The Trouble with Time, Part 16 - Fountain

"A Guardian?" she demands. "What's a Guardian?"

"I... can't tell you, exactly," Kevin starts, rubbing his eyes before adjusting his glasses. When she gives him a look, he hurries to continue. "Because I don't really know. No one knows."

"What?" she says. She's gesticulating wildly. "How? What?"

"Okay, let me try and explain," he says, motioning with his hands to the side of the room. An armchair slides across the floor to the desk and she sits in it. "There's not a lot of people who make it out of the Garden, as I've told you," he starts. "Most are left wandering in it for the rest of their days, with no idea who they are and what is going on. Some of the ones that do manage to get out are consequently lost in the desert, chasing mirages until they collapse under the heat. Of the tiny portion of people that make it back to civilisation most, like 75% at least, claim that they are now... essentially possessed by an entity or entities."

"I'm sorry, possessed?" she interrupts. "I have a fucking demon or something following me?"

"No, not necessarily a demon, sit down," he says and she drops back down into the chair, crossing her arms with a huff. "In fact almost definitely not a demon. They are almost exclusively benevolent beings. They're called Guardians because that's... what they seem to do? Mostly really mundane things, helping around the house or keeping track of people's belongings or stuff like that. The reason we don't really know what they are, is none of the people being 'possessed' can perceive them. They don't have a physical form, they can't be seen, they can't be touched, they can't be observed in any human way. Frankly I wasn't even sure they existed in the first place, since there's only anecdotal evidence of their existence, but the one thing all accounts of Guardians have in common is that the person gets an inexplicable feeling that something should be right there, that something is there, but it just," he throws his hands in the air, "isn't." He pauses for a moment, rubs his hands together.

"And you think I have one, now?" she prompts. He nods.

"That's exactly what I felt, when you came back," he admits. "I knew, I knew, there should be someone there, that there was a third person there with us when we walked back, but there just wasn't. And I don't know what to do about it. And I don't know why I could feel it."

"You know," she starts after a moment's silence. "I sort of feel that way too." He looks up at her. She looks conflicted. "But... I've felt that way for quite a while now. Longer than a day, for sure."

"What do you mean?" he asks.

"What you described," she says, gesturing vaguely at him. "Like there's someone there when there's not. Or, like, that there should be? I feel that way, sometimes. Have, for several years."

"That... doesn't make sense?" he says with a frown. He is very confused now. Why, how would she have gotten a Guardian several years ago? "Have you been in the Garden before?"

"No, I don't think so," she says. She chuckles lightly, adds, "At least I can't remember that."

He gives her a quick smile before frowning again. He looks away, trying to make any sense of this. His eyes land on the monitor showing the security footage from the store and he stares at it, blankly. Not paying any attention to it, until he is. He blinks, but it's gone.

"Wait," he says and stands up. He turns the monitor so she can see it as well and she looks at it, curiously. "I think I saw something."

In the footage, with a two second delay, video-Kevin turns the monitor around.

"Where is that?" she asks and he points out the camera. Two seconds later video-Kevin points right at them on the monitor.

"For just a split second," he says, squinting at the footage. "I swear there was a third person right there."

They both stare at the monitor for a good 90 seconds.

"I can't see anything," she says, leaning back. "And now my eyes are starting to hurt."

"Maybe..." he says. "I could kind of see it when I wasn't trying to, so maybe..." He closes his eyes for a second, lets them relax. Then he opens them. He doesn't look at the footage. Well, he looks in the direction of it, but he doesn't look at it. He looks through it.

And slowly a third figure starts to take form in the footage beside them. It's standing behind the chair, just by her right side. Then it disappears.

"Curses, I saw it," he says. "But then I tried to see it again and it disappeared."

"But... you saw it?" she asks and he turns back to her. "There's something... something there?"

"Yes there is," he says with a grin. "And I think I might know a way for us to find out what it is."

~x~

He takes her down the hallway, further than they've been before, and opens a door. Behind it is a torchlit room, medium size with nothing but a fountain sitting in the middle of it. It's a tall fountain, the water spewing from the top in an arch and cascading to the basin. Around the basin are statuettes of people holding mirrors.

"This is the Fountain of Truth," he says. "One of the most rare things in this entire store, and there is a lot of things in this store. If you look into it, it will show you back your true form, no matter what glamours or disguise spells you have going on. And, of course, if you look into it with someone else, you'll be able to see their true form as well."

"Wow," she says. He waits for her to way something else, but she seems too captured by the fountain so he continues.

"So, what you want to do, is look in, and maybe, hopefully, your Guardian will look in with you, and you'll be able to see what it really is."

She hums, softly, and makes no effort to move. He waits. "I'm a bit worried," she says, eventually. "What if it's something scary?"

"Would you rather not know if you have something scary attached to you?" he points out.

"No..." she relents. "But still..."

It's fine. Just a little peek.

"Yup, just a little peek, that's all," he says, stepping to the side and leaning against the wall. "Frankly I don't even know if the thing will show up!"

He's smiling, but his smile fades when he sees her face. She's frowning. He is immediately on edge again, but then she smiles and shakes her head.

"Sorry," she says and starts to walk towards the fountain. "I didn't realise I said that out loud."

He gives her another smile, but on the inside he is freaking out.

"So I just... look in?" she's asking as she leans over the side. "No magic words or anything?"

"Nope, just look in. Stare at your reflection for a while."

She does. They're quiet again for a good few minutes.

"Oh!" she exclaims. He perks up. "I think... I think I see someone beside me!"

"Really?" he asks. That's a pleasant surprise. Maybe they'll be able to answer a really big mystery here today!

"Yeah, it's really starting to take shape now," she says. She's squinting into the fountain, at something to her right side. He can't see the water's surface from where he's standing, but doesn't want to get closer, since this thing seems so fickle. "It's definitely a person. A... a woman, I think. She has long red hair. And sad eyes. She's smiling, but she looks sad. I, ngh, I don't understand..."

He pushes himself from the wall. Something's wrong. She's holding her head in her hands, but she's still staring at the surface.

"So fuzzy, but I... I feel like I know her, I-- ahhh!"

And then she staggers back and collapses. He barely manages to catch her before she hits the floor.

"What's going on, what's wrong?" he's repeating and she's clutching her head, her eyes screwed shut. He's dialing Sam's number with one hand, while trying to keep her still with the other. She's thrashing in his hold.

"My head!" she says between groans. "Hurts!"

She screams again and then falls limp in his arms, unconscious.

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OOPS.

Look at me, getting back on schedule tho! It's super late over here, but I had some inspiration so what can you do? Next topic is "Melody"

Pie out.