The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

  ‘Only a few bodies,’ she thought. ‘They must have taken the others.’ Several of the dead wore white uniforms. Garnet’s employees. ‘Wisdom knew this was going to happen. He chose to let this happen. I can only imagine the alternative.’

  Down the hallway, she heard a scream. Jessica.

  ‘At least she’s alive,’ Elaine thought. Wisdom would have been most upset if he lost her. From what Wisdom had told had her, Jessica was vital to their success. She let the submachine gun fall back against her body and took an M-9 handgun in each hand. These weapons would minimize the risk of Jessica getting caught in the crossfire.

  Jessica screamed again.

  Elaine moved quickly now, a brisk walk with outstretched arms. She fired as soon as she stepped into the room. The Edimmu had its back to the door, both hands round Jessica’s neck. It held her above its head while she kicked at its body and beat at its hands. Neither made its grip on her any less firm. Elaine aimed both guns at the Edimmu’ knee caps. The creature howled and tossed Jessica like a sack of potatoes aimed right at Elaine. She rolled out of the way, letting the tiny body crash behind her. Whatever damage Jessica took in the fall, Elaine had still accomplished her goal. There was nothing now between her and the Edimmu.

  The Edimmu hissed again. The air filled with the stench of ozone, like damp air after a lightning strike and, hands clenched in fists, it vomited bright red flame from his mouth. Elaine twisted to the left, barely escaping the attack. She dropped to the ground and tossed the gun in her right hand away. Then she grabbed the handle of her hunting knife, throwing it as hard as she could. It spun a full rotation in the air before the blade stabbed into the Edimmu, firmly in the middle of its forehead. It looked up, struggling to see the thing imbedded in its skull. It screamed again, a war cry. Then it fell and was silent.

  Elaine ran to Jessica. The girl coughed but wasn’t moving. Elaine recognized five serious injuries that were potentially life threatening.

  “No time for caution,” she whispered to herself. She squatted down and carefully helped Jessica to her feet while she talked. “Listen, Jessica. We have to get you away from here. I know you are hurt, but we’re going to have to move quickly. Can you do that?”

  Jessica nodded. Elaine put an arm around her waist and let the child put most of her weight on her. Then Jessica pointed at a nearby body.

  “David is still alive,” she said.

  Elaine looked over at the crumpled man. The back of his head was a mash of blood and matted red hair. As if prodded by her eyes, David twitched and pushed himself up on tenuous arms until he was on all fours. He blinked several times, every movement maddeningly slow. Then his eyes landed on Jessica and Elaine.

  “You look like hell, Ross.” His face was a mass of broken and bruised flesh. “Injuries like that require a hospital. You’re lucky to be alive. You wouldn’t be standing if you were a normal person. Anomalies are fast healers. Just don’t pass out. You’re still vulnerable to concussions.” Elaine looked at Jessica. “How many others are still here?”

  Jessica shook her head, a tear falling down her cheek.

  Elaine bit her lips, took hold of her sub-machine gun again and used it to motion them out into the hallway.

  Then there was a series of screams. A whoosh of hot air rushed past them.

  Silence.

  Elaine raised a hand, motioning for them to be silent. Guns drawn, she stepped away from Jessica and crept forward into the sitting room.

  “It’s clear,” she said.

  Jessica walked forward, stumbled and nearly fell. David tightened his grip on her.

  “Holy. Crap.” David stopped in his tracks, mouth open. Echo was burning. Blue and pale green flames streaked up and down her arms, tracing her breasts and legs without consuming her flesh or clothes. She stood in the middle of three piles of black ash. Echo looked up from the piles. David caught Echo’s eye. She flinched. Her pupils shone bright orange for a moment. Then her eyes cooled to a deep black and the flames on her arms disappeared.

  Everything else in the room was destroyed. Todd lay on top of a table, legs bent at the knee and raised so that his feet were flat on the table close to the base of his spine. Elaine exhaled with relief when Todd coughed, a harsh wet sound that confirmed he was still alive. Barely. The table was one of the few pieces of furniture still intact. The paintings that had given the subterranean apartment a sense of sophistication were now squares of half-burnt paper, their surfaces marred by black smears and holes where the canvas had been burned completely away. Under a long red sofa, upended and blackened, Elaine glimpsed grey hair. Bethany. Her legs hung out twisted at an odd angle and she was not moving.

