{"id":171,"date":"2020-10-08T23:48:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T03:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/?page_id=171"},"modified":"2020-10-08T23:48:39","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T03:48:39","slug":"lindsay-brandt-vigil-security","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/lindsay-brandt-vigil-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Lindsay Brandt, “Vigil Security”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vigil Security Firm<\/em>– The sign said, hanging over a heavy wooden door and framed by lantern-lit windows. I wondered what kind of place this was,<\/em> but I sighed and walked inside. It had, after all, been my uncle\u2019s wishes that his grave be protected by this establishment.<\/p>\n

Inside was a desk with clawed feet, and behind the desk was a woman with graying black hair and gold spectacles. She was wearing boy\u2019s clothes and a green jacket with shiny gold buttons, which struck me as odd.<\/p>\n

\u201cEva Vigil, at your service,\u201d the woman said. \u201cWho might you be?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Delia, ma\u2019am,\u201d I said nervously. \u201cMy uncle- Cygnus- requested your services in protecting his grave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eva regarded me with a strange, unreadable stare. \u201cCygnus is dead?\u201d she asked. \u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plague. It was awful.<\/em>\u201d I was never that close to Uncle, but I still had never expected him to die.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you mean that he died of the plague, or do you mean that they told<\/em> you he died of the plague?\u201d the security consultant asked me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid I don\u2019t understand your question,\u201d I told her. \u201cOf course it was the plague. He\u2019d been ill for a long time prior to his death.\u201d At least, he said he had been in his letters.<\/p>\n

Eva scoffed and muttered something to herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we have a deal?\u201d I asked her, somewhat apprehensively. \u201cMoney is no object- I can draw out of Mother\u2019s bank account. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s enough there for whatever price you ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, child, you don\u2019t need to pay. Cygnus and I have been long-time friends, and any service to him will cost nothing. In fact, I will even pay you<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPay me for what? Surely there\u2019s no service I can do for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

She fixed me with another unreadable gaze, and I had the strangest feeling that she was looking straight into my soul. \u201cFor coming out with me tonight and helping to guard the grave.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a strange request, coming from a certainly strange character, but somehow I felt I needed to accept. That night, at sundown, I took a carriage to the graveyard to help Eva with her guarding.<\/p>\n

In my skirt and gloves, I felt out of place in the graveyard. Was it possible to feel in<\/em> place in a graveyard? I wondered. The stones were pretty enough, but once you got to thinking of the poor people buried beneath, it was quite disturbing. Add that to the darkening autumn sky, and it seemed as though a phantom could appear at any time.<\/p>\n

Looking around for Eva, I spied her near the corner of the cemetery. She looked just as she had when we spoke in her security firm earlier, except that now she carried a large leather handbag. She was sprinkling something from a box onto the earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d I asked her.<\/p>\n

\u201cSetting wards,\u201d she explained. \u201cSalt does wonders to keep the supernatural away, when combined with a bit of holy water and smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe supernatural?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed. Why do you suppose Cygnus hired me, rather than any other security firm? There are others who could get the job done better than I, for less cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you said there was no cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no cost, but Cygnus had no way to be sure of that while he lived. The reason, then, that he hired me was that I have experience dealing with this kind of threat. What do you know of the Star Sapphire?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing,\u201d I said truthfully.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought as much. The Sapphire is a powerful talisman that only comes to power once in a blue moon- and you\u2019ll find that tonight is the blue moon. Cygnus was murdered for it, and now it\u2019s buried with him. That<\/em> is what we\u2019re here to guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMa\u2019am, I have no use for your supernatural nonsense,\u201d I told Eva.<\/p>\n

She took a cloth from her massive handbag and used it to polish her spectacles. \u201cYou will,\u201d she said simply and seriously, then went back to sprinkling salt.<\/p>\n

