She turned over Lucas’ words in her mind.

  The intonation.

  His cadence of speech.

  How his words had been stitched together.

  Something about it felt wrong.

  She felt a visceral chill run down her spine, and the skin all over her body began to prickle.

  Calm down, you idiot.

  I know you’re on edge after the veilsurge, but the kids are just playing around. They’re back from the greenhouses and safe.

  “I think they’re trying to mess with us. Lucas, go to bed.”

  To Evantra’s surprise, she watched as Noelle’s phone began to ring.

  “Hello? Tai?”

  Evantra heard a crackle from Noelle’s receiver as the words repeated. This time, they were uttered in time, in the same disjointed, inflectionless voices that were familiar to them, but unnatural.

  “I want to play.”

  Noelle’s eyes widened.

  “Guys… I’m telling you now. Cut it out, this isn’t fun—”

  Evantra immediately forwarded Lucas’ call to Benjamin. She bit her lip, goosebumps surfacing across her arms, her hair standing on end. There seemed to be an eternity between each ring, until Evantra felt a flood of relief when the monk picked up.

  “Amitabha buddha, it is quite late, Ev—”

  “I want to play.”

  Lucas’ voice echoed out again, in time with Tai’s. Evantra could also see Ade’s phone to his ear, his eyes wide as they all came to the same realisation.

  Something was very wrong.

  “Ben, can you trace the origin of the call?”

  “On it.”

  Evantra shot up from her seat. She threw the keys at Noelle, before the pair of them ran for the lift. Sally and Ade followed in their wake.

  “Noelle, call the school. Ask them if they can check on the kids in their rooms. I’ll call Carmen—”

  Right on call, she saw her phone light up with the call notification from Carmen. She added her to the call.

  “Carmen, did you get the call too?”

  “What’s going on, Eva? Amy got the same call from Tai. Is it some sort of prank? Mierda, I can’t imagine either of them agreeing to something like this,” she said with a laugh. But Evantra could feel the disquiet in it, and she knew that Carmen was trying to stave off her worry.

  “We’re looking into it now, Noelle’s calling the school,” Evantra said with a glance at Noelle. She watched as the other girl’s eyes widened the colour draining from her cheeks.

  “Evantra. T-they’re not in their rooms. Their teachers can’t find them.”

  Evantra felt a strange calm come over her.

  “Benjamin?” she said softly.

  “Megabuilding Z5. The call is coming from Megabuilding Z5.”

  “That’s the—”

  “Yes,” Benjamin said grimly.

  “The Haunted Megabuilding.”

  Noelle’s expression twisted. Her grip around her phone tightened, and she jerked her head upwards to meet Evantra’s gaze, her eyes wide with alarm.

  They burst into action.

  “Sally, Ade, get a Ghostslayer, NOW.”

  “Wh—”

  “Ben, can you trace precisely where the calls are originating from in the Megabuilding itself?”

  “Evantra! What’s going on?” Sally called out from behind them.

  “We’ve traced the calls to Megauilding Z5. The kids aren’t in their hotel rooms. Get a Ghostslayer. Can you check if anyone’s down in the Training Grounds?”

  Ade shook his head.

  “It’s the middle of the night, the trainers have all returned to Elsecaller City, but we’ll check,” He exchanged a quick nod with Sally, before the pair of them rushed into another elevator, pressing the button for the basement.

  “Where are you going—”

  “The Megabuilding.”

  Sally’s eyes widened.

  “Evantra… you can’t. It’s the territory of a Poltergeist. It’s a ghost, it’s beyond us, even if it’s weak. You—”

  Evantra dragged Noelle into the second elevator as it arrived, quickly pressing the button for the carpark.

  ***

  Try as Sally and Ade did, there weren’t any high-ranking Ghostslayers still at the Training Grounds to help. They had reported the incident to the authorities, but attempting to get Ghostslayer assistance at 2am at night, especially for a poltergeist with authority over a megabuilding was going to be challenging.

  Ghostslayers with cybernetics were particularly wary about poltergeists, even the weaker ones, and organic Ghostslayers willing to take on ghosts were rare.

  Evantra was prepared for the worst.

  She slammed the horn as she ran a second red light, the engine revving as she carved a path towards her destination. Ade’s attempts to contact his sister had fallen through. The same was reported by Noelle and Carmen when they had attempted to contact them.

  Someone could have maliciously planned this out, kidnapping the children. Alternatively, they could have wandered there themselves out of curiosity, sneaking out of their hotel.

  Evantra slammed on the breaks, Carmen’s vehicle screeching to a halt as they finally reached their destination.

  Megabuilding Z5.

  The neighbourhood in which it was situated was shrouded in darkness. It seemed like the Council had imposed a localised shutdown of the electrical grid in the immediate proximity of the megabuilding.

