21 Century Haunting

|9|

Luke's P.O.V

"Where are they?" Ashton growls to himself, angrily peering into another room. We'd been searching for them for a while now, checking every room we'd come across. When I don't respond, he smashes his fist into the door frame, making it shudder and small bits of splintered wood to go tumbling to the ground.

"You have to be patient," I say, probably for the millionth time. "They'll show up eventually. This place isn't very big"

"Do you not understand?" Ashton spits, whirling around. "We have about twenty minutes to find them all or else they'll get out. And if they get out, we die."

Ashton was quoting Samuel - the leader of the Adsuetum. The Adsuetum had been haunting the hotel for centuries, coming out of hiding whenever someone set foot though the doors, changing people into monsters to fortify their ranks. To do what, I was not sure, but Samuel seemed to have a plan.

"Fine!" I say, rolling my eyes. I watch as Ashton tramps through the hallway, smashing debris into to smaller bits and getting dust all over his feet. I follow in his footprints, taking care not to make any loud sounds.

"I can smell them," Ashton grunts, inhaling the scents with his nose in the air. He moves his head slowly from side to side, trying to find out where they are. I sniff the air too, ignoring the smell of rot coming off of Ashton and the ever abundant dust. Before I can actually catch the scent though, Ashton finds its and goes stomping off, leaving me no choice but to follow. Getting lost would only hurt the amount of time we had left.

Ashton keeps up his fast pace, quickly choosing paths and turning corners. He seemed to have the entire place mapped in his head even though he hadn't spent much time here. After a few moments of running, Ashton gives a snort of delight and runs abruptly into a room. I follow shortly, my eyes widening as I took in the sight.

Mikey and Calum were holding knives and wielding them at an umbra creaturae that was prowling nearby, shying away from the blades. Two lay a few feet away, one bleeding from a chest wound and another from a stab in the gut. They seemed to be dead.

"It's going to kill Mikey and Calum," I hiss quietly at Ashton, never looking away from the scene. "We need to kill the umbra creaturae  and get them out."

Ashton nods. Shooting me a glance, he shifts into the person he was before, the ugly rotten skin twisting into a temporary mask of humanity. I duck behind an overturned table.

"Calum! Mikey!" Ashton shouts as he runs out. His voice sounds high pitched compared to the way he sounded a couple minutes ago, and it takes me a moment to figure out who was speaking.

Both boys turn their heads, shooting panicked looks at Ashton. "You're okay!" Mikey says.

I see Ashton nod his head. "Come on, we need to get out!"

Calum starts. "But-"

"Just keep your swords pointed at it as you walk out. It doesn't like bright things."

They follow Ashton's instructions, slowly moving towards me. I sigh in relief when they're out of the creatures line of fire.

"Phew," Calum says, lowering his knife as they leave the room. I slip out of the room unnoticed just before Ashton props a stray door in the frame and pushes a mound of debris behind it. The umbra creaturae could be deadly to us too. When they were preoccupied putting their knives away, I watched Ashton turn back to his monstrous state.

Calum does a double take when he looks up.

"Damn it! Run, Mikey!"He shoves Mikey in one direction before scrambling in the other. Calum makes it to the end of the corridor, but Ashton catches him before he can get out of our sight. Mikey is luckier. He races through the hall and vaults a chair. I don't see it until it's too late and I fall ungracefully over it.

Mikey has gotten away.

heyyy! sorry for the late update, i've been busy as hell. i know i said that this was the last chapter, but i might need up to three more and an epilogue, so stay tuned for those!!

~lazaruseffect xx