Jar of Souls

by Bradford Bates

  The portal dropped me off about a block from the first location on my list. There was no indication by any of the locals that anything was amiss. I walked down the street, coat pulled high to ward off what I hoped was the last of the rain. I had already grown tired of it after less than two days of its near constant presence. A quick right took me down an alley, and there was a door on my left that led down a narrow set of stairs. They ended in a white-tiled hallway much like the facility I had visited with Jackson.

  This time there weren’t any signs of foul play, and the slight sound of music reached my ears. When I walked through the large double doors at the end of the hallway, everyone in the room stopped and turned to look at me. Thankfully all of their eyes were colored and not the milky white of the dead.

  One man broke from the group and walked toward me. “This is private property. I am afraid I am going to have to ask you to leave.”

  “Actually that is what I am here to ask of you. Adam sent me to initiate Protocol Alpha. You have five minutes to pack what you can before I incinerate everything left in this building.”

  “This is ridiculous; I demand to speak with Adam,” the scientist in front of me blustered.

  I pushed one of four sealed and signed letters from Adam into the man’s hands. “Four minutes.”

  “That just isn’t enough time, all of our research, all of my notes.”

  “Three minutes.”

  “Didn’t you hear what I said? That isn’t enough time!”

  “I suggest you grab what you can as fast as you can. We have already lost one facility to an attack, and we can’t afford to lose another.”

  “What? One of our facilities was attacked? By who?”

  “Feel free to ask Adam when you get back to base. As the site leader, he will be expecting your full report. I take it the Jar isn’t here.”

  “No, it was kept on a rotation between facilities. We never knew which one had it.”

  “Thank you. You have two minutes.”

  The shock finally wore off the man’s face, and he dashed away, stuffing several notepads and a laptop into his bag. He tried to remove the case from a computer but thought better of it, just ripping the wires out of the back and carrying it under his arm. The rest of his team moved past me and out the door, heading into the alley. The site leader gave me one more nasty glare as he dashed past, and now it was time for me to get to work.

  Starting in the walk-in freezer, I cast a shield around the walls and then filled the inside of it with as much heat as I could. The blue flames ate away at the bodies within, but not fast enough for my liking. I summoned a small tornado at the center, pumping oxygen into the flames. As the bodies turned to ash, I closed the door and stopped my spell. The larger room was going to be a problem if I couldn’t get everything grouped together. Thankfully in this lab, all of the offices were open, only half walls separating the scientist’s workspace.

  I called on my gift, using the same kind of tornado to move everything out of the cubes and pull it to the center of the room. I kept the magic going, pushing the examination tables and medical equipment into the center of the room. Once everything was piled up, I called on the flames. It was satisfying work sometimes, burning things to ash. I didn’t often get the chance to do it anymore. Normally I worked alone at the scene and then called in a crew of cleaners to do the dirty work.

  With everything in the building burned into a molten pile of steel, I strode back toward the door, filling the hallway with dirt as I left. It was possible someone might work their way into that room again, but all they would find now was a blob of charred steel. Instead of exiting into the alley, I used the door to portal to the next site.

  The second site went much faster. The leader of the facility had a plan in place to get his people out with all of their equipment. Much to my surprise, he also had the facility rigged to destroy itself in the event of a breach. Once everyone was out, he activated the containment measures and the facility imploded on itself. Everything inside was destroyed, and I was on my way to the next site in less than four minutes. I loved working with the pros.

  I was feeling pretty good about things as I headed down the stairs to the third facility. So far I had been gone less than half an hour and had two of the sites checked off of my list. I felt a little smile play out on my face; I might even be back in time for lunch. That’s when I noticed the streak of red against the white hallway tiles. My brain immediately flipped into fight mode, my shields came up, and I started expanding my awareness for signs of an intruder.

  A quick examination of the red substance confirmed it was blood. From the sheer amount of it, whoever had lost it was dead or about to be. The streak was about shoulder high on the wall and started about halfway down the hallway and didn’t end until it culminated in a bloody handprint on the door. My senses still weren’t picking up any signs of movement further into the building. I tore my eyes away from the door and looked back at the wall. Were those finger marks smeared into the blood? They had to be, so either the person making them had been bleeding to death or they had continued to dip their hand into someone else’s blood to leave the trail.

  My stomach dropped, and I had a really bad feeling about what was going to be behind those doors, but if I was right, then I had to hurry. That last site on my list could still be up and running, and if it was, all of those people were in danger. I told myself not to worry, that I could handle anything I found on the other side of that door. With my resolve set, I charged down the hallway and burst through the door.

  The smell hit me first, death, blood, piss, and shit. It wasn’t exactly aromatic, if you know what I mean. The view inside was even worse than the smell, if that was possible. The floor was covered in blood and other substances. The walls were splashed with gore that had streaked down as time had passed. The freezer door had been ripped open, and the bodies inside almost looked as if they had been gnawed upon. In all of my years working for Adam, I had never seen anything like it.

