As King watched, the dark wall shuffled forward, like a lumbering elephant. When it stopped moving, the wall of dark was only five feet past his extended arm. King pulled his arm back, but kept the pistol trained on the inky barrier, ready for what might emerge.
“Here,” Asya had reached into her purse and procured a small but powerful LED flashlight. King took it and shined the light into the blackness ahead of them. The darkness grunted back at them, in reply.
“Get the file,” King said.
Asya stepped back from the doorway, where King remained, and turned toward the still open file cabinet.
The darkness shrieked at them. Asya clapped her hands against her ears. As bad as the gunfire had been, this sound was immensely worse. When the noise abated, dying down to a clicking sound, King called to her.
“Leave it. We’re getting out of here.”
“How?” Asya asked as she joined him again at the door, her Yarygin pointed at the dark.
“Quickly,” then he raced into the darkness, gun in one hand, flashlight in the other. As he moved, the last bulb in the hall extinguished, and the light behind them in the room blinked out. King’s flashlight was now the only source of light in the tunnel.
But the wall of darkness retreated from the powerful flashlight. Asya was at his heels. Just before the wall of black reached the point that would allow them to slip into the side tunnel, it stopped. And then snarled.
King understood. This was as far as the wraiths were prepared to back down. He had encountered the creatures before — in Rome, when he was looking for Alexander. Then the creatures had reacted similarly. They would flee in pain from bright light, but ultimately they would not shirk their duty. King hadn’t needed to actually kill one though. Alexander had called them off, the last time. King wasn’t even sure it was possible to kill them. Alexander had implied the creatures were early experiments of his, when he was looking for ways to use the Hydra’s blood for longevity. The man had said the wraiths were the inspiration for vampire legends. King could understand why after seeing them up close in Rome. They had hideous wrinkled gray skin. Some were missing facial features like noses and mouths entirely. Still, despite being scientific mishaps, they were each fiercely loyal to Alexander and his mysterious goals.
King took one single step forward and thrust the flashlight out. He needed to send a message to the Forgotten. He would not be dissuaded in his mission either. The tip of the flashlight touched the wall of shadow and a fine film of smoke rose up from the end of the light, filling the tunnel with a charred smell.
King heard Asya fire her weapon once behind him, but he couldn’t turn away from the wall. He knew if he did, the thing would be on him in a second.
“Pawn?” he asked.
“There is another behind us, but it stays back.”
“We’re in a standoff. Again.”
“What will we do?” she asked. King admired the lack of fear in his sister’s voice. She wasn’t worried at all in her abilities or in his. She was merely asking him about the plan.
“Be pushy,” King told her. Then he stepped into the field of blackness. The light sizzled harder. Then he felt a hand grasp his left wrist inside the wall of dark, pushing the flashlight up. With his right hand, King fired the Yarygin point blank into the blackness.
The hand still held his wrist and pushed his arm back. Then it moved forward and the field of supernatural darkness dissipated like smoke clearing in a strong wind. Only instead of being blown off to the side, the smoke retreated back down the length of the hallway. The hallway was suddenly revealed in the flashlight’s beam — the hallway, and the creature inside it.
A wraith stood before King.
The creature looked like a man in a tattered gray cloak. The skin not covered by the hood over its head was a dark charcoal. The eyes were sunken hollows. This one had a single vertical slit where its nose should have been. It had a lower jaw, but it looked fused to the skull, the flesh melted and scarred where the mouth should have been. Its taut skin clung to the muscles and skeletal structure, like the thing was malnourished.
The creature shoved his wrist hard and let out a clicking growl. King saw the bullet wounds in its chest, but the injuries did not lessen the creature’s strength or resolve. He struggled to force his left arm down, pointing the light at the creature again. It began to shake in his grasp. He fired two more shots at its chest, then moved to swing the arm up and point the gun at its head, but the Forgotten, with an amazing reserve of strength, forced the flashlight all the way up and back in one swift move.
When the beam of light hit King’s face, the wraith made a loud sharp bark noise. Then it let go of King’s arm.
King pulled his arm back to his chest and pointed the light at the wraith again, but it had leapt to the side of the wall and was retreating down the tunnel, following another looming by the door to the darkened room. Then a third wraith passed over his head, skittering along the ceiling of the tunnel, following the first two.
When the third creature reached the dim recesses of the room at the other end of the tunnel, the fluorescent lights all flicked back on again, suddenly filling the hallway with a brilliant glare. King shielded his eyes for a second, but he kept the Yarygin trained on the far end of the hall.
“What did you do?” Asya asked, coming up next to him.
“Nothing. I think we just got our first lucky break. Once it saw who I was, it retreated. Alexander must have told them he wanted me alive for some reason.”
“And me?”
“Let’s not stick around to find out.” King turned to move back to the file cabinet for the Manifold file, but he heard the guttural growling again from the end of the hall. He stopped and turned back to the hallway. Half the fluorescents had been shut off. He stood waiting, and as he did, the lights slowly turned back on, one by one. The message was clear.
“I think we’re being given safe passage out, but we don’t get to take anything.”
Asya gave a nod and slipped ahead, heading down the side hallway. King paused at the junction, staring into the darkness at the end, where the wraiths waited. He let the moment spin out, assuring them he was not afraid.
“Where is he?” he shouted at the darkened room.
He waited a full minute for a reply of some kind. When none came, he turned to leave.
But then he heard the distinctive tink of metal striking stone. He whipped his head back toward the dark room, and saw a small metal object come skipping along the rough concrete floor toward him. It wobbled to a stop just a few paces from where he stood. He took one long stride and bent down to pick it up. The cool metal in his hand told him what he held.
It was a coin. An ancient one.
King backed into the side corridor with Asya and made his way to the exit. He kept an eye out behind them, but the darkness no longer encroached. When they reached the door, King was prepared for absolute bedlam on the other side. They had fired several shots. The library and the plaza outside would be in an uproar.
“Get to the car as fast as you can,” then he swung the door opened and scooted the chair on the balcony aside.
The library was quiet. Business as usual. Patrons were down on the first floor, and an old man was in the stacks up here on the balcony, looking at them as they emerged from the wall. Asya shut the door behind her. The old man turned his attention back to a red leather-bound book in his hand.