“In here,” a voice mumbled through the kitchen door.
“Thank god,” she exhaled quietly.
Laura entered and was pleased to see Toby just on his way out holding a plate of various treats: from candy, to cakes, crisps. Laura's mouth felt dry all of a sudden. In his other hand he held a large bottle of pop that wore two plastic cups like a hat.
“Let's get going then,” Toby grinned, looking excited.
They left the kitchen and strolled across the hall. Toby skilfully used his knee to lower a golden handle, and then extended his foot to push the door open. Laura was once again astonished; every room in this castle seemed to improve on the previous. A semi circle of metal tables covered the front of the room, with technology resting on them. Each piece in itself was worth thousands, so the contents of this room combine must have cost a fortune collectively. Just how much did doctors get paid? She would have to look into studying further into the human body. If she was guaranteed a life like this, or at least a home like this, then maybe progress into medicine. Laura had expected a room of old models, ancient musty computers to fit in with the aesthetics of the castle, not a chance. They had abolished any preconceived notions people may have, by forcing their hands to marvel in the glorious robotic heaven, and no doubt become sufficiently envious. Laura presumed that friends and acquaintances of the Anderson's would be equally rich, but Laura being from a more modest household found herself choking on jealousy, almost drowning in it. She loathed this feeling. It made her belittle the success of her parent's, and wish they could have achieved more. Laura felt ungrateful and selfish. As she knew her home was quite large compared to the surrounding suburban properties, but in comparison to her current place of leisure, it was pathetic. Toby dropped the snacks and soda onto a table in the middle then opened a laptop.
“Help yourself, I am gonna load up a laptop and get started on my work, then we can watch a film later if you want?” Toby suggested.
“That sounds wonderful,” she was flabbergasted at his offer to watch a movie together, and not retreat back to his gaming temple.
She had expected him to abscond to his bedroom after he'd finished homework. For him to make a proposition to watch a movie together must have taken a lot. Although a thought crossed her mind like a train screeching by, maybe he has a crush? But he could quite possibly just be a lovely, polite young boy.
“Can I use any computer?” she asked him.
“Sure, the newest one is this one by me, it cost daddy a lot of money,” Toby rolled out a chair, which she suddenly noticed were everywhere. Comfy leather seats had been hiding from plain sight under the tables, playing peek-a-boo with Laura.
Soon they both sat. Toby working on his review, and Laura actually doing homework by researching content online. There was a state of the art three-in-one printer in the far corner, and Laura figured she may as well take advantage of the free ink, as the Andersons clearly weren't short of a penny or two. Every few minutes the printer would hum and spit out several colourful sheets with a twang as each sheet fell into the paper tray. The energy in the room was indescribable; it was like that of a library, which they also had. The positive vibes seem to electrify the entirety of this metallic explosion. You could actualize your goals, and attain them. In her own bedroom back in much more modest waters, there was the constant urge to check social networking pages; they had become an international addiction. The cravings were pretty much continuous, ongoing desires to share with the world changes in her life, considerable or insignificant, vaguely interesting or tirelessly boring. But tonight she had managed to abstain from phone usage, and concentrate on more productive tasks. Witnessing a young boy being so industrious and constructive with his time, made her all the more motivated. It was gratifying to be with a young man that could pull himself away from battling zombies or warlords in a virtual two dimensional world, and actually offer polite conversation between finishing school work. Laura, in dire need of refreshment, took a few heavy glugs of pop. Her throat swelled with every mouthful, almost gulping down the entire contents of her plastic cup, until her thirst had been quenched. She choked back a belch and then turned to Toby.
“Almost done,” he turned to Laura and gave that same look she saw all too often at school: relief.
“Me too,” Laura responded, using the back of her hand to wipe away the ring of pop she feared was around her lips.
As she sent the last few pages of a history project to the printer, detailing world war two with heart breaking photographs, she became aware of a flashing chat bar at the bottom of the screen. There was an unread message highlighted in blue.
“Are these all logged into social networking groups?” Laura asked.
“Yeah, my dad is a bit of a social addict. He has tonnes of celebrity friends which he stays in contact with through the networking groups, so he usually logs in and forgets to log out, or gets distracted by work, or booking transport for business conventions and stuff,” Toby mumbled, prodding away at the keyboard. Laura detected a hint of emotion in his low tone.
