The Night Watch

It was his turn, he had never done this before. There was no training just instructions to watch. He was to be there for as long as he remained sane and to warn the city of the night terrors which would surely come.

The sanatorium was the residence of many previous Night Watches, the ones who lived. There were only two outcomes for them, either madness or death.

The tower stood on a black sand shore of the dark ocean, and the night had come.

He had to watch. What for, he wasn't sure, but he had heard rumours. If he saw something he had to strike the bell which was the alarm to warn the people to lock their doors and shutters and pray that they would be safe.

Somewhere out there were giant formless creatures, some said created from the basest desires of humanity that had drifted into this plane summoned from the En Vitreo.

The En Vitreo was a space between planes and worlds, a limbo, a nothingness where terrible things dwelt until they were called or let into unsuspecting worlds.

Sometimes it was accidental, sometimes deliberate, but the result was always the same, death and destruction, and they always came across the dark ocean.

When they came if someone saw their hideous form they were instantly driven insane by the horror of these forms. Their first victim was always the Night Watch when the formless horrors would approach the tower to silence the ringing, piercing the eyes and mind of the Night Watch with their tendrils of dark hate.

They sought out summoners, who suffered the same fate at the Night Watch, and were left dead or drooling, and screaming incoherently. You could say that was justice as they had summoned the creatures, but they could also be accidentally summoned by people playing with seance boards and magic letters.

Parents saw their children devoured by Night Terrors and there was nothing they could do about it. Often the children summoned the entities and once that happened their fate was sealed.

The people pleaded with religious leaders, seers and wise women to protect them, but the Night Terrors still came, and the Night Watches did what they could but always fell.

In the tower, when night fell and darkness covered the world, they looked out over the dark ocean, the horizon lit by lightning and ghostly fire, then they saw the forms huge, and creeping a cross the black ocean, foul corrupt spectres coming to deal harm and destruction to the people in the city.

Then one holy druid suggested that people needed to learn love and respect.

Hate and jealousy were causing these night horrors as well as people wanting to do harm to others and if people looked out for each other instead of wishing harm on each other then the Night Terrors would die out.

The problem was that there was always someone who wanted bad things to happen to others or was jealous of someone's success, and that was what the Night Terrors fed on.

The holy druid knew they were right, and most of the people knew they were right, but the hate and jealousy continued, the night Terrors still came, the Night Watches still fell and the summoners never saw another dawn.

The tower still stood on the black shore of the dark ocean, the bell silenced once more awaiting the new Night Watch and darkness fell once more.

No one knew how many the night Terrors would take tonight but they would do it relentlessly.