I'm so sorry, it's been such a long time since I last updated . I've been extremely busy with school, but now I'm finished once and for all.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you're really helping me to keep up working on this stuff .

Sorry for the mistakes this time! And I have no idea if those little machines flying around the SeaQuest are called POD, so sorry if that's wrong…

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Greetings from the death

Chapter 4

A strange dizziness was overwhelming Lucas while walking through the cold corridors towards his cabin. Not only the embarrassing situation in the mess hall but also that creepy, inexplicable presence surrounding him made his senses go nuts.

Right now, he had the impression that the walls were reflecting the sound of cautious but malevolent foot-steps, following him just a few metres behind his back. The shiver running down his spine made him walk quicker, but the echo of the threatening foot-steps still haunted him. When he finally reached his cabin he quickly threw the door open…

…a few centimetres.

An over-human force was impeding him to open the door completely. He approached the small slit he had been capable to open to take a look inside and to possibly scold Tony for leaving his bag once again in front of the door. But there obviously was no Tony Piccolo inside the cabin. He leaned over and observed the small slit in the door more thoroughly. But instead of receiving an overall view of the room's interior…

… a black, bloodshot eye slid into his vision.

With a loud gasp Lucas fell backwards on the floor, his heart stopping to beat for several seconds.

The door slowly slid open, revealing the blood-stained face of the black-haired woman. When her skinny body enveloped in a black gown came into sight, she opened her mouth to reveal the crackling sound once again.

Half laying, half sitting on the floor, Lucas weren't capable of reacting. The fear made him regress, until the corridors wall impeded him to move further backwards.

The blood-besmeared woman took a first step into his direction, when Lucas heard his name being called from down the corridor.

"Lucas, let me talk to you."

A quick glance into the direction the voice had been coming from revealed him a worried looking Captain Bridger about to turn around the corner. In the same moment he heard the cabin door in front of him being shut with a tremendous noise and the woman had disappeared once again.

Lucas was still leaning against the wall and focusing on the closed iron door when Captain Bridger approached, signalling worry and confusion at the same time.

"Lucas?"

Bridger was shocked when Lucas eyes slowly drifted into his direction, but without focusing on him, as if his young protégé had lost every sense of reality. He bent down and gently laid a hand on Lucas shoulder.

"Lucas, are you alright?"

Recognition fought his way back into Lucas lifeless eyes and a barely audible whisper escaped his lips.

"Yes, I think so."

"You THINK so!",

Bridger stated worriedly,

"I think that's not enough…"

The Captain was about to tell Lucas a lesson about taking the responsibility for his own health, when his PAL came into life.

"Captain, we need you on Bridge. We have a… well…a problem here…"

Once again, Captain Bridger was worried by the shocked expression Lucas face had adopted after listening to the crackling sounds emitted by the P.A.L.

"I'll be there in a moment.",

the Captain transmitted to the Bridge. With a more soothingly tone of voice, he turned over to Lucas:

"Lucas, you come with me, I won't let you alone. You seem to be in some state of shock. I don't know if you once again forgot to eat for several days or if you tried to beat a new record on lack of sleep, but right now I will keep an eye on you, understood?

Lucas only nodded in agreement, as he weren't sure to be able to make his tongue speak coherent words anymore.

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When Bridger and Lucas finally reached the Bridge, they immediately noticed the complete silence the room was filled with. The whole crew seemed exceptionally concentrated on something that obviously couldn't be seen, but heard. Both Lucas and the Captain sat down and listened to the tons of water that were whirling around the Sea Quest. But they heard nothing else.

Just when Bridger was about to ask Commander Ford what exactly they were trying to hear, he noticed a very weak, but steady knock apparently originated on the outer coat. It somehow scared the sophisticated seamen, as it reminded him of somebody desperately knocking on a door to receive shelter.

"It's probably something interlocked outside.",

Bridger stated coolly in contrast to his inner suspicions,

"Mr Piccolo, send a POD so we can see what's causing that noise. And switch it on the screen."

Lucas was observing the screen with a worse feeling than ever before. So many bad and inexplicable things had been happening over the last few hours that his hopes had dropped to a new level.

When the camera of the POD approached the strange, knocking noise, he wished to be capable of closing his eyes, but he weren't. He was forced by his own curiosity to watch the lens of the POD focusing on the contour of a human body on the outer coat of the Sea Quest. A human body, inhumanly twisted, with its leg interlocked between two steps of the metal staircase which were meant only to be used on the surface. The moving water was knocking his head against the iron coat incessantly. His eyes and mouth were open in despair, the brutality of his death clearly visible in his face.

"Oh my God!",

O'Neill said shocked,

"Look, he doesn't even wear a diving suit, it's IMPOSSIBLE to move in the icy water without one. To say nothing of the lack of oxygen…"

"Somebody must have taken him there, there's no other explanation. And whoever it was, he wanted us to find him.",

Commander Ford added.

Lucas was the only one who really knew what was happening. In the moment he had been able to look into the distorted face of the dead person, he knew the game was going to be far more serious than he ever thought.

Because he knew that man. The victim was one of the young Ensigns that had been accompanying Commander Ford when he found Lucas in the room of the black-haired woman.

"Ju On…",

Lucas thought, a desperate grin appearing on his lips,

"A curse without escape…"

The next moment everything went black around him, his pained mind eager to find some fairly needed rest from the nightmares that were haunting him both in reality and in dreams…

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Sorry, it's been such a long time and now it is such a short chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.