Chapter 10: Seeing Is Believing
As Jen began to ascend the narrow staircase, her heart pounded in her chest. The blue-purple light barely pierced through the thick, swirling fog creeping down from above, making each step feel heavier. She tensed as she felt a firm hand on her shoulder. Whipping around, she saw Eric standing behind her, his expression serious. He raised the Quantum Defender, its surface scuffed but still functional. Jen caught the gleam of determination in his eyes and nodded, stepping aside to let him take the lead.
"I thought you said that thing was done for," she whispered.
Eric flashed a wry smile, glancing down at the weapon. "The fancy stuff's fried until I can get it fixed or morph, but I can still fire off a laser or two. Right now, that's all we've got."
Jen's eyes flickered as she pulled her morpher from her bag. "Not for long," she muttered, strapping it on with a quiet resolve.
Before she could fasten it, Taylor gently placed her hand over hers, stopping her movement. "Hold on. Let's not go there just yet."
Jen met her gaze, her brow furrowing, but she didn't pull away. "It's okay," she said softly. "They let me keep this for times when the world starts getting weird. And looking for a Horseman upstairs? I'd say that qualifies."
Taylor chuckled, though there was little humor in it. "Still not the weirdest thing we've done."
They continued their climb, each step echoing faintly in the eerie silence. Ghostly faces seemed to press out from the walls, their mournful expressions half-formed in the swirling mist. But the trio pressed on.
At the top of the staircase, they moved with precision, methodically clearing each room. The air grew heavier with each door they opened. Eric led them into a bedroom that seemed to shimmer under the faint hues of blue and purple light. Fog clung low, pooling around the legs of a grand, four-poster bed. The rich wood was barely visible beneath the shifting veil of mist, but it was clear that the bed was made with meticulous care. Its high, ornate headboard loomed like a silent sentinel, the crooked paintings above it casting long, distorted shadows.
Heavy drapes were drawn tightly over the windows, sealing off any glimpse of the outside world. A desk in the far corner sat cluttered with an oil lamp that flickered erratically, casting jittery shadows across the walls. An open book lay discarded on the surface, its pages filled with hurried, indecipherable scribbles that seemed to bleed into one another.
Nearby, an ornate vanity had been knocked into disarray, delicate perfume bottles toppled over, their contents spilled and pooling on the surface in iridescent patterns. The air was thick with the faint scent of flowers mixed with something sour and metallic. Above the vanity, a large mirror hung askew, its cracked surface reflecting only fragments of the room. Every so often, the mirror's reflection flickered, revealing a spectral figure in the glass, its form shifting and twisting with the light.
"Is this all we had in this room?" Jen asked as she crouched by the bed. She tried to look under it but immediately pulled away coughing, brushing the fog away from her eyes and mouth.
"I think we had a couple of actors in here," Eric whispered as he peeked in the closet.
"God, I hope they all got out."
"Hopefully they got the signal and bailed and if not are at least in the same place as Alyssa," said Taylor as she stepped out of the room and scanned the hallway. "We find her, we find anyone else that might've got grabbed, I hope."
Jen followed Taylor out. "Maybe we should switch gears? Look for the person behind this, maybe that gets us both."
Eric pushed through and pointed at the door across the hall, the women nodded and he stepped forward, clutching his blaster. "If we had something to go on, I'd be all for it. But if this is what we think it is, I'm more concerned about finding Alyssa and anyone else. The bad guys and the magic go away at midnight, we don't want anyone trapped somewhere we can't get to them."
"And that's if they play by the rules," Taylor said softly, as they followed him into a smaller room. Similar long drapes hung over the windows, with one pulled to the side. In front of it, was a small circular table with a glowing orb sitting on it. The rest of the room was lined with bookshelves and a large chintz armchair. The most striking feature of this room, however, was a chandelier of skulls with flickering lights.
"That thing is just creepy," said Jen.
"The kids love it though," Eric whispered as his eyes scanned the ceiling. He made his way to the drapes and shifted them to the side. "There's nothing in here."
A loud giggle echoed in the room. Taylor and Jen looked up at each other with wide eyes. Eric frowned when he noticed they'd stopped moving and looked from one to the other. "What?"
"Did you not hear that? The giggling?"
"Guys," Jen's voice interrupted before Eric could answer, as she took a step back, "I don't think that's the fog machine malfunctioning."
The other two looked down, noticing the fog growing thicker as it rose higher. Eric gripped his blaster tighter and backed up, Jen and Taylor mirroring him so that they stood with their backs to each other, sliding into stances. The gentle sound of their breathing was all they could hear until a soft chatter pierced through the quiet.
"That I hear," Eric declared as Jen looked are around.
The sound grew louder and louder, drawing Taylor's eyes to the ceiling. "Uh guys…"
They followed her gaze upward and gasped as the skulls pulled away from the brackets holding them in place. Their jaws snapped open and closed with unnerving speed, and their hollow eye sockets ignited with an eerie pink glow. They whirled around the room like a swarm of malevolent fireflies, ricocheting off the walls and furniture with relentless energy.
One skull, its trajectory sharp and unerring, darted around an armchair and headed straight for Taylor. She ducked just in time, but the fog that had accumulated in the room rushed into her mouth and nose, making her cough violently. Meanwhile, Eric raised his blaster, aiming desperately at the whizzing skulls, but their erratic movement made targeting nearly impossible. Out of nowhere, a skull surged up from the fog and slammed into Eric's side, sending him sprawling to his knees.
