The Median

speak of grew but he managed to sway his attention back to the greater importance.

  “No!” She squirmed back from him along the wall “That’s where they were, I thought I could escape them but they followed me, I don’t know how” She calmed and looked at Richard carefully “You’re not one of them, though, are you?”

  “Who are ‘They?’” he finally asked, “what are they?”

  She turned her head and gazed into the open room. “They are the starless night…They plague of the void…” she spoke slowly, transfixed upon something in the room and raised a shaking arm; finger outstretched. “They are his dark minions.”

  Richard spun round and backed into the corner as he laid eyes on something he never truly believed, a myth of the underworld and what he had hoped never to become faced with. “Reavers!”

  Reavers were a mythical demon of the border worlds, twisted amalgamations of outcast spirits, formed into horrific visions of the void between life and death. Stories told of them prowling silently through the borders seeking lost souls to corrupt and make theirs.

  Three stood hooded and silent, near motionless, simply swaying slightly in a haunting, simultaneous fashion. Each looked different; their spirits merged in different ways but all were a sickening charred red colour, as though their flesh had been stripped and burnt. One stood with a single twin jointed leg aside a normal one with sharpened elongate bones protruding from its elbows and a third limb reaching out from inside its half exposed rib cage. The other two had normal limbs, only with their finger tips sharpened to needle points with one seeming to have faces pressing up against the inside of its chest. None of the creatures faces were distinguishable, only dull yellow glows from their eyes emanated from beneath their hoods.

  Hollie gradually opened her hand out and waved across each one in turn, leaning forward slightly as Richard tried to pull her away. “Seeker…” she stated across the most human of them, “Carrier…” she waved across the second most human and gazed at the faces in its chest sorely before moving on to the last one. She grimaced at this abomination of a creature and darkened her voice, “…Hunter.”

  Richard stared at her for a second; hardly able to believe she knew so much about their hierarchy but pulled her back and managed to manoeuvre himself in front of her, unsure if this would make any kind of difference if they attacked. “From what I know of these things they can only take willing souls. Don’t give into them!” warned Richard harshly.

  A hissed breath drew from the Seeker and it took a step forward with its near skeletal feet clicking hideously on the wood panelled floor. “You will…Come…With us,” it’s chilling hissed voice was abrupt and disjointed, intended to invoke fear into everything it met. “You have…No choice.”

  “I think we do,” Richard replied aggressively, “if you want us you’ll have to take us by force…But you can’t do that, can you?”

  The Seeker glanced back and forth between them. “We do not…Desire you…” it turned to Hollie sharply, “he does,” it replied in low, malignant tones. “You will…Be taken…” The Hunter stepped in line with The Seeker and turned slowly back towards Richard, stretching its long, sharp fingers. “You will…Perish.”

  Hollie stood up abruptly and moved in front of Richard. “Maybe it is time,” she took a step forward. “I will go with you, but he must go free,” she pointed backwards toward Richard.

  “No!” he stood up shouting and tried to pull Hollie back again but was shrugged off.

  “You have no need for him; he’s just a guy,” without turning she pressed Richard back, keeping him silent, “do we have an agreement?”

  “You can’t do this,” Richard snapped finally, “I’m here to help you! You don’t realise what’s at stake, you can’t go with them!”

  “I know who you are,” she whispered to him, “they will kill you and take me anyway…” she turned around and looked at Richard meaningfully. Her solitude induced madness was fading and her true sight was beginning to re-establish its self. “I don’t know what’s happening to me but I know you’re going to have to save me…And, I don’t know how but I know you can,” Richard didn’t know what to think but slowly took a step back concluding there wasn’t any other choice. “So, do we?” Hollie asked the Reavers sternly, completely terrified of what she was doing.

  The Reavers were completely silent and still for a few more seconds until The Seeker reached up with jerked, deliberate movements about to pull the hood from its head but stopped short and lowered the clawed hand. “Your...Proposal has been…Accepted.”

