𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐄 143 ꨄ 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘄𝗼𝗼𝗱

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝘃𝗲

Frowning, she fully turned from Aaliyah, wondering why the float had suddenly stopped in the middle of the road. As she squinted and looked closely, she noticed the cause, a familiar apparition stood before Lucy, the girl wide eyed and frozen in place.

It was a pale, bent thing, stooped and thin, with yellowed, diaphanous rags coiled around it, although its outline held firm, its substance bubbled up and over like boiling water in a pot on a stove. Glimpses of a rib cage, of a folding, twisting spine, of flesh and sinew welled up, stretched, and were sucked back in again. The head was lowered, the white arms crossed over the face as if it feared to see the people before it, fingers splayed above like splintered horns.

The two Fittes agents watched in horror as Lockwood and Co gripped their rapiers, standing closer to one another. Before an attack could land anywhere near them, the second ghost bomb landed. Not thinking twice, the girls gripped their own rapiers and made their way towards the float as quickly as they could. Sabrina watched in horror at the adults on the float, all stood as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening - almost like it was nothing but an odd breeze passing them.

Once the two had made it to the float, they pulled themselves onto the truck. Sending an uncertain glance at Penelope, Sabrina adjusted her rapier, smoothing out her skirt. When Penelope went to open her mouth, to question the girls arrival, the screams begun. Reacting to the outcry of the cry, they turned around, noticing that a few startled dignitaries had also begun to rise from their seats.

The first ghost moved, its head rotating impossibly as it flowed backward, through the nearest seat, straight through its occupant, a short tweedy woman that Sabrina was certain had an odd name. Threads of plasm lingered on her contours as it pulled around her and away. Her eyes rolled upward, her arms jerked in rhythmic spasms; she slid soundlessly onto the floor. The scene was horrifying and Sabrina felt an ounce of guilt hit her as she stood frozen, her grip tightening on her rapiers hilt.

"Medics needed!" Lockwood called out from where he stood with his associates, and Aaliyah, who Sabrina had failed to notice leave her side.

The blonde girl took a step closer to Penelope as she looked across the float. A wave of fear had engulfed the company; people had begun to throw chairs back, milling back and forth, too stupid to wait and listen to their senses. Sabrina knew that the first rule was never to panic, never let the fear show, it only made the ghosts stronger, they fed on that fear.

Sabrina was frozen where she stood at Penelope's side, watching helplessly as two men collapsed to the ground as the visitor brushed past them. She did not know what she could do, all she had was her rapier but it offered no defence against the Visitor that was stalking along the decking. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Lucy readjust her grip on her own sword, ready to attack.

Before she could raise her sword, a Rotwell agent stepped in front of her with what Sabrina noticed as a magnesium flare. Eyes widening, she took a step towards the group. "No! Not here, idiot!" She called out at the same time as Lucy, both voicing their protests.

Apparently oblivious to their calls, he threw the flare and it shot straight past the ghost, bouncing from the seat. Sabrina grimaced as it exploded against the side of the platform, fragments of wood blasting into hundreds of pieces. Moving her head to the side, she avoided the flying parts of wood, as well as the Greek fire that had begun to rain down on the crowd. Despite her attempts, she could not help the piece of wood that had landed in her hair.

Turning back around, she glared at the Rotwell agent but she could not get any words out as she watched the platform on the opposite side of her give way. The entire section crumbled, propelling three people onto the street below. She grimaced as she looked away, turning her attention back to the Visitor.