Keeper: Chapter 24

24.


The figure was covered head to toe in a black hooded cape. The hood was pulled low over the face and Jamie could only catch the glitter of eyes in the shadows, no facial features. The figure was taller than Jamie but shorter than the High Talbot. As they walked towards the figure Jamie realized the person had found the deepest shadows of the porch to wait. He wondered if that was significant. Jamie passed the cloak he had picked up in the woods off to Del.



“Do you know what sort of refreshments to offer,” he asked in a low tone he hoped wouldn’t carry.



“Yes Keeper,” Del replied in the same hushed tone.



“Good,” Jamie replied. In a louder tone he called to the figure on the porch. “Good morning, sorry for making you wait.”



“The wait has not been long,” came the reply. The voice reminded Jamie of long dark hallways where dust collected in the corners and beetles scuttled under the floor boards. He gave an involuntary shudder.



“Good,” Jamie replied. They reached the porch. “Won’t you come in?” Jamie asked. He opened the door and Del moved directly to the kitchen. Jamie indicated the figure he was now was pretty sure qualified as male, should go into the parlor. The visitor settled himself in the guest chair. The guest chair was still in shadows as the parlor’s windows opened to the west. The entire room was dim and Jamie reached for the light switch.



“I would prefer you did not do that,” the voice came again. Jamie paused.



“Oh?”



“I am a creature of the dark and prefer the shadows,” he was told. Jamie let his hand fall from the switch.



“I see,” he said. Jamie stepped away from the switch and moved to his seat. “Del will be bringing refreshments shortly.”



“Does it bother you?”



“The refreshments?” Jamie asked, there was a low chuckle from under the hood.



“Meeting with one of the dark. One who might be evil?”



“Dark is a natural condition,” Jamie replied. “Many in nature are designed to live in the dark and suffer ill effects from the light. Evil is an intent. An action decided upon by an individual not a natural state.” Jamie blinked. The words had a familiar feel to them, like a lesson he had been forced to memorized. He couldn’t remember where it had come from though and that bothered him. “Although I do like to actually see the faces of the people I talk to. That sort of bothers me, along with not knowing your name.” There was another dark chuckle from under the hood.



“You are well trained by Albe that much is certain.” The man’s hands lifted to the edge of his hood. Jamie looked at them homing he looked politely interested rather than like he was staring. The man’s hands were pale, like skin that had never seen the sun. Jamie thought that was perfectly understandable. The man’s fingernails however were black. Jamie’s eyes were drawn to them. The black was not the black of nail polish but the purply black that you would sometimes see if you happened to accidentally slam a hammer into your finger rather then hitting the nail you held. As Jamie had made many frames over the years his hands were well familiar with the color. What struck him as odd was that it was a uniform color on all of the fingernails. Jamie had the feeling a hammer had not been used to create the color. The nails also seemed a little thick, more like the thickness of his mother’s acrylic nails than real fingernails. The hands with their odd nails pulled back the hood and Jamie shifted his gaze.



The skin of his visitor’s face was as pale as the skin of his hands. His eyes were black. Not the kind of black he had seen before on another human but black all the way through. There was no iris surrounded by black just the black. The eyes were also slightly more round than the normal human eye. His nose was sharply pronounced and made Jamie think of old roman coins. Over all the effect was more birdlike than anything else, a judgment somehow made more pronounced by the fine brown hairs on the man’s head although Jamie would be hard pressed to say why.



“Definitely of Albe’s teaching,” the visitor said with a slight smile. His eyes did not blink which made Jamie feel like blinking twice as much.



“Oh?” he asked, unsure of the appropriate response. The man smiled again, his teeth seemed somewhat sharper than normal and Jamie absently ran his tongue over the back of his teeth. He caught himself midway through but since his mouth was closed he did not think his gesture was observed.



“Yes most would view my appearance as confirmation of evil intent. After all I have seen many of your movies as of late. Am I not the picture of a demon inhabited one?” The tone was somewhat teasing and Jamie smiled slightly.



“I rather think the demon inhabited ones drool a lot more and tend to behave in a much more violent manner.”



“Indeed,” I will have to practice then before All Hallow’s Eve then if I am to pass muster with the latest Hollywood trends.”



“You could always throw a sheet over your head and go trick or treating as a ghost.”