  One of the scientists had been nailed to the far wall, arms outstretched, legs together, his intestines spilling out of a jagged hole in his stomach. The words I’m coming for you were written in a semi-circle above his head. I didn’t want to move into the room, but I felt something drawing me in. My boots stuck to gory substances below me; they made a sick sucking sound as I lifted them for each step. It reminded me of walking through thick mud, each step threatening to pull the boots from my feet. I paused for a second, looking around, and was stunned again when I noticed no other footprints. How was that even possible?

  I reached the man on the wall, not sure what had compelled me forward. He shifted. Holy fuck, he is alive. I tried to take a step back, but his arm ripped away from the wall and grabbed me. He had probably saved me from falling into the blend of nastiness on the ground, but all I could think of was he was alive and get him the hell off of me. I tried to brush his arm away, but his grip was firm. I stared up into the face of death, and his eyes started to flicker open.

  “Please kill me.” It came out as the barest hint of a whisper.

  His arm fell away from me, and I looked at him again, amazed he was alive at all. My first instinct was to tell him that it was going to be all right, but then I looked again at his spilled intestines on the floor. I knew our healers could do a lot, but this? I wasn’t so sure. I knew that if I was in the same position that a quick death would be exactly what I would ask for. I placed the palm of my hand against his head and sent a wave of power through it. His head snapped back, his skull crushed beneath my palm.

  I checked his pulse, and he was gone. “Rest well, my brother.” I called on my magic to burn his body where it was. This room was going to need more than I could offer it right now. I pulled out my phone and ran for the stairs. The sound of my steps filled my mind with images of the man on the wall. I looked back once more before I headed up the stairs. Now to go along with the bloody streak on the wall tiles, there was a trail of bloody footprints. Just how
had the killer created that much devastation and left without leaving a mark?

  That was a mystery I would have to figure out later. I placed a call to Adam.

  “Yes,” was all he said when picking up.

  “Site three has been compromised and needs a cleaning crew ASAP. I am heading to site four now. I’ll let you know what I find.”

  “Thank you for the update. I’ll have the cleaning crew there in less than five minutes.”

  “Try and make sure they are ready. It might be the worst site I have ever seen.”

  “I’ll send out our best. If you need backup, call me right away. I have agents on standby.”

  “Will do.” I closed the phone and stepped through the portal to the fourth site on my list.

  The fourth location wasn’t too far away from where I portaled in. It was raining hard now. I had to wonder if Adam had set these up that way on purpose; it was like I was following the storm down the coast. I tried to ignore the cold drops as they breached the collar of my jacket. The cold wet drips continued to run down my neck, helping a feeling of unease settle into the bottom of my soul. I had a bad feeling about this, but could it possibly be worse than the last site I visited? I had my doubts anything could be as bad as that; it would be burned into my nightmares for years to come.

  The city was quiet around me; whether it had to do with the rain or something more sinister, there was just no way to be sure until I made it inside. The alleyway in front of me was deserted, just as the last three had been. Sparing a look back over my shoulder to scan the street, everything was still quiet. I just couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. It was like a cold tingling on the back of my shoulders. Something had to be going on; I had never felt this way heading into any situation, at least not in the last two hundred years.

  The door opened without any problems. I stepped inside, feeling better having the rain off of me for the moment. I called on my gift to burn some of the moisture off of my clothes. If I was going to be walking into a shit storm, I should at least be comfortable. The tingling sensation I had been feeling in my shoulders went away. Either the door had blocked the person who had been watching me or my day was actually going to be ok. I quickly walked down the stairs and into the hallway.

  I felt a little bit better that there wasn’t a long strip of blood on the wall leading into the room at the end. On the flipside of that, there were wet footprints in the hallway. My sense of dread settled back into place. A quick look at my own boots showed a nice puddle pooling on the floor. It made me feel slightly better. Maybe one of the scientists had gone out to get lunch for the team. Maybe they would have leftovers. I flew out of Adam’s office and right into the job without eating this morning.

  A scream ripped through the silence that had surrounded me. It looked as if thoughts of an early lunch had been premature. I started running toward the doors, and the scream sounded again, louder this time. I crashed through the doors at full speed and came skidding to a halt in the room.

  The metal examination tables had been flipped over. Papers and computers had been thrown around the room. The glass separating the cubicles had been shattered, and the freezer door had been ripped off. I turned to the right, taking in the view from right to left—three dead, one dead or extremely injured—and then my eyes settled on the person screaming.

  A cloaked figure stood in front of the last remaining scientist. She had been nailed to the wall just like the last one I found. I really hoped her scream had been from being nailed to the wall, but as I approached, she let out another terrifying wail. The man in front of her moved, and I could see his hand digging into her stomach as if he was searching for something inside of her. He was lost in complete focus, but the lady’s eyes flickered open through the pain and locked onto mine. I could see the helplessness that she felt in that second, and I knew I had to act quickly.

  I rushed forward, dipping low to pick up one of the steel trays from the ground. As I stood, I brought the tray around from behind me, using all the force from lifting from a crouch to swing the tray in a deadly arc. It connected with the back of the man’s skull, and I heard a satisfying crunch. To my surprise, the figure in front of me didn’t fall to the ground. He only stood there motionless. Another scream was ripped from his prisoner as his hand moved again inside of her.

