A Shade of Vampire 23: A Flight of Souls (7 page)

I wondered now if jinn could touch and see ghosts. I’d never gotten a chance to see Aisha again after I left my body. She’d been trapped in Julie’s blasted Elder box.

My mind trailed back to just before the fae had caught me. I’d ventured beyond the walls and explored the vacuum. Then, before returning, I’d yelled. I supposed that those fae must have been somewhere nearby to hear… although I hadn’t been able to spot them when I was drifting around on the other side.

“I doubt there is any ‘other side’ after all,” Chantel croaked.

“Oh, there may well be,” the old woman replied. “A counterfeit object doesn’t preclude the existence of a genuine one. It’s just that this… this is all a hoax. To unsuspecting humans or supernaturals—those who have never encountered fae before—they look quite like the traditional concept of angels, don’t you think? The cunning creatures know this, and they use this to fool people and lure them into their trap. They are the worst, most despicable kind of cheaters, playing on the hopes and desperation of lost souls.”

Bastards
.

Now I wondered whether it was even possible for a ghost to reach the other side, if the whole glowing gate thing was a load of crap. I wondered whether “the other side” was still indeed beyond the walls of the portal, as Nolan and Chantel had believed. Anyway, there was no point in thinking of it now.

My mind turned back to escape. “So, what you’re really trying to tell me, is that you don’t know a single ghost who’s managed to escape this place?”

“That is what I’m telling you,” the woman replied. “I’m not saying it’s impossible but after a few tries… it tends to wear you down. There’ve been cases of particularly stubborn ghosts who try and try again, but it’s always them who end up being removed from the upper levels first. The rumor among ghosts here is that five is the unlucky number.”

I raised a brow. “Meaning?”

“After five attempts—failed attempts, I might add, which they always are—no ghost has been known to possess enough life to warrant the ghouls keeping them in the levels above The Necropolis.”

My eyes traveled over the grim ghosts surrounding me—almost everyone now seemed to be listening in to our conversation. Their hopeless, pale faces were a harrowing sight, and these ghosts were supposed to be among the latest recruits. I couldn’t imagine how any ghost would still have a sound mind after one year in this hellhole. It was no wonder that they became shadows of their former selves… What was life as a ghost like here? What did they do all day and night, cooped up like koi fish? I guessed the same applied for any ghost, in a way. What
did
ghosts do with their time? Try to get lost in dreams like Ernest, I guessed. Though in this place, I couldn’t imagine there were any dreams. Only nightmares.

I studied the old woman’s face closely, again wondering what she was—or rather what she had been. This time, I asked.

“A werewolf,” she replied, with a small, strained smile.

That would explain the bushiness of her brows…

“And a rather old one at that. My name is Marcilla. Marcilla, of the Brownback tribe, from The Woodlands.”

The Woodlands
. The realm of the werewolves, where I had visited briefly.

So the fae are stealing ghosts away from the portals in the supernatural dimension, too.

Although there were still hundreds more questions crowding my mind, I was already suffering from information overload. I needed to first process what I’d learned so far.

“Thank you, Marcilla, for answering my questions,” I said.

“You’re welcome… Joseph, I believe the witch called you?”

I didn’t bother to correct her with my real name. I simply nodded before drifting back. The rest of the ghosts in the pond were still silent, eyeing me. Some looked even disappointed, as though they had wanted the conversation to continue. I guessed the drama that followed the arrival of a new recruit was the only entertainment they had all day.

Now I needed to be alone. Alone with my thoughts. Alone to face my fears. As dead as I was, seeing my mother, sister and River back in that oracle’s cave had sparked a fire within me. I was going to escape, no matter what the pain or sacrifice. I had to. I’d made a promise to River, and I intended to keep it, no matter how impossible it seemed.

On the subject of the oracle…
damn the woman!

I realized now that, had it not been for her ambiguous wording, I probably wouldn’t have bothered to float through the tunnel walls. I probably would have followed my instinct and fled the moment I saw that fae emerging from the gate. But playing at the back of my mind all along had been the faint possibility she’d planted with that one little devious answer…

“You’re telling me I need to go to the ‘other side?’… But how would that bring me back to my old life?”

“I never said it would,” she’d countered. “Though I never said it wouldn’t, either.”

