The Shimmering Wraith (Lockwood and Co. Fanfic)

The Ghost- 6.

The walls of Archive One were made of silver-glass. Usually silver-glass was considered a good thing, but right now I was beginning to realise it often signified bad things. For example, what kind of room necessitated the use of silver-glass? It was a huge room; through the bluish tinge of the glass I could see stairs winding their way up and down through the shelves upon shelves of books that rose up through several levels, twinkling star-like lights illuminating the modest gloom that differentiated Archive One from the stark brightness of the corridors. I could see dark shapes flitting about inside; thin and waifish in their form as they shimmered in and out of focus.

"What is this place?" Lockwood breathed in awe, pressing his face against the glass. I realised I'd taken an involuntary step back; unwilling to get any closer. Archive One did not seem like the kind of place I wanted to go into.

"I don't want to find out," I replied, my eyes following the angry swirls of a Visitor. "Can you see any death glows?"

"None whatsoever," Lockwood said, turning to me with that contagious smile of his, the one that you could never refuse. I couldn't look away, and at that moment I rather wished I was able to. I didn't want to go in that room, no matter how far it would get us ahead of Kipps and his team. "But the psychic energy inside must be extremely strong. It's not even night and those are simple wraiths and cold maidens; not even Type Twos. George will be so jealous he didn't see this."

"You bet he will," I muttered, tugging at Lockwood's sleeve as he approached the door. "I don't want to go in there Anthony. Who knows what might happen to us? We're not prepared for this kind of thing."

"We've got our rapiers, don't we? I can't see anything that isn't a Type One. We can manage fine without chains, and anyway, I've got a salt bomb handy," Lockwood pulled one from his jacket, brandishing it as though that settled the matter. He saw my lingering hesitation and sighed, laying a hand on my cheek. "We'll be fine Luce. It's just a few Visitors, nothing serious. We deal with this kind of thing all the time."

"If those are Type Ones imagine what the Type Twos will be like in that kind of environment," I said, glancing dubiously at the floating apparitions. "You can't know for sure there aren't any Type Twos in there just because you can't see them."

"Fittes wouldn't want to kill their employees, would they?" he said simply. He swivelled on his heel so he faced the door, producing his key card with a flourish and swiping it down through the slot beside the door. There was a click and after a few moments the door was sucked inwards and slid back behind the wall. Now I wasn't looking through the silver-glass all the ghosts seemed to have vanished. I could hear them though; faint static buzzing at the edge of my hearing. Lockwood stepped in quickly, following the usual Agent procedure not to linger. The opening was already beginning to close by the time I reluctantly followed, gripping the hilt of my rapier so tightly my knuckles were white. Then the door sealed shut and we were left alone inside Archive One.

Sorry it's so short, but I hope you all liked it! Hopefully there should be some more up tomorrow :) Thanks for all the support everyone. You have been such a great audience (not really sure what to call it, but you can now be my audience! *cue applause*) and you have given me some really nice comments (particularly Je-Suis-Ashling and Kit-Death23 (sorry if I got it wrong, but I'm sure you know who I mean :)). I cannot thankyou all enough! Thanks for reading! Xx