The Non-Human Society

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty Eight - Vim - Tosh

      The company was quiet now. The hallway lanterns had been put out, the shades and windows closed. Most hallways were dark enough that I knew most humans wouldn't be able to traverse without knowing them by heart.

Such silence was common, when so late at night... but there was a strange feeling to the quiet air. Off in the distance I could still hear murmurs, whispers, and footsteps... Some I knew were legitimate, from one of the human workers who worked during the night shift, or one of the guards. A few were from members of the Society, like Brom who I had seen not too long ago as he patrolled. But sometimes I heard sounds that made me turn to see their source, only to find nothing there. Or to round a corner, expecting to see someone opening or closing a door... and not only was there no one doing such a thing, there was no door to be found either.

If Renn was walking with me she'd probably tell me it was ghosts or something. Although I'd not enjoy that conversation with her, a part of me somewhat longed to see her worried expression and her voice when on edge.

"Ghosts," I scoffed at the idea.

Over a thousand years I've been walking this planet, and not once had I ever encountered such a thing.

If the souls of those slain could remain and linger, if anyone could encounter them... it'd be me. Even if I discounted the ones I'd slain with my own hands, I've known those who were powerful. Who were unique. Who were beyond the normal.

If even the gods couldn't keep their souls here, why did anyone think the lesser souls could?

"Pointless," I tried to dismiss the thoughts as I glanced out a window. I was on the second floor, near the bank area. I was just walking around, without purpose... waiting. As I had been for days.

Right as I approached a corner, I slowed a little as I heard the sound of high heels just beyond the corner. Footsteps that had not been in the hall before were there now. They sounded as if they were walking my way.

The click and clacks of the shoes reminded me of the one's they made the banker girls wear. Like the ones Renn had been wearing lately.

If not for the lack of her scent, and the fact that the footsteps weren't hers at all, I'd think it was her.

They were walking far too apart to be Renn's. And the pace was wrong. Renn had a better rhythm to her steps, even when in a hurry...

Rounding the corner, I wasn't too surprised to find the hallway empty... and for the footsteps to echo away, disappearing as if they hadn't been there in the first place.

As I headed down the hallway, I wondered what to think of the sounds. If it was just the sound of voices, or maybe even the doors and stuff opening and closing, I'd just blame the wind. The wind sneaking into crevices and half-open windows... but footsteps?

Rounding a corner, I smiled at my thoughts.

"The answer, of course..." I slowed a little, until I found the reason for the sounds.

Pausing before one of the small vents, ones that weren't really used anymore, I sighed as I understood the source of the sounds.

I was hearing the echoes of someone somewhere else in the building, maybe even in the Societies Housing. Yet when I was a hallway or two away from one of the vents, my hearing picked it up even stronger. Amplifying it, since my instincts and senses went into overdrive upon hearing them.

My astute senses were working against me.

A common issue, regrettably.

I wonder if Renn suffered the same? She did sometimes see or hear something that I noticed made her tilt her head in confusion, only for her a moment later to smile and return her focus to whatever she had been doing earlier.