The Watchers: Introduction

The mysterious package arrived at her door just after midnight. It arrived just as she had fallen asleep listening to the Chinese New Year festivities outside her balconey window. The Dragon dancers were continuing their electric performance throughout the night, clanging and banging their oriental drums with very loud and rhythmic drumming designed to herald in the New Year and ward off evil spirits. It was a sensuous time of year which Francine particularly enjoyed. The streets were filled with beauteous vivid red and gold decorations and framed by a sea of intoxicating aromas of cloves, cinnamon, lemongrass, nutmeg and mandarin.

Francine had spent the day with her friend Alexa enjoying the fireworks. Back home now, Francine was winding down her perfect day in front of the television. Just as the last crowds were dissolving outside her window, she had fallen asleep in front of the television watching a documentary of African women denounced as an adulterer and sentenced to death by stoning. Francine was outraged by what she heard and threw a well-worn bed sock at the TV in disgust. Just as she hit the TV, the unusual sound of horses galloping in the street below echoed in her city apartment. It was a very strange sound indeed as she lived just on the fringes of the city’s Chinatown. The streets were so narrow that people (let alone horses) could hardly filter through them without bumping into each other. The horses seemed to stop outside her window. And then, a few moments later, she heard someone banging on her front door. Spooked by the sound of horses, she shuffled silently towards the door, afraid of who might be waiting there; she looked through her door’s peep-hole but saw nothing. Instead, outside her window, her attention was drawn once again outside to the horses heard galloping away as mysteriously as they arrived. Francine cautiously opening the front door, and at her feet was a square tea-coloured parcel bound with string. It was addressed to Francine in a strange archaic-looking script.