Phantoms

by Terence West

  Finally regaining his balance, Bishop looked up at the melee that had ensued. He watched Dawn holding onto the back of the phantom with all her might, then he spotted the eyes. Reaching down, he snatched his flashlight from the floor and charged.

  Dawn pushed her hand up to what would've been considered the creature's chin and twisted hard. That move would've broken anyone else's neck, but instead, the phantom's head spun one hundred and eighty degrees to face her, its eyes glaring brightly at her. An evil grin crossed the shadow's face as two tentacles shot out from its head and snaked around Dawn's face. Lifting her up, the creature waited for her neck to separate.

  Throwing a punch across the phantom's face, Bishop lifted the flashlight up to the creature's eyes. It shrieked in terror as all the darkness instantly retracted. The creature moved away from the light, its arms swinging madly as it tried to knock away the beam. Holding the light steadily on the phantom's eyes, Bishop led it into one of the ribs of the cave. The creature clawed at the rock walls trying to escape. "You don't like that much, do you?" Bishop asked with a grin. His head was still pounding, but this was giving him a small measure of satisfaction. He glanced back at the crew. "Go! Now!"

  Taking the cue, the crew, including Carrie and Jackson, retreated from the creature. Turning back around, Bishop swallowed hard. It was gone. The white beam of his flashlight was now focused on the wall of the cave. Taking a nervous step back, Bishop turned to look at Dawn. "Where did it go?"

  Dawn shook her head. "I was looking at you."

  The two slowly began to backpedal. Spinning around, they both charged deeper into the cave.

  "We can't stop these things, can we?" Dawn asked.

  Bishop didn't even respond to the question. She knew the answer, and so did he. He just didn't want to admit it out loud. Bishop glanced behind him. They weren't being followed, but how could they be sure? These things can obviously travel through walls, so they could be anywhere. Bishop returned his gaze forward, but not in time to see the figure running toward him. He hit hard, knocking them both to the ground. Quickly recovering, Bishop skittered backwards on his hands and feet to put some distance between the two. He pushed frantically on the rocks without even glancing back at what he hit.

  "Bishop," Dawn said with an air of excitement in her voice. "Look."

  Bishop stopped. Slowly, he turned his head back to the person he hit. A smile flashed across his face. "Cane!" He leapt to his feet and ran to his partner. Over Cane's shoulder, he could see Trent and Rivers snickering quietly at his spill. Extending a hand to the elder man, Bishop helped him off the ground. "Are you okay?"

  "I was," Cane said with a wink, "until you plowed me over."

  Dawn rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Cane's neck. "Oh my God!" She shouted enthusiastically, "I'm so glad to see you!"

  Cane returned the hug, but at the same time tried to loosen Dawn's grip. "It's good to see you too, but you're choking me," he gasped.

  Dawn immediately let go and stood staring at her best friend. "What happened?"

  "It's a long story," Cane dismissed the question by waiving his hand. "Right now, we have bigger things to worry about."

  "'The Ritual of Sevens'," Dawn said.

  Cane nodded. "I see you've been doing some research."

  "We don't know where it's being held," Bishop said hastily.

  "We do," Cane said, pointing at Kelley.

  Bishop noticed Kelley for the first time. A worried look of concern crossed his face. "Are you alright?"

  Kelley stepped forward and smiled sheepishly at Bishop. "Yeah, now that I'm with you."

  Dawn rolled her eyes. I thought she was a lesbian.

  Kelley turned and shot a dirty glance toward Dawn.

  "What's she doing here?" Bishop asked.

  "The phantoms brought her here. She was to be part of their ritual."

  Bishop returned his gaze to Kelley. "That would mean that you–"

  Have power, Kelley answered mentally.

  A peculiar smile crossed Bishop's face. "That's wild."

  Cane turned away from Bishop and back to Dawn. "Morgan's down there," he said, pointing deeper into the cave. "She may be hurt. We need to get her and Kelley out of here."

  "And stop the ritual," Dawn added.

  Along with the crew, the members of the OPR and Kelley turned into the darkness of the cave and headed down. From here, there was no turning back.