I hadn’t even been aware at the time how much her words had been playing on my subconscious. But now I saw it all. Why else would I have bothered venturing through the tunnel walls when I’d already been told that “the other side” lay somewhere beyond them? Buried within me had been the small belief that maybe I ought to blindly follow the oracle’s suggestion, and trust that I would be better off for it.

I cursed myself for my naïve stupidity.

But then, as I continued replaying the meeting over in my mind, I recalled another little sentence she’d dropped into the conversation…

“My patience wears thinner than a ghoul’s skin.”

The analogy was certainly an uncommon one. In using it, had she been foreshadowing what was to come? What was meant to happen? Or were these just more of her endless mind games?

But would she really be so malicious as to send me to this hellish place just for her own amusement? Would she really be so evil?

I could describe the oracle in many ways, but she’d never struck me as
evil
.

Whatever the case, it didn’t matter.

I was here.

But I can’t just sit here.

I gazed once again toward the rippling surface of the pool. No matter how many warnings I’d received against it, I was going to try to escape.

“
Not try.”
For some reason I imagined the oracle’s voice correcting me in my head. “
Trying is for cowards.”

Not try.

I am
going
to escape.

I
surfaced
near the edge of the pool, at the side that was closest to the path that ran through the cavern. Slowly, I raised my head above water and glanced around the chamber. There were no signs of the ghoul anymore. Either he had made himself invisible to me or he had gone.

There was only one way to find out for sure.

I cast one last glance back down into the pool, eyeing the ghosts. Chantel, Nolan, and Marcilla were staring at me, as were several other ghosts.

They already knew what I was about to attempt.

“Good luck,” Nolan mouthed, even as Marcilla grimaced.

I nodded back curtly in response, refusing to allow their expressions to dampen my resolve.

Then I dared lift fully out of the pond, all the while keeping watch on my surroundings. In one swift motion, I swept across the chamber toward the same tunnel entrance the ghoul had escorted me through. That was the way to the exit. The ghoul had never given me a chance to see whether I could actually pass through the main door. Now was my chance to test it. I zoomed back along the path that I had been brought down, even as I gazed around me in constant worry of being spotted by a ghoul. It was endlessly unnerving to think that one could approach me at any time and I wouldn’t even know it.

By some mercy, I managed to reach the main door, and as I sank my form through it, I was able to pass to the other side. I’d been hoping against hope that this would be the case but now that I’d actually managed it, I found myself almost in shock.
How could they just allow that?

I emerged in the dark cavern that enclosed a vast black lake. My eyes immediately fixed on the tunnel that I had traveled through on the boat with the fae. I zoomed across the water toward it and, entering, I wound round and round the ghostly canal until I reached the first cavern I’d visited. The entrance cavern.

Here, I was met with a stunning sight. A sight I’d not been able to see before due to my limited view from within the coffin. I gazed up at the towering ceiling to see that… it wasn’t all ceiling at all. In the center was a large, gaping hole, swelling with spiraling water. And it was through this hole that faint trickles of light emanated. It was the base of the strange vortex I had fallen through. I wasn’t sure by what magic, but only droplets of water trickled down to the lake beneath. The main mass of water remained suspended in the ceiling.

I was about to begin advancing toward it when something else caught my attention. Ghouls. There was a crowd of them—ten altogether if I counted correctly—hovering near the entrance to the whirlpool. They appeared to be conversing amongst themselves, making strange, eerie tittering noises.

I thought for a moment that perhaps they were about to exit—depart on an excursion to kidnap some ghosts, or perhaps rob some graves—and if I just waited, I would get my chance. But they showed no signs of approaching the eye of the vortex. They remained as they were, hovering nearby.
They must be guards.

Great
.

I had not noticed these ghouls either, of course, when I’d arrived with the fae. They too had been beyond the scope of my limited vision. Though I would have been a fool not to expect this. I didn’t have any clue how many ghosts the ghouls kept imprisoned in their realm in total, but I would’ve guessed in the thousands. I wouldn’t be surprised if they got dozens of escape attempts a day. Marcilla had indicated that the ghouls preferred not to chain ghosts because it ruined the fun of keeping a pet, so The Underworld needed guards to keep watch, day and night… If there was such a thing as day in this forsaken place.

My eyes averted from the swirling base of the vortex to the solid stone ceiling.