  The Carrier looked at Hollie expectantly forcing her to begrudgingly step slowly towards it. As she did The Hunter quickly struck out towards Richard, gripping him tightly around the neck and carrying him to the nearest window.

  “No!” Hollie screamed, squirming against The Carrier that was now holding her, “you said he’d be spared!”

  “He will not…be harmed…” The Seeker stated in not the most re-assuring way.

  The Hunter raised Richard up, tightening its grip as its eyes glowed a brighter yellow. “…Much,” it added to its counterparts statement before throwing Richard as hard as it could, shattering the windows image on the world, letting him fall helplessly to the concrete street two floors below.

  The Seeker looked to Hollie, its pinpoint eyes standing out against the harrowing darkness in its cowl. Eventually low hissed words slithered from the tattered hood and struck a cold, primal fear into even single part of her being. It simply said, “you are his.”

  I-VI – The Other Side

  “For many are called, but few are chosen”

  -Matthew 22:14

  Pushing the gurney hurriedly down the corridor it suddenly dawned on Michael that, when compared to getting both himself and Hollies body out of the hospital completely unnoticed, everything he had been so terrified going through already that night was by any stretch of the imagination the easy part. He abruptly stopped and looked at the black body bag that contained Hollie, still cool to the touch, and breathed heavily unsure of whether he was really able to get her out. He then flicked up his arm, pushing back his sleeve in one fell motion to reveal his watch. It was closing in on two in the morning so it should have been easy enough to go unnoticed once out of the hospital, he tried to reassure himself. He nodded to himself slightly and started pushing the gurney again. Knowing that he would never get out the way he had come in, already he had begun to follow signs directing to the service exit, presumably where undertakers picked up bodies. He hoped that there would be room for the gurney for wheeling a body from a hospital was one thing but carrying one was something entirely, and much more suspiciously, different. The gurneys wheels squeaked faintly down the polished corridor as distant sounds could be heard of personal re-entering the building forcing Michael to try and pick up his pace. Eventually, having managed to keep ahead of the sprawl of staff and patients approaching, Michael came out onto a much wider corridor lined with a number more gurneys, some with body bags still containing bodies awaiting transport. He continued on, cautiously, towards a pair of wide double doors leading to a dark car park beyond, with a deep sense that being caught by the authorities for body snatching may be the least of his worries. Suddenly, this came all too apparent as he stopped abruptly, staring at the floor ahead. Drops of still fresh blood trailed down the corridor, becoming more prevalent as his eyes followed it towards the night. Spatter was smeared across the smooth surface and eventually small pools led silently and still to a single leg protruding out from behind one of the stationary beds. Fearing the worst, all Michael could do was press on but as he took a tentative step forward the fluorescent lights overhead began to flicker before failing altogether with a distant buzz. The sudden loss of light left him in a complete, uneasing blackness, with his eyes taking several seconds to attribute themselves to the low street light feeding in through the far doors. As they did a silhouette was outlined against the outside, its slumped and stiff appearance giving little hope of thi
s being anyone of kind intensions.

  Michael watched the lone figure for longer than was comfortable until it abruptly spoke in a piercing, gravelly tone. “How does it feel, my boy?”

  “I know that voice,” Michael stated suddenly, shaking steadily with fear, “it’s you.”

  Millaian walked forward slowly, withdrawing his scalpel from a pocket of his bloodied trousers. “Yes, of course you do…But in more ways than you care to accept.”

  “I’ll never let you have her!” he snapped, stepping in front of the gurney, “not so long as I draw breath!”

  Millaian laughed quietly and stopped his slow advance. “Although I would relish the opportunity to take you up on your offer, I do not need her shell. It is of no importance to me.” In the darkness a half faced grin cut across what was left of his lips and he started to stagger towards Michael again. “I have her essence and that is all I require…No, it is not her I desire…It is you.”

  Michael was startled back into the gurney, making it clatter loudly. “Why?” he managed, shaking uncontrollably.

  “Of course you do not know, he would have it kept from you…To keep you weak…And now his weakness has lead to his death,” he pointed the scalpel accusingly at Michael, grimacing and gritting