  Chapter 31

  Morgan was dying. She could feel her very essence slipping out of her the way Veranda had only moments earlier. She felt somewhat stupid. As a witch, she knew death was but a part of life. Neither the end nor the beginning, instead, it was just a stop made between the passages of time. She knew her time would come as everyone's would, but not this way. She had fallen and broken her neck. At least, she thought, I could've been killed by the phantoms. It was not hers to question, though. Her fate was already sealed. All she could do was hope for a better ending in the next life. Probably, she sneered, I'll return as a slug, or an aardvark. That would be fitting.

  She carefully opened her eyes. The world around her was dark, but she could make out faint shapes in the haze. The flicker of candles and a trace of burning red… the shadows were here, but she couldn't be concerned about that right now. She tried to lift up her head to take a better look around, but found herself unable. The muscles in her neck were trying to respond, but there was nothing there to push against. She could feel that several vertebrae in her neck had been severed; at least one had been crushed. She could feel that she was vertical, but that was the extent of it. Below her neck, everything was numb. Her body may as well have been gone as it was useless to her.

  A thought manifested in her mind of a healing spell. She had done it several years ago to her roommate's puppy when he broke his leg. She had actually healed the dog's leg, but not perfectly. It still required being in a cast for several weeks, but she had hastened its recovery. Perhaps she could accomplish the same with her neck. If not be completely healed, at least give herself a little more time. The human body, especially the nervous system, was a very fragile piece of equipment. Healing spells were notoriously difficult to perform correctly, and she wasn't exactly in the best of conditions right now. She weighed her options. She was dying anyway, might as well take a crack at it. Crack, very funny. Death has made me giddy…

  She closed her eyes and cleared her thoughts. An image of her wounded neck appeared very clearly in her mind's eye. It was kind of like looking at a three dimensional x-ray. She could clearly see the separated bones and the one that was partially broken. It wasn't as bad as she had first feared. Channeling all her focus on the image, she began to see bright flashes of orange and green around the damaged areas. Slowly, the bones began to mend together, the nerves and blood vessels even repairing themselves. She watched as the muscles around the bones knitted together, forming an almost normal structure. She focused on the broken vertebrae. It wasn't darning. It had, however, returned to its normal position in her neck. Concentrating, she tried to heal the broken bone. Muscles and nerves wound their way around and through the bone, but she could not repair it.

  She opened her eyes and lifted her head up. A sound like cereal crunching came from her neck, but at least she was able to move it. She twitched her fingers and toes and amazingly, could feel them. It had almost completely worked. She slowly turned and looked around. Her body was pinned to the wall of the cave with her arms spread wide like a crucifix. Her clothes were ripped open exposing her bare chest. A heart-shaped figure had been carved into it. She knew they meant to take her heart. Looking down, she could clearly see the pentagram and candles. Two shadows in human form were lurking just below her with wide smiles on their faces.

  She was to be the seventh heart in their ritual…

  Morgan uttered a silent prayer. She knew more people were down here, she could feel their presence. She just hoped they would arrive in time.

  ****

  Cane led the
crew down the winding passage. Ahead of him, he could see the soft golden glow of candles in the darkness. Stopping, he pressed against the wall of the passage and turned back to the crew. "This is it," he whispered cautiously. "The ritual is being performed in the chamber at the bottom of this tunnel."

  "What's the plan?" Dawn asked.

  Cane looked over the group. "I don't want any civilian casualties. The crew should stay back here."

  "It's a little too late for that," Carrie said from the back of the group. Several large black bruises had formed on her throat. "We've already lost our sound tech to these fuckers."

  "All the more reason you should stay here," Cane warned them. "Dawn, you and Bishop come with me. Kelley, you stay back with the crew."

  "We're live on the air, Mr. Cane," Rivers reminded him from the back of the group. "We need to film this."

  Cane mulled the idea around in his head for a moment. "All right," he said finally, "but it's your ass. I don't want any of you to enter the ritual chamber. Stay back where you'll be safe."

  Rivers nodded.

  Cane turned back into the tunnel and started down. Dawn and Bishop moved from the middle of the group to join him. Each had a flashlight in their hands as they crept soundlessly down the passage.