“Does he go away a lot?” his fingers came to a halt as he stared zombie-like at the luminous screen, internally debating how to answer the question. Honesty, or keep up appearances.
“Yeah, both of them do,” Toby groaned with the same low pitch, raspy like a heavy smoker.
“Oh, I see,” she sympathized, clearly he was lonely.
“You enjoy school though? And friends?” Laura asked, scraping stray hairs from her face.
“School yeah, but I don't really have any friends.” His eyes lowered to the keypad as he idly flicked dust from between the buttons.
“Why is that? You seem like a nice young lad,” Laura's heart was breaking slightly, minuscule chips cracking the throbbing muscle in her chest.
This in itself seemed pathetic; she had known the boy a matter of hours. But couldn't help but feel attached to him, and sympathize with his situation. On the surface he had the perfect life, full of riches and wealth, anything he desired at the touch of a button. But all that clearly came at a price.
“I go to a private school where kids only care about superficial things like sports, or reality television, or getting really drunk and taking drugs.” Toby grimaced, suggesting he wanted friends, but not at the expense of compromising who he was. He wasn't ready to conform to society just yet, and hoped he wouldn't have to. That he would find like minded individuals who shared mutual interests.
“Seriously? At your age they drink and take drugs?!” Laura felt as if she had been hit by a bus, he was only of around eleven years of age. What is coming of the youth of today? Even though technically she was still in that category. He nodded awkwardly to her question, shoulders hunched.
“Well good for you Toby, don't hang around with people like that, you have a good life, and I promise as you get older, the people you are faced with will mature. Don't do drugs or drink,” Laura advised, feeling slightly parental. But also hypocritical by telling him not to drink as she was known to enjoy tipple with friends occasionally.
“Oh I won't that's why no one really wants to hang around with me. So I go to school, and am chauffeured home, where I play video games and do homework.”
“What do you do on a weekend? Do your parents take you places?” Laura assumed there would be endless trips to museums, theme parks, holidays, weekend getaways, shopping trips and such.
“They take me somewhere about once every month. There, done, shall we go pick a film?” Toby was obviously trying to change the subject, pushing away from the desk and plastering a smile across his face, so Laura obliged in his subtle hints.
“Two seconds, I am just finishing up,” Laura smiled, in hopes of lifting his spirit, which had clearly lowered significantly during their very personal chat.
She was logging out when her meddling accumulated as she clicked on the chat box. Truth be told, she was hoping to stumble upon a conversation between Dr Anderson and one of these celebrities. A hot actor? Or int
ernationally known singer? Her eyes read the name of the person, and was stumped when it read 'Anonymous'. Hmmm maybe that is so they can remain undetected, should the castle's security ever get breached and an intruder go through chat history should an account ever be left open. Her eyes flickered to the message itself, which read, 'What film will you two be watching then?' Laura gasped.
Chapter 5
She was no longer a young adult, but a fragile little girl. As if an even younger, scared girl was trapped inside. A golden nugget of dread had formed in her stomach and was gleaming with a morbid fate, and the dissolution of optimism. This person that had been vacant from her ongoing thoughts was still here. Still lurking. Still tormenting. Still intimidating. They could see, or hear, or both. But where were they? She doubted they were inside. They couldn't be. Then the revelation of the door being opened when she had been upstairs talking to Toby flashed before Laura. Now was appropriate to be frightened. Was it time to call the authorities or not? What would it hurt to sneak off and make that all important phone call that could mean the difference between life and death?
“You done yet?” Toby asked.
“Erm...kjnsf....” what? That's not even a word. Laura was flustered. “Yeah, you go on ahead into the living room, just move my stuff onto the floor and I'll be there in a sec,” Laura responded trying to appear aloof.
“The living room? Laura, we have a screening room, like a small cinema,” he laughed.
“Oh of course you do,” she muttered. “Well, is it down here?”
“Yeah, just two doors over,” he smiled.
“Well you go, I am just finishing up, gonna give my dad a quick call.”
“Oh don't use your mobile phone, use that one by the printer. The signal is terrible out here, which is why we have several advanced wireless routers in the castle that actually boost reception,” Toby pointed to the corner of the room to the huge printer, beside a modern phone set.
“Okay, thanks,” Laura said as Toby left cradling the sweets and pop like a new born baby.
As soon as the door shut, she poked the buttons harshly, frantic with panic, 9-9-9, beep-beep-beep, and waited for the ring. All it took was one of them and a husky voice answered. “Hello you're through to the police department how may I direct your call? Is this an emergency?”
