The Gatekeeper: Chapter Two, Part One
Chapter Two
The Craftsman
After wiping off the salty, stinging water from his face (with young Ben lamenting in the corner how his vampire-killing exploits had only been held back by the lack of a holy man), Janus took a large, red toolbox from the Constantines’ closet, and trotted up the stairs to look for Mr. Constantine. It wasn’t so hard — he simply had to listen for the frantic typing and head in that direction. Knocking on the door first, out of politeness, he heard Mr. Constantine bellow, “Ah, Claire! Come, give me the hammer so I can end this damned nail for all eternity.”
Hesitating for a moment, Janus finally decided to enter, noticing the unkempt state of the room, with all sorts of belongings and clothes scattered around. Then, he observed the computer Mr. Constantine was working at, its screen filled with numbers and code atop an old, peeling, almost rotting desk. Carrying the toolbox with him and presenting it to Mr. Constantine, Janus announced, “I am not your wife, but I am willing to help, if you would accept such aid.”
“You? You’re still here?!” Mr. Constantine shouted, turning around and staring at Janus angrily. “Haven’t you caused enough trouble?”
“I have caused no trouble in my time here, sir,” Janus replied innocently. “And, I should think, if you wish to complete your work, my assistance may be a more efficient solution. This way, your window can be fixed even without you having to take your attention off your work.”
“Seriously? No! Get out! I’ll just do it myself, like everything else in this house,” Mr. Constantine shouted, tearing the toolbox from Janus’ hands, and leaving the stranger confused. “What’re you standing there for? Go on, get out!”
“If you wish,” Janus said finally, and he departed, leaving a grumbling Mr. Constantine alone to start yanking a nail from the crumbling wall.
With a disappointed frown, Janus returned down the stairs and asked, “Mrs. Constantine? What kind of work is your husband into?”
“Oh, he makes computer programs and designs 3D models,” she replied. “It’s certainly not an easy job. Why?”
“No reason,” he replied.
An hour later, the entire house was asleep, everyone having long since gone to bed. However, Janus, from his guest room residence downstairs, was still awake, having showered and shaved for the first time in a long while. Yet he was still thinking, still feeling an obligation to these people who had opened their hearts and home to him. As quietly as he could, using the light-footed step of his people, he snuck out of his room and up the stairs, heading into Mr. Constantine’s workroom. He switched on the dimmest light, his eyes accustomed to the dark, and glanced down at the beaten keyboard.
Both grinning and wincing at the lack of fingerprint identification on the computer, Janus began warily typing in a password, informed of the likely combinations by the keys which appeared the most punched or battered on the surely years-old keyboard. Frustratingly, it took him about seven or eight tries to get it, but finally, the computer let him in.
He noted immediately the efficient layout Mr. Constantine had set up for himself — there was a to-do list in the corner of the desktop, each item ordered by importance and highlighted by level of completion. The rest of the desktop was dedicated to the main workspace, with green code rising and falling like waves of the ocean, and a small window to send any fully finished work to Mr. Constantine’s superiors sat to the side. Janus scrolled a bit upwards in both the main workspace and the to-do list, figuring out what work had to be completed. Then, mentally adding his own special item to the list, he began his work.
________________________________________________________Thanks for reading once again! This is going to begin Gatekeeper's second Chapter, it's a lot shorter this week since there was already a cutoff written into Gatekeeper at this point, so sorry about that... but I hope you enjoyed it anyways! Some updates:
- You can still find the full cast list for the audiobook here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16L2_z3mQlcQxkQDlTU0wDYFl4PM_xNlfuWZElwhdiEA. Honestly, I'm thinking of postponing the audiobook all the way to December once Gatekeeper is out in its entirety... and the fact that I've only got three people interested (two for the same role!) does not help. We'll see how it goes.
- I'm thinking that there's probably going to be another month of regular Gatekeeper posts up on this site... and then I have to go write the rest of it. Mandalorian Season 2 cannot get here fast enough, let me tell you that.
- Should I put together like a temp track of OSTs or something for Gatekeeper? I've done it before for Shadows but it might be fun here...
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