  Rivers moved to the front of the crew and began to lead them down. Pausing only momentarily to address the camera, he started his narration. "We're now entering one of the lower chambers in this maze of passageways. From eyewitness accounts, a dark ritual is being performed there and our experts from the OPR have vowed to stop it. This reporter isn't exactly sure what the ritual entails, but I'm sure it's bad news." Rivers could hear Chloe groaning in his earpiece. Even he knew it was a lame statement. "Let me assure you, the viewer at home, that this is completely real. We are standing in the middle of what is sure to become a volatile situation. Our cameras will continually roll in order to bring you every detail of what is sure to be a chilling encounter. I have to warn you, ladies and gentlemen, what you are about to see may be gruesome. Our younger viewers and the squeamish may want to turn away from the television." Rivers stepped away from the camera so Trent could get complete, uninterrupted shots of the action.

  ****

  "This is great," Chloe heard Stephen say from the second monitor. "The top brass here at the network are already talking video and DVD sales."

  Chloe let her head fall into her hands. Great, she thought, a DVD of my crew dying.

  ****

  Cane poked his head around the corner and immediately scanned for Morgan. "I can't see her," he reported.

  "What can you see?" Dawn asked, placing a hand on his back.

  "It looks like the chamber is empty. The pentagram is still there, and all the candles are still burning, but there's no sign of the phantoms."

  "What's the game plan, chief?" Bishop asked.

  "We need to disrupt the circle. That will buy us some time. Then we need to find the last heart and destroy it." Cane paused, "Dear Lord, I hope they haven't already finished."

  "We better get in there," Dawn said.

  "Who are you, John Wayne?" Bishop laughed. "If we go charging in there, they'll kick our ass no questions asked. We need to have a better plan than that."

  Everyone perked up at the sound of a woman's scream, then silence. They immediately turned back to the crew. "Who was that?" Cane asked.

  The crew shrugged.

  "It wasn't us," Rivers said with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

  The three turned back to the chamber. "Looks like our plan just got thrown out," Dawn said quickly.

  "Agreed," Cane said. "We go in on three."

  He held up three fingers with his free hand and silently mouthed the word three. Flipping one down, he mouthed two. Laying down the last finger, the three stood up from their positions and charged blindly into the chamber. They all skidded to a stop when they found the source of the scream. They saw two shadows standing on the wall next to the lifeless body of Morgan. The first shadow had just ripped out her heart and still held it in his hand. The other was rummaging over her body looking for a personal item.

  "That's the seventh heart," Cane yelled.

  The two shadows snapped their heads around to see the three trespassers in their chamber. A loud hiss escaped their lips as they leapt off the wall and crouched on the floor. The first shadow lifted the heart to his chest and slipped it into the darkness. The heart was quickly absorbed for safekeeping. The second shadow's form quickly mutated into that of a large, sleek dog. It's red eyes slanted back on its head as it growled at the intruders.

  "You will die," they voiced together.

  "That's a new one," Bishop said nervously.

  The shadows charged. The first one slammed head first into Cane, knocking him to the ground, while the second careened into Dawn and Bishop.

  Cane quickly recovered, lifting himself off the ground. Clicking the power button on his flashlight, he swung it around to face the shadow and hit it squarely in the eyes. The creature screamed in pain as it tried to back away. Moving forward, Cane swung his free hand back across the phantom's head connecting solidly. Dropping down, he kicked the legs out from under the phantom, sending it hard to the floor. Jumping back, Cane narrowly avoided a wild swing from a dark tentacle. It whipped just past his chest and cracked like a bullwhip. A second tentacle caught the elder man off-guard, ripping through his shoulder like a torpedo. Cane fell to the ground in agony, blood pouring from his wound. To his dismay, his flashlight fell to the floor next to him, just out of his grasp.