Although I had rather a mind to leave the graveyard and return to my comfortable four-post bed at home, I\u2019d stayed with Eva for several hours now. Earlier I had complained of being cold, tired, and scared, but at her urging I ceased. \u201cYou\u2019ll attract ghosts,\u201d she had said. \u201cThey love nothing more than complaints.\u201d While I still did not believe for an instant that there was such a thing as a ghost, she was quite insistent and so I sat in silence.<\/p>\n

The clock on the nearby church tower struck midnight. Eva reached into her handbag as though reaching for a weapon. The blue moon, previously concealed by thick clouds, began to shine down on the cemetery.<\/p>\n

Eva suddenly sprang to alertness as though she were a hunting hound that had scented a fox, though I neither heard nor saw anything alarming. \u201cThe grave robber is here,\u201d she said, more to herself than to me. \u201cAlways midnight. They\u2019ve a sense of the dramatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no robbers here,\u201d I told Eva.<\/p>\n

She shook her head. \u201cThe wards never lie. There\u2019s a robber somewhere here.\u201d I agreed, if merely to satisfy Eva\u2019s fantasy.<\/p>\n

From the bag, Eva withdrew a long bronze rod with symbols etched into it. She strode confidently toward what I knew to be Uncle Cygnus\u2019s grave, wielding the rod like a sword. \u201cShow yourselves,\u201d she said. \u201cI know you\u2019re here. If you want the stone, you\u2019ll have to take it from my cold hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

A figure stepped from the shadows, dressed in a purple and yellow cloak that should have been plainly visible but wasn\u2019t. Without a word, they (man or woman, I couldn\u2019t discern) drew two swords and began fencing with Eva and her rod.<\/p>\n

Both moved faster than I supposed was humanly possible, ranging across the whole cemetery with their duel. It was rather fun to watch, in all honesty.<\/p>\n

While watching the duel, however, I noticed something else. Atop the grave of Uncle Cygnus, a large black animal had started digging with its paws. The creature looked almost like a dog, but not quite–there was something catlike about its face.<\/p>\n

\u201cHEY!\u201d I exclaimed to the creature. \u201cYou get off my uncle\u2019s grave!\u201d The creature, ignoring me, continued to dig. I reached inside Eva\u2019s handbag for something I could use against it.<\/p>\n

A pistol? No, I had not the slightest clue how to fire one. A box of salt? I was unsure if it would affect the creature. A slice of cake? That<\/em> wasn\u2019t a weapon.<\/p>\n

Finally, I found a small wooden stick- no, a wand<\/em>. Holding the wand, I charged the digging beast. I poked it with the tip just as it scratched me with its claws. It howled and melted into a puddle of shadows.<\/p>\n

Seeing that Eva had beaten the figure in combat, I ran to congratulate her. As I ran, however, I felt an intense pain where the creature had scratched me. Poison,<\/em> I realized as my sight faded to shadow just as the monster had. I fell to the ground.<\/p>\n

A warm blue light washed over me and I heard the voice of Uncle Cygnus saying, \u201cYou have done well, Delia.\u201d The light felt so good I didn\u2019t want it to go away, but it must have at some time because the next thing I remember I was lying in a soft, warm bed.<\/p>\n

Not my bed, I soon realized. I was in the Vigil Security office, and what I had assumed to be a bed was in fact a claw-footed sofa. Although I had been up until midnight, and it was now before dawn, I was not at all tired.<\/p>\n

Believing I had dreamed the whole experience, I stood and began walking back toward my home.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I noticed it for the first time.<\/p>\n

As I looked in my mirror, I saw that my eyes, previously a rather dull brown, had turned to the blue of the moonlight and the sapphire. In spite of myself, I smiled at this–though, I wondered, had the talisman wrought any other changes in me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vigil Security Firm– The sign said, hanging over a heavy wooden door and framed by lantern-lit windows. I wondered what kind of place this was, but I sighed and walked inside. It had, after all, been my uncle\u2019s wishes that his grave be protected by this establishment. Inside was a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9195514,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-171","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","column","twocol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9195514"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/171\/revisions\/172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}