04
Orias

The lights that swarmed around them bore an otherworldly force, one so powerful it threatened to consume him. When they began to close in, Orias ducked for cover, but the lights did not come for him. Instead, they swirled around Vinnie, and he seemed to welcome them with curiosity. The lights did not stay long, soon flying away from the younger man and dissipated into the marble halls behind them.

“Vincent!” The knight didn’t hesitate to go to his companion’s side. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” said Vinnie. “Really, I’m not hurt.”

That seemed to do little to reassure Reese, who was already looking over Vinnie for even the slightest injury.

As their bickering continued, Briar came up to Orias. “How ‘bout you, you doing alright?”

“I’m… fine,” Orias said. “Startled, is all.”

“Yea, me too. This place is starting to creep me out.” She then turned toward Vinnie and Reese, “Hey, we should head back and see if we can find anyone else still at the site.” Briar said. Almost immediately, the two men dropped their argument and fell in line behind them.

As they headed for the doors, however, a black fog began settling in the air. It started as a subtle haze then quickly thickened into a miasma, nearly blotting out the crystal lights glittering along the chapel’s walls.

“What’s going on?” Vinnie asked. The airborne substance seemed to cling onto them, leaving behind small black stains on their clothes.

He heard something behind them, like the sound of viscous liquid hitting the floor. When he turned around, Orias saw as an inky black figure began to emerge from the fog. At first it swayed as if it was unable to handle its own weight. But its shape began to solidify into… something. It looked vaguely like a person, but its figure remained dipped in shadows. It then opened its eyes, two white diamonds that began to split into several more across its body. It took an unnatural step forward, surveying the room it appeared in. Then another step, and it was analyzing the four of them.

Orias made eye contact with it. Something tugged at the back of his mind… recognition, but he didn’t realize why it felt familiar.

The creature had no interest in him, lolling its sight away from Orias and onto someone else.

Vincent.

It lunged for the young man, its arms splitting open wide to capture him. Orias barely pulled him out of the way as the creature crashed into the pews, splintering the wood from its weight.

Already back on its feet, it made another grab for Vinnie, this time, being greeted by the blade of Reese’s sword. The creature wrapped its arms around the blade, trying to disarm him. But Reese use it as a chance to throw the creature to the floor.

“GO! Quickly!” Reese shouted, readying himself for another attack. Orias and the others heeded his command and fled for the chapel doors, and before the creature had the chance to pursue them, Reese dealt a clean slash across its back, the black sludge that made up its body staining the marble.

Reese then met them at the threshold, but instead of following them back to the foyer, he stayed where he was.

“I’ll buy you all time to get out of here,” Reese stated. He looked Orias in the eye. “I’m trusting you and Ms. Fulcanelli to get Vincent out of here safely.”

“What? We aren’t just leaving you behind!” Vinnie protested.

Reese said nothing to him. Instead, he began pushing the doors shut.

Vinnie tried to stop him, but Orias stepped in, grabbing Vinnie by the wrist and trying to pull him away.

“Wait, I can’t—” Vinnie tried to wriggle out of his grip. “We can’t leave him!”

“We need to leave!”

“Let go of me!” he yelled, but Orias refused to let him go. “Reese— REESE!!”

The entrance seemed so distant than when they had first arrived, the hallway having seemingly elongated as the thick miasma drenched the air. It followed them out into the foyer, spreading along the marble walls and greenery and staining them black.

Briar reached the entrance first. She skidded to a stop when she made it outside and turned around to beckon them to hurry. From behind them, they heard the loud splintering of wood and black threads spilled down the foyer’s stairs ahead of Orias and Vinnie.

Before the two of them even had a chance to make it outside, a shadowy barricade shot up from the threads, trapping them inside. From the outside, Briar was trying to tear open the barricade but to no avail. The more tendrils that were removed, the more that simply replaced them.

“I can’t get through!” Briar shouted, recoiling as the shadows then tried to latch onto her.

Behind them, the creature was descending the staircase, its unsteadiness having vanished as it stalked closer toward them. The shadows forming its body began to warp into a new shape as a hungry maw of eyes and arms emerged from its form, reaching out to consume them. It absorbed the light filtered in by the stain glass window above them.

“I need you to trust me,” Orias spoke.

Vinnie seemed uncertain, but with no other option, he nodded.

Orias picked Vinnie up in his arms and as the creature approached, the miasma began to condense around him. But this time it wasn’t their pursuer’s doing.

Black tendrils sprouted from Orias’ back, twisting themselves into shape until they imitated a pair of wings. With one swift motion, the wings lifted them into the air as the creature lunged at them. It swung its misshapen arms nicking his wings, but the black mass growing off him repaired what went missing.

“Hold on tight,” he said to Vinnie who in turned tightened his arms around Orias’ neck.

He flew toward the window, and the creature opened its jaws to devour them.

It would be met with the taste of glass.