“No, I just need, well, actually, I just want to ask something, I have a stalker watching me.”
“Okay, you want to be more specific?” he patronisingly asked.
“I am Laura Bass I am babysitting for Dr Anderson at Castle Ver-”
“The Dr Anderson? Father of Toby and husband of Marion?” the police officer seemed impressed.
“Yes, do you know them?”
“Yes, so what exactly is the problem?” his tone fell serious.
Typical. As soon as rich people are mentioned this becomes an important call.
“It is probably me just overreacting to a prankster, but I got a call a couple of hours ago. At first he didn't say anything, then he ended up asking if I was alone, and when I told him I was, there was a pause. Then he said you're next,” she explained.
“Anything else?” his pitch jumped an octave.
“Yeah, I went upstairs to check on Toby, and when I came down the door was open, and they had moved a bowl of candy I'd left on the floor.”
“Had you opened the door previously to anyone?”
“Yeah, some trick or treaters,” Laura was beginning to sense that he wasn't taking this seriously, and in all honesty, she wasn't sure he should. She resembled a typical melodramatic teenager.
“Okay, had it occurred to you that it was the kids that came in for more candy?” he coughed.
“Yes that had, but then who phoned? And I also got a message when I logged into a computer in the computer room.”
Laura was firing more information like they were bullets, trying to prove she was not insane, gunning down his condescending attitude.
“It asked, what film will you two be watching then? As we had been discussing watching a movie together after we had done our work.”
“You do know that Toby's father has microphones in each room of the house, and cameras,” he revealed, somewhat sarcastically.
“I didn't, no. What are you suggesting?”
“He also is constantly on his mobile phone.”
“Even when dining with his wife?” Laura's face creased.
“Especially then, their marriage is quiet, to say the least. They don't often speak, and only socialize as that is what married couples are supposed to do.”
Laura was stunned at this little morsel of information. I guess being financially comfortable comes with its fair share of other problems.
“So, what are you saying?” Laura ran a restless hand through her blonde hair.
“Maybe he was listening to you guys on the microphones and assumed you wouldn't get scared, and you would answer him. Oh wait, did you answer him?” he questioned.
“No, I thought it was the stalker,” Laura's eyebrows rose.
“Well, I am sure if you go back to the chat and reply, it will be Dr Anderson. He has freaked people out before, especially babysitters,” he chuckled, which Laura took a little offence too.
“Really?”
“Yes. So I wouldn't make any assumptions,” he sounded full of himself in that instance.
“OH! The note!” Laura jumped.
“Note, what note?” Officer Thompson was confused and slightly startled at her outburst.
“Someone left a note in the candy that they moved saying: how was Toby?” just as Laura was beginning to feel slightly peaceful, even with the cop's condescending attitude, that shred of evidence sent her heart racing.
“Could one of the kids have known? The trick or treaters perhaps?” he suggested.
“Well they did say they come to the castle every year as it's spooky, and Dr Anderson always gives out good treats. So I guess they could have known,” Laura was now less tense and on edge, and felt more idiotic with each passing second. She really wasn't helping the over dramatic stereotype of teenage girls.
“I know the kids around there, they are mischievous little fuckers,” he laughed.
Laura actually liked the sound of his laugh; it was warm and endearing.
“I guess, so I think I should go now, and not be so silly. Sorry for wasting your time,” she blushed.
“Nonsense, it is always better to be safe rather than sorry, as they say. But if anything else happens that worries you, just call back and ask for Officer Thompson,” he seemed sincere, she was starting to like this police officer, just as the conversation was coming to an end.
“Thank you, bye then,” Laura bid farewell praying that, as nice as he actually was, she wouldn't have to call back.
The chat rolled around in her mind like a hamster spinning a wheel. Everything had been resolved, but she just couldn't settle. It all seemed too easily explained to be that simple. But, if this officer knew what he claimed to about the kids, Dr Anderson, and the microphones, then all was now well. And the next eerie circumstance shall be approached with sensibility. So she forced a smile on her face. No longer in worry of her existence, she was charged, and hankering to check out this room. If recent history was any indicator, it would be dazzling. So Laura knocked on the door to make sure it was the right one.
“Toby, you in there?” Laura yelled.
“Yeah, come in,” Toby replied, voice warbling.
