Since I’d already lost Mase, I tried the lever, thinking I’d search the room for iron, and the door swung open without a sound. Putrid air drifted out, a mix of burned furnace and cleaning chemicals. A heavy darkness hung inside so thick, not even the bouncing light outside could penetrate it. I shuffled closer to search for a switch along the inside wall, sucking hard on the nail in my mouth. The closer I edged to the doorframe, the tighter the dread knotted around my lungs. Something wasn’t right.
“Stop him!” a male voice shouted from both right and left, just behind me or a ship-length away. It was impossible to tell.
Stop who? Daryl? Had he escaped his quarters?
Footsteps. Running. Pounding. From everywhere all at once.
A cry escaped my mouth. I needed more iron. I needed to get away. Both of my needs warred with each other because I couldn’t do one until I got the other.
I reached a hand into the midnight room and slid it against the inner wall as far as I could stretch. Cold dashed across my fingertips and up my arm. Tingles pricked my scalp in waves, and I had the overwhelming urge to snatch my hand back and run. But what if all the other doors were locked?
“He’s going to kill—” Another voice yelled, but cut himself off with a loud grunt.
Me, I finished for him.
A guttural, hungry growl sounded from inside the blackened room.
I lurched back and threw myself across the hallway and against the opposite wall. Was that Daryl in there? Or something else?
Tears pricked my eyes as I stared into the room. The icy wall behind me froze me to it, and I couldn’t move no matter how much I wanted to. I opened my mouth to call out to someone, anyone, but only a rusty gasp came out.
Movement to the right caught my eye. A huge, shadowy form stood at the other end of the hallway, right outside where I thought the dining room would be. Whatever or whoever it was didn’t face the door; it faced me. Just standing, staring. And then charging.
I ran.
A loud roar sounded behind me and a scream that might’ve been my own.
My nightmares lived on this ship. They’d been waiting to return from my childhood from the moment I stepped aboard the Vicio to torment me, chase me through the halls, and crumple my existence into aluminum.
Breathless, I slid blindly around corners with no idea where to go or where I’d been. Every hallway looked the same, and I couldn’t even begin to map them on the periodic table in my mind, because I didn’t know where Fe, my iron anchor, was. If I could find the broken light, I could find the dining room. I’d find the dining room when I had actual iron gripped in my fist.
I risked a glance behind, but nothing chased me. Only the stretch of an empty, silent hallway. My heart thundered as I stared down it, expecting it to switch from unoccupied to not in the space between beats. I stood there for what felt like days, just to be sure nothing moved, especially the shadows beyond the intermittent lights.
Finally, I took a slow step, my breaths so shallow I couldn’t even hear them. And another. For every step I took, I looked twice over each shoulder.
Up ahead, a circle of faded light spilled to the floor from a window in a door. Maybe Mase and the captain were in there with the doctor tied up between them. Someone had to be in there if the light was on, right? Feozva’s hell, I’d even be glad to see Nesbit.
I crept toward the circle on the floor, wondering why the outer edges were lit, but the center wasn’t. What kind of strange light shined in a donut-like circle? Unless it wasn’t a light. Unless blood smeared the middle.
I jerked my hand to my mouth when I reached the door. Dark red rivulets streaked the inside of the glass window from a large crack in the center. Tufts of glossy blond hair had caught inside a chip in the glass. Daryl’s. The polite doctor who I never thought would hurt anyone. What had happened here? Had someone done that to him? Or did he do it to himself?
I didn’t want to know. Whatever had happened in there could stay in there, because nothing could make me peer through all that blood or the small crack between the door and the frame to see what the rest of the room looked like.
So I ran away from that hidden terror, trying lever after lever to search for anything made of iron.
One finally popped open, and I stumbled into a set of stairs that rose upward. I climbed on shaky legs and crept out the next door one story above.
I squinted under the glare of a high ceiling full of heat lamps that emitted no warmth from where I stood fifteen feet below. A hundred or so four-legged teralinguas, the Vicio’s precious cargo, swept long, bushy gray tails from side to side over the grated flooring in perfect sync, likely communicating an attempt at escape telepathically. Teralinguas were known for their high intelligence and complex getaway plans, but were even better known as an extravagant meat.
I couldn’t blame them for wanting to leave, and my heart went out to them, especially since their lives would end inside a giant ice slug on one of Jupiter’s moons. Even if I freed them, where would they go? They were as trapped as I was.
The fur mixed with poop smell just about doubled me back, but on the other side of the cavernous room was a single door. I’d sprinted nose first into unexplored territory. There had to be something around here made of iron that I could take apart with my ice pick.
I began to tread carefully around the animals that stood hip-high, not one hundred percent sure how friendly they were. They raised long snouts tipped with black button noses to test the air around me, to tell if I was friend or foe.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
They blinked at me with their orange, intelligent eyes half-hidden behind long, dark eyelashes. I resisted the urge to pet their fine gray coats that looked earlobe soft and tried to harden myself against their desperate situation while I focused on the door ahead.
