Page 60 of No Man's Land

Then a hand landed on his wrist, and Josef yelped, yanking his arm away before he realised it was Alex.

“Shine the light inside,” Alex whispered, guiding Josef’s shaking arm down towards the coffin.

He did so, teeth gritted against the sight to come. The creature from that afternoon was fresh in his mind, and he was expecting a snarling, slathering monster, leaping up to tear off his face.

What he saw was a tall, well-dressed woman lying on her side, limbs twisted awkwardly as if she’d simply been dumped in the coffin.

“Christ,” Alex cursed, spinning away from the casket.

Josef swung the light towards him. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s out. It’s in here somewhere.”

“What?”

“Back to back,” Dutta snapped. “Move. And give me the—”

“Beaumont…” A sibilant hiss crept through the dark. “We know you. We know your line.”

Josef’s hair stood on end as he spun to face the sound, sweeping his torch in wide arcs. Nothing.

“And I know you,ghoul,” said Alex. “I cannot permit you to remain here.”

A wet, wheezing sound—laughter?—filled the room and with it a wave of that dreadful, rotting stench. Josef gagged, burying his mouth and nose in the crook of his elbow.

“This is no place for you,” Alex went on. “Leave, return to the dark places you have known.”

“You cannot stop us; we are many.”

“I will stop you. Ihavestopped you. One of your kind is already dead by my hand.”

The ghoul hissed, the sound coming from Josef’s left and…up? He swung the torch towards the ceiling, flashing its beam over a desk, a set of tall filing cabinets—and above them, a wet gleam in the dark.

“There!” Atop the cabinets, something monstrous crouched. Once human, dressed in uniform, but with a face that seemed to shift between that of a man and that of…something other. Teeth like talons, eyes that eerie blue. And everywhere the stench of rot and death.

Horrified, Josef staggered back a step, knocking into the casket behind him and sending its lid slamming shut with a thick dead thump.

He froze. The room froze.

And then, with an inhuman scream, the ghoul launched itself from its hiding place and flew at Alex. They went down in a tangle of thrashing limbs, and Josef could hardly keep track of them in the dark. Dropping his torch, he waded in with Alex’s cane, hitting the creature—God, he hoped it was the ghoul—with the heavy weapon. It barely seemed to notice, and Josef realised in horror that it was intent on one thing only: biting Alex.

The shock of that lit a fire in Josef, fiercer than he’d ever known. With a yell, he launched himself at the ghoul, grabbingit by the shoulders and trying to haul it off Alex. Noticing him at last, the creature turned its snarling face on Josef.

Those teeth, like needles, bared, the sepulchral gleam of its eyes fixed on him. Josef scrambled backwards, too slow, and the ghoul was on him, bearing him down with a strength far beyond human. His head cracked against the floor, sending lights dancing across his vision.

“Josef!”

That was Alex, though Josef couldn’t see him in the dark. Couldn’t see anything but the creature. He punched and kicked. Somewhere along the way, he’d dropped the stick. Not that it mattered, it was too big in close quarters. Should have brought a fucking knife.

The creature lunged and clawed, jaws slavering, and Josef screamed as he tried to fight it off, jabbing his fingers at its inhuman eyes.

And then something whistled through the air, connecting with the side of the ghoul’s head, and it let Josef go. Knocked sideways, it scrabbled away, hissing in fury.

“Leave him alone, you fucker!” Alex bellowed, wielding the stick, sounding wild and furious and utterly unlike himself.

Someone—Dutta—grabbed Josef’s arm, and he scrambled to his feet, backing away from the ghoul.

His head thundered, vision tilting, and he staggered against one of the coffins.

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