by Brea Essex
Since I had been on the same plane as Zac was, I was able to touch him, to kiss him. This was no longer the case. I could still see him, but I longed to feel his arms around me again.
There was finally a lead on his body. We had found a small village where some Zayin lived. They were even more technologically advanced than most—NASA and the Pentagon would have killed for their machinery. They boasted a state-of-the-art medical research facility, open only to the Zayin. It was where we believed Zac’s body might have been hidden.
Late one night, I snuck out of the house. My parents never would have let me go. Zac couldn’t transport us because he could no longer touch me. And, for some reason, he was able to ride in my car. I didn’t understand it, but I certainly wasn’t going to question it.
By a stroke of luck, the town was in Northern California: only a nine-hour drive from my house in LA. It would be an exhausting drive, but at least it wasn’t out of state.
When I got outside, I looked around for Zac. He had told me he would meet me, but he was nowhere to be seen. I finally spotted him already sitting in the passenger seat of my black Honda. He had the window rolled down and was singing. I shushed him as I climbed into the car, knowing that no one else could hear him. “Can you please take one thing seriously in your life?”
His eyes narrowed. “This is my life we’re talking about—yours and mine. Of course I take it seriously. I’m just nervous.” He passed his thumb across my finger where my engagement ring would rest once we retrieved it. I felt the slightest change in the air, but I didn’t feel the touch of his skin. It was as if he were an actual ghost. He glanced up at me. “What if my body isn’t there?”
I had been wondering the same thing, but I was afraid to voice my fears. “It will be there,” I reassured him.
“I’ll keep searching for it until I find it. It’s not even a matter of wanting it for itself anymore. Yeah, I feel strange and disconnected, but I’m almost used to it now. I want it for you. I want to be able to put my arms around you again.”
Nodding my agreement, I started the car. I swallowed against the lump in my throat. We would keep looking until we found his body. I just hoped it was still alive.
We reached the sprawling Zayin research facility early the next morning. “We should wait until nightfall,” Zac suggested. “I don’t know who’s running this thing, and I want to sit out here for a while to see if anyone comes out.”
“What’s our plan? I’m assuming we’re not just going to go up and knock on the door.”
He sighed. “I honestly have no idea. We still need to figure that out.”
I settled in to my seat as best as I could, resigning myself to an extremely long day. I just hoped it was worth it. If they didn’t have his body, who knew how long it would be before we could get another lead?
As I watched the building, which seemed void of any activity, I couldn’t help but wonder how they managed to hide. Sure, they were located in the middle of nowhere, but what if someone drove by? Maybe they had some sort of cover.
“Can you sense your body?”
He shot me a look. “No, not really. But I have to believe that I’d know if it were here.”
“Do you still want to investigate here? Or should we just try another facility?” I asked doubtfully.
“No, we’re here already. It wouldn’t hurt to check, right? Besides, if it is here, and we don’t look, we’d just be wasting our time.”
“Okay. Are we just going to sit here all day, then?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I guess we are.”
“Let’s hope this is worth it.”
When full dark had finally come, I quietly opened my car door and slipped out. Closing the door carefully, I winced at the soft clicking sound. Then I crept around the back of the car, crouching below the windows. It wouldn’t do for me to be spotted.
I opened the passenger door for Zac. He could have just passed through the metal of the door, but he preferred to do everything normally—plus, seeing him passing through things like walls or doors creeped me out a little. I didn’t want to be creeped out by my fiancé. He nodded a thank you to me. I closed the door as carefully as I could. Again, the slight click sounded as loud as a gunshot… at least, it did to me.
Zac glanced around. We still didn’t see anyone, but that didn’t mean they weren’t watching. There might have been cameras. He gestured toward the copse of trees that my car was hidden in. We were near the far edge of it, away from the buildings. I nodded, understanding his silent message. He wanted me to use the trees to shield myself from any prying eyes.
