The Eternity Project

40



‘That’s not possible!’ Jackson snapped, a thin trickle of panic infecting his voice.

Donovan raised his pistol as a sudden agonized scream echoed out through the hall and Muir quivered with the seizures racking his body.

‘Get him down!’ Donovan shouted.

‘Jesus,’ Glen uttered. ‘How?’

Ethan was about to suggest grabbing some of the chairs to help reach the lawyer when a crackling sound like snapping twigs echoed around the hall. Muir’s strained screams were cut abruptly off as his body jerked in violent spasms and then his body shot toward the ground as though he had been fired from a cannon.


Mr. Muir slammed into the carpeted floor with a deep, reverberating crunch that utterly shattered every bone in his body. Ethan saw his eyeballs plunge into their sockets and fluid burst from the cavities under the impact.

‘Sweet Mother of Christ, what the hell is going on?’ Jackson shouted and began backing away toward the door.

‘Stand still!’ Ethan snapped, pointing at him. ‘It’s not after us.’

Jackson froze.

The room remained silent but Ethan could still feel the bitter cold in the room as though his skin had turned to ice, the breath from all of their bodies condensing on the air as though they were in the middle of Central Park on a frosty morning.

‘What is it?’ Donovan uttered.

‘Never mind what it is,’ Glen growled. ‘Where is it?’

Ethan spoke as calmly as he could manage. ‘It’s called a wraith,’ he said, ‘a vengeful spirit.’

‘No shit,’ Jackson uttered, clearly disturbed. ‘We need to leave, right now!’

‘What do you mean, it’s not us it’s after?’ Donovan snapped at Ethan.

Lopez looked across at him. ‘That’s what vengeful spirit means,’ she said. ‘It’s out for revenge.’

Ethan slowly began backing toward the door. ‘There’s nothing we can do here. Call for forensics and an ambulance and we’ll wait for this thing to clear out.’

The team stood immobile, looking desperately up into the darkness of the ceiling like blind men seeking an escape from hell.

‘Stay calm,’ Lopez said. ‘Just back up and get out of the room.’

Ethan nodded. ‘Trust me, there’s nothing to be afraid of.’

The flashlight beams cut up through the darkness and Ethan caught a glimpse of clouds of dust motes swirling upward toward the ceiling as though a terrific updraft had swept through the room. He felt the chill in the air deepen as though energy was being sucked from the hall, and a spiraling vortex of moisture condensing from the air appeared above them, glowing in the pale light.

‘What the hell is that?’ Jackson shouted.

Ethan saw the cloud of moisture coil upon itself and, for a brief instant, he thought he glimpsed a horrific visage haunting the cloud, rage twisting its features. Then the vortex plunged down toward them as though unleashed from invisible manacles.

‘Get down!’ Karina yelled.

Ethan and Lopez hurled themselves aside as a mass of seething, freezing energy rushed across them. Donovan yelled out in alarm as he was hurled backwards out of the room, Jackson spun aside to hit the wall as Glen Ryan was flipped over and crashed onto the ground like a rag doll.

Ethan saw Karina try to get out of the way but, as the vortex blazed past her, she spun sideways and collided with the table in the center of the room, her head hitting the solid wood with a dull thump. She collapsed and hit the ground hard, her pistol falling from her grip.

Jackson let out a cry of terror and sprinted out of the doorway as both Donovan and Glen leaped up and fled the entrance to the room.

‘Christ, it’s after all of us!’ Lopez shouted to Ethan, scrambling to her feet as she dashed across to Karina. ‘Help me get her up!’

Ethan got to his feet and ran to Lopez’s side, and together they hauled Karina’s comatose body up. Ethan hefted her over his shoulder, all the while trying to spot the diaphanous mass he was sure was still hovering nearby.

‘It went for us!’ he said in disbelief.

‘I don’t think it’s too picky about targets!’ Lopez snapped. ‘We’ve got to get out of here.’

Ethan hurried out of the doorway into the corridor, trying to see in the inky blackness.

‘Let’s get back to the stairwell.’

They were about to head left when a series of cries echoed down the corridor from behind them. Ethan froze as he heard Jackson’s screams for help laced with horror.

‘Dammit,’ Lopez uttered, ‘they took the elevator.’

A shockingly loud banging shuddered through the corridor as Ethan turned and followed Lopez through the darkness toward the elevators. The faint beams of flashlights bounced and jerked crazily in the darkness as they rounded a corner and saw the elevator ahead. The mesh doors were closed, Donovan, Jackson and Glen visible inside and trying to batter their way out, their breath condensing in dense clouds in the white beams.

‘Get us out of here!’ Donovan shouted. ‘The door’s jammed!’

Ethan set Karina’s body down gently onto the carpet and then rushed toward the elevator. As he did so, the air turned even colder as though he had run into an icebox, the hair on his arms standing on end again.

‘It’s here!’ he shouted to Lopez.

Ethan grabbed the mesh doors and tried to pull them apart but, although the doors were not locked, they would not budge, no matter how hard he pulled. Lopez dashed to his side and pulled with him, but the doors remained stubbornly closed.

Ethan let them go and stood back, staring at Donovan, Jackson and Glen.

‘It’s not letting you out,’ he said finally.

A moment of silence filled the corridor, and then the ceiling of the elevator crashed inward as though hit by a giant hammer. The terrific noise smashed through Ethan’s awareness and made him flinch. Another impact crushed the elevator’s sidewall in like a paper bag and sent Donovan flying sideways into Jackson.

‘Do something!’ Jackson hollered.

Ethan looked desperately at Lopez, who was staring wide-eyed and in disbelief as the elevator began folding in upon itself, as though a giant, invisible hand were inexorably crushing it into oblivion.

Ethan grabbed the doors again and pulled frantically on them but he already knew that there was nothing he could do. He shouted into the elevator.

‘What about the service hatch in the ceiling?’

Donovan looked up and shook his head. ‘Too small! It’s for emergency ventilation, not access!’

Ethan saw Donovan’s normally stoic features crumble into genuine terror as the elevator crumpled and collapsed. The three men inside were forced together, shoulders packed against chests, faces grimacing with fear.

‘Do something!’ Lopez shouted at him.

Ethan stared at the dying men and grabbed his hair in helpless desperation as a razor-sharp shard of metal touched the surface of Jackson’s face.

A deafening crash like a gunshot thundered out from the elevator and then suddenly all noise ceased. Ethan’s ears rang as he stared at the elevator, the three men pinned inside it. Then, quietly, the lights flickered back on. Ethan blinked as he felt warmth caress his arms and face as though the bitter embrace of death had been snatched away at the last moment.

He turned and looked at Lopez, and then they both turned and saw Karina lying on the floor at the end of the corridor, a cellphone to her ear. Karina, her head smeared with a thick trickle of blood, dropped the cellphone and shut it off.

Ethan turned back to the elevator.

‘What happened?’ Glen Ryan asked.

‘You got lucky,’ Ethan said quickly. ‘That thing obviously gets its juice from somewhere and it ran out of gas somehow.’

Donovan, his face pinched between the elevator wall and Jackson’s shoulder, nodded as much as he could.

‘You want to get us the hell out of here? It might come back.’

Ethan pulled his cellphone out of his pocket as he turned and walked back toward Karina. She slowly dragged herself to her feet, one hand holding her head.

‘You want to tell me what that was?’ he asked her. ‘What did you do?’


Karina refused to look at him. ‘Called for back-up,’ she replied flatly.