“No... no... stop,” he heard Jana say, and then start crying and choking as the ghoul chuckled.
“Try to get him to the tunnel,” Harzl said to the kid as he leaped up onto the narrow platform and headed into the darker tunnel where the sound came from. He didn’t know if ghouls were sexual, but he wasn’t going to let the cursed thing kill her like this.
The platform was littered with bricks, and he picked one up. He knew from the Liminal wanted posters that the thing was the size of a thin human male and wore a tattered Victorian suit and top hat. He also knew it would bleed if you hit it. The Northern Line had said as much when it had thrown the ghoul against the wall after it had jumped on its back stairs and tried to attack passengers. They were still waiting for a ranger to come out and take care of the problem.
“I should have taken care of it myself,” he grumbled as he found himself blocked by a stack of old vending machines.
He pulled the little flashlight out of his pocket and shined it down on the tracks before jumping. It was only a few feet down, but the debris made everything treacherous. He quickly headed to the old office.
A faint light gleamed inside, he didn’t know from what. It was possible the ghoul was using an oil lamp or flashlight from the old supplies. The door had been torn off long ago and there was a large window on each side, but both were boarded up. He looked around for a weapon better than a brick.
Jana was whimpering; he couldn’t be slow about this.
“Hey, asshole!” he yelled so the ghoul would stop whatever he was doing.
Everything was painfully quiet. The light inside went out.
“Whooo goes there?” the ghoul finally said.
“I am Harzl Hellirverja! Come out and play with someone who isn’t hurt!”
“She’s mine, fair and square, I won her from the bear!”
This was annoying, and the train would be here soon. Harzl couldn’t speak with it until it slowed down. It wouldn’t hear him over its own wheels. He needed to get Snori off the tracks.
He put his keychain on the platform and then set the brick on it so the light would stay on. Then he stepped back, moved to the other side of the door, and flattened himself down against the platform wall. “Come out and have a chance to run, or I’ll come in there and beat you down!”
A train rumbled from far away.
Harzl saw the flashing light as the kid tried to stop the train. He hadn’t been able to move Snori.
Jana howled like a wolfen.
Harzl stood up to charge.
The ghoul ran out and scrambled away from the light Harzl had planted, slamming into Harzl’s chest. He heard something metal clatter to the ground. The ghoul tried to run, but Harzl grabbed it by the neck. It fought back, flailing its arms and legs against Harzl’s stranglehold. The foul thing smelled terrible, like a pit of vermin. Harzl couldn’t see him clearly but he didn’t need to in order to break his neck, just like Snori did to the rats that infested the tunnels. He used both hands and twisted as the thing squealed as loudly as one hundred rats. The snap was not satisfying, but the cessation of its voice was.
A flashing light came running down the old tracks to Harzl as the train got closer.
“Harzl!” Alazavier called as the train surged by, air and light whooshing around him as he approached. The train hadn’t stopped.
Harzl dropped the body of the ghoul to the ground and bellowed for the soul of his lost little buddy. “Snori!”
“Arooo ro ro” came back through the tunnel.
“I got Snori to wake up enough to get him to the other tunnel.”
Harzl dropped to his knees and pulled Alazavier to him. “Thank you.”
A whimper came from the office. The kid pointed the flashlight, and Harzl stood ready. Jana limped out in wolfen form.
“Stay back, I’ll get her.” Harzl went up the crumbling stairs and saw her fall to the ground; she shimmered and shifted back to human form.
He took off his extra heavy hoodie and wrapped her in it as he helped her to her feet. The hoodie was long on her, but he could see a deep gash in her left leg.
“Can you walk?”
“I think so,” she said as she put weight on her leg and winced.