  Decrepit alleyways of old residential blocks bordered the structure. It was a jarring transition, going from streets that feel lived-in to a ghost town. The wind kicked along pieces of debris and rubbish down the dark streets, and Evantra felt the howl and rattle of the wind against the car doors.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Then, there was the megabuilding itself.

  Unlike Megabuilding A3, their new residence, Z5 sported no operational floodlights on its side to light up its silhouette. Yet, it was no less imposing in stature. Parts of the building’s exterior had fallen into disrepair. She could barely perceive the shadows cast by flickering lights emitted from within the building.

  Beneath the megabuilding was an area that had once been a park. Paths for residents and cyclists curved around lawns and ponds, now all dried up. Brown, dried grass was all that remained, beneath the skeletons of dead trees that rose at irregular intervals around the park.

  The fencing bordering the building sported no sentry guns and was rusted and torn in areas. A bright red holographic warning “tape” ran the length of its exterior, cordoning off the entire area from entry.

  There was a silence and liminality to the structure that viscerally set her on edge.

  It reminds me of the train station in LA.

  She recalled the ghostly figures trying to emerge from the LED screens arrayed out along the train carriages. Something shifting within in the darkness, hungering for her. The intelligence of the ghost in trapping her in the carriage in an effort to reach her.

  Evantra felt Noelle’s grip tighten across her forearm, breaking her from her reverie.

  However weak this class 5 poltergeist is… it’s still a ghost.

  “I’m going in with—”

  “No. You’ll slow me down. Stay here.”

  Noelle looked at her with alarm, flinching at the edge in her voice.

  Now isn’t the time for tact. I need to make an impression, and make sure that I don’t have an extra person to look out for while I’m in there.

  I’ve got an advantage. The [ritual of concealment].

  The poltergeist in the train station picked up on my tech through the ritual, but if I don’t give it anything to pinpoint me with, I may have an advantage as long as I stay concealed.

  “Wait for the Ghostslayer.”

  She looked down at her phone, Benjamin’s message finally coming through.

  Upper floors. North side of the building.

  Evantra ditched the tech on her person, and without another word, she exited the vehicle. She bolted for the perimeter of the Megabuilging. During the drive over, she had painstakingly switched out Nimue’s rose for the Darkstsalker catalyst, and she was running with the build she had used in Wisptown.

  Ghostslayer Rank: Imp (Level 10)

  Catalyst: Darkstalker (level 1)

  · [Razor claws]

  · [Darkvision]

  · [Clot acceleration]

  Catalyst: Ionian Mimic (level 5)

  · [Conceal]

  · [Object mimicry]

  · [Stonerooted]

  Reserve catalysts:

  · Mistheart (Level 8)

  · Nimue’s Rose (Level 8)

  Rituals:

  · [Ritual of consumption]

  · [Ritual of Veilsight]

  · [Ritual of concealment]

  Veilsouls: 2,005

  [Darkvision]

  [Ritual of concealment]

  Veilsouls remaining: 1,995

  The surroundings blinked into detail.

  As she crossed the threshold, running straight through the holographic warning signs cordoning off the area like police tape, Evantra took in the park before her.

  Dead trees loomed before her from lawns of dried grass, which shifted gently in the crisp wind. Her feet crunched on soil-ridden paths, weeds growing from between the cracks. She felt the cold night air sluice across the surface of her skin. With every step she took to the Megabuilding she could feel the familiar feeling of helplessness stir within her like a restless beast.

  “Are you there,” she said softly. “If there’s anything you can do to help me… please.”

  The beast of her own didn’t answer.

  ***

  Evantra approached the foot of the megabuilding. She could hear sirens in the distance, but she was sure that the police wouldn’t go so far as to venture into the Megabuilding themselves. Her eyes alighted on an emergency stairwell, lit by harsh, intermittently blinking fluorescent lights. The remains of rubbish and dust blew in the wind across her path, before she entered the dark stairwell.

  She masked her footsteps as best she could as she ascended. Her eyes latched onto a CCTV camera housed in the upper corner of the stairwell. She carefully continued to ascend, taking care not to disrupt any stray debris in her path. She held her Nagantra out in front of her while Clark’s pistol was holstered at her side, ready to be drawn at a moment’s notice. Galahad’s blade was still stowed in her bag. They hadn’t had time to prepare a sheath for it.

  After climbing for what seemed like an eternity, she finally reached the first level of the megabuilding.

  Something was wrong.

  The first indication was the light emitted through the open doorway.

  The megabuilding’s interior lights were brightly lit.

  The floors and hallways designed to be bustling with people, filled with scents and sights were all empty. Utterly devoid of life, with debris and belongings strewn across the corridor ahead of her, and the ground floor below.

  Seeing the Megabuilding as it had been at its pinnacle, frozen in time, was more unsettling than seeing it encased in darkness. It was almost as if she had simply stumbled across the building late at night. She would have easily believed that the residents were merely secluded away in their rooms.