We ran lightly from one tree to the next, hiding behind every one. It was a very roundabout way of reaching the facility buildings, but it was the best way to remain hidden. Ordinarily, Zac wouldn’t have to bother hiding—normal people couldn’t see his wandering spirit. But these weren’t normal people. They were his people—they were Zayin. They could see the spirit world as clearly as I could. Therefore, they would have seen Zac just as easily as they could see my corporeal body.
The leaves cracked under my feet, no matter how lightly I treaded. Zac, of course, made no noise. I really hoped that the Zayin didn’t have any sort of hearing devices. If we were really lucky, they wouldn't have anyone patrolling the exterior either. Just because we hadn’t seen anyone, didn’t mean they weren’t there. They might have been like Army snipers, trained to camouflage themselves no matter what the terrain. I wished I had thought to ask Zac more about the training that they went through. Now was definitely not the time, however.
The closer we got to the front building, the more I shook. Why I was nervous, I didn’t know. These were Zac’s people. There was no need to fear them, right? Then again, we shouldn’t have had to be sneaking in to find his body. We should have just been able to waltz right in. Still, there was no reason for them to have taken his body in the first place. They should have left it alone so he wouldn’t have had to search for it. Why had they done it? Were they trying to kill him, or just get him out of the way? One thing was for sure: once we got him back into his body, we were going on another hunt. This time, it would be for answers.
I reached for the knob on the side door we had approached. Although I knew it would likely be locked, I still tried to turn it out of habit. To my surprise, it twisted easily, but the door didn’t swing open.
“There’s a key pad,” Zac whispered.
I looked up and to the right of the door. Sure enough, there was a box with a complicated-looking display embedded in the wall.
“How are we going to get in?” I whispered.
“The combination is three-seven-eight-nine-one-four.”
A low beeping sound emitted from the panel as I punched in the numbers Zac had given me. After I keyed in the last one, a green light flashed and a series of three shorter beeps came from the box.
“Try it now,” Zac advised.
This time, I was able to open the door. It swung out on silent hinges. A gust of wind caught it and it flew out of my grip. Panicking, I lunged for it. I caught the inside handle just before the door slammed against the wall. “That was close,” I murmured.
I glanced at Zac. He nodded, and I poked my head in. “The hall is all clear,” I told him, still keeping my voice low.
We tiptoed in, and I closed the door softly behind us. Industrial style lighting flickered overhead. Despite numerous lights, the wide halls still seemed dark. Odd-shaped shadows were cast in every direction.
“Does it always look like this?” I asked.
“No, it shouldn’t look all creepy like this. Something weird is going on.”
“Do you want to keep going?”
He glanced around before answering. “Yeah. Not only do we need to look for my body now, but we need to find out what’s going on here.”
“All right.”
We set out down the hall, keeping a close eye for anyone approaching. The entire building was eerily silent. All I could hear was the slight humming from th
e lights.
There were few doors in the corridor we were currently venturing down.
“Shouldn’t we be checking these rooms?”
He shook his head. “If this is anything like the facility that I grew up in, those are just storage rooms—like for paperwork and supplies. We’ll want to check the rooms further into the buildings. Those are the rooms allocated for research, experiments, et cetera.”
“And you think your body would be in a room like that? Why would you think that they’re experimenting on your body?”
He gave me an odd look—it was like a combination of pain, confusion, and mockery. “If I knew that, we probably wouldn’t be here.”
A noise sounded in the distance. “What’s that?” I asked.
Zac’s eyes grew wide. “Footsteps.”
“Seriously? What are we going to do?”
“Hide!” Zac hissed under his breath.
We quickly ducked behind a precarious-looking pyramid of boxes. Hopefully they would serve to hide us until whoever was coming had passed.
The footsteps echoed down the hall, looming closer and closer. They paused directly on the other side of our hiding spot. I held my breath, silently praying that they would continue on.
