1914

Luca turned to face us, his face warped into an expression of sheer rage.

‘Private…,’ one of the soldiers started.

‘I…,’ Luca began to say, his voice weak, fading, and not matching the expression on his face. ‘I think I…’

But his voice melted away, and only the anger remained.

‘Luca?’ Mamma whispered.

He pounced at the nearest soldier, wrestling the rifle away from him. A shot rang out as the trigger - intentionally or not - was squeezed. A soldier in front of me fell to the ground, clutching a fresh hole in his chest.

Mother lifted me up, put me over her shoulder, and ran for cover. As I bobbed up and down on her back, I watched as the rest of the squad charged for Luca.

Another shot rang over our heads. I felt my hair billow from the force of it.

Luca hit the next serviceman to approach him with the butt of the rifle, growling as he did so. Just behind this soldier, another charged in, dodging Luca’s flailing arm, and tackled him to the ground. Luca lunged again for him, clasping the soldier’s leg in his hand.

As more of the squad surrounded him, Luca became overwhelmed. They poked at him with the bayonets mounted to the ends of their rifles, blood spurting from his body.

Soon, he sank fully to the ground.

Luca was the last to be killed in Gstaad.

* * *

Everyone in the clearing took a moment to catch their breath, and it felt as though everybody was still processing what had just happened.

Mamma was the first to move. She ran towards Luca’s body, arms outstretched, only to be stopped at the last second by the nearest soldier. He pulled her away, threw her to the ground.

‘Ma’am, you can’t,’ he told her. ‘We don’t know if he’s infective.’

I stepped foot into the clearing once again, and ambled closer. The solder in command turned to look at me.

‘Come on, son. You don’t need to see this,’ he said.

‘Is it over?’ I asked.

He said nothing.

Mamma looked up at him. ‘Answer him,’ she wailed. ‘Is it over?’

The rest of the soldiers, too, looked over to him. Some of them shook with fear, whilst the remainder looked like little more than empty shells.

‘No, Ma’am,’ he told her. ‘We have reports that this… sickness has spread. It’s happening elsewhere, out of town.’

He stopped, sighed, and looked upon his captive audience.

‘Speaking frankly, Ma’am, I don’t know if we’ll ever totally be free of this. This evil… it’s out there, amongst the trees and the hillsides. A darkness brews to the north, and the people of Europe… they grow hungry for war.’

* * *

2018

‘Where is it?’ Grandad asked, voice raised. ‘Do you know where it is?!’

‘You mean the box?’ I asked, knowing damn well the answer to that question.

‘Yes, of course I mean the box!’ he shouted, ‘What else would I be talking about?’

‘It’s… it’s in the woods. I can take you there.’

Mia crept up on her father, rested his hand on his shoulder. ‘Pa, what is this? What are you doing?’

‘I’m going to close it,’ Grandad replied, firmly.

‘Close what? This box? I don’t understand!’

Grandad shook his head. ‘There’s no time now.’

He looked over to me.

‘Daniel will explain to you. After I’m gone. Won’t you, Daniel?’

‘“Gone”?’ asked El, eyes teary. ‘You’ll come back, though? Right?’

Grandad ignored his granddaughter’s question. Not, I suspected, for any reason other than not wanting to say the answer out loud.

‘Daniel - you must promise me. You must promise me you’ll stay here, in Gstaad. That you’ll keep watch. There must always be a Weber acting as Watcher.’

‘I…’

He clasped my arm firmly - more firmly than I would’ve expected of a man his age.

‘Promise me,’ he repeated.

‘I promise, Grandad. There will always be a Weber keeping watch.’

He nodded. ‘Good. Now, draw me a map. Show me where it is.’

‘Grandad, no… You don’t need to do this. I can close it,’ I offered.

My grandfather shook his head. ‘No. Don’t be stupid. You have your whole life ahead of you. And, besides, I’ve been waiting for this moment for eighty years.’

‘Pa,’ Mia said again, now sensing the finality of this situation. ‘Don’t go. Whatever it is that you’re doing, please, don’t go.’

‘Draw the map, Daniel,’ he insisted.

I did as I was told, explaining the route as I drew. Grandad repeated it back to me - once as we went, and once again at the end - to make absolutely certain he would find his way.

‘Pa!’ Mia cried, as he headed for the door. ‘Please! Don’t do this!’

Grandad only flashed her a smile.

‘Will this fix him? Hans?’ El asked.

‘No,’ came the reply. ‘Nothing can fix him now.’

Grandad began walking for the door.

I held my aunt as she wailed.

At the front door, Grandad took one last moment to look around at us. ‘I’m proud of you all. You’ve all become so strong.’

With that, he turned, closing the door behind him.

Soon, Mia collapsed to the ground in tears. El and I opened the door, to watch Grandad walk off into the woods, and up into the hillsides.

We never did see him again.

* * *

It wasn’t until that evening that we knew for certain that Grandad had been successful. I knew from the absence of the voice that had called to me; I could feel it. Whatever he had done, it had worked.

The Colonel returned to us that evening to check in with Gstaad’s watcher, only to be disappointed to find out that he was not coming back.

‘That explains it,’ he said.

‘Explains what?’ El asked, her voice gloomy.

‘We think we’ve contained the outbreak,’ Colonel Huber replied.

‘Did…,’ I began. ‘Did you find him?’

‘Who?’

‘Hans. My cousin. Her brother,’ I replied, pointing at El.

Huber waved for a soldier in his command, who handed him a clipboard with a list of names on. The Colonel scanned it.

‘Hans? No, I don’t believe we did,’ he replied. ‘Do you expect that he came in contact with the sickness?’

‘No!’ I replied, still not willing to admit to myself that he was beyond saving. It was good to know that he was still alive, somewhere out there - and there was still the slightest chance of retrieving the man he once was.

The Colonel clear his throat, and then turned to me. ‘Daniel… My orders say that there must always be someone in Gstaad to act as watcher - to make sure that this never happens again. Would you accept this position?’

‘I…,’ I began, then spotted El, now sitting on the ground besides me, head in arms. ‘No, sir, I can’t.’

The Colonel furrowed his brow, and opened his mouth to speak. I anticipated his question.

‘It shouldn’t be me, Colonel. It should be her,’ I replied, pointing at El. ‘She could resist it… whereas I could not. She should be the one. That is… if she agrees?’

Both Huber and I turned to El, who raised her head to look at us. Without saying a word, she nodded once.

‘What will you do now?’ Huber asked.

I gave him some non-committal answer - something about travelling, seeing the world, helping people. But that wasn’t quite the truth.

I knew that with Hans out there, they evil would spread - and the world was already in such a delicate place. Someone needed to stop him - fix him if they could - before he did any more damage. That someone, I figured, might as well be me.