The Day Watch Read Online Free

hurry.”
    When I was already in the hallway, I heard my mom’s voice, full of righteous indignation: “You never did want to talk to your mother like a normal human being!”
    “There was a time when I wanted to,” I muttered to myself as I skipped out the door. “When I still was a human being I wanted to. But where were you then…”
    I knew for sure that Mom was taking comfort in thinking about the argument she would have with me in the evening. And she was dreaming about involving Dad in it too. When I thought about that, it instantly put me in a foul mood.
    What kind of way to behave is that-deliberately provoking a fight with someone you love? But Mom just loves to do it. And she doesn’t understand it’s her own character that killed my father’s love for her.
    I’ll never do that to anyone.
    And I won’t let Mom do it either!
    There was no one in the hallway, but even if there had been it wouldn’t have stopped me. I turned back to face the door and looked at it in a special way, with my eyes slightly crossed… so that I could see my shadow.
    My real shadow. The one that’s cast by the Twilight.
    It looks as if the gloom is condensing in front of you, until it becomes an absolutely black, intense darkness-so black it would make a starless night look like day.
    And against the background of that darkness you see a trembling, swirling, grayish silhouette, not quite three-dimensional but not flat either… As if it had been cut out of dirty cotton wool. Or maybe it’s the other way around-a hole has been cut through the great Darkness, leaving a doorway into the Twilight.
    I took a step forward onto the shadow and it slid upward, enfolding my body, and the world changed.
    The colors almost completely disappeared. Everything was frozen in a dark, gray blur, like what appears on a television screen if you turn the color and contrast all the way down. Sounds slowed down, leaving silence, with nothing but a barely audible background rumble, as faint as the murmur of a distant sea.
    I was in the Twilight.
    I could see Mom’s resentment blazing in the apartment. A bitter, lemon-yellow color mixed with self-pity and her acid-green dislike of my dad, who had chosen the wrong time to go to the garage and tinker with his car.
    And there was a black vortex slowly taking shape above Mom’s head. A curse directed at someone specific, still weak, on the level of “I hope that job of yours drives you crazy, you ungrateful creature!” But it was a mother’s curse, and they’re especially powerful and tenacious.
    Oh no, my dear mom!
    Thanks to your efforts, Dad had a heart attack at thirty-seven and three years ago I barely managed to save him from another… at a cost that I don’t even want to remember. And now you’ve set your sights on me?
    I reached out through the Twilight as hard as I could, so hard I got a stabbing pain under my shoulder blades, and grabbed hold of Mom’s mind-it twitched and then froze.
    Okay… now this is what we’ll do…
    I broke into a sweat, although it’s always cool in the Twilight. I wasted energy that would have been useful at work. But a moment later Mom no longer remembered that she’d been speaking to me. And in general, she was really pleased that I was such a hard worker, that I was appreciated and liked at work, that I went out when it was barely light and didn’t come back until after midnight.
    That’s done.
    Probably the effect would only be temporary. After all, I didn’t want to delve too deeply into Mom’s mind. But at least I could count on a couple of months of peace and quiet. And so could my dad-I’m my dad’s daughter and I love him a lot more than my mom. It’s only kids who can’t tell you who they love more-their mom or their dad-grown-ups have no problem answering the question…
    When I was finished, I removed the half-formed black vortex, and it drifted out through the walls, looking for someone to attach itself to. I took a breath and cast a