“Zac?” a male voice whispered. I shot a panicked look at Zac. The voice continued. “Zachary Cohen, is that you? C’mon, man. I can feel your energy.”
Beside me, I felt more than heard Zac release a relieved-sounding breath. “It’s okay,” he told me in a low voice.
As I turned to him, he reached up as if to touch my arm in reassurance, but it passed through my flesh. I shuddered. There was no way I would ever get used to that. We needed to find his body fast, so I could stop getting freaked out by him. He pulled back, giving me a wry, apologetic look. “I know him, Rhiannon. We can trust him.”
I nodded my assent, even though I still felt wary. I thought he had said that we couldn’t trust any of his people, since we didn’t know who was responsible for taking his body. Still, if he said we could trust this guy, I guessed that I had to follow his lead. He knew his people better than I did.
We moved around the boxes, Zac once again opting to skirt the physical barrier rather than pass through it. Standing on the other side was a blond guy who looked about Zac’s and my age. He stood slightly taller than Zac, but he was a bit lankier.
“Xander,” Zac said. “It’s been a long time.”
“You’re telling me! Where the hell have you been? Why are you in spirit form?” Xander asked.
Zac’s eyes widened slightly. “You mean you don’t know? Someone moved my body while I was out on a solo mission. I couldn’t get back. I’ve been stuck ever since.”
“Oh, man. That’s rough, buddy.” Xander looked a little worried. “You don’t know who did it?”
“No. That’s why we’re here. I’m hoping whoever took my body brought it here. You know as well as I do what will happen if I don’t get back into my body soon. It’s been too long already. I’m really pushing the limits here.”
I spoke up. “What will happen if you don’t get back in your body soon? You never told me there was some sort of time limit.”
Xander’s gaze finally lit on me. Up until now, he’d been completely focused on Zac’s somewhat see-through form, and had completely ignored me. “Hey man, who’s this?”
Zac moved his arm as if he were putting it around my shoulders. It hovered in the air slightly above me, since we couldn’t actually touch. “This, my friend, is my fiancée, Rhiannon.”
“Whoa! Fiancée? Crazy. Congratulations.” Xander’s eyes narrowed slightly as he studied me more closely. “So, how can she see you?”
“She’s a necromancer,” Zac informed him proudly.
“No kidding? You landed yourself a necromancer? Well, double congrats are in order, then.”
“Yeah, thanks. But can we save the congratulations for later? We really need to get moving and look for my body.”
“So, you think that it’s here?” Xander asked.
“I figured it would be worth a try to start here. I’m really hoping it’s here, but if it’s not, I gotta keep looking,” Zac told him.
Xander’s brow furrowed. A line of worry creased his forehead in between his brows. “I hope it’s here too, man. You won’t have much time to look anywhere else.”
“Will someone please clue me in on these mysterious time constraints?” I cut in.
Zac waved me off with one hand, trying to silence my questioning. “Yeah, I’ll tell you, but not now—and not here. We need to search as quickly as possible and get the hell outta here. Oh, don’t worry,” he added, evidently mistaking the frown that I was currently directing toward him, “I’ll tell you soon. I’m not trying to keep you in the dark, I promise. We just need to leave before someone besides Xander finds us. I don’t know who moved my body, so I don’t know who we can or can’t trust.”
“Can we cut the narrative?” I snapped. I was beginning to lose my patience. Xander’s head jerked toward me in surprise, but Zac didn’t seem phased at all. “I know we have to be careful of who we trust,” I continued more calmly. “I get that we don’t exactly have a ton of time for explanations right now. What I don’t get, is why we’re hanging out here in the hall, out in the open, when you’re supposedly so concerned about who might find us.” I flung my arm out, pointing toward Xander. “So, are you going to help us, or are we going to be left alone to flail about here?”
Xander hesitated for a moment. I held my breath, praying he would consent. There had been security locks on the doors we had passed. I obviously didn’t have clearance, and Zac just as obviously couldn’t touch the locks.
