Shadow of Death | An Infinity War Story

Shadow of Death

Annabelle Kairo sat in her room, silent and alone as the screams filled the halls outside. There had always screams in the halls of the Ravencroft Psychiatric Institution, at least for the months she had been there. But these screams were different. This time it was all of them. The patients, the nurses, the doctors, earsplitting in its indiscriminateness. Annabelle heard the screams, and it felt them.

"Leave." It whispered to her. "They will not stop us now."

Annabelle shivered as the voice spoke to her. It was louder now. Anna told herself it was the lack of medication. They would simply need to increase the medication, just like they had been doing for almost six months, but she knew it wasn't. Even if it was, she knew there was no one left to change the dosage. She could sense it. It could sense it.

"Walk away. The two of us. Together..."

"No." She said sternly, scrunching the rough sheets of her bed in her hands. "No. Go away."

"We can help them, Anna. You can help them. It is your duty..."

"No. It's not my duty. You're not real. That's what they told me you're not-"

"I am as real as you, Anna. I am real, and they aare dead. Reduced to ashes and dust. You can feel them. Feel their souls. They call to you. To their guardian."

They did. Anna could hear them. All of them. The voices, dozens of them, hundreds of them, possibly, loud but indistinct like the voices on a packed city street, echoing inside her solitary room. Inside her head. "No. No please, no..." She stammered, "Please, I'm not their guardian. Please, make them stop. Please."

"You were chosen."

Anna pushed herself up from the bed, shaking violently as she stumbled towards the sink in the corner of her room. She turned on the taps, frantically splashing water in her face. She gripped the porcelain dish, trying to steady herself, trying to shut them out. Her hair was pinned to her dark face as she stared into her own reflection in the small mirror above the basin. She looked into the eyes which were no longer her own, the chocolate brown replaced by shimmering orbs of pupil-less gold. She watched as the smoke began to curl around her, seeping from beneath her feet, from her hands and from beneath her hair and clothes. She felt stronger... More alert... More powerful.

Anna opened the door to her room, moving down the hall. He footprints left impressions in the thick dust which still settled on the ground around her, captured in every detail in her heightened sight as it was illuminated in the blinding rays of afternoon sun which streamed through the uncovered windows. A nurse stumbled from a doorway, crashing into Anna. The patient caught the woman. She could feel it coming. All of her senses were alerted to its presence. Alerted to her death.

"Please..." The nurse managed, before she disintegrated, her body collapsing to dust in Anna's arms... Which remained wrapped around the woman long after her physical form had vanished. The transparent, etherial form of the woman stayed pressed against her. "What-What's happening?" She stammered, pushing away from the girl. As she did, the nurse floated upwards, hanging and flailing in the air.

"Do not fear." Anna said. But it wasn't her voice alone which projected towards the nurse. It was layered, held beneath with a much deeper tone, the source of which soon became apparent. Something dark, and inhuman. "Take my hand..."

As Anna stretched out her hand, another form began to take shape, the smoke previously billowing from her solidifying in the other realm. A tall, jackal headed figure, its shadowy form layered shimmering over the teenager's as she reached through the astral plane towards the spirit. The nurse reached out, and as she grasped the spindly hand of the creature, her projection vanished in a flash of light. Anna inhaled sharply, a feeling of warmth flooding her chest. It felt... Good.