  To know that only their corpses remained, barring those that had fled, sent goosebumps erupting across her skin.

  Evantra’s eyes traced the interior and they widened, as she made out burn marks that scarred the interior of the building. Flames that had torn through the levels, presumably incinerating the residents within. Vast swathes of the interior of the building were scarred black, showing the extent of the destruction wrought.

  It’s possible that the megabuilding was the site of a ritual.

  Unless the poltergeist entered and took up residence by some other means.

  Evantra pushed the questions about Megabuilding Z5’s history from her thoughts as she pressed forwards, carefully avoiding the debris strewn about.

  She might be concealed by the ritual and invisible to the poltergeist’s digital eyes, but anything that she moved that couldn’t be explained by a draft of wind would betray her presence.

  She continued forwards, her eyes roving her surroundings. Every time she passed a room, she could feel her heartbeat race, uncertain of what she could expect to find within. Many of the rooms were empty, but others still contained the belongings of the past residents of Z5.

  [Ritual of Veilsight]

  Veilsouls remaining: 1,985

  Pinpointing their location is going to be difficult.

  Maybe…

  She watched as her surroundings turned into greyscale. She recalled how she had glimpsed the strange black shadows drifting off Caliburn’s ritual when she had attempted to activate it.

  Her breath caught when she took in her surroundings through the lens of Veilsight. Dark, wispy threads of the abyss shifted through the structure, like incorporeal snakes in the air. She could see that the wisps were converging at some point far above, but it was obstructed from view.

  Could that be the location of the ritual?

  I’d bet that if the ritual does pose some sort of vulnerability to the poltergeist, it would be keeping the children close by, where it’s most protected.

  Evantra deactivated her [Veilsight] while gritting her teeth and considering her options.

  Megabuilding Z5’s layout differed to A3’s in that the middle section of the building was comprised of multiple floors that had been amalgamated into a large common area. There was less segregation compared to A3, which meant that she would have to surmount the middle section before making it to the upper floors.

  Beyond that… she was running blind.

  I don’t know the first thing about killing ghosts… only that Galahad’s blade might be my only shot at doing any meaningful damage to it.

  Evantra swallowed down her bile as she ascended to the common area.

  She encountered a strange smell.

  The higher she climbed, the stronger the smell grew.

  Eventually, she emerged out into a food court.

  The sight laying ahead of her caused her grip to tighten around her Nagantra.

  Piles and piles of dead Veilcreatures littered the food court. The Veilcreatures were small, and Evantra recognised the skeletons of what must have been teethlings, complete with the remains of their needle-sharp incisors. Other small skeletons of creatures unfamiliar to her accompanied them, creating a heaping pile of bodies. Evantra could barely bake out the ivory of the creatures at the bottom, covered by those that had died more recently – where the rotting skin and decaying flesh of the creatures on top could still be seen. Their stench filled the stagnant air, and Evantra pushed the eerie visage out of her mind.

  Evantra froze at the soft noise echoing through the stairwell. A consistent buzzing that was familiar to her given her newfound residence in Megabuilding A3.

  In her path was a hovering drone.

  Its chassis was eaten away by rust. Reason dictated that the elements had long since reached its interior components. It was a black security drone, a model that predated those that flitted around Megabuilding A3. Evantra could see a compact gun attached to the bottom of it. Noelle had informed her that most of the security drones in A3 were accompanied with stunners, although a number with weapons were kept in reserve in case of larger threats. She was certain that this drone was of the latter type.

  Evantra flattened herself against the wall, watching as the drone slowly crept towards her. A singular green light blinked at its front as it made its way down. She held her breath as it passed, activating [conceal] despite testing with Noelle that the [ritual of concealment] negated the need to use [conceal] to hide her body temperature if she was being detected through a digital apparatus.

  The drone proceeded downwards, continuing in its path.

  She felt a surge of relief as the sound of the drone continued to diminish.

  The [ritual of concealment] is working.

  Up until now, she was working off assumptions, but this confirmed that the [ritual of concealment] helped disguise her presence from the poltergeist’s digital eyes.

  Evantra continued heading upwards, passing locked door after locked door, until she had finally found one that had rusted off its hinges. Stepping carefully over it, Evantra realised that she had emerged back out into the residential corridors. The path further up the stairs was blocked due to a collapse, and she was forced to proceed down the corridor to find another emergency exit up.

  Making a quick estimate of her progress, she seemed to be about halfway up the megabuilding.

  As she pushed forward, her Nagantra poised in front of her, her eyes darted to a single arm sticking out from a doorway. The skeletal hand of a human was extended outwards beneath dark armour that Evantra had glimpsed once before.

  As she crept closer to it, she confirmed her suspicions.

  Her eyes locked onto the logo emblazoned over the operative’s right breast.

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