Refuge of Delayed Souls

Part 32 - Frantic

Present Day

Elizabeth knew that Paul was scared –- extremely scared. In the panic that was beginning to overwhelm her, this thought was almost as terrifying as the footsteps now thud-thudding up from the stairwell. Elizabeth was rooted to the spot. The young girl continued to rock and whimper beside her while Paul frantically searched the passage and the ceiling, looking for an escape as well as keeping an eye out for any unwanted company. As she retrieved her Mag-Lite from her handbag, her instinct spoke again, informing her that her experience with Linus the other day was going to prove to be a piece of cake compared to what was about to happen here.

Screams erupted from the room Gemma had been pulled into, snatched by the flying creature. Hearing them was a sort of déjà vu, and Elizabeth had no doubt that these were the same screams that she and Gemma had heard a few minutes earlier.

“What the hell is it, Paul?”

She took hold of the young girl's arm and pulled her down the corridor away from the stairs and towards the gable wall and shuttered window at the end. They were like cornered rats.

Together, the three of them waited for the shadows on the half landing to appear in their full form at the top of the stairs. Elizabeth broke through the glass pane of the window with the hilt of her Mag-Lite and started to attack the wooden shutter, praying that it was rotten and would give way. Disoriented, she fought to determine if they were on the second or third floor of the building. Either way, the fall would probably finish the girl.

Elizabeth channelled all her anger and fear into a final assault on the wood which surprisingly surrendered. One half of the shutter swung outwards, making way for a stream of sunlight to flood down the corridor and announce the presence of the dark and threatening figure that had finally reached the head of the stairs. Elizabeth’s morale hit an all-time low when the figure failed to disintegrate in the beam of light reaching out from the window and the intimidating sound of the echoing footsteps continued to move towards them.

The young girl’s was completely hysterical now and she began to claw at her face with her fingernails creating a series of bloody half-moon welts across her cheeks and forehead. Elizabeth was drawn between a desire to slap the hysteria out of the girl and one to save her.

She leaned over the windowsill and surveyed the drop below. They were on the second floor. Scanning the lay of the land, she estimated that if the girl had the chance to take up a sitting position on the ledge, the drop would be about fourteen feet, with a good chance of a broken ankle rather than a broken neck.

Before Elizabeth could pull the girl up onto the windowsill, she felt a powerful presence immediately behind her and she went stiff. Suddenly, the young girl was pulled away from the wall beside Elizabeth with great force. Elizabeth heard taut skin pop as teeth punctured and ripped into flesh, and she began to tremble uncontrollably and with absolute horror as her own cheek and hair was washed with a fine spray of hot fresh blood.

***

Hail Mary full of grace

As Elizabeth resorted to prayer, the young girl who had just met her death turned her back on the light and held Elizabeth's hand tightly, her ghost remaining firmly by her side. Paul had already made his escape through the window.

This creature was not what Elizabeth would have expected from a vampire. She surmised that he must have been something quite ordinary before his death.

The figure before her disintegrated, one moment a grisly shape of a vampire, the next, millions of particles of decaying flesh and blood, holding their shape for a split second and then exploding onto Elizabeth in a red, horrifying shower. She found her voice and screamed hysterically.

Her screams caught in her throat when she saw Tashriel at the top of the stairwell accompanied by Grispheran. As the pair of them approached, they were joined by Gemma who emerged from the previously closed room totally unscathed.