Thoughts scramble my brain. Another day another case, I sigh. Kori watching with amusement as I reached for my coat. Cold hands slipping the warm fabric around my shoulders.
Then time slowed. I could see the visible tension in Kori's shoulder. It was happening again.
My body seized. My skin felt wrong, like my soul was trying to claw its way out. I could feel frosty air on my skin. Cold and merciless.
Suddenly from the darkness of my shadow, a boney hand gripped my shoulder and whipped me back hard. A bright amber colored light seared my retinas, hot and heavy.
Then. Silence. Long, thick and full of tension.
Where was I?
The place was dark. Unnaturally so. Windows cracked yet no light bled through the darkness that felt suffocating.
My fingers scrambled through my coat looking for my vintage lighter given to me by my brother before he... The thought of him… The thought of what happened, it felt like a thousand spears piercing my spine.
Thoughts vanished as quick as they came as my trembling hand, tinged of feared desperation finally gripped onto the lighter. Something didn't feel right, because I wasn't alone.
Click click click. Thumb brushing aggressively against the spark wheel before finally settling down as a faint ember emerged from the tip of the lighter.
"Finally… some light here." My voice echoed through the emptiness, through darkness surrounding me.
I stood in an abandoned cathedral. Tiny flame reflecting on the long, burned down cross in the middle.
Pillars, old and dented looked like they were on the verge of collapsing any day now. Then, I could feel it. A dreadful presence around me that seemed to choke the air out of my body. "Oh… God… that smell."
I felt like throwing up as the stench of burning flesh, decaying with a metallic scent of blood and rot filled my nostrils as I turned over to find the source of the smell.
Nothing. Only silence. The stench still spreading through the air around me. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
"SKREEEEE!"
The sound echoed like a gun shot. My body momentarily seizing before immediately responding. My foot already taking a step back from whatever the hell made that sound. My left leg nearly tripping over a broken chair that was long rotted.
'What, is that?' thoughts and questions flood my brain as I tried to finally make sense of the situation, of begin in the dark inside with no light and a something dangerous lurking withen the shadows.
The main question lingered through my mind, like a knife pressed against my throat.
'What was I supposed to do? The lighter while a temporary light source barely lit up any of the darkness. There also didn't seem to be any sign of an exit, meaning... I was trapped, with no escape, and no plan.'
'Why is this happening? This... Doesn't normally happen.' I hissed to myself, backing up, now fully again a pillar. My eyes burning from exertion and strain as I struggled to keep myself from panicking.
One thing was clear to me though, because in that moment I knew the thing lurking, although unknowning of my presence, it would kill me the moment it knew... and that alone terrified me the most.
*Meanwhile back at the apartment.*
Kori drifted aimlessly around the kitchen of the apartment gritting his teeth as he got visibly frustrated and stressed because he was struggling to solve a Rubik's cube. Out of no where he began to start breaking s**t and trashing the place, before seemingly having a pillow fight... by himself as he procrastinates on saving garfield.
Kori's eyes widen behind his shades as he comes to the realization that garfield owes him 5 bucks. "THAT HO!" Kori exclaimes, whistling before yelling into the musty blank air of the apartment. "AYOOO STEVE HOOK ME UP!"
The rooms temperature decreases further, with ice spreading across the kitchen table before out walks Steve from the shadow of a chainsaw.
"Been a minute, Lad." Steve responded flatly to Kori though his gaze was not dismissive, rather it was filled with a sense of familiarity.
Kori with a s**t eating grinn on face says, "oh y'know the usual." Kori exclaimed glancing as his "baby". "That's where my chainsaw's been. Sick."
Steve and Kori dap eachother up, "hands still as boney as ever, mate." The words rushed out his mouth with his smuggish grin, before the pair catch up, and play a game of rock paper scissors. After an "intense" match Kori and Steve eventually decide to go help out Garfield.