THE DOOR SHUSHES closed behind me. The wide hospital hallway is empty and dim, the lights taken on a blue-greenish underwater tone. Shadows gather along the ceiling and where the walls meet the floor, giving the entire scene a filtered effect. Everything looks off, slightly stretched and coated in dirty Vaseline.
There’s spooky shit happening.
I spent nearly two weeks in this hospital at Daniel’s side before leaving on this … mission. It’s a busy medical center in the downtown of a major U.S. city. There was always someone around. Nurses, people visiting their loved ones, pastors giving comfort, janitors mopping, doctors on rounds.
Now the place feels empty.
As if me and the otherworldly monster in front of me are encapsulated in our own little bubble of unreality.
I feel the spell the second I recognize its effect.
The skinhound cocks his head, looking at me with the one eye he has left, the one eye I had left him with. Loose slabs of raw muscle vibrate on his shoulders and chest as he growls low and long through clenched teeth. The noise of it rolls down the hallway, rumbling against my skin. Strings of ichor hang from his jaws, swaying to and fro, to and fro, to and fro until one breaks and slings down to splat on the floor.
The coat ruffles around me, the hem of it stretching along the floor and spreading to make me look bigger than I am.
You would think in a situation like this it would be singing in my head, but it doesn’t. When the shit gets real the coat shuts up and lets me work.
I reach inside it. It tightens around my arm, slowing me just a touch. I’m reaching into the left inside pocket. The one with the sword. I know what happened earlier, but I don’t care right now.
Right this minute me and Oathbreaker will see eye to eye.