Page 7 of Surging Reef
Backing out of the room, he turned to the next doorway. Before he could enter, Pharos stepped in front of him and growled, more viciously this time.
“What’s wrong?” His voice was a little shakier than he wanted it to be. Crouching, he curled an arm around Pharos and lifted him. His muscles were tense, and the growl vibrated through him, making his tiny body tremble. He kept on growling, but his focus wasn’t on Kazimir. It was on the dark room.
Kazimir swallowed hard and swept the light over the interior, only to shriek. On the floor was a skeleton.
He stood frozen, his grip on Pharos way too hard, but he couldn’t make himself let up. Fuck no.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Why had he come here tonight? Would he be suspected of murder now?
He couldn’t move. Couldn’t back away, couldn’t move forward. His entire body was frozen. His breaths were coming too fast.
Who did you call when you found a body?
Pharos pushed at him to be let down, and Kazimir slowly lowered him to the floor. The strobe from the flashlight was shaking but never left the skeleton.
It wasn’t a skeleton. It had skin. And modern clothes. It wasn’t a ghost from the Middle Ages playing a prank on him.
Fuck.
“Eh…hello?” No reply.
“Ghost of horrors past?” Not a sound.
Kazimir blew out a breath. “What the fuck do we do, Pharos?”
Pharos kept on growling.
Hesitantly, Kazimir took a step closer. Pharos mirrored his motion, but with his head held low and his lips peeled back.
Kazimir took another step, then another.
He focused the light on the skeleton’s hand. There was fresh blood on its fingertips. Or not fresh as in bleeding, but it didn’t look to be hundreds of years old.
He leaned a little closer. Then he was slammed to the floor, the skeleton moving over him, too strong to be real. Kazimir screamed and dropped his phone, but the light slid over the skeleton’s face.
Sharp teeth.
Pharos snarled and jumped on it. The skeleton flung him away as if he were no more than an annoying fly.
“No! Don’t touch him.”
A hand grabbed Kazimir’s hair and pushed his head back uncomfortably, baring his throat.
Then there was a slicing pain.
Kazimir’s breath froze in his lungs.
What the fuck was happening? The skeleton was sucking on him. Cold seeped through