Page 65 of Dead Vengeance

I break into a run, hands out in front of me, blind, moving for the door, wherever it was, hoping, praying I can get through what looks like an unbroken stone wall.

They meet the hard, flat surface. Where the hall was, it’s now stone all the way across, blocking my path. It’s wet—damp and mossy. It’s part of the same hallucination as last night, this tunnel, or crypt, or temple, or whatever the hell it is.

“Liam…”

“No. No! Let me out!” My voice cracks out of me, desperate and hoarse, and I slam my hands down on the wall. “Let me out! Archer! Please!”

That clicking noise. It fills the air, the tik-tak skeleton fingers on the stone wall approaching, closer, always closer.

“Archer! Please!” I run my hands over the wall, desperately feeling for the doorknob or a latch that might open the real door. “It has to be here. It has to!”

“Liiiiiiiaaaaaammmmm,” it hisses out, and the breath slides over my neck.

It’s going to kill me.

Why doesn’t it kill me already? It could just reach out and…

“Archer!” I smash my hands down. Pain bites into my skin, but it doesn’t stop me doing it over and over, desperate enough to break bones.

“Liam?” A new voice. A woman’s voice.

“Helena?” By instinct I leap to my left, trying to get closer to the sound.

“I can’t get to you,” she calls. “It’s warded. Follow my voice.”

“Where are you? I’m trapped!” Yet I stumble on towards that sound.

“Keep coming. Don’t stop!”

As if I would. As if I could. Because I feel the presence of the thing, like it’s keeping step with me. My whole body hunches towards the wall, expecting, any second, for those knife-like skeleton fingers to slice into me, rip my entrails out, do whatever it is things like that do to stupid men who thought they could ever become Spirit Extraction Specialists when they can’t even get a job as a grocery store shelf stacker. Like I even wanted this job anyway! Fuck! This is not worth dying for.

My mum. My poor mum. Jesus fuck, why is this happening to us?

My hand smacks blindly against stone, my fingers, my arms jolting in pain. I flinch back, then realise what I’ve hit. This piece of stone, rounded, sticking out of the wall. This has to be it!

“Can you still hear me?” Helena’s been talking this whole time, and now I’ve discovered her, just opposite me.

“I’m here.” I yell. “I’m trying!” I grab the stone, a strange protrusion carved with intricate patterns. I tighten my fingers, turning it as hard as I can. It moves slowly, unwillingly, the sound of stone against stone crunching in my ears.

It takes every bit of strength I have, but it’s moving.

Helena’s still calling my name on the other side. My breath is harsh and my pulse is beating in my ears. But there’s a stark absence in the room.

The thing.

It’s not here anymore.

God, where the fuck is it? It was behind me, breathing down my neck, literally. And now it’s gone?

I don’t care. I can’t think about it. Maybe this doorway is all I had to get to. Maybe I’m safe. Maybe it’s Archer’s doorway warding that’s done it.

I shove my shoulder down, forcing as much pressure against the stone as I can, and with a final grunt, it gives way, spins over in one click, to reveal a carved stone skull from the underside looking up at me. I grab it, wrench it, and the stone wall opens. It opens slowly, with a deep groan, to reveal a glimpse of black space. Pure nothingness.

I don’t even care. I’m going through. Anywhere but here.

I wrap fingers around the edge of the stone door, yank it back with all my strength as I thrust myself forward.

Then come to a dead stop.