Death Cursed (Death Touched, Book One)

Chapter 9

The three comrades stepped up to the glass and looked out. The room was round with a domed ceiling and walls made of whitewashed brick. There were no windows and the single door stood to their left. On the white walls were painted hexagrams, dozens of them of various sizes and paint colors.

In the center of the circular room stood a man of thirty. He faced the wall to their right with a blank expression and empty eyes. The man was a little below average height with oily long hair that hung to his shoulders. His pudgy stomach was covered by a t-shirt with the hash tag symbol followed by the word 'nerd.' Baggy sweatpants denoted a closeted lifestyle. His feet were covered by muddy socks and worn sneakers.

Nena leaned back and furrowed her brow. "This is a Death Shadow?"

At her question the young man turned his full face toward them. She gasped as she beheld the other side of his face, the side of bone and shadow. His flesh was gone, revealing his eternally-grinning skull. The eye socket held only a burning ember of light in its depths. His hair was a tangled mass of writhing shadows that wriggled down to his shoulder.

The creature turned its body to completely face them and revealed that his clothes twisted into a robe as black as the blackest night. His hand that peeked out from the end of the sleeve was only bones joined together by the shadows.

He was a contradiction, half alive and half dead.

"Oh my god. . ." she whispered.

"Not a pleasant sight, is it?" Romero commented as he joined them at the glass.

Jack leaned forward to catch his attention. "Where did you find it?"

"Wandering the sewers near the downtown district. At that time he had most of his body, but you can see what four days will do to someone that's been corrupted by one of those things," Romero told him. He reached into his pocket and drew out a wallet. "We found this on him."

Jack took the wallet and opened the flap. Inside was an ID card that revealed his name to be William Opfer. He glanced at the police captain. "Did you find out anything else about him?"

"His sister and mom are looking for him, but other than that no," Romero revealed.

Jack returned his attention to the solitary creature that watched them. He sighed as he drew off his coat. "I guess we'd better get in there and get this over with."

Romero arched an eyebrow. "I admit that thing's strong, it ripped the arms off several of my men, but does it need both of you to destroy it?"

Jack shook his head. "We're not going to destroy it just yet. Something with that much human flesh left might have some clues to figuring out how this happened."

The chief narrowed his eyes. "Prying into others is illegal."

A crooked, empty smile slipped onto Jack's lips. "I don't like doing this any more than you like the idea, but we don't have any choice. Besides-" he half-turned toward the glass and studied the pentagrams, "-once that thing finishes its transformation those spells won't keep it contained, and then you'll have Kinder on your hands." Romero frowned, but moved over to the door to use his eye to unlock the knob.

Jack turned his attention to Nena. "You might want to leave. This isn't going to be pretty."

Nena wrapped her arms around her shivering body, but shook her head. The creature's eyes seemed to be watching her. "I'd rather stay, but what's 'Kinder?'"

"Kinder are the children of the corrupted Death Shadows, those it touches," Jack explained. He tossed the coat to Romero who caught it. "Take care of that for me."