our table and could hear the conversation. The knife on my leg gave no indication of danger lurking nearby. I said with a sigh, “I’ve had the knife since my twelfth birthday. That’s when Grandmother passed it on to me. My official title is The Catcher. The silver knife draws evil people to me. I kill them with it, or rather the knife kills them, I just point. At their death, I catch their souls and send them on to the Gatekeeper. He traps them in the Forest of Lost Souls. Does that sound like a sci-fi novel?”

  “Is any of that true?” asked Leon.

  “All of it. My life has been one long torment since receiving the thing. The knife against my skin warns me if one is nearby. Right now, it feels cool, so there is no danger. When hot, an evil soul is present. That is the only way I can have a semi-normal life.”

  “I realized your instincts had something to do with the knife but not all of this.”

  “Does it scare you?”

  “No, not scared but mystified. Why you?”

  “Don’t know. It has been passed down through generations. I will be the last. When I die, the knife will be buried with me. Hopefully, that will stop this curse.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Amy is a researcher for the Art Museum. I can ask her to examine it.”

  “I can’t give it to her. Too dangerous. What would happen if the knife attached to her instead of me? But we can take pictures. There are figures and words on each side of the blade. If she can decipher them?”

  “Tonight, you can pull it out, and I’ll take pictures with my cell phone.”

  “What about Newbie?”

  “We’ll stop at the coffee shop and send him out with a complicated demand. That should take him a while.”

  We watched Daley rush into the busy coffee shop. Leon pulled out his phone and opened the picture app. Setting it up to take a video, he said, “I’m ready.

  The silver knife lay wrapped in a tissue on my palm. I learned to be careful, even in quiet times. I uncovered it, and he started recording. When he finished with one side of the blade, I turned it over, and he scanned the other side. From the corner of my eye, I saw Newbie returning with our coffee order. The knife slid into its sheath, and I closed the flap on my pants leg.

  “Man, the line was long, and it took forever to get the order ready. He kept sticking in his thermometer and restarting the microwave,” Daley grumbled as he slid into the car. He handed us the coffee from the back seat along with the heated cinnamon rolls.

  I tried not to shake with laughter. We requested them to be microwaved to an exact temperature. My mouth full of cinnamon roll, I said, “Hmm, perfect. Now that you know how we like it, you can get them for us every time.”

  Leon took a bite and almost choked at my comment. He took a quick sip of coffee to wash it down.

  “Are we sitting here all night or go patrolling.?” Daley, not happy with his status as an errand-boy, grumbled.

  “Up ahead, there have been reports of attacks, leaving one dead. Thought we would check out the alley, afterward, return to the station and wait for a call.”

  The closer we came to the alley, the warmer the knife glowed against my leg. I studied the dark space between the buildings. “Something’s not quite right. Stop here, and I’ll check it out.”

  Leon turned the car off and said, “I am coming with you. Newbie, stay in the car. Here, hold our coffees and rolls.”

  I was already entering the dark space. The knife was almost burning through my clothes.

  A tall, shadowy figure stepped away from the wall. As I stood still, three more figures came forward to circle me. I felt a non-menacing presence behind me. “Leon, don’t get involved. Step back.”

  “I’m not Leon,” a deep voice responded. “Maybe, you should step away, too.”

  “Whoever you are, you don’t understand what is going on.”

  “Oh, I have a good idea.”

  The knife appeared in my hand. I pointed to the nearest attacker as he slipped closer to me. My blade flashed silver through the darkness. I heard a thud as if a body fell. The knife flashed back to me.

  “Nice,” was the stranger’s comment. Silver sped from his hand and struck another attacker.

  I took out the next one, and he got the last.

  “Ever heard of the Gatekeeper?” I asked.

  “Only in my dreams. He is a ghostly specter guarding a forest.”

  “That’s him. I’m Beth. And you are?” I turned and discovered he was gone.

  Leon standing in the streetlight said, “You talking to me?”

  “No the other man who was here. At his curious expression, I said, “Oh, never mind.”

  Sitting at my desk, preparing to fill out reports, I thought about the stranger. The vampire doll stared at me from my keyboard. Focused on the man from the alley, my fingers automatically removed the paper clips sticking out all over it.

  The Gatekeeper never mentioned other Catchers. I made the assumption of being the only one. I remembered the card Grandmother was insistent that I kept. Was he the reason? This was a new addition to my already complex life.

  Oh, well. This mystery was not getting the night reports finished. I set the doll aside and started typing.