  “Is it safe?” Jessica asked. The strength was gone from her eyes now. Only the tears remained.

  Echo shook her head. “No. There’s something else here.” She walked past them and stood at the mouth of the hallway. “It’s down in my room.”

  Jessica shook her head. “It doesn’t feel the same way these monsters do. It’s very powerful. And it’s not alone.”

  Echo wiped the palms of her hands against the sides of her pants. “You’re right. It feels slimy. This one I know. Elaine, take the others and get out of here.”

  “That’s not happening.” Elaine took one step forward then stopped. Once again, Echo was covered in blue flames.

  “Get them out of here,” she said.

  For a moment no one moved. Then Elaine let the gun fall against her body and nodded.

  Echo turned and walked out of their sight.

  A dark wind began to blow.

  ***

  David watched Todd squirm in pain. He knew they had to move him, knew they couldn’t.

  “She’s dead, isn’t she?” Todd said. His face was contorted, eyes squeezed shut, and lips open to reveal teeth covered in blood. “Bethany’s dead. I heard her scream for a while, then nothing.”

  “Yes,” David said. “They broke her back.” He left Jessica and walked over to Todd. He light squeezed Todd's shoulder in support. “It looks like she managed to crawl…” David stopped, realizing what he was saying.

  Todd yelped, like a dog hit by a car. He sobbed, bringing a hand covered in blood to cover his face.

  “Damn it,” Todd howled. He let his hand fall away from his face and opened his eyes. “She was my best friend in the whole world.” He stopped talking, let his head fall to the side and stared off into the rubble. “Help me up. I have to see her.”

  “I don’t think….” David started.

  BOOM!

  An explosion shook the walls. A white blur flew down the hallway and crashed into a wall. It hit with a solid thud and dropped to the floor. Only then did David realize what the blur was.

  “Echo!” Elaine ran to where the other woman lay in the dirt.

  Before Elaine reached her, Echo pushed herself to her feet and brushed the dirt from the lapels of her white jacket. “Damned suit is ruined,” she said.

  “Echo.” Elaine’s mouth fell open and she quickly forced it shut, tightening her grip on the submachine gun. “You’re bleeding.”

  “What?” Echo looked up and saw blood dripping down over her eyebrows. “Yes, it appears so. Put the gun away, Elaine. It won’t do any good here.”

  “Is it one of them? One of the bastards on the Council?”

  “No, Elaine. Just an old friend.” Echo’s eyes flashed orange. “I thought I told you to get them out of here. I’ll meet you in the city below.”

  “Echo,” Elaine started. “You can’t.”

  “Don’t presume to tell me what I can or cannot do, Sweetie. You have a very special place in Wisdom’s heart, but you are only human to me. Remember that. Now, get them down to the city. Fast. He’s coming.”

  Pale and shaken, Elaine nodded. “Grab Todd,” she said to David. Despite the crazed look in her eyes, her voice was calm. “Help him off the table and move quickly.”

  He nearly toppled over. David offered him a shoulder for support. Elaine went
to help Jessica. The four of them ran down the spiral stairs.

  “This is bad,” Todd said. He grimaced every time his right leg hit the ground.

  David focused on the worn stone stairs as they descended. Something kept coercing him to look back. Echo stood there alone, arms outstretched, enveloped in flames again. Her hair churned and swirled slowly around her face, caught in turbulent, heavy wind. Dust devils sucked up sheets of paper and small clumps of fabric from the rubble, making strange sounds as they slid through the caves.

  Todd tried to look back but the movement upset his equilibrium. He stumbled and, if not for David’s support, would have tumbled down the rest of the steps.

  After that, he kept his eyes forward as they entered the foyer where they had first entered the underground world. Then they turned and watched Elaine help Jessica down the steps. The wind gathered strength. It howled now, an animal sound.

