My voice came out all choked and bitter. “Yeah Tristan, I’m listening to a man get flash-fried alive. Someone should set up a hotdog stand. Fun for the whole family.”
He pulled me into his embrace and I gratefully buried my face into the hollow of his shoulder. He said, “Come on, sweetheart. Taylor and Lana already canvassed the area and got nothing, but let’s go below and see if anyone in Old Town will talk to us.”
We materialized under the street in the midst of blackened, crumbling tabby shells that had been houses so long ago. The sounds of the world above were gone, thank goodness. The road under our feet was packed dirt on which horses and carts once traveled. Tangles of tree roots hung down from the ground above us, so dense in places that you can’t see the concrete and asphalt that makes up Ellis Street over our heads. You’d think the upper world would cave in on Old Fulton Falls, but even in the late 1930’s engineering was pretty dandy.
There is no light down here, but we dead see just fine. It’s like standing outside in the middle of the night with only a streetlight to uniformly illuminate the surroundings. The netherworld is varying shades of gray for the most part with no shadows or bright spots.
The first thing I did was look on the ground for wards scratched in the dirt. Witches who practice black magic love this part of Old Fulton Falls. New ghosts are terribly naïve and in most cases frightened by their status of death. They’re easy prey for witches and unsavory ghosts looking to steal their energy. I think a lot of the newly departed end up here because the mundane neighborhood above us has so many murders. This being a thin area and all, it’s only natural a lot of people who lived in the area stick around familiar parts.
No wards at my feet. There were no traps waiting to be sprung that I could see, and Tristan relaxed too. There were wards spray painted and carved into the tabby ruins, but no one with any real sense would go near those places. Someone might be hiding within to spring out at you.
I didn’t see anyone. No one at all, not even a wraith begging for some energy because it had been drained by the more nefarious denizens of this place.
“Wow. The world of the dead is a dead world here,” I said. Not being hassled in this part of town was actually creepy.
Tristan frowned. “Indeed. I thought Lana and Taylor were exaggerating when they told me how quiet it was. It’s as if everyone is in hiding.”
“Maybe we’ll find someone closer to Union Street. There’s always trouble brewing there.”
“Let’s go.”
We set off, watching everything carefully as we went. It really was strange, this silence. I thought I saw a couple of shadows flit here and there, but they were a great distance away and they looked like they were trying to stay out of sight. Granted, I’d only been in this area a handful of times, but even I found the absence of activity daunting.
We reached the area below Union Street, usually a hotbed of trouble. The street stood empty. Absolutely empty. Ominously empty. It made my skin crawl.
“This is really weird, Tristan. Someone should have bugged us for energy by now.” I was whispering, and I wasn’t sure why. The vibe of Old Fulton Falls had me freaked out.
My sweetie blew out an exasperated breath. “There’s nothing here for us to see or anyone to talk to. Dead end, no pun intended. Let’s go to the hospital and see what the latest is on Eddie.”
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