  Just what in the hell was he doing, and how had he not collapsed when I hit him? I looked at the steel tray I had used, and it had a huge dent in it from where it had impacted his skull. I’m not talking about a little impression either; I’m talking about a Looney Toons-sized dent. His skull had made a crunch to me that signified that I had shattered bones; there was no way he should be standing. Looking at the dent again, I revised my thought. There was no way he should be alive.

  The man still hadn’t acknowledged my presence, and really at this point, I wasn’t sure that I wanted him to. Another scream came from the woman in front of me, forcing my fear to the side and spurring me into action. I dropped the tray to the ground, and in the almost completely silent room, it made a hell of a racket. The only other sound was coming from her ragged breathing and the sick squelching sound of the figure in front of her running his hands through her guts.

  If brute force wasn’t going to work, I had to try something else. My first goal had to be to try and get his hand out of her without causing further damage. I pulled out my silver-laced sword and stepped back to swing at his unprotected wrist. A quick check of my sense told me the man didn’t have any kind of shield up to defend himself, so it should slice right through his wrist.

  I brought the sword down in an exaggerated overhand slice. It was the kind of thing you would see in a movie. It wasn’t practical and in real combat it would get you killed, but oddly here it seemed appropriate enough. I put enough force behind the enchanted blade that it would have sliced through a car just as easily as it would have through butter. Imagine my shock when it only bit into the man’s wrist and then stopped. The tension caused by the sudden halt snapped my blade off at the hilt. For the first time since I had entered the room, the man turned and his gaze fell on me.

  It was him, but it couldn’t be. I had seen Adam end his life with my own eyes all those years ago. He smiled in recognition when he saw the horror on my face. I took an involuntary step back; shock was too nice of a word for what I was feeling. Was there such a thing as instant PTSD? Because that was what I was having right now. Just seeing that face sent shivers down my spine, a cold sweat broke out on my forehead, and all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and hide in the closet for days.

  His eyes flashed red—that is, if you could call what he had left in his head eyes. They were the creamy white eyes of the dead, that was, until they turned red. The smile on his face revealed his sharpened and misshaped teeth, the kind of teeth that belonged more so in a shark’s mouth, or maybe a crocodile’s, but not in a man’s. A sick gurgling sound escaped his lips, and I could only assume it was laughter.

  That was when my mind fully wrapped around what I was seeing. It was Gaston, although he had become so twisted, it was more of a gut feeling. My body had known as soon as he revealed his face, but my mind was still trying to piece the sequence of events back together. How could he be here now?

  He reached out toward my broken blade—it was still lodged in his wrist from my failed attack—and pulled it out. The smallest trickle of black blood slid from the wound. He removed the hand from the woman’s stomach, and she slumped against the wall in exhaustion. I could only claim to be slightly relieved when her guts didn’t come spilling out. I had bigger problems to deal with now that he had both hands free.

  Gaston’s smile slid away as he opened his jaw, and a long reptilian tongue slid through the opening in his mouth. He licked the cut on his wrist, the black blood staining his pink tongue. His eyes never moved from my face, and somehow I managed to not take another step back. I glanced away for a second to see that where the blood had hit the ground, it was hissing and bubbling.
When Gaston lowered his wrist from his mouth, the wound had sealed shut.

  He pointed at me and his words came out grated and harsh as if he hadn’t spoken in a very long time. “Lapointe.” He seemed to hiss. “I have a message for you: we are coming.”

  “Who should I give this message to?”

  “There is only one.” His voice was rough, like gravel being poured from the back of a truck. “Adam.”

  “I will give him your message as long as you let me take the woman with me when I leave.”

  “She stays!” his voice screeched. I recoiled a bit from the harshness of it. “I have not yet finished my examination.”

  “She comes with me or we don’t have a deal,” I managed to stammer out.

  “Then you die.” It came out as a whisper and a hiss.

  I barely had time to shield myself before a wall of power slammed into me, sending me flying across the room. I landed twenty feet away when my back slammed into the wall. I felt something crack, but there was no time to worry about it now. When I stood up, I called on my gift, summoning fire to do my will. Before I stood, my hands were covered in intense blue flames. To my surprise, Gaston was already standing in front of me, having covered the distance in mere seconds.

  I slammed my hands into his chest only to be greeted by more of his horrifying grating laughter. His cloak burst into flames at my touch, but the flames on my hands didn’t even scorch the surface of his skin. His mouth opened, and I tried to back away only to hit the same wall again. This time I was the one screaming as his razor sharp teeth bit into my shoulder. Somehow I managed to gather enough power to blast him away from me. It would only buy me a few seconds, but I hoped that was all I needed to escape.

  I sent a second wave of power out as I turned to run. A sad smile broke the grimace of pain on my face as I heard the scientist’s neck break. There was no way I could leave her there alive to be tortured by this monster. I broke through the doors, and I could already hear Gaston coming right behind me. I cast a spell to bar the doors, but it wouldn’t last more than a moment against his power. I heard the doors shatter as I reached the bottom of the stairs. I summoned a portal home around the door at the top of them; I could feel the rush of air coming behind me.