Haunteds

Chapter 18

Raindrops slid off its body the way rain does on the surface of a leaf. And it looks taller. It tops six feet easy. And it's way bulkier now than it was back at the dorm. Pointed projections jutted out of its head, shoulder, elbows, and everywhere else. Its arms were so long now that its claws were almost touching the concrete road.

"This way!" A voice said—the night guard—his head sticking out of the pedestrian door. We crowded the door that I had to squeeze through wet hairs and shivering bodies to get inside.

Fear numbed my throbbing forehead. Private Samson entered last, securing our safety first above his own. The night guard pulled the door close and locked it.

The moment the night guard turned around, a black, spear-like protrusion erupted through his stomach. Blood was dripping off the tip. We screamed and light the spear arm up. The Shade pulled back what remained of its arm, shrieking.

For a split second, we could see the hole on the door—through the clean, puncture wound of the night guard's stomach—before the surrounding intestines and part of his stomach started falling out of position. Flesh and organs were squishing against each other as they slide down, hanging loosely down his waist. The night guard fell to his knees and dropped to the floor, face first.

Outside, the shrieking stopped.

We started murmuring among ourselves.

"Is-is it gone?"

"There's no way."

"We've got to get out of here."

"Through the back," Private Samson said. "Go!"

We raced towards the back, down the center aisle, passing through long, wooden benches on both of our sides. Towering, ornate, stone columns ran alongside us, holding up the vaulted ceiling depicted with murals of winged angels that was way above our heads.

The shadow below us grew darker. Then, it followed us, keeping pace with our every step. "Below us!" I yelled. I pointed my light at my feet and the shadow disappeared. I dare not move my light away from the floor because I know that once I do that; the moving shadow will come back again.

My friends followed my lead. The shadow spread along the floor, climbed some height of the columns and spans the entirety of the floor of the church. Even with all of us and our lights, we simply cannot cover such a huge surface area. In the places where our light cannot reach, up and behind the columns and wooden benches, tendrils of pure black snaked up to the air.

"Keep moving!" Private Samson ordered. But it was no use. We were a bunch of teenagers running through a haunted house - jumping and spinning from side to side, screaming at the slightest movement.

Darius was trying to get his sister to get down the bench and run. Eris and Leo had the right idea of standing back to back. "Guys! Get on someone's back!" Eris barked. Those near them noticed and followed suit. It was a good attempt but is not as solid as the defense we've had back in the truck. The Shade would have no trouble picking us one by one.

Keeping my light on the ground, I walked backward, towards Indigo and Cana. Every time a tendril of shadow came slithering up in front of me, at my sides, I turned to that direction, burn the thing away, then keep my light on the ground again.

I keep on backing up, my eyes and searchlight jumping from tendril to tendril till I bumped to someone.

"Move forward!" Eris barked at my side when everyone was in position. Inch by inch, we moved, rotating clockwise with our lights flashing outwards or down below as we approached the altar.

Suddenly, the black tendrils sticking out high up on the columns stopped writhing and were sucked down into the dark shadows. The dark shadows itself grew lighter in hue, more natural, matching the rest of the shadows of the church.