“You’ll draw blood if you keep going. I think you may have drawn a little already.”
Jesse patted the spot and a smattering of drops came away on his fingertips. He hadn’t even realized he was scratching that hard, and now that he had stopped, he could feel the pain radiating from the area. But in the moment, scratching had felt too good.
“Shit,” he whispered.
Bryce nodded and then moved to the maintenance door. He went through first, making a quick sweep. Then he motioned the others in. “The building is too damn big. If they built a secret door, we’re never going to find it.”
“It still has to be someplace logical,” Jesse said. “Anything in the main areas would attract too much attention. It’s got to be out of the way. In here is as good a guess as any.”
The words were barely past Jesse’s lips when the ground pitched under his feet and he made a quick grab to hold on to a set of shelves. It felt like they were going to tumble away, too. Alex grabbed onto him, and the motion sickness worsened.
“What’s going on?” Bryce asked.
“Take him,” Jesse replied through gritted teeth.
Bryce offered his arm to Alex, and Alex made the transition.
Jesse could breathe, though the ground was still unsteady underneath him. “I think they’ve started whatever they’re doing.”
“Even in a basement, this shit usually waits until night,” Bryce replied.
“It’s the gray,” Jesse said. “Twilight. The outside light will be at the right frequency.”
“If they need to be that particular…” Bryce eyed the far wall.
Unfortunately, Bryce was also keeping Alex upright at the moment. Which meant Jesse needed to get over to the wall and check it out. He sucked in a deep breath, and swore he tasted ash on his tongue. He needed to think of something else, anything else. His uncle’s journals or, well, his own place was in ashes as well.
Bryce. He was so close, and Jesse knew if he said they had to get out of there, Bryce would lead the way. He was a good man, and he cared about Alex and Jesse.
But he was also a good agent. He would see through his responsibilities and come back with another team. Jesse would hear about the adventure secondhand,again. He needed to see it for himself.
Jesse made his way across the crowded room of tools and chemicals, and scanned the back wall for a door. Upon closer inspection, he found a thin line, easily traced out as a door shape, so he hunted for any signs of an obvious switch. Pushing on it directly revealed nothing. Then, he started working on the walls beside it.
There was a switch, not quite easy to reach or spot, behind a set of shelves. Jesse managed to get his hand in place to flip it. “Ready?” he asked.
Alex grabbed onto a set of shelves and stayed out of the way. Bryce raised the point of his shotgun.
Jesse flipped the switch.
The concrete door opened into a darkened room, though Jesse could make out the top of a staircase. Musty, cool air oozed out toward them, and a chill ran down Jesse’s spine.
Monster hunting. Everything Jesse had ever wanted was at the bottom of that staircase.
Nowthe fear kicked in. Now it threatened to close his throat and do what his assailant had failed to do: cut off his air and kill him. The tentacle monsters were waiting. He could feel their presence in his mind. What good were guns going to be against creatures that devoured buildings?
“You okay?” Bryce asked, his voice a distant rumble, though he wasn’t that far away.
Jesse held on to the shelf and glanced at Alex. As bad as it was for him, he expected the kid would be fairing worse. Though Alex was pastier than usual, he had a determined look.
Right. If he and Bryce could do it, Jesse could. This was what he wanted, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the DWO.
Jesse flicked on his flashlight and headed down the stairs first. He did his best to keep the beam of light on the floor, hopefully not alerting anyone down below that someone was on their way. About the only thing they had going for them was the element of surprise, and once that was gone, who knew what would happen?
Come to think of it, Jesse wasn’t sure what he was about to find down there.
For once, he hoped he was overreacting, and that the basement would be as empty as the upstairs.
Only, every step he took down made him feel like he was more and more in that other place. The stink of it filled his nose. While he hadn’t been as aware of it the first time, his skin felt different. No longer itchy, it was justwrong.
