Curse Carrier Book 1 Of The Curse Carriers Series

Chapter 45: Alarm

Shin POV

Shin is woken suddenly by his phone buzzing loudly. He sits up and grabs it. A red light is flashing and the moment he unlocks it an app opens telling him an alarm has been tripped. He scans the floor plans of which alarms were being tripped. So far two had been tripped and as he was looking at the floor plans a third one was tripped. He opened the camera feature to see if he could catch a glimpse of who was setting the alarms off.

The camera didn't reveal much. The first three showed nothing but static. They had already been broken which was probably what set the alarm off. The fourth one in the hallway is only showing a white fog. Shin sees a dark shadow appear in the fog. When it gets close to the camera it has a hard time focusing on the person through the condensation on the lens. He can see it's a Curse Carrier in his black uniform but he can't tell who it is. He reaches for the camera and the picture turns to static and a fourth alarm is set off.

He jumps out of bed and uses his phone's light to throw on his boots and jacket. He pockets his phone already having memorized where the Curse Carrier is. He pulls on his gloves as he runs out the door and heads for the elevator. In the elevator he pulls out his phone and dials Curse.

"Where are you?" He demands the moment she picks up.

"I'm in Sammael's office." She says.

Shin curses under his breath and taps his foot impatiently. The intruder is on the same floor as Sammael's office. Undoubtedly he's heading there. Shin pulls up the app and sees that three more cameras have been destroyed. He opens the one nearest to the last one and sees the shape moving through a cloud of mist again.

"Lock the door and do not let anyone in. I am on my way." Shin tells her. "I think I know who is on that floor." He looks at the figure as it stops by the camera and that one also goes dead. This time though he's almost positive he saw blonde hair.

"The room has already been put in lock down. I don't think anyone can get in now." Curse tells him. "Who is attacking?" She asks.

Shin runs out of the elevator the second the doors open. "I think it is Kiri." He tells her. "I'm on the floor now. I will be there in five minutes." He says and hangs up.

On the office floor the alarms are screaming and the red alarm lights are flashing. The air has a warm wet stickiness to it like a hot spring day. Condensation is dripping off the ceiling and sliding down the walls. As he runs down the halls he looks for the guards that are supposed to be stationed at every intersection on this floor. Shin sees them lying on the floor or slumped against the walls. None of them are bleeding or seem to be injured. So they must be alive. Shin suddenly feels doubtful Kiri is responsible for this. He's never heard of Kiri showing the combat prowess it would take to pull off something like this without killing the guards.

He doesn't have time to make sure they're actually unconscious but there's no blood and their skin doesn't look paler than normal. He sprints to the hallway that leads to Sammael's office but before he starts running down it he sees the door to the office is open. The hallway is filled with a cloud of mist spilling out of the office and flowing across the ground.

He runs down the hall and into the office. He looks around for Curse but is blinded by a thick cloud of fog. The fog feels unnaturally ice cold like it's coming from a freezer. "Curse!" He calls into the room.

"I'm over here." He hears her voice. He moves through the cloud towards her voice. When he's a few feet away he finally sees her sitting on the floor beside a chair that's been knocked over. She looks relieved to see him. "You're right. It was Kiri."

Shin feels surprised his first guess was right then confused. "Kiri does not have this kind of combat ability though." Shin tells her.

"He is Kami's training partner. It would not surprise me if his fighting ability is better than he lets on." She replies. She points to the door to Sammel's personal quarters. "Kiri backed Sammael into his room. They just left before you came in." She tells him.