have just passed can be timid and still confused.”
“Fine.” With an air of irritation, he breezes toward the corridor. “Snatch, come on we’ll go over the rest of the building while Robin plays Where’s Waldo with the bitch who can’t be bothered to help us find her killer.”
Snatch hovers with uncertainty his gaze dropping from mine. “Be careful.”
“I’ve got this.” I assure him trying to relieve his expression of concern. It’s sweet how he’s become all protective since I was hurt. Worrying over me like a mother hen with its chick.
I wait until I hear the door click closed behind him. The apartment has been on lockdown since the murder. Nothing inside has changed. Photos of smiling people sit in pride of place on a shelf. Friends and family, I guess from their carefree postures. Medals from various races adorn another. Our victim was a health nut. With nothing in common to connect her with the other dead.
“It’s ok. You can come out now. I’m not going to hurt you,” I call softly. The temperature in the room drops sharply encapsulating me in an icy chill. It starts with a slight shimmer in the air before me. A slither of pale, slivery light appears forming into a shape. Standing patiently, I wait for her to get her bearings. It’s always the same with the new ones. Takes time for them to grow in strength and muster enough energy to manifest. When she finally forms, she’s translucent, skin waxy. She levitates before me, a foot off the ground, whimpering like a lost child.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “We didn’t get to you in time.”
“I’m sorry,” she echoes sorrowfully, brilliant white eyes moving in my direction.
“Do you know who did this to you? Can you describe him for me?”
A cold breath hits the nape of my neck. The sensation of something else in the room washes over me. Another spirit? Concentrating I try to identify the feeling. No. It feels different.
A rush of energy pours over me like a door being opened and the wind rushing in. Bracing myself against the sensation, I glance around looking for the source. Movement ripples across a section of wall. Pressing outward as if something behind the pretty white wallpaper is flexing itself to see how far it will stretch. Frozen to the spot, I stare in morbid fascination as a cluster of limbs elongate silently from the wall breaching some unseen barrier. There’s no head. It reminds me of an arachnid. What torso I can see is squat and with a central area where the many arms are attached to the middle. Like a spider treading carefully with poise from its web, it pauses as if sensing my presence. My mind reels with stray thoughts. How can it hear me? See me? What the hell is it, and why do I feel like I should be running in the opposite direction?
Foreboding wraps itself around me sending my heart thumping in my chest.
The thing rears up in a mass of tangled limbs. Thrashing like an enraged octopus, it comes barreling toward me. A small wooden table crashes to the ground splinting to pieces under the force of its anger.
Turning in blind panic, I flee for the door.
“Run, run, run,” I chant at the top of my lungs flinging it open. Screeching to a halt in the corridor, I barely stop myself from tumbling down the stairs. Down seems like the best route of escape. Charging down the first set of steps, I find my two co-workers on their way up.
“Robin, what the fuck is…” Leo shouts, his expression morphing to horror at something behind me. “Holy shit.”
I don’t even look back. Taking off down the steps, I join them in a panicked sprint. Shoulder slamming into the wall, I take the next flight with a surge of adrenaline.
“What did you do?” he accuses through ragged pants.
“Nothing!”
“Bullshit. Someone summoned that thing.”
“I swear it just came crawling out of the wall at me like some freakish horror movie.”
“It’s still coming,” Snatch hollers, the sound of our pounding feet echoing off the stairwell around us. “Can’t you freeze it with your telekinesis?”
Leo pulls a face his cheeks flushed red with exertion. “Not while it’s on the blitz.”
“I thought you’d sorted that problem out.”
“Can we not talk about it, please? It’s a sensitive subject.” He grumbles at the other man defensively.
“I know it has something to do with that demon chieftain we spent time with. Is this an existential crisis about