“Indeed I could,” he said. Del interrupted the conversation, such as it was, by wheeling in a tea tray. Jamie noticed that while there was a tea pot on the tray there was only one tea cup. The second tea cup had been replaced with a dark glass. Steam seemed to be rising from its depths. Jamie decided he would ask Del questions later. Del wheeled the cart to a stop between the two of them, inclined his head at Jamie and then walked back out of the room. His visitor reached for the glass and picked it up. He seemed to enjoy the contents, by which Jamie assumed Del had chosen correctly. Jamie poured himself a glass of tea. There was already a lump of sugar in the bottom of the cup and it dissolved as the tea covered it. Jamie smelled the peppermint in the steam as it rose. His guest smelled the scent as well and seemed to find it vaguely amusing.



“I had heard that Millie had retired.”



“Yes,” Jamie replied, thinking of the conversation he had with Albe a few months before he disappeared. “She felt she had stayed in one place long enough and needed to see a bit more of the world’s changes.” At the time he had thought it a wish to see the world before she became too elderly to travel but her decision made a little more sense now that he knew Del. Idly he wondered where she was and if she knew Albe was gone. “You were a friend of Albe’s then?”



“I was,” although I must admit I had not seen him very much of late. A fact I regret terribly. The trouble with mortals is that you never really know how long you have them for.”



“I suppose that is true,” Jamie replied, never having thought of things that way.



“Regardless,” the man continued. “In the past he had done a favor or two for me. I told him I would like to do the same for him.” The man paused to sip his drink. “Of course finding something Albe needed was always difficult. He was quite adept at getting himself out of situations.” A fond smile crossed his face. It looked oddly lost but was gone before Jamie could figure it out. “And now he is gone so I suppose you will have to do.” The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin the size of a silver dollar. He held his hand out to Jamie. Jamie reached forwards and picked up the coin. As he did so his fingers grazed the palm of his visitor. The skin was icy to the touch. By contrast, the coin was quite warm. Jamie looked at it. The coin was silver but it had a slight rainbow sheen to it, like an oil slick on water.



“What is it?” Jamie asked. His visitor smiled finished the last of his drink and set the empty glass back on the tea tray. He reached for his hood, pulled it back over his head and stood in one smooth motion. Jamie found himself standing, as thought pulled to his feet by a string.



“Something I think you will need,” he was told. Once again covered with the cape the visitor turned and walked towards the door.



“Thank you, sir.” Jamie replied. “May I ask who you are?”



“I am who I am,” was the reply as the door opened. “What I am called is relatively unimportant as I doubt we will have cause to meet again in the future. Good bye child of Albe’s and be aware you have a great predecessor to live up to.” With those words of parting he stepped through the door and in a blink was strolling into the deeper shadows of the woods.



Jamie looked down at the coin in his hand but didn’t have long to ponder it as a second visitor arrived. This one was shorter than he was, the top of her head reaching only to the middle of his chest. She was as full of light and warmth as his first visitor had been full of the dark cold. Her stern expression however warned that her disposition might not be as bright as her countenance.



“You are the new Keeper?” She asked, sounding very much like he imagined a country school marm would have sounded at the turn of the century. Jamie tucked the coin into his pocket.



“I am,” he replied. “Won’t you please come in?” She entered and like his first visitor, she quickly got to the point. The point being that she owed Albe a favor and found herself instead having to pay it to Jamie instead. She seemed rather put out by the fact. She huffed back out a short while later leaving Jamie with a small vial that glowed vaguely gold and was sealed with purple wax. He had no more clue what to do with it than he did the silvery coin. Guests arrived in a steady stream. Some were polite and wanted to wax poetic about Albe. Others seemed to view their visit as the conclusion of a business arrangement. Each left him with an object or device he had no clue how to use or what to use it for. Lunch had come and gone and Jamie wondered if he was going to be able to eat before his four o’clock tea with the famed Fey architect. He escorted his latest visitor out, tucking the small packet of powder she had given him into his pocket as he moved. The next visitor was already on the porch and Jamie gave up his last thoughts of grabbing a late lunch.



Goodbyes were given to his departing guest and he turned to his arriving one. This one wore a gray cloak with the hood pulled over his head. Thunder sounded overhead and fat drops of rain began to splatter onto the already damp grass. Jamie invited him inside. As he moved he pulled his hood down and smiled at Jamie. Jamie froze in place as he caught sight of the half circular scar on the man’s cheek. Jamie took in the rest of the details and found himself staring at the man from his dreams the night before. The man smiled.



“Ah, young Jamie I see you do remember me.”