Chapter 13 — The Thing They Want
637 Words
The circle tightened.
Not fast. Not chaotic.
Slow.
Careful.
That was worse.
She could feel it in the way they moved — these spirits weren’t just hungry anymore. They were thinking.
Studying her.
The nearest one dragged itself along the pavement, its long arms bending in ways bones should never bend. Its hollow eyes stayed locked on her face like it was trying to peel something out of her skull.
“Door…” it whispered again.
Another voice answered from the rooftop.
“She sees…”
Then another.
“She knows…”
The words crawled across the street like insects.
Her skin prickled.
“Okay,” she muttered, “I officially hate that they can talk now.”
The man didn’t smile this time.
“They always could.”
“Great.”
One of the larger spirits dropped from a balcony railing and landed silently behind the first one.
Its body looked thick, swollen with the emotions it had consumed over the years.
But even that one wasn’t looking at him.
Its attention stayed on her.
“Why are they ignoring you?” she asked quietly.
“They aren’t ignoring me.”
“Then why are they staring like that?”
His voice dropped lower.
“Because you might be something they’ve never seen before.”
“That sounds bad.”
“It probably is.”
The whispering grew louder.
Not loud in sound.
But loud in presence.
Like dozens of thoughts pressing into the same space.
“She sees the door…”
“She must open it…”
“Break her…”
“Use her…”
Her stomach twisted.
“Yeah,” she said under her breath. “Definitely bad.”
One of the spirits crawled closer.
Too close.
The creature’s long neck stretched forward, its empty mouth hanging open like it was trying to breathe her in.
The man stepped between them again.
The spirit stopped instantly.
It recoiled slightly.
Fear still lived inside them.
Even now.
But the fear wasn’t enough to drive them away anymore.
More shapes appeared at the edge of the street.
Dozens now.
Too many to count.
“They’re multiplying fast,” she said.
“They always have.”
“Then how have you survived this long?”
His answer came without hesitation.
“Because they were afraid to gather.”
“And now?”
His eyes moved slowly across the growing swarm.
“They’re not afraid anymore.”
The large spirit from earlier — the one that had absorbed the others before the fight — slid down from a rooftop and landed in the center of the street.
Not the same one.
But something similar.
Older.
Stronger.
Its body moved like thick smoke forced into a human shape.
It studied her carefully.
Then it spoke.
The voice came out like several whispers layered together.
“You…”
Her pulse hammered.
“You can see the wound.”
The man’s posture changed immediately.
Wound.
Not door.
That word clearly meant something worse.
The spirit took another slow step.
“You are rare.”
Her voice came out tight.
“I’m getting that impression.”
The creature’s hollow eyes burned into hers.
“Creator…”
The word twisted through the air as it looked past her toward him.
“You hid this from us.”
His voice turned sharp.
“She has nothing to do with this.”
The spirit’s grin widened.
“Everything to do with it.”
The other spirits shifted closer.
Hungry.
Excited.
“You cannot destroy us all,” the creature said.
“But she…”
Its head tilted slowly.
“…can end us.”
The words landed heavy in the street.
For a moment nobody moved.
Then the spirit whispered the thing that made her blood run cold.
“So we will take her first.”
- Writer
