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“Really? He’s not really my type.”
Because my type, apparently, was a manticore.
A sudden cold draft had me rubbing my arms.
“Do you feel that?” Betty asked, pulling her sweater tighter around her. “It’s winter, god damn it. Why would they have the AC on?”
It wasn’t just chilly; I felt a deep sense of foreboding and looked out the window to make sure Prax was still there. He was. Good.
I went over to the fridge to get the milk as Betty stirred in her non-dairy creamer. She wasn’t lactose intolerant or vegan; she just liked it better. Weird. But hey, who was I to judge?
I opened the fridge. And then everything went to shit.
Chapter 17
Eva
I stared into the fridge, not understanding what I was looking at.
Instead of the various take-out bags of half-finished food, bulging plastic containers growing their own civilizations, and furry green sandwiches long forgotten, I found myself staring into a black hole. It wasn’t just the fridge. It felt as if the whole break room was one giant silent echo. My ears popped.
“What the fu—” Betty stood behind me, flabbergasted.
By the time I realized why the swirling darkness looked so familiar, it was too late. A pale gray hand reached out through the portal for me. I stumbled back, crashing into Betty, whose eyes had grown as big as saucers.
We scrambled away from the possessed fridge. Whatever magic was swirling within it kept the door open, and something terrifying was crawling out of it.
My shriek was stuck in my throat, but Betty’s wasn’t. Her blood-curdling scream broke the silence. I expected everyone to come running, but no one did.
The figure that had crawled out of the fridge shambled toward me. Its skin was pale and gray, with darker mottled patches that looked ready to rot right off. Its gnarled and claw-like hand reached toward me. It stank like rot and decay.
I’d seen these things on the news.
Ghouls.
Run!
I turned, but the door was gone—in fact, the entire break room was gone. Betty and I were in an empty space that was completely devoid of doors or windows. It was lit, though there were no light fixtures. We stood on plain concrete. The only thing left of the office was the fridge.
What the hell?
Betty pounded on the place that had just moments ago been an open door to the hallway as I tried to evade the ghoulish creature. It was after me; that much was clear. It soon had Betty and I cornered, and this time, I did scream. I screamed like my life depended on it. Which it probably did.
Again, no one came running. There was definitely magic hiding what was happening in this room. If Prax had any idea what was going on, he’d be here in a heartbeat, phasing through the window. Wait. Did incubi even have hearts?
There was no time to contemplate that because the ghoul was stumbling into us, grabbing the locket that was hanging around my neck. Betty, who was clinging onto my arm with a near death grip, let out a blood-curdling yell. Suddenly, the ghoul was ripped away from us.
Prax!
He grabbed the ghoul and catapulted it across the room. The break room was back. The thing landed on the table with a crunch and a wet splat, leaving a rotten chunk of itself behind.
Kamal stormed in just in time to see Prax throw the ghoul back into the fridge. But even with his demonic strength, Prax struggled to wrestle the door closed, since one of the ghoul’s arms—the one not holding the replica locket— was sticking out. Kamal helped, adding his body weight to shoulder the door closed. The arm snapped off and fell to the floor, twitching. By the time the two of them had finally wrestled the door closed, several of my coworkers were watching wide-eyed from the hallway.
Prax hurried over to Betty and me as Kamal continued pressing his back against the fridge, which was still rattling as if it was possessed.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.” My voice sounded distant. “It…it has the locket.”