About halfway across, something, somewhere, crashed into titanium. I yelped and jerked to a stop. The teralinguas shrieked so loud, I smashed my hands to my ears. Their piercing wails sent shivers up and down my back and brought tears to my eyes. I had to get out of there or my head would burst.
But the teralinguas crowded around me, their panic fueling mine to a raging fire, making forward momentum almost impossible. They were dashing away from the door I’d just come through, the door that was now swinging open.
Someone stood just outside of it in the dim hallway, the top half of their body drooping like it was too much effort to hold it up.
I wished it was Randolph standing there, or Mase or the captain, but the person’s build and the way they stepped into the room, not directly toward me but to skirt around it with a tapping finger at the ready, told me everything I needed to know.
“Daryl,” I choked out, but it was lost in the teralinguas’ screams and the roaring urge to flee through my veins.
Blood dripped down one side of his face. A large gash by his hairline matted most of his hair in red spikes that hung in his glowing green eyes. The sleeves of his silk suit hung past his fingertips in torn rags. His red scarf dragged behind him like a trail of blood. Whatever had happened to him was still happening.
I backed toward the opposite door, tripping over hoofs and swishing tails, while the teralinguas cowered away from him and pressed against me. Daryl eased around the first corner with nothing impeding his way except his random tapping. He might get to the exit at the same time I did, and I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. I should go back the way I came, back to the door he’d just entered since he needed to tap the room first before he attacked me again. At least, I hoped that was what he needed to do.
My gaze glued to him, I doubled back, my movements stiff and jerky with the need to escape in a hurry.
“It’s in you, James,” Daryl shouted with a maniacal laugh. “I smelled it. I want it. I’ll cut you open and slurp it from your insides.”
Feozva, get me out of here. But the teralinguas wouldn’t stay out from under my feet. They huddled around m
e and stayed far, far away from him. Some had already shot through the open door in front of me. Daryl was almost at the opposite door, then he only had half a wall and another to go before he released himself and targeted me.
“Go,” I begged, shooing the creatures toward the door.
Behind me, the door crashed open just before Daryl reached it. A snarl rumbled from the darkness beyond. Decay wafted in and overpowered the stink of teralinguas. Three long finger-like tendrils of black smoke curled over both sides of the frame.
No. Nonononono. I fumbled for a piece of iron in my pockets before I remembered they were empty. There was nothing left except the nail I had in my mouth. A scream welled in my throat, but if I belted it out, the iron might fall out too. Then there would be nothing but me, the ghost, and Daryl. Tears pricked my eyes at the effort to keep my scream contained as I stumbled into the shrieking teralinguas.
The long smoky fingers on either side of the doorframe pushed the titanium into a wider yawn, but Daryl didn’t seem to notice as he passed. His hungry gaze was pinned to me. Something growled at the same time he bared his teeth, but I couldn’t be sure it was him.
Then whatever stood outside that door charged. The grating under Daryl’s feet leaped into the air, throwing him up with it. His screams reverberated through my ears.
I hurtled myself over the remaining teralinguas, shot through the door in front of me, and ran blindly around corners until I saw a control panel on a wall. An elevator. I jabbed at the green button again and again while daring glances over my shoulder at anything that might be coming at me.
My heart pulsing wildly, I leaped into the opening elevator. The door closed before several escaped teralinguas, who looked just as terrified and confused as I probably did, could follow.
The elevator sank to the second floor with a long, creaking groan. When it opened, the broken light appeared ahead, which meant I’d found my haven. I allowed myself a small amount of relief to fill my lungs.
I rounded the corner and saw Mase staggering to his feet. He used the wall behind him for support and held his head in his hands. The wall opposite Randolph’s room. Which was now open. I skidded to a stop, terror curling tight in my gut.
A hungry growl sounded from inside the room. Blood streamed out onto the solid square of floor, and something stepped out after it. Something that definitely wasn’t human.
Its huge, transparent frame towered over Mase. Shiny gray scales covered it from head to talon. Two long arms hung at its side, and underneath, two more reached for Mase, all four of them tipped with enormous claws. And Mase shook his head like he saw stars instead of what stood just a yard away.
“Mase, get away,” I hissed, but he held up a hand to ward me off.
“Stay there,” he said, clutching his head with his other hand and wincing.
His false sense of security he had in his mouth wouldn’t help. I didn’t think. I just acted on the same fierce need to shield him from danger that Mase must’ve felt when he heaved Daryl off me. Even though the last iron piece in my mouth had dissolved into the size of a pinpoint.
The few feet that separated us passed in a blur. I threw myself in front of him and backed him behind me into the wall. Our combined breaths blew out in front of us toward the cold nightmare that had come out of that room.
It stood so close that the small clouds heaving from our mouths shuddered the air around the ghost in front of us, outlining the monster in vivid detail: a pointed chin at the bottom of an elongated face, long rows of jagged teeth hanging from its snout, and glowing green eyes.
Behind me, Mase heaved his chest against my back, then pushed something into my mouth. Tangy and metallic, my next breath reformed my iron armor. I just hoped it would be enough for the both of us.