"For plastic skulls, those things pack a punch," Eric grunted, his words punctuated by a fit of coughs as the fog continued to assault him.
Jen backed up against a table, her body twisting and turning as the skulls dive-bombed her with relentless precision. Her hands groped the table's surface until they encountered a smooth, spherical object. Grasping it tightly, she hurled it at an incoming skull. The orb struck the skull's side, diverting its path and causing the orb to smash into the floor. The skulls regrouped and continued their assault. Jen backed up to the window, clutching the heavy drapes for support.
As she waited for the skulls to make their next move, she felt something move. The curtain began to wrap itself around her, its fabric constricting with an alarming strength. She tried to call out, but only a strangled gasp escaped her lips as the curtain tightened around her chest and throat. Her vision, already clouded by the fog, grew increasingly dim as her strength waned.
Eric, still struggling with the skulls, managed to raise his arm and fire at the curtain. The shot severed it from the pelmet, forcing the constricting fabric to loosen and fall away. Jen slumped back against the window, gasping for air, as the skulls began to circle Eric again. One of them seized Eric's blaster, clamping it tightly in its jaws, while another skull smacked into his chin, consequently loosening his grip and dislodging the weapon.
Taylor, regaining her composure, scrambled over to Jen. She wrenched the drape from Jen's body, who was taking deep, labored breaths interspersed with coughs. Taylor helped Jen to her feet just as five skulls hovered menacingly before them, their eyes glowing brighter and their teeth clicking with anticipation.
Taylor gripped the curtain tightly and turned to Jen, who gave a weak nod in response. As the skulls surged forward, the two women ducked and stumbled, barely avoiding their snapping jaws. The skulls stopped just short of the window, then reversed direction. Seizing the opportunity, they hurled the heavy drape over the hovering skulls, pulling them down with a forceful tug. Taylor scrambled to secure the ends, trapping the skulls, before pulling Jen's arm over her shoulder and hauling her out the door.
"Eric we have to get out of here"
The women stumbled through the door and took deep breaths, the fog barely covering the floor in the hallway. Eric backed up near the door, his jacket pulled up to shield his mouth and nose.
"Those stupid things have my Quantum Defender."
"There is no way you're going to find it in that mess."
"I just wish we could see things," Jen grumbles, hands clenching at her sides.
"Uh Jen…"
Jen's gaze flickered to Taylor, but her attention wasn't on her. Her eyes were fixed on something else. Following her line of sight, Jen's focus narrowed in on the bag slung over her shoulder. A vibrant green glow pulsed from within.
Her heart raced. With a trembling hand, she dug into her bag, fingers brushing against the strange card she had received from the old woman. The moment it touched her skin, it burned with light. She pulled it out, her breath catching in her throat as the image of eyes etched into the card began to glow intensely, almost as if the eyes were alive, watching her. Jen's gaze locked onto it, unable to pull away, as though the card held her in a trance.
She felt a soft, insistent tickle around her eyes, growing stronger by the second. She gasped, feeling the prickling heat intensify, and as the sensation deepened, the card in her hand began to crumble, turning to dust.
"Jen?" Taylor's voice cut through the spell.
Jen tore her gaze from the dissolving card and looked up. Taylor was watching her, eyes wide. But there was something else — something more. A faint yellow aura clung to Taylor, soft and glowing, with a brighter, pulsating light near her side, illuminating the air around her like a spectral halo.
"Jen, are you okay? Your eyes… they're glowing."
Jen blinked, the pricking sensation around her eyes began to subside, but she could still feel the lingering thrum of energy. It buzzed through her skin like static electricity. Biting her lip, she turned her attention back toward the fog-filled room, now more determined than ever.
Without hesitation, she pushed past Taylor and Eric, her body propelled by instinct. The thick fog still clung to the air, heavy and suffocating, but her vision was unaffected — clearer than it had ever been. Everything stood out in sharp relief, as though the mist parted just for her. She immediately spotted the flying skull circling the room, its hollow eyes glowing ominously as it clutched Eric's Quantum Defender in its gnarled jaws.
Her fingers tightened around a heavy brass candlestick perched on a nearby table. With swift determination, she bolted across the room, her eyes locked onto the skull as it swooped through the air. In one powerful arc, she swung the candlestick, striking the side of the skull with a loud, resonant crack. The skull spun wildly, crashing to the floor with a shudder, and the Quantum Defender tumbled from its bony grasp, skidding across the floor.
Jen snatched it up without hesitation and sprinted back toward the doorway. The moment she crossed the threshold, she felt it again — something shifting in her vision, tugging at her senses. As she looked around, she could make out faint trails of green and pink energy, not entwined but almost as if they were facing off against each other. The strands of green energy were stronger the higher she looked.
Her eyes lifted instinctively toward the ceiling. There, through the wooden beams and cracks in the boards, a green orb glowed with an otherworldly brilliance, brighter than anything else in the house. It pulsed rhythmically, casting ghostly green light that seemed to penetrate the very walls.
"There's something upstairs," she whispered, her voice trembling.
Eric and Taylor turned to each other, but before they could react to what was happening in front of them a scream from below captured their attention.
"Andros!"