Surely, I could just pass through that. We were underground, as the name of this realm made obvious. I was a ghost. If I could just keep passing through the earth, surely I would reach the surface. I just had to sink into the ceiling without the guards noticing me.

Remaining close to the shadows of the craggy walls, I drifted upward, higher and higher. Every moment that passed, I kept expecting one of them to catch my movement from the corner of their eye, so I went slowly. Painfully slowly. Anticipation brewed within me as I reached within several feet of the roof. I sped up a little, wishing I could just vanish out of this place already. But when I reached the top of the ceiling, it was like a barrier. I could not pass through. No matter how much I pushed and willed myself to sink into it, it was impossible.

After shooting another glance at the guards to make sure that they were still preoccupied, I attempted to pass through the ceiling yet again, in a different spot this time. Then again, and again, at various intervals.
Dammit
. I didn’t know how, but just like that coffin—and Julie’s box—they’d managed to make these ceilings impervious to ghosts. I found myself wondering whether the Elder box had originally been the possession of a ghoul, rather than the warlock Julie had claimed it was a gift from.

I steeled myself against the failure. It became obvious to me now that the only exit was that swirling tunnel of water.

But… how do I reach it?

Glancing from the ghouls to the vortex, I guessed that I hardly had anything to lose… but everything to gain if I managed to lose myself in the rough waters before they could pull me back.

I closed in on the ceiling again, but this time, instead of attempting to pass through it, I flattened myself against it at a hundred-and-eighty-degree angle—my front facing the twinkling lake beneath.

Slowly but surely, I summoned the courage to glide closer and closer to the base of the whirlpool. As I arrived within several feet above them, they were still absorbed in their freakish conversation.

Fixing my focus on the surging waters, and shoving aside my fear of the ghouls beneath, I knew that I would only have one shot at this.

I can do this. I can do this.

But as it turned out, I couldn’t.

I didn’t even reach the entrance. Far from it. The moment I lunged to close the final short distance between myself and the vortex, the ghouls spotted me and whirled on me with such speed that I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d noticed me in the room all along. All ten of them barricaded me, blocking my way, and I knew then that the game was over. There was no point in continuing this attempt. I had to abandon the mission.

Now my only focus became escaping the ghouls’ grasp. As one of them launched at me, I whirled around and zoomed back to the passage of water. Entering the tunnel and speeding with all that I had along the canal, I heard a harrowing moan close behind me.

I cannot get caught. I cannot get caught.

Emerging in the second cavern that held the main door, I didn’t even dare look behind me as I whizzed across the last of the water and sank through the wood.
Faster. Faster.
I passed along the dark corridor and then through chamber after chamber of the luminescent ponds. The ghoul hadn’t caught up with me yet, although I was under no illusion that I’d lost him yet. Far from it. I still heard and sensed his presence. But it was at least some comfort to realize that my speed seemed to be a match for his. Even if I could not see ghouls, I could still flee from them. Though, as I sped further and further from the exit, “fleeing” hardly seemed like the appropriate term.
Fleeing deeper into their clutches, maybe
.

I was traveling so fast, my surroundings were a blur by now. I was vaguely aware that I was still trailing through chambers filled with pools—due to the dim pale light that whizzed by—but soon, even that familiar surrounding disappeared. All became darker, much darker. I must have traveled miles and miles by now.
How big is their lair?

After what felt like ten more minutes had passed, the eerie noises the ghoul had been making disappeared. I dared slow down a little after I passed through what felt like the hundredth stone wall. And then I even dared to stop completely.

I found myself gazing around a large chamber, lit by torches. Its floors and walls were bare, with no signs even of the morbid decorations I had become accustomed to seeing in every room. There was, however, what appeared to be a towering cage at the opposite end of the room. I couldn’t immediately see what it contained, as it was cast in shadow, and I didn’t have time to stand and stare. I moved to a corner on my left, partly submerged in the wall in case the ghoul was still hot on my heels. As I waited in tense silence, still expecting the ghoul to burst through the wall at any moment, I tried to scrutinize the cage more closely. A hulking figure stirred. It extended… a tail? A long, thick, silver-scaled tail. As my eyes traced a large, oblong head, I realized that it was a dragon.

How on earth could these ghouls have caught a dragon? And where would they have found it?

