Scary Stories - Twist in the Tale Series

The Watcher

Atop the veryhighest peak, he sat on his throne of stone. He was the wisestbeing that had ever been. He had been seated there since thebeginning of time. He had never spoken.

He simply watched.

From his lofty perch, he could survey the whole world. He hadseen its birth. In the beginning, there had been darkness andnothingness. Then had come mighty explosions and searing flamesand terrible storm. It was an awesome conflagration; it rippedand tore and shaped and moulded. It lasted many centuries.Throughout it all, he watched. He said nothing.

In the fullness of time came a day when the explosions quieted,the flames died and the storm subsided. Then came an aeon-longperiod of stillness and silence. Nothing moved; there was nothingto move. Nothing made a sound; there was nothing to make a sound.

He watched. He said nothing.

Then came rain: a great and mighty deluge. It flooded the worldand made it clean and poured down for many decades. The rainsceased; the waters settled and sank into the earth. Streams wereborn and rivers, then seas and oceans.

He watched. He said nothing.

Much time passed and the land turned green. Vast forests grew andgreat outstretching verdant plains. More time passed and the seasbegan to bubble with life. Millennia went by and tiny unformedcreatures crawled from the deeps onto the land.

He watched. He said nothing.

Of these creatures from the seas, many perished. A few, very few,survived and prospered and grew. In the vast span of time thatfollowed, the creatures changed and evolved and diversified. Someremained tiny and buried themselves in the ground or impregnatedthemselves into the bodies of much larger creatures, or hidthemselves away where they could not be seen. Others grew largeand kept on growing larger until they stamped across the land andruled the world. Their reign endured for a great length of timeand smaller creatures hid from them and lived in terror of them.

Eventually these monstrous creatures grew too big and passed awayfrom the world and their rule was ended. The lesser creaturescould now thrive and develop without fear. An enormous variety ofbeings were created from them and they expanded to occupy everyquarter of the world and the sky above it.

And of all these multitudinous creatures, one slowly developedand evolved to a greater degree than any other. A cunningcreature that learned to stride the land on two legs. From thevery beginning, it strove to command and dominate all around it.Even the giant beasts it had seen die out had been no match forits artfulness. Gradually, so very gradually, and very slyly, itgrew - not in size but in cleverness. Until it too ruled theworld.

He watched. He said nothing.

This creature formed family groups, then communities. Thecommunities split into tribes and spread out over the land.Wherever a tribe settled it decimated all around it anderadicated other life forms, for it was a greedy and acquisitivecreature and sought to own everything. One tribe would becomejealous of the next and would battle with it, seeking to own whatit owned. A tribe would rise in supremacy, destroying all beforeit, only to be defeated in its turn by another, stronger tribe.

So it went.

The tribes conquered more and more territory and spread out intoother lands and became races. The races became diverse from oneanother in colour and creed and belief; yet, one thing they allshared: the all-consuming desire to own everything and be themost powerful. Destruction followed wherever they went, and allother living things fell before them.

In time, the races occupied all the lands. But this was notenough. The creature's greed grew. Great wars were waged. Racefought race, in avaricious lust to overrun and acquire theother's domain. Many succeeded; many more failed and fell andwere no more.

So it went.

He watched. He said nothing.

From the beginning the creatures had been aware of his existence,had wondered why he sat on his stone throne on its high perch.Though he had never spoken, they knew he was the wisest beingthat had ever been. Some, a few, made the arduous and nigh-onimpossible climb to his precipitous roost and worshipped at hisfeet. They brought gifts, made sacrifices to him, and begged himfor more power. But he never spoke, he only watched, and theybecame disillusioned and went away. In time, the creatures forgotabout him.

He watched. He said nothing.

Centuries passed. Wars raged. The creatures continued to developand evolve. Their intelligence became incredible; their ingenuityknew no bounds. But their mighty intellect had only one purpose.All their effort went into the creation of ever more powerfulweapons to aim at one another; and they used up all the resourcesof the world in their suicidal drive for destruction. The warscontinued and became increasingly devastating. Soon out of allthe multifarious races only two remained, each occupying one halfof the world. And each wanted what the other had.

He watched. He said nothing.

There came a time when the two remaining races of the world hadbetween them only one weapon each. The two weapons were verysimilar, for the races were sly and had stolen the secrets andknowledge of the other. Every atom of their art and craft andgreat mentality had gone into their development. There was noneed for other weapons, for the one weapon of each race containedall the combined science of destruction they had ever learned.The weapons were awesome, they put them in enormous toweringbuildings, and the races worshipped them as they had long agoworshipped him.

He watched. He said nothing.

Stalemate ensued. Though each race still yearned for what theother had, they now possessed only the one weapon: a weapon somighty to use it would be to destroy themselves as well as theiradversary. They could only threaten each other with it. An uneasypeace resulted.

But in the construction of the two mighty weapons, the entireremaining resources of the world had been completely consumed.Famine and poverty and pestilence came. The races began to die:vast numbers of them perished. Soon only a few of their teemingpopulations remained.

He watched. He said nothing.

The surviving members of each race, sickly pathetic creatures,gathered at the two towering buildings and prayed and wailed tothe weapons that had by now become their only gods. They knew twothings: that they would soon be no more, and that they possessedonly one remaining item of value - their weapons.

Even in the extremity of their suffering, even as they perishedat the foot of each towering building, neither race couldcountenance the possibility, however slight, that though they maycease to be, yet the other might somehow still persist. In thatdread event the surviving race would gain their land, their lastmeagre possessions and, direst of all, their precious weapon. Itcould not be. There was only one solution.

He watched. He said nothing.

Almost at one and the same time, the few surviving creatures ofthe two races passed through the great doors of their respectivecolossal buildings. Inside, for the two buildings were much thesame, was a cavernous, echoing hall, in the centre of which, in amassive case made of the most precious metal, stood the weapon.At the base of the case was an altar of the same metal, and onthe altar, a great button studded with the rarest gems.

As one the final pitiful members of each race shambled andshuffled across the expanse of each great hall towards theirweapon, gathered themselves around the altar and gazed up awe-struckand wondering at their creation. With one final supplication tothe power that had cost them their world they laid their hands onthe bejewelled button and - simultaneously - pressed.

He watched. He said nothing.

There came mighty explosions and searing flame and terrible storm.It was an awesome conflagration; it ripped and tore and shapedand moulded. It lasted many centuries.

Atop the very highest peak, he sat on his throne of stone. He wasthe wisest being that had ever been. He had been seated theresince the beginning of time. He had never spoken.

He simply watched.