The Harvest of Souls

CHAPTER 15

Marlena always liked to be the last to leave places. Whenever she passed through deserted areas, she imagined being the owner of everything, and that feeling gave her power. She wondered if Lélia also had the same idea, given that she was known for always leaving the office in the wee hours after everyone had left.

The girl heard a click right behind her, her hair prickled, and she turned around. There was nothing, just a white hallway full of doors. She continued to walk, but being alert, until she heard new noises, she turned around scared, but again, there was nothing, just the noise of her breathing and the light bulbs lit. 'What nonsense, there is no possibility of something bad happening.' She was in the third basement of the Institute of Representation. As she turned in the corridor to keep towards her car, parked right after the doors, her heart stopped. A slender figure dressed in black was standing between her and the parking lot door.

Marlena's eyes widened so much that they hurt. She was in shock, not knowing what to do, feeling adrenaline rising and all the air leaving her lungs, the seconds that followed felt like hours. Marlena could see all the small details of the figure: black boots, pants that looked like sweatpants and a tight, long-sleeved black T-shirt, a scythe in their right hand, the head and neck were covered with a black cap and where the face should have been there were something else. She knew that this was a spell to confuse the viewer, where the face should be, there was a huge variety of faces quickly switching from one to another: horrendous images, deformed and broken faces. Marlena was sure that that was no prank at all.

The masked person walked towards Marlena, holding the scythe at shoulder height. Marlena screamed in terror and ran in the opposite direction. It soon crossed her mind that the only person inside the Institute at the moment would be Lélia, probably in her office several floors above the basement. She glanced at the elevator in the hallway that was no longer on that floor. Marlena then opened the door right next to the elevator, giving access to the building's staircase. She went up running; when she was reaching the second basement, the girl heard the door open again. The masked person came running, she realized that it would be impossible to run in heels and beat someone who ran in boots, she would not be able to reach the ground floor to escape of the building, she could only try to fight.

The girl gripped the railing with her right hand and looked down the stairway atrium, seeing the person ascend. With all her power, she gave a short wave with her left hand, and a massive burst of blue energy rushed out of her hands towards her stalker. The force ripped through the person on the floor below as if it didn't even exist and exploded on the stairs with a tremendous noise. Marlena was even more frightened: 'who could be so powerful to manage to come out immune to a spell she thought was so strong?' The girl then continued up the stairs, and at the height of her despair, she began to scream for help. She opened the door to the first basement and ran down the hall.

Before the person also exited the stairs into the hallway, Marlena entered one of the rooms and silently closed the door; the room was covered in darkness; it was probably a standard meeting room. She tried to control her panting breath so as not to make a noise as she heard the person's footsteps slowly down the hall. Marlena heard the stalker open one of the doors, then close it. A few more steps and the person opened a new door, then closed it again. Someone was hunting her. How many doors away from her would the stalker be? She started to think.

It was then that her heart stopped again, the room lights came on, blurring her vision, in front of her was the stalker in black, standing just two steps from her. 'How are they in here?' It was Marlena's last thought as she screamed, raising her arms to her face and shrinking towards the door. The stalker raised the scythe and struck Marlena in the left ribs. The scythe hooked Marlena. She felt her body being pulled forward towards the attacker, totally dressed in black. Completely losing her breath, the girl could no longer scream. The stalker hugged her so she wouldn't fall to the ground and then withdrew the scythe from inside Marlena's thorax. The pain was terrible, Marlena couldn't breathe or scream; she just placed her right hand on the shoulder of her killer, who hit her once more in the back, and pulled hard on the scythe, opening Marlena's back from right to left, making blood spurted as the girl was brutally cut in half.

CriSPe INSTITUTE

08.01.8462 - 8:59 PM

Lélia closed her computer and looked at her empty office. She was exhausted, couldn't stand to look at the artificial luminosity of her computer screen or communicator anymore. She grabbed the cup next to her laptop and got up to get hot water from a machine in the corner of the room.

She glanced sideways out the window at the leaf-covered parking lot when her heart raced. She let out a scream, and the cup slipped through her fingers and shattered on the floor.

ASTURIAN ISLAND

08.01.8462 - 10:01 PM

The plane landed silently on Asturian Island. Vaughan and Richard unbuckled their belts and stood up just as the door began to open.

"Van, please talk to me," said Richard

"Talk about what, Richard? My daughter, my little one, has simply disappeared. If I say anything, my desperation will be obvious, and I don't know if I can resist it," Vaughan began to cry...

"And what's wrong with that? Get your desperation out," Richard said as he crossed the airstrip towards the airport.

"No, better not, not yet," Vaughan said, trying to concentrate and wiping the tears. "First, I'm going to find the bastard responsible for everything, and then I'll let my anger out," he said through clenched teeth.

"What are you thinking, Van?"

"I feel that she is dead, Richard. I can no longer feel her presence. I feel that she ceased to exist," Vaughan said. The words came out cold and devoid of any feeling. The vampire tried to hide any drop of emotion in his words. "And when I find the responsible, they will pay with their life."

Richard stopped and took Vaughan's hand, causing him to stop too. He turned to his friend and looked into Vaughan's eyes, which shone in the bright white lights of the airport.

"And I will help you, Van, whoever is responsible, whatever the consequence, if anyone has harmed Jeannie, I will help you hunt down and destroy the person responsible," Richard's words came out with a threatening and truthful tone.

"Thank you, Richard, help me with the hunt. I will destroy them myself," Vaughan said.

Richard's communicator began to vibrate inside the inner pocket of his brown jacket. He picked it up and visualized Lélia's face smiling on the screen. He then answered the call, and the face that had appeared in life had entirely changed. Lélia was crying. The wind ruffled her hair, making the video call more confusing.

"Richard, My Goddesses, Richard! Help me!" She screamed in tears, and before the King could say anything, someone appeared from behind Lélia, and her MC was knocked to the ground.