As the dragon settled, lowering its head again and apparently drifting back into slumber, I turned my thoughts back to the ghoul. He could be invisible of course, but I couldn’t shake the hope that perhaps, as I’d sped through corridor after corridor, chamber after chamber, I’d managed to lose him after all. At least for now. Maybe he didn’t even care. I was away from the exit, back within the depths of The Underworld. He’d think I would get caught sooner or later anyway, and dumped back in my pond.

Staying close to the edges of the room, I left the chamber containing the dragon and passed through to the next. Here, I was surprised to find an entire room lined with cages, albeit much smaller ones than the dragons’. In the flickering light of the torches, I realized that they were filled with mostly earth animals—and domesticated ones at that. Dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, even a few donkeys. I wondered how many of these were stray, and how many they had kidnapped from homes. Then there were also some wilder creatures: foxes, squirrels and pigeons.

I wondered what fate lay in store for these poor animals. I recalled everything that my parents had experienced of ghouls. The way they killed and ate their victims’ guts. Perhaps all the living creatures here in these cells were being kept for food, unlike the ghosts who were simply for pleasure.

Thankfully, I saw no humans… yet. It was quite possible that they would be kept somewhere else, and that was a sight that I really did not want to see.

My suspicion was confirmed as the next chamber I passed into appeared to be some kind of gruesome butchery room. The tables were covered with knives and stained with blood. And in the far corner was the dissected carcass of a horse.

My stomach would have churned if I’d had one.

Fixing my eyes ahead on the wall opposite, I kept moving. I had almost reached it when I froze. I heard the sound of ghouls tittering, coming from the other side of the wall. Then the sound of a door creaking open. Ghouls were approaching. My first instinct was to sink into the floor, rather than head back from where I’d just come—where I might come across the wandering guard who’d been chasing me before.

Big mistake.

As I emerged through the ceiling of the room below, it was to see that it was occupied by a ghoul. What appeared to be—from her withered breasts—a female ghoul. I’d carelessly flung myself too low into the room and her beady eyes shot up at me. A freakish grin split her face, and she lurched for me. I was forced back into the butchery room, but now two ghouls had already entered.

I whizzed upward through the ceiling of the chamber, praying I wouldn’t encounter yet another ghoul-infested room. I was already being chased by three now. Thankfully, it was empty. I hurtled with supernatural speed again, barely paying attention to where I was going. I zigzagged left and right, moved up several floors and then down several more—attempting to travel through the thick stone walls as much as I could, rather than in the open chambers. But in my hurry, I couldn’t always be so calculated. I found that the higher I went, the more crowded the rooms appeared to be, and by the time I figured out that the safest place for me would be downward, I must have already rounded up at least a dozen ghouls behind me in the chase. I was sure that the old werewolf’s words were true. They seemed to enjoy the chase. It was like a game for them.

A game I cannot let them win.

I focused on shooting downward, level after level, even as I tried to travel diagonally, rather than a straight line. I figured that would get them off my tail faster. And eventually, I succeeded… at least, as far as I could tell. By the time I gathered courage enough to stop, I’d gotten so thoroughly lost in the depths of The Underworld, I didn’t want to think how long it would take me to find my way back to the exit. I realized that I was back in a familiar setting, although many, many miles deeper. Ponds surrounded me on either side, except these ponds weren’t nearly as luminous as the ones above. They emitted only a faint, dull aura, like the light of a dying glowworm. These ponds didn’t swarm, either.

Moving closer to the nearest pool to me, I could make out the forms of ghosts deep beneath the surface. They appeared to be piled together and lying at the bottom of the pond. I couldn’t spot the slightest bit of movement from any of them. Still anxious that some of the ghouls had kept up the chase, I figured that down there would be a good place to wait until I’d recovered my nerves and figured out what to do next. I sank into the pool, my eyes raking over the comatose ghosts. Some of them were curled up in a fetal position, while others just floated on their backs, faces panned upward, with blank, vacant expressions. It was freaky to see that some even had their eyes open, just staring listlessly up at the surface. None gave any signs that they had noticed me. It really was as though they were dead.

I was beginning to have second thoughts about stopping in this creepy pool, wondering whether I should just keep moving after all… but no. After that harrowing hunt, I wasn’t willing to just keep moving blindly through the walls anymore. I needed at least a few minutes to recover, gather my wits about me and come up with some kind of strategy. I was certainly safer down here—where I could merge in among the other ghosts—than out in the open.