  “Go!” Elaine shouted. She waved with her free hand, motioning them toward one of the unblocked corridors. The floor was smooth and the lights down here were all intact; otherwise, David was sure they would have tripped.

  The hollowed-out passage was ten feet tall and thirty feet wide. They rushed down the corridor until they hit a doorway half-blocked by a giant stone wheel. One by one they crept through the small opening next to the wheel, not risking the time it would take to move the massive stone. Behind the slab of stone another rough-cut staircase crafted a spiral path down to a still-deeper level of the caves. When David and Todd reached the bottom, they barely stopped to look around before they each dropped to the ground. The others arrived seconds later.

  Jessica sank down next to them. “What do we do now?”

  “We wait for Echo,” Elaine said. She reloaded her handguns. “She can get us out of here.”

  There was another explosion, this one much louder than the last. The air flashed red and yellow. Jagged pieces of rock flew through the air. One shard hit David on his broken nose and he screamed. He fell, closed his eyes and waited for the sound of falling shrapnel to stop. When he opened his eyes again, he couldn’t see anything past the top of the staircase. The small opening was filled with dirt, small rocks and large fragments of the stone wheel.

  “Cave-in.” Todd’s voice was cold.

  Elaine crossed her arms and rubbed her biceps. As she brushed the dirt from her face, David heard her thoughts. ‘This isn’t supposed to be happening. Wisdom said it would be over by the time Echo brought me to the caves.’

  “What do you mean ‘this isn’t supposed to be happening?’” David asked. When he saw the look of outrage and shame play on Elaine’s face, he realized he’d read her thoughts. “What do you know?”

  Elaine grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “Stay out of my head!” Her voice was low and steeled.

  “Whoa.”

  Everyone turned to face Todd. He stood at the edge of a cliff a few feet away, his back to them. Jessica limped over to him. Within seconds, David followed her to see what Todd was talking about.

  “What the hell is this place?” Jessica asked.

  Todd shook his head.

  They stood on a ten-foot wide ledge that ran around the edge of a colossal cavern. Far below them, several hundred stone buildings formed a city. Despite no visible form of illumination, the entire city was well-lit and visible. It was hard to discern any real description of the buildings from this far up. They were several stories tall and strictly functional, void of unnecessary ornamentation. In between the buildings were roadways defined by light grey bricks. Above them, the ceiling rose until it disappeared into darkness, the top invisible to their eyes.

  “I know this place,” David said. “I had a sort of dream about it.”

  “This can’t be real,” Todd said. “Did Echo build this place?”

  Elaine shook her head. “I don’t think so. We have to look for a way down. We’re too open up here. Fish in a barrel. We have to hide until Echo or Wisdom can get to us.”

  “What if…?” David stopped when Elaine turned to stare him down. She lifted her chin, daring him to finish the thought. David opened his mouth but could not speak.

  “She’s not dead.” Jessica said.

  “Can you feel her?” Todd asked.

  Jessica looked back toward the cave-in at the top of the stairs. After a moment, she shook her head. “But I don’t always feel her.”

  “She’s hiding.” David looked at the top of the stairs now. His head buzzed as he tried to look past the stone. “I see what you’re saying, Jessica. You don’t think she is dead because you can’t see her in any way. If she was dead you would see some of her. The ghost of her.”

  Elaine sighed with relief. “You may come in useful after all, Mr. Ross. Come on. Let’s find a way down.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Josh Wilkinson was blind. With the lights out and no windows nearby, the hallway was utterly dark, like an underground cavern. He kept his right hand on the wall as they walked. His fingertips brushed over the smooth, cool surface to keep walking in a straight line. Twice already he’d tripped over dead bodies. The stench of blood and gunfire was putrid.

  Occasional bursts of gunfire broke the otherwise oppressive silence. Behind him, he heard two distinct sets of soft breathing: one slow and steady, the other quick and short. They comforted him, reminding him he wasn’t alone.

  “Does the security staff have nightvision?” Although he whispered, the words cut through the air like shards of glass.

  “No,” Garnet whispered. “They’re human.”

  Josh rolled his eyes. “I mean do they have nightvision goggles? Haven’t you ever seen a movie with the army in it?”

