by J A Raikes
Soon, all I could see was the blackness in front of me and it started to take shape. From the oozing darkness a huge face started to fill the room. It grew larger and larger beyond what I thought the room could hold. It towered above me and it dripped and splattered fresh inky darkness around the room as it grew.
Finally, the face turned and looked down at me and I felt my breath catch in my throat. I wanted to scream and run as far away as I could but my legs wouldn’t move and my voice was gone. I tried again and again in vain but the inky blackness held my feet to the floor. The red-orange light was all but gone by now and the warmth I had felt was swallowed by a pressing cold that threatened to chill my very bones.
The hideous oozing face in front of me opened it’s gigantic mouth and another, smaller form appeared inside. A man, with features pale and starkly contrasted against the pervasive darkness, smiled a yellow, toothy grin and licked his lips. The flesh decayed for a moment and then settled again into pale, veiny colors. The man leaned forward and held out a hand. I couldn’t tell if he wanted me to take hold or if he wanted something from me.
I pulled against the ooze holding me there and tried with all my might to get as far away as possible but it was no use. I was completely locked in place, tar like darkness holding me just out of arm’s reach of this ghoul.
The man took a step forward, the ooze still dripping all around him from the hideous monster-face rising out of the darkness and he relaxed his arm for a moment. Then, without warning, his smile turned to a snarl and he thrust his hand at my chest and I felt a white-hot pain as his fingers impaled me.
I woke with a gasp.
I looked around, heaving in breaths and clutching a hand to my robe. The quiet room was silent and everything looked the same as it had when I went to sleep. It took several minutes for my heartbeat to calm down and to realize it was only a dream.
You really are going mad, Finn. Tell me about it. I think this entire night has gotten to me. I can’t wait for Giles to get back and this to be all over.
Just then, searing pain erupted across my chest. I let out a yelp and pulled open the robe to look down at my skin. There was a small black mark on my chest, right above my heart. It looked like a small cog with a skull face in the center. I rubbed at it, trying to get it to come off but it didn’t even smudge.
“What the…?” I muttered. I rubbed the mark and it was tender, but the pain wasn’t as fierce now. My muscles ached all over and I had a headache threatening to pound a hole in the back of my head to get out.
There was no way I was going to go back to sleep now, not with my nightmares becoming a reality, so I sat up all the way and swung my legs over the side of the bed. It took a moment for my vision to stop swirling and to push past the throbbing in my head but after a moment, I pushed myself to my feet and shuffled over to the phone on the wall. I don’t know what they call it but seriously, it was just a phone. It looked like a really really old phone, the kind where its a wooden box and a small earpiece resting on the side and a horn in the center to speak into. The wooden box was, unsurprisingly, ornate and there was metal laced throughout its design as well.
Man, these people love their wood and metal designs.
I picked up the earpiece and then leaned into the mouthpiece and started speaking.
“Hello? Eva? Council members? Anyone getting this?”
Silence.
I tapped on the little piece that the receiver had been hanging on and tried again.
“Can anyone hear me?”
Silence.
“Well, this was useless.” I said. As I went to put the earpiece back on the stand, I heard something through the phone. It sounded like someone breathing really heavily on the other end.
“Hello?” I asked
Again, only breathing
“Eva? Elston? Harris? Is that you?”
Breathing.
I let it go on for another moment and then decided to just go back down the hall to see what they were doing.
Before I could hang up, however, a voice on the other end began speaking in low, guttural tones and seemed like it struggled to form words.
“We will find you, Finnegan Riley.” And the line then went dead.
My heart sank in my chest and I swallowed hard. I threw the receiver back on the stand and started to panic. I ran to the door from the hallway, cracked it open and peered out. All of the lights lining the hallway before were barely on, and most of them were flickering. The hall itself was empty but I got the feeling that it wasn’t going to be that way for long. I shut the door, locked it and then searched the room for something to secure the door. There was a metal chair sitting in the corner next to a small work desk. I dashed over, grabbed it and jammed it under the knob of the door in hopes that it might slow down whatever was coming to get me.
My mind raced. Think Finn, think. How can I get out of this room and find some place safe? Is there anyplace safe anymore? I thought they couldn’t get into here! It doesn’t matter. Just get out of here. Is there a window or anything I could go out? But they can fly. And I sure as heck can’t. And we’re something like 82 stories up in the sky. And even that might not be right. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.
I scanned the room for anywhere I might be able to escape. The only exit from this room was the door I had just barred and the small windows periodically dotting the walls.
I went to the bathroom at the back of the room and searched in there for anywhere I might be able to hide or escape. There were several shower stalls and a few water closets. There were no readily accessible vents or ducts I could shimmy into. See, now, if this were the movies, there would magically be some duct that I could wrestle my way into in just the knick of time. Then again, in the movies, the monster is always waiting for the hero in the duct, too.
I ran back out to the other room and to find something I could use to protect myself but I was quickly running out of options. There was nothing I could wield as an improvised weapon. Not even a table lamp I could grab. Just a bunch of beds and pillows and sheets.
