The Watchers

Mina shows off her clothes to the parrot. She chooses a trench coat, a fedora, gloves, and sunglasses to hide her identity and her injuries. While she dislikes her current appearance, she thinks that she might have a face worth sketching now. Mina fears walking to the university and does not want to see people after her traumatic experience, but she forces herself to leave her apartment. She finds herself anxiously foraging for edible berries and looking for signs of the watchers; this is in sharp contrast to her old life, when she used to sit in front of the library and sketch people. When she arrives at the university, the hungover librarian reluctantly goes off to retrieve the box of Kilmartin’s papers. There is an old woman in the reading room, and Mina chats with her as she waits for the librarian. The old woman fondly remembers Kilmartin’s lectures on fairies. When the librarian returns, Mina looks through the box, which is filled with various notes, annotated sources, and maps. Kilmartin’s journal has drawings of the coop and the shipping container beneath it. Mina finds a picture of Kilmartin with someone who looks exactly like Madeline. The old woman tells her that the picture is of Kilmartin’s wife, who is named Madeline.

Mina slips the professor’s papers into her bag. On the walk home, she grapples with the idea that the Madeline she knows might be a watcher. She recalls that Kilmartin’s video alluded to the possibility of a watcher that is able to walk in daylight. When Mina returns to her apartment, she sees that someone has broken in. Mina is sure that it was Madeline, and she thinks that Madeline might be looking for the camera that Ciara found in the forest. Then, she realizes Madeline took the paper listing Ciara’s address.

Ciara takes a taxi to her house and pauses outside. Once inside, she considers calling her parents but decides against it. She looks around the house, thinks about the coop, and takes a bath. She feels guilty about Daniel’s death and wishes that he were still with her. Ciara sits in front of the fireplace in her house, looking at the pictures of her and John on the mantle. When the sun sets, she closes her curtains. She remembers talking to Daniel after Mina fell asleep in the shipping container. He said that Madeline didn’t come with him to take care of the traps like she said she did. Daniel wondered if Madeline went into the burrows and ventured underground. Ciara also misses Madeline because even though the woman was strict, she kept them alive. Suddenly, the lights in her house turn off.

Ciara checks the fuse box, but there isn’t anything wrong with it. She whispers to John, asking him what to do. Just as she wonders when Mina will show up, Mina arrives at the door with the bird. As Mina’s taxi pulls away, Mina wishes that she had asked the driver to stay. Ciara tells Mina that the lights are off, and Mina says that it is Madeline’s doing.

Mina had run out of the taxi quickly, thinking that she might be too late. Once she is locked inside Ciara’s house, Ciara lights candles, and Mina recalls that the parrot would always act oddly around Madeline. Now, Mina laments missing this clue. She tells Ciara about finding the picture and reveals that Madeline is a watcher. Ciara believes Mina and grabs the poker from the fire. Mina recalls that Madeline always slouched under her shawl. Ciara hears something outside, and the two women go upstairs. Mina leaves the bird behind because it reacts strongly to Madeline. Ciara and Mina go into Ciara’s bedroom, and Mina has to tell Ciara to stay away from the window. They hold hands on the bed as they hear scratching on the outside of the house. As Madeline climbs up, they hear the watcher’s shriek, and then they hear Madeline on the roof.

The parrot starts screeching downstairs, and Madeline breaks through a window near its cage. Mina and Ciara listen to Madeline coming upstairs. Mina takes a flashlight and goes to talk to Madeline in the hallway. Madeline comments that Mina’s look of fear does not suit her. Then, Madeline asks Ciara what she is going to do with the poker. Madeline asserts that she thought Mina always knew what she was. Mina says that she only knew that Madeline was lying about something, not what it was. Madeline admits that each night, she saw Kilmartin allowing the watchers to kill the men who constructed the coop and the bunker while he hid in the shipping container.

Mina observes that Madeline isn’t like the other watchers. Madeline confesses that she thought she was the only watcher who could walk around during the day. She was lonely and tried to convince the other watchers not to kill Kilmartin, the man who taught them “how to change” (287). However, after Kilmartin was injured, he wanted to die, and he wrote the message about staying in the light over the fireplace and then made the coop into a home for Madeline. She helped him seal up the shipping container. However, Madeline hadn’t seen the professor’s last video.

Madeline asks if Mina destroyed the papers, and Mina says that she and Ciara are the remaining loose ends. Madeline thought that Mina was smarter than the others because of her use of the sketchbook. Mina asks why Madeline took care of them instead of killing them. Madeline takes on Mina’s appearance and explains that she needed to study Mina to complete this transformation. Mina realizes that her face is beautiful when it is on someone else; she wishes that she had drawn more self-portraits. Madeline asks again if Mina destroyed the research. Suddenly, Ciara barges past Mina, who drops the flashlight. When Ciara is about to strike Madeline with the poker, Madeline grabs Ciara’s neck and starts strangling her. Mina begs Madeline to stop and says that she is different from the other watchers.

When Mina finally confesses that she burned all of Kilmartin’s research, Madeline drops Ciara. Mina hears Madeline transforming again in the dark and tells her that Ciara’s house is a real home, not the coop. She says that Madeline also deserves a real home. Eventually, Mina demands that Madeline kill her or stop threatening them. Madeline changes back to a human appearance and says that Ciara is only unconscious, not dead. After Mina promises to keep the secret of the fairies, Madeline leaves Ciara’s house.