  Bishop rolled onto his back and pushed Dawn out of the way. The second shadow–the shadow dog–was charging. Clicking the button on his flashlight, he sent the white beam of light arcing out across the darkness, just missing the dog's eyes. Without time to correct, the dog was upon him, its long white fangs and claws ripping at Bishop's clothes. Lifting herself off the floor, Dawn bent down into a three point stance. Digging in the balls of her feet, she rocketed toward the dog and checked it with her shoulder. The shadow dog yelped as it hit the floor, but was quickly back up on its feet. Lifting her flashlight, Dawn swung hard and caught the dog on the side of the head, giving Bishop just enough time to scoot out of the way.

  The first shadow knelt down next to Cane and sneered. Lifting its arm, it formed it into a long, pointed tentacle and shot it into the wound on Cane's shoulder. Cane gritted his teeth and held back the scream. He wouldn't give the creature the satisfaction. The phantom twisted the tentacle and slowly started to increase its girth. Cane bit down onto his lip to try and stifle the pain. He looked up into the creature's eyes. It was enjoying his pain and was in no rush to end it.

  Using its free hand, the creature reached into its chest and retrieved Morgan's heart, along with what looked like a button from her shirt. "Do you see these?" it hissed. "This is the end of history." Lifting it up, it tossed them lazily into the center of the pentagram. It twisted the tentacle again, then smiled with delight. It had a better idea. Cane watched as a ripple of spikes began to form on the arm and move quickly toward the end. Three spikes jutted out into Cane's shoulder, ripping muscles and flesh. Cane couldn't hold it any longer. He let out a bellowing scream. Striking out with his free hand, Cane watched his hand slice right through the shadow with no effect. The shadow cackled with glee. Moving his hand down into his pocket, Cane felt a silver pen in his pocket. Grabbing it firmly, he quickly slid it out of his pocket.

  Dawn surged left just as the dog lunged at her, its claws barely missing her head. Glancing up, she saw a large crack forming in the middle of the pentagram around the heart. "Bishop!"

  Bishop snapped his head around to see the heart. He jumped off the floor and sprinted toward the circle. Dropping his flashlight, he dove forward with both hands reaching for the heart, but was stopped short. He hit the rock floor hard with his chin. Looking back, he could see the dog holding one of his ankles firmly in its mouth. "Fuck," he muttered. Kicking back, he hit the dog in the teeth, bu
t it held fast. He kicked again, but this time, he felt the dog's teeth break the flesh of his ankle. Bishop let out a muffled cry. "I can't get it, Dawn!"

  She was already on it. As soon as she saw the dog grab Bishop's foot, she had charged toward the pentagram. Dropping down to her knees, she reached toward the crack for the heart. The red light burned her flesh. Ripping her hand back, she cradled her burnt hand. She couldn't let the heart be swallowed. Reaching back into the red light, she tried to ignore the searing red light as she rummaged around for the heart. Suddenly, she felt it. Like a baby touching a hot stove, she ripped the heart and her hand free of the light. To her amazement, the rift quickly sealed. Snapping her head back, she spotted the dog eyeing her. "Oh shit."

  The first shadow's head flipped toward the pentagram and sneered at Dawn. It pulled the tentacle free from Cane's shoulder and began to stand up. Seizing the moment, Cane sat up and grabbed the shadow by the throat. They can only be transparent when they're happy, he thought as his fingers connected. The phantom's head snapped around to face Cane with its red eyes burning with hatred. Quickly, Cane lifted the silver ballpoint pen and plunged it forward into the creature's eye. The shadow fell back, black liquid spurting from the wound. It writhed in agony on the floor as it tried to free the pen. Cane leapt forward onto the creature and forced the pen further into the being's eye. The creature shrieked in pain as a pool of the black fluid was forming around it. Reaching back, Cane retrieved his flashlight, and using the blunt end, smashed it into the shadow's opposite eye. Standing back, Cane watched as the phantom slowed to a stop and its body began to decompose.

  Holding Morgan's heart in her hand, Dawn took several steps away from the dog. "You want this?" she teased. "You're going to have to come and get it."

  Dawn could see Bishop slowly lifting himself off the floor and moving toward the dog on his injured ankle. The dog had crouched down on his front paws, while its back legs looked ready to spring. It was snarling loudly and its red eyes had narrowed into small slits of evil.