At once, an idea formed in my mind. It wasn’t a great idea, but it was something.
I dashed around the room, throwing the pillows on the beds and aligning them like they were people sleeping. I hastily threw the blankets overtop and tousled the pillows to look like sleeping people under their covers. After about a minute, it looked roughly like there were fifteen or so people sleeping in their beds and I hoped the Voidkin weren’t the savviest of creatures. All I needed was for it to buy me a few moments.
I pulled the metal chair out from under the door knob. I took it back to the desk behind the door and then crawled under the desk, pulling the chair in front of me and waited.
Man, if I thought that my heart had pounded earlier this evening, I’m pretty sure I was giving my blood pressure a run for its money. I was going to need to get some sort of medication if I had to keep this up.
I waited in silence. The room was completely quiet. There was no motion out in the hallway and the faint humming from the lights in the hall lamps was all that I could hear. It seemed like an eternity passed as I sat there, crunched up underneath the small metal desk and waited for the inevitable entrance of a Voidkin.
Minutes passed. I tried to keep myself calm and just focus on breathing so as to be ready for action once the creature was inside the room.
Several more minutes passed. I held onto the legs of the chair in front of me and I could tell that my hands were getting tired and cramping up a little bit. I decided to let go of the chair and wait until the door swung open to enact my plan. All I needed to do was get out of this room. Once I was out of the room, I could run for help and it could be a fair fight. Or, well, maybe a more fair fight. Me trapped in a room with nothing to defend myself is definitely not fair.
It felt as though time moved at a snail’s pace and I wanted to scream in frustration. I was a ball of energy and nerves and something needed to give or I was going to bur
st.
Another minute ticked by and I strained to listen, trying to hear activity in the hallway. Just then, I heard it. A faint ‘click-clack’ of shoes on the marble tile. I threw my hands up to grab the chair and readied myself. I had one shot at getting this right or I was dead. Or worse.
I shuddered at the thought and focused in on the door. Focus Finn. You just have to make it out the door. Wait until it is investigating the beds and then make a break for it.
The sound in the hallway grew louder until it was right outside the door. The knob turned and the door pushed open. I held my breath and my muscles tensed as I readied to push the chair and run for the door.
“Finn?” A young man’s voice quietly called into the room.
I paused, hands still tight on the legs of the chair, knuckles white with tension.
“Finn, are you still sleeping?” Harris called again.
The tension in my body relaxed. It was Harris coming to check on me. Man am I on edge or what!
I quietly pushed the chair out from in front of me and scrambled to my feet. Harris stepped in the door and waited a moment for his eyes to adjust. That was just long enough for me to move over to him and not look like I had been cowering under a desk.
He looked around the room and confusion swept over his face.
“Who messed up all the beds?” he asked, turning to me.
“Don’t worry about it,” I offered, “I’ll put them all back in a little bit.” My heart was still pounding and beads of sweat had dotted my forehead. I took a deep breath and tried to look casual.
“Hey, so, uhh, I came to get you. It’s been a few hours and we haven’t heard from any of the Council teams that went out yet. Eva has a plan, but I didn’t want to just leave you here without notice.”
“Oh, thanks,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck and smiling.
“It looks like you were up already. Why didn’t you call down to us?” Harris asked, still looking around the room.
Warning lights started going off in my head. My eyes went wide and I stopped moving.
“What do you mean? I tried calling down to you.”
“No,” Harris said, “the landline hasn’t gone off at all. I just told you no one has called in yet and we’re getting worried.”
“Well, I’m telling you I tried. I went over and picked up the receiver and tried getting ahold of you guys.”
“Show me,” he said, gesturing to the phone on the wall.
I repeated the same steps as before. This time, though, Eva’s voice came through the earpiece, clear as day.
“Hey you! Thought you were going to sleep the night away.” Her voice was surprisingly bright and energized considering how long she had been up at this point.
“Look, we need to discuss some things,” she said. “The teams haven’t checked in yet and -”
“Yeah, Harris is here. He told me. We’ll be right down.”
The line went still for a moment. When she spoke again, Eva’s voice was completely different. The energy was still there but her tone was serious and direct.
“Finn, Harris hasn’t left the room. He’s standing next to me.”
My throat went dry and I glanced over at the young man standing next to me.
“Oh really?” I said, trying my best to keep my voice even. “Well, you know how I get lost so it’ll be nice to have someone escort me back.” I emphasized the words.
“We’ll be right there Finn.” Eva said urgently. I heard the click of the call ending and my whole body started to tense up once again.
“Alright then, let’s get going!” the guy in front of me said.
“After you!” I replied, gesturing to the door.
At this, his entire demeanor shifted and his face darkened, but the smirk never left his lips.
“Oh, no. Please. After you.” His words dripped like poisoned honey, lazily slipping from his lips with a cool edge. “You’re injured after all.”
As he spoke, his eyes flashed a bright red and he touched his tongue to his lip.
I wasted no time. I booked it for the door, throwing the chair behind me as I ran. The creature lunged at me and barely missed as I skirted past him. He got tangled in the chair and I made a fast break for the door. I flung it wide open and took the corner at the top speed I could muster.