“Yeah, I’ll help you,” Xander finally said. “But if—I mean, when—you find your body, you can’t let anyone know that I helped you. At least until you find out who your enemy is. I could get in major trouble for this, you know. I’m only helping you out ‘cause we’re friends. Besides, you’ve gotten me out of enough rough situations over the years.”
Zac brought his hands together in some semblance of a clap—one that made no noise. “So it’s settled then. Let’s start casing the facility.” He grinned. “If this wasn’t so serious, I’d feel like we were on some sort of cop drama.” He glanced at Xander. “Hey, thanks, man. I really owe you one after this.”
Xander gave him a tight smile that didn’t quite seem genuine. I tried to dismiss it, but I was still going to be wary of him. Zac might trust him, but I wasn’t sure I did.
“I’ll tell you what,” Xander finally said. “You make me your Best Man when you marry this pretty girl here,” —he winked at me— “and we’ll call it even.”
Zac laughed quietly. “You got it.”
“Now that that’s settled, can we get going?” I shuddered, glancing around. “This place is giving me the creeps.”
After Xander reminded us yet again about the need for quiet, we crept down the hall toward a locked door that looked exactly the same as the others we had passed.
“I hope you know where you’re going,” I hissed at him under my breath.
“I grew up in a similar facility,” he informed me. “So did Zac. Plus, I’ve been stationed here for nearly two years. This lab is the most likely place where his body would be stored if it’s here.”
“And if it’s not here?”
He shrugged. “There are a couple of other less-likely places we can check.”
I heaved a sigh. He seemed entirely too flippant about our search, even though we were supposedly short on time. Zac and Xander both shushed me.
“What?” I whispered. “I’m not being that loud.”
Xander gave me a withering look. He pulled at the identification badge that was clipped to the front of his shirt. “This acts as a key card,” he explained softly.
I nodded in understanding. As Zac and I watched on, Xander passed his badge under what looked like an infrared scanner. A short beep emitted from the machine, and a small compartment flipped ou
t beneath the scanner. Xander pressed his right index finger to the clear plastic that had appeared. Green lights flashed, followed by another beep. There was a barely audible click, and then the door slid open. We rushed into the room as the door slid closed behind us.
“Why the need for such stringent security? It’s not like this is a top-secret government lab.” Zac and Xander exchanged a glance. “Wait. Is this a top-secret government lab?” I asked.
Xander’s mouth remained shut.
“No, no, of course not,” Zac said. “It’s just that we do things here that we wouldn’t want the general populace to find out about.”
“Like the demon hunting? Sorry, the ‘wraith hunting’?” I made a quote motion with my fingers. “Why can’t people know about you guys? You would think they’d be grateful that there are people out there like the Zayin, who are willing to protect their bodies and their souls from the wraiths.”
“If they find out about us, they find out about The Necrovorst. Can you imagine the panic if they found out about some crazy guy who can move between dimensions and who wants to raise some sort of zombie army possessed by wraiths? There would be chaos. People would probably go hide out in underground bunkers again, like they did during World War II,” Zac said.
“It’s more than even that,” Xander continued for him. “People don’t like to believe in what they consider the impossible. They like tangible things. Seeing is believing, they say. If it’s outside of their comfort zone, they don’t want to know about it. They’d rather sit in their tiny little bubbles, letting the real world passing them by.”
He paused, reaching up and pushing a hand through his hair. Was he becoming uncomfortable by this discussion? “People can generally find a way to explain away the unbelievable. It’s a defense mechanism. If it’s unfamiliar to them, it might be able to hurt them. They’d rather pretend it didn’t exist. That’s what we protect them from: the unfamiliar. Seemingly impossible things that might actually be able to hurt them. That’s why we need the security, the secrecy—even the being located in the middle of nowhere. We don’t want people to accidentally stumble across our facilities. If they did, then they would have to admit that people like us really exist… as well as the things we protect them from.”