Chapter 25 #2
Ghosts, even demons, had never scared me. The real world and the predators within it frightened me far more than any dark corner or eyes peeking through the shadows could. Yet there was something … off about this. Unease unfurled unexpectedly within me.
I pulled back and waited. Sure enough, a light tap came from the other side again. I placed my own hand on the cold metal doors, and after a brief hesitation, I tapped a finger back. I held my breath as the trepidation buzzing in my veins grew.
The darkness in the crack of the elevator suddenly seeped out like a shadow slowly crawling along the doors.
I gasped and stumbled backward while the darkness bled across the ground, up the walls, and along the ceiling.
The light from the front windows disappeared as the darkness ate away the light and crept past me on the floor, ceiling, and walls.
I spun around to watch its overtaking of the space, but my attention was instantly diverted as my body locked up.
A pale face with two large, solid black eyes was inches from my own.
Ice drenched my insides from head to toe.
Long black hair hung in messy strands around her head, and a white medical gown hung off her near skeletal body.
Those round obsidian eyes practically pierced me with their unblinking, too wide stare.
Everything about the face was abnormal. The eyes took up too much space while her cheeks lacked any color, and her lips were cracked and would most likely be bleeding if she were alive.
The darkness wrapped around us like a shield barring out the hospital and the world beyond. Even Catsper had vanished. The ghost stood motionless, and their unmoving, unfeeling, unblinking gaze remained trained on my face.
Something wasn’t right.
My breath quickened, and a rush of alarm stabbed my insides.
This wasn’t normal.
“Xander,” I croaked under my breath, too afraid to move or truly speak. “Xander.”
The ghost girl’s cracked lips peeled back over jagged teeth.
Her mouth continued to widen and widen like a never-ending hole.
The corners rose to align on either side of her bug-like eyes while the bottom lip continued downward at an abnormal rate.
A rancid smell of rotten corpses and pungent sulfur filled the air while yellow-tinted fluid dripped from her gaping mouth.
A screech built in the back of her throat, and the sound grew louder like ensuing sirens.
The darkness around us shifted to close in on us.
“Xander,” I whimpered louder, my body still uncharacteristically petrified.
The girl’s hands curled into claws, and she reached out with a howl of a scream to lunge at me.
Knocked into motion, I threw my hands up and turned away with a horrified scream tearing from my own throat. “Xander!”
“Kendyll!”
I gasped, and my eyes flung open. I couldn’t catch my breath as I looked around the hospital hallway, which had returned to normal.
Light spilled into the elevator bay area from outside the front of the building.
The light dimmed the deeper the doctor’s hallway stretched on.
All was quiet once more. I peered past Xander, who gripped my arms, in search of the unnatural spirit, but I found she had disappeared while Catsper had reappeared over Xander’s shoulder.
“What happened?” Xander demanded worriedly.
I met his troubled expression and grabbed the front of his shirt with shaking hands. “Did you see her?”
His frown deepened. “See who?”
“There was a ghost, but she … I don’t know. It wasn’t normal, Xander. Something … shadows came from the elevator, and—and—”
I couldn’t put it into words. No spiritual encounter had ever shaken me like this, but nothing like this had ever happened before, either.
Ghosts were occasionally confused or a little sad and lost. Other than the malicious spirit Xander and I had encountered back when I was a teenager, I’d never faced such a negative entity.
That ghost had been something else, something I couldn’t explain.
Another pre-existing malicious spirit, maybe?
Xander looked over my head at the elevator doors. His dark eyes narrowed while his brow furrowed. After staring hard for a few moments, the tension in his face eased, and he met my gaze again. “I don’t sense anyone.”
I shook my head feebly. I couldn’t explain this, nor could I understand how Xander, a demon, hadn’t seen her or felt the lingering chill.
Because I could still feel it. I could still feel the prickles of that malevolent presence on the back of my neck and the heavy terror permeating the air around us.
Xander released me and went to the elevator doors. He wedged his fingers into the crack, and as though sliding open shoji doors, he slid the metal open easily. He stepped into the dark space, and I hesitantly followed. A ball of fire ignited above his upturned palm to offer us more light.
“It’s,” I began while turning in a slow circle, “empty.”
Xander frowned and studied every nook and cranny of the space. “I don’t sense anything here, either.”
I blew out a breath and leapt out of the tight box as though it had electrocuted me. I adjusted my glasses and averted my gaze. “Sorry. Ignore me. I—I’m probably just tired from reading charts for a week straight. I probably just need some fresh air.”
Xander started to reach for me again. “Ghost, you—”
I pulled away from him and started for the stairwell. “I’m going to the roof. You can go back to the file room.”
The cool air on top of the building seeped into me the moment I stepped out of the rooftop door. I breathed it in and ran my hands through my hair while dropping to crouch on my haunches.
“What the hell was that?” I asked myself, even while knowing I wouldn’t get an answer.