Hide!

You might have been able to run back up the stairs, but you would create a hell of a lot of noise doing so, and you weren’t sure if more goons were stalking around the hospital. Instead you counted on the darkness around being enough to obscure things. Grabbing Tina and Marcus, you gestured for them to follow as you quickly, but silently swung over the rail and tucked yourself under the stairs.

The three of you were pressed into a corner, breathing as quietly as you could while the heavy footfalls drew closer. Tina’s hand found your own, the both of you bracing for discovery. Marcus held his crowbar tight, ready to use it if things went to shit. You heard the footsteps come to rest before the stairs, breathing. The cultist was only a couple feet away from you. The silence stretched on for an agonising eternity.

“What was it?” Angie called, approaching.

“…..Nothing.” The voice was so close that you had to fought not to startle. “Probably just some rats crawling about, disturbing things.”

“Ugh, the least Chapman could do is have the place cleaned up a bit.”

There was an annoyed sigh. “Why would he want to have anyone sniffing around? Better for the town to think this place is abandoned.”

“Whatever,” she came to stand by him, her heels visible from beneath the stairs. “Should we take the Seed?”

“Leave it, I’m not about to have that much compressed ichor in my car.”

The two of them walked up the stairs, each step a thud that made you wince as it echoed and bounced up the stairwell. You counted to a hundred, hundred and fifty, two hundred and then heard the footsteps eventually fade into the distance. It was only then that you allowed yourself to breathe again.

Tina smacked Marcus upside the head. “Could have gotten us killed, butterfingers.”

“Sorry,” he kept his voice at a whisper, still afraid that other people would jump out of the shadows. “Fuck…”

“We all saw that, right?” Tina looked around, “They fucking…they sucked that girl’s soul out or something! They…..they,” she began to hyperventilate, “Monsters…”

You took Tina in your arms and held her gently. Words of reassurance and some slow breathing helped, but it was clear she had suffered a panic attack. From your side, Marcus seemed equally shell shocked by what he had seen.

“Look…”you let out a shaky breath, “it’s fucking crazy, but with everyone else that’s happened…we’ve got to keep our focus. You heard what they said, they want to do some kind of fucked up ritual on Friday, with another girl. We can’t let that happen.”

Marcus shook his head. “What the fuck can we do against that magic?”

“We can call the cops,” you suggested, “ report trouble when they’re all gathered here to ruin their party.”

“Wake up man, they fucking own the cops!”

“Well we’ve got to do something!”

Arguing wasn’t going to get you anywhere, so instead you walked away from the both and went over to investigate the ritual site. There was nothing left of the woman they had used, even the dust had blown away. But sitting on the ground was an orb, no bigger than a baseball and a purple so dark that it was almost black.

You looked back at Tina and Marcus, both of them still beside themselves with shock and horror. You doubted they could handle anymore supernatural shenanigans today. On a whim you knelt down, observed the orb. Your ring inched you closer, drawn by some magnetic pull. Your hand made contact with the purple stone, the Seed, and an explosion of pain shot through from your ring, up your arm and all the way to your chest.

The world shifted, mashed together and tore apart. All was darkness. Then it reshaped and you found yourself free of the pain. You blinked, bleary and confused as reality resettled. Then your whole body shivered with something as powerful as an electric shock. A great silence told hold of the universe, everything was frozen in place.

“So now I get to see you,” a voice whispered, “in the flesh…”

It came from everywhere and nowhere, within and without. A woman’s voice, you thought, but perhaps something else as well.

“I only get glimpses, through the ring…but now I can see you.”

You swallowed back your fear. “Who are you?” You looked about at the still blurry world, “where am I?”

There was a laugh, soft and delightful. “You’re in a place between places. A tiny island in the middle of the great cosmic sea that separates man’s world from mine.”

“Your world?” You were almost too afraid to ask.

There was silence, then a swirling of matter and mass somewhere in the dark. “I suppose we should do this properly. It’s been a while since I’ve spoken directly to a mortal…let me put on my face.”

In an instant the world was changed, and a beautiful woman was suddenly standing a few feet from you. A playful grin on her face as she looked you up and down. It was hard to look at her, as tiny details of her person seemed to shift and reshape with every beat of your heart.

“Hiya, Michael,” she greeted, approaching. “I’m Lilith, why don’t we get to know each other…”