True to You

Somebody's Listening

The watcher hitched his feet up in front of him and crossed his legs at the ankles. Hands clasped in front of him, an elbow on either knee he leaned forward on the sofa to watch the action on the screen. Snatching up the remote control he increased the volume. Okay sure, some of the sounds coming from the speakers were a little confronting but he wanted to hear. He needed to know that everything was alright, that things were progressing as they should.

His eyes widened at what he was watching. Well that was confronting! He felt a touch of guilt for picking the full technicolour glory view of what was a very private and personal moment. He knew , just like he knew he could change the volume without the remote, that he could change the camera angle just by thinking about it. But clearly some curious part of him wanted this view so that was what he was seeing. He was a purist. He liked to use the remote to change the volume, just like he liked to use it to change the channel and when he picked a channel he liked to let his own internal curiosity pick the camera angles and show him what he wanted to see, not his conscious thoughts.

The sound of a door opening and closing didn't distract him from the screen but a loud exclamation had him glancing over his shoulder.

"Holy fuck man! You can't be watching that! That's just wrong!" A big tattooed guy with shaggy hair in a shade somewhere between blonde and brown dropped down on the sofa next to him and made a grab for the remote.

"Leave it!" The watcher kicked it out of his reach with a sneaker clad foot.

"This is an invasion of privacy, you get that right?" The big guy stretched his legs out to rest his booted feet on the coffee table.

"Please man, like you didn't break out the popcorn to watch your sister's wedding!" The watcher snorted and brayed out a laugh.

"And you were right there with me for that pyjama party but that's not like watching this. Shit man, she's like a sister to me and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want us seeing that." He covered his eyes with his hands but couldn't resist peeping through his fingers. With a growl of frustration he dropped his hands and glared at the screen through narrowed eyes.

"Hah! There's nothing you can do to change it, not without the remote. It's my TV and it's set to me," The Watcher gloated.

"Well then I'm gonna need the remote aren't I?" The big guy said with a grimace and lunged for it. He managed to get a hand to it but The Watcher tackled him and the pair of them crashed over the coffee table to wrestle on the floor.

The sound of a slamming door and a screeched, "What the fuck is going on in here and what are you two assholes watching?" had then stopping in mid tumble and looking up with guilty expressions.

A small blonde dynamo stood, hands firmly planted on her hips, beside the sofa. "That," she jabbed a finger toward the screen, "is an invasion of privacy! I hope to fuck you didn't watch me like that because I swear, you may be immortal now but I can still find ways to make you hurt!"

"See? I told you so." The big guy rolled to his feet with a smug look.

The Watcher wheedled, "But it's Zacky's big moment." He didn't bother to stand and simply stretched his lanky frame out along the rug and propped his head up with one hand.

"It's not Zacky's big moment. He's not the one squeezing a watermelon out his hoo-ha! Give the woman her dignity!"

A shriek of, "Don't fucking tell me your hand hurts Zacky! I swear if you let go and leave me with an unoccupied hand I'm going to use it to rip your balls off!" rang out from the speakers.

The big guy chuckled from his reclaimed spot on the sofa, "Ouch, that's gonna hurt, she'll do it too."

The Watcher cleared his throat, "She looks pretty able to look after herself to me. I'm not sure she cares much about dignity."

"I don't care! Stop being a creeper by watching the woman give birth!"

The Watcher frowned, "But that's what we do here. We watch."

The blonde snorted, "Sure you do when you're not flitting from after party to after party."

"Hey, there's not that many parties!"

"There are three going on right now on this floor alone."

She was right, there was always a party happening, considering the crowd three was a pretty tame number.

"Yeah, well it's tough work being a creative muse. We've got to let off steam somehow. What I meant is that our influence is limited so all we can do is watch." The watcher pointed two fingers to his eyes and then to the screen.

"Well what I'd like to not so respectfully suggest is that people would prefer it if the afterlife weren't populated by fucking pervert peeping toms! We need to maintain some kind of standards!"

A baby's cry drew their attention from their argument.

"There she is, my perfect baby girl," a male voice spoke on screen.

"Oh my goodness, just look at her," the blonde breathed in awe as she fumbled her way on to the sofa beside the big guy.

"See Val? You'd have missed this if I wasn't a pervert peeping tom. Look at Zacky's face when he holds her. You think that little girl will ever touch the ground?" The Watcher's smile was pure joy with no trace of triumph.

"I hate to admit this but you're right. How could I have wanted to miss how happy they are?" Val sighed.

"I bet my sister's waiting just outside the room, I can't wait to see her face when she sees this baby," the big guy smiled.

"Oh shit Ryan, I forgot the reason I came looking for you. Chris Cornell said you guys are supposed to jam but I guess we're cancelling all plans so we can watch this little family introduce their baby girl to the world," Val murmured her gaze fixed on the happiness unfolding in front of her.

"Yeah, Chris'll understand if I'm late," Ryan leaned forward intent on the screen.

The three of them sat in silence and watched for a while, each of them lost in the images and memories of the people they'd left behind.

"Oh and Jimmy, I meant to tell you," Val suddenly turned to The Watcher, "Keith Moon and Vinnie Paul said to tell you that the dead drummers from Spinal Tap were only fictional characters so you can't save them a seat at your weekly secret drummers business meeting anymore but they'll uphold you if you still want to drink shots in their honour provided you share the shots with the two of them."

Jimmy smiled broadly, his features alight with mischievous pleasure. "That is just splendid."