Chapter 12
A loud screeching hurled at us, blowing a gust of glacial air that pressed us against the wall. I turned my head into Mase’s with my eyes screwed shut, and he wrapped his arms around me as if to take me away from the horror.
A rotten stink radiated off of the ghostly thing, so thick my stomach rolled. It gave a low snarl then sniffed like it was testing the air. It sniffed again, this time much closer. If it had been alive, I’d feel its breath on my cheek. Quivers racked through my body, though I tried to stand still for fear any movement would help it detect me.
I ran my tongue over the metal, hoping, wishing, praying that it would be enough to change my energy. Go. Away.
A loud footstep boomed away from us. And another and another down the hallway and to the left. Randolph’s door banged closed in front of us, making us both jump, then with our arms locked tight around each other, we ran as fast as we could into the safety of the dining room and slammed the door behind us.
“What was that?” I demanded, but I didn’t wait for an answer. Tears blurred my eyes as I tore into the kitchen and opened and closed cupboards and drawers even though I knew I wouldn’t find any more iron in here. “A demon? An alien?” I stopped dead. “Was that a Saelis?” It came out as a whisper as if it might hear me.
Mase posted his arms on the small table, his face the color of the empty plate I’d forgotten to put away. “You think I’ve seen a Saelis and lived to tell about it? I don’t know what that thing was.”
“But what was it doing aboard the Vicio when it died?” I asked. “After the Saelis destroyed Earth, they didn’t stick around. No one has seen them for two hundred years. How old is this ship?”
“I don’t know.” Mase squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the edges of the table. “I’ve only ever seen the red-headed ghost, and dark shadow things, and…”
“And what?” I asked, slamming another drawer closed. An image of him from the other night standing in the hallway with a crowbar at his feet flashed through my head. What are you doing here? he’d asked. What had he seen? When he didn’t say anything, I turned to him. “Mase?”
“And nothing,” he said, shoving away from the table. “I’m going to find Daryl.” When he elbowed the double doors open, he turned back, the intensity in those mysterious eyes pinning me to the spot. “Iron won’t work for anyone but you, will it?”
I shook my head and hugged my arms to my body, still trying to rid myself of the chill that…thing had seeped into my bones.
“Too bad we can’t steal one of the Ringers’ rings after we pass into deep space.”
I barked out a shaky laugh. I liked how that man thought.
Nesbit tinkered with his old Mind-I, which looked like a thin piece of plastic the size of a small seed. Captain Glenn bent over his food with his head in both hands. Mase just stared down at his plate while he waved his fork through the spaghetti noodles.
They’d caught Daryl, again, strapped him to an extra gurney, and sealed him inside a room that locked from the outside. They’d also found the blood outside Randolph’s room. But no Randolph, even inside his room, which would now open. He had to be somewhere else on this ship, yet if he was bleeding, we should’ve spotted a trail by now. Unless that wasn’t his blood outside his room, which I doubted. Please just let him be okay.
The last time someone spoke, Captain Glenn snapped at them. No, this delivery wasn’t doomed from the beginning. The teralinguas would be delivered. We weren’t stopping for any reason. Period.
“We’ll make it to deep space. We’re almost there,” he said, and he kept repeating it as if to make us all believe it.
Daryl’s place setting was noticeably empty. All our gazes strayed to it throughout dinner, like we were waiting for him to somehow magically be sitting at his spot again, hardly aware of any of us while he concentrated on chewing his food twenty times or writing an article with his Mind-I. But he wasn’t. And something told me he never would be.
Despite what the captain said, this voyage was doomed from the beginning since it had started on a haunted ship, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was the cause of many of the problems. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was about me or my blood that had set Daryl off
though.
Since no one felt up to eating their dinner, I didn’t know what else to do but serve dessert, chocolate chip cookies straight from the oven. Checking to see no one was looking, I rubbed Mase’s back with a soothing touch when I circled around him. It was the least I could do, offer comfort food and touches to show I knew how he felt. Ellison and Pop always soothed me by playing their fingers through my long hair, and while my hands itched to do just that to Mase, I couldn’t.
He startled at my touch and then seemed to relax into it. I could feel his gaze on my back again when I circled around.
Blue static sparked from the center of Nesbit’s Mind-I, and a screen spread outward across the double doors to the kitchen.
“I got it,” Nesbit said softly, like he couldn’t believe it himself.
Mase and Captain Glenn looked up just as Esmerelda came into focus, squeaking in a high-pitched voice I could barely understand, dressed in little else but a smirk and a few scanty pieces I wouldn’t even call clothing. Nesbit aimed the screen at the wall the dining room shared with Randolph’s, and everyone settled back to watch.
I kept the cookies coming. Mindless, overly sexual entertainment that I guessed was supposed to be funny was good for something.
While the show looped to another episode, Mase stood from his stool without a word and lay on the floor with his coat for a blanket. It was freezing in here, though not as bad as it could be since I’d scoured the stasis pantry again. Behind an empty shelf, I’d found two small hooks in the ceiling that were used to hang meats. Hopefully they would be enough to get us through the night.
Sail (Haunted Stars Book 1) Page 13