I heard a deep unintelligible muttering behind me and felt the darkness reach out for me. A moment later, a stabbing pain ripped through my chest and I nearly collapsed. The spot where that mark had appeared during my dream was searing hot and felt like it was burning a hole all the way through me to my back. I took in a sharp breath but continued running.
In a flash, the man appeared directly in front of me and I pulled up short. He no longer looked like Harris but instead the horrifying pale man I had seen outside the elevator hours before. He may have been a head shorter than the Voidkin, but he was still a massive creature and had a good six inches on me, and I’m already pretty tall. He reached out and grabbed me by the robe and yanked me in close to his face.
“I don’t like being interrupted,” he snarled. His breath was acrid and he gave off a stench that smelled like rotten flesh and of death itself.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t like being killed!” I shot back. Not my wittiest retort, but hey, I was panicking.
His lips curled into a smile and his yellowing teeth peeked out between those horrific lips of his.
“Just tell me where the shard is, Finn. Then, you can just go back to a normal, simple life back home.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. And I’m pretty sure that even if I did, I wouldn’t be sharing with the likes of you.”
“Oh, you’re a bold one, aren’t you?” the creature said.
He put a finger on my chest with his free hand and the white hot searing pain ripped through me once again. I let out a scream and kicked at him, trying to break free. The blows glanced off his body and he didn’t even flinch. I kept trying to wrestle from his grip while stealing a glance around to try and see if anything near me could help. As I struggled, something caught my eye behind him.
“Last time asking nicely, Finnegan. Where. Is. The. Shard!?” He punctuated every word with venomous accents. His voice was cold but sophisticated. It made the entire experience all the more terrifying, I think. There is something wholly unnerving about someone so polite being calculating about how they’re going to rip you apart with their bare hands. As he spoke, spittle flew from his mouth and landed on my face and neck.
“Well, since you asked so nicely, I’ll just tell you then,” I replied sarcastically, and squeezed shut my eyes.
From behind him, a flash of light tore through the hallway and a force knocked both of us to the ground. The Felmaven toppled next to me and I ended up dazed on the ground. Without missing a beat, the creature was on its feet again, writhing in a mass of darkness. Instantly, his form changed as the vaguely humanoid man was towering in the hallway, looking like a wraith with strips of darkness casting off behind it. It zigzagged down the hallway and lunged at Kingsley. The frail little man in his obnoxious blue suit pivoted and the Felmaven sailed past him. Elston, arm still outstretched with a god-honest freaking wand in his hand turned and flicked his wrist again. This time, the flash of light was more contained and both heat and force rippled down the hallway. The Felmaven buckled and vanished in a puff of darkness.
Elston dropped his hand to his side and turned to meet my gaze. Kingsley, standing behind him off to his left, had a small pistol in his hand, obscured somewhat by the cuff of his oversized jacket. Percipity stood there looking ready for bear with a pretty slick looking katana in her hands, a ripple of purple electricity casting down its blade. Behind them, Harris and Eva stood poised, ready for action.
“He isn’t gone. Stay alert,” Elston snapped, speaking over his shoulder to the crew with him.
“Get up boy,” the gaunt Ekori said, beckoning toward me. I scrambled to my feet and hustled as best I could over to the
m. The six of us stood in a small cluster and guarded ourselves against any further attack.
After a moment, a draught of black smoke appeared again at the end of the hallway and the Felmaven materialized, dark tendrils of black ooze surrounding him. Kingsley raised his pistol and took aim at the figure. The pistol was similar to the one I had seen with Lydia earlier, formed completely of gears and sprockets and a see-through barrel with a small bead of electricity zipping back and forth through the opening. Kingsley pulled the trigger and a bubble of electricity sailed down the hallway to where the Felmaven stood.
A smile touched the creatures lips again as if this was some sort of a game and he disappeared, reappearing again closer to us and the electric charge behind him. The Felmaven’s eyes flashed red and with a wave of his hand sent several oozing tentacles and grabbed at Elston and Percipity.
The Council members reacted in a flurry of motion. Percipity slashed her katana in one fluid arch, severing the black tentacles from their source. Elston raised his wand and muttered something I couldn’t understand and an azure beam sailed down the hallway directly at the creature.
The Felmaven pulled up a hand in front of its chest and a wall of black appeared, absorbing the beam. As it dissipated, the creature threw both hands out in front of it and more tendrils swarmed toward us. Simultaneously, crackles of thin red lightning charged from his outstretched hands and sunk deep into Elston and Percipity. They were stunned momentarily and the tendrils swerved to encase them.
Pinned, the two Council members wrestled against the tentacles. Kingsley broke into a cockeyed grin and flipped open a latch on his gun. He pushed a button and the bubble of electricity down the hall detonated, filling the corridor with a sonic blast behind the Felmaven. The creatures eyes grew wide as it was blasted forward, the darkness surrounding it obliterated by the wave. The tendrils encasing the other Council members vaporized and the two were free once again. The Felmaven pushed himself up, his face etched in a snarl and dashed into the quietroom once again.