  “Oh.” Garnet’s voice seemed very close to his ear now. “Maybe. Believe it or not, this sort of thing doesn’t happen very often.”

  “What about you?” He swallowed; his throat seemed very thick and heavy. “Can you see in the dark?”

  “Sorry. I’m human, too. Same with Jared. However, I am starting to think you can see in the dark. Where are we going?”

  “I memorized the layout days ago. It’s a little trick my dad taught me.”

  His hand hit emptiness. He stopped and stretched his arm back until he found the wall again. It was slightly cooler than air temperature. Slowly, he dragged his fingertips forward until he found the edge of the wall. He caressed the sharp angle and folded his hand around the corner. No trim. That meant it was likely not just a door. With his left hand, he reached back until he touched warm fabric. He caught a whiff of sweet perfume.

  Garnet’s voice was barely a whisper. “Watch the hand.”

  “Sorry.” Blood rushed to Josh’s face as he blushed with embarrassment. “Stay close. Jared, you still there?”

  “Yes.” The voice was barely audible; the word said quickly, the final “s” clipped almost to nothing. “Hurry. It just killed another guard.”

  “Where are you going?” Garnet pressed close to his ear again. “This isn’t what Wisdom would have done.”

  “Wisdom isn’t here, though, is he?” Josh turned the corner and headed further into the heart of the building. He nearly stumbled when his fingers came upon something hard, cold and cylindrical. A fire extinguisher. He came to a sudden stop and lifted the extinguisher off the wall. Behind him he heard a grunt and a soft thud. It sounded like Jared had run into Garnet’s back.

  “What is it?” Garnet asked.

  “A weapon. Not much, but something. Jared, is it any closer to us now?”

  For a moment there was no answer. Then the voice slid through the darkness, a sound like the hissing of a snake. It took Josh several moments to realize it was Jared’s voice. “Yes. Much closer. It is not taking the stairs. I can feel it rising. It used to be below us but…”

  Josh tried to lick his lips but there was no moisture in his mouth. “Jared, how do you know it’s a demon?”

  “I read minds, remember? I can’t do much else, but Ms. Ryerson says I have potential. His mind is craz
y. He’s thinking all this really gross stuff. Way worse than anything Wisdom thinks of.”

  “So that’s it? You can’t really tell if it’s a demon, but it just sort of feels like one?”

  “Is there a difference?”

  Another flurry of gunshots reverberated through the hallway. Then there was a long period of silence. Suddenly their footsteps were as loud as drums.

  “Where are we going? Don’t make me ask again.”

  “The kitchen. It should be two floors down, right off the stairwell. We should be getting pretty close to the stairs if my memory's right.”

  “My, my, your memory is pretty good. The door is about twenty feet up on the left. How did you memorize the layout of this floor?”

  Josh laughed. “Like I said, part of the wonder of growing up with a father like mine. He taught me you never know when you have to run. First thing I do wherever I go is figure out how to leave. How do you know where the door is? I thought you couldn’t see in the dark?”

  “I can’t,” she said. She put her right hand against his side, just above his waistline. He felt her nails against his abdomen, felt the light pressure of her thumb against his back as she leaned forward into him. “I have a good memory, too.”

  He walked forwards twenty feet, then started edging to the left. He kept his left arm outstretched and wriggled his fingers like tentacles searching for the wall on the other side of the hall. When they found the solid cool surface, he released his breath. ‘Didn’t realize I was holding it in,’ he thought.

  Garnet still had a hand on his side. He swallowed again. His heart beat loudly in his ears, making it hard to concentrate on the other sounds around him. He heard another burst of gunshots and a strange little twist of sound he thought was a scream.

  ‘If I can hear the screams, that means it's closer.’ His fingers brushed a small bump of wood followed by a number of sharp corners bending backwards. A doorframe. “Okay, this part will be anything but fun. Just try not to fall.”

  He opened the door to the stairwell and a million scary movies flashed through his head. Only stupid people took the stairs when a monster approached. ‘Let’s hope I’m wrong about that.’ He reached out through the darkness searching for the handrail. His fingers touched nothing but air.