She pushed open the door and her eyes almost fell out. It wasn't like a mini cinema, it was a cinema! What was Toby comparing it too when he said it was a small cinema? What kind of cinemas does he go to? With walls carpeted in a luscious burgundy, a gigantic screen between red velvet curtains below a declining mountain of comfy looking crimson seats all aimed at the screen. It was more alike to a fine Broadway theatre, staging America's finest musical productions.
“Where you wanna sit?” Toby asked from behind, standing, with the goodies on an armrest.
She puffed out air, lost for words, and presented with too much choice of seating.
“Erm...you pick,” she flung up her arms, grinning, completely fascinated. Caught up in amazement she looked up to see gold engravings and portraits of babies and Greek men. Holy crap!
“Wow! I can't believe this place, it's incredible,” Laura giggled, jaw almost touching the carpet.
“Oh, you might like this then,” Toby dragged her down the many steps to the very bottom. He took Laura to one of the curtains, brushing it aside, revealing a huge window, tall but slim. Yet it was the view that was even more incredible. The cinema actually sloped down the land and rested a few hundred metres from the cliff's edge. If Laura was to hazard a guess she would say it was a quarter of a mile away at most. It was exhilarating, but alarming. Laura had wondered how a cinema on the first floor could lower so much, and stretch out so far. To the right, a path could be seen. The very same one Laura and her father had driven up hours ago. The gates were barely visible in the dark of the night, many trees acting as the gate's accomplice in concealing its location. To the left was the rest of the cliff, spread over a few miles, joined by a perfect view of the sea in the distance, thrashing away under the heavy downpour and strong gusts of wind. Yet it was the cliff's edge, directly out front, unnervingly close, the sea just beyond it, that unnerved yet also impressed Laura. Could this place be any more phenomenal? Laura almost screamed aloud in excitement. Then she remembered this was only one tower of the multi-winged castle. What else was laying in wait?
The next couple of hours flew by in a pleasant blur. Laura and Toby enjoyed an animated movie, laughing hysterically at the comical characters performing slapstick humour. The audio system was excellent, and the treats went down nicely, washed down by plenty of fizzy pop. It didn't take long for Laura to feel bloated after the over-indulgence of snacks and carbonated beverages. Toby became lethargic towards the end of the movie, so he retired to his bedroom as the credits began to roll, with an upbeat song bouncing off the soundproof walls. Soon enough Laura also retreated, to the living room. With a couple hours more energy remaining, she figured the workload could be whittled down some. Laura was partly bursting to explore this dwelling. Examine every crevice and crack, every room that allowed access. This urge only intensified as time went by. So after a short spell highlighting paragraphs in a biology textbook, yellow ink everywhere, she put her work away for the night. It wasn't until cramming everything back into the bag, that Laura realised just how much work she had managed to complete. She felt proud. Then something occurred to her. She didn't know which bedroom she was actually sleeping in. Dr Anderson had left that little crumb of necessity out. So Laura had a legitimate reason for searching, and seeking a room for the night. She gathered her belongings and trudged upstairs. The upper hallways were sensational. Long stretches of coral carpet with concrete pillars, the ceiling a mesh of arches. Each one had been delicately painted with a mix of patterns. Every so often down these mile long corridors were thick oak doors, again, on either side. There was an abundance of rooms; she didn't know where to begin. But a room with a view sounded appealing, so she continued to the end of the tower, clutching a backpack, with her jacket artfully looped around the straps. As she did this, a double door at the end of the walkway came into view, leading outside. She guessed that it was a balcony at the end of the tower. Laura lugged everything to the door and wandered outside. It did lead outside, but it was not a balcony, it was an outdoor path encompassing the exterior of the castle. It inclined onto another wing. Another thing she noticed, were the windows scattered along the path. People strolling down the outdoor path could look into every room of that floor, on that side of the castle anyway. Better keep my curtains closed at all times then, don't want no peeping toms. Laura smirked. But then that same thought sent chills down her spine. She then had an idea. Turning around there was in fact a window, its curtains open, allowing easy viewing of the room. It was a magnificent bedroom. A king bed with wooden posts, cream walls crowded by glorious artwork, a petite red velvet chair nestled in the corner, thick oak dressing table, and on the inside of the window was a cushioned windowsill. She imagined sitting on that windowsill and admiring the view for hours. Or snuggling with a good book. Now that would be one hell of a way to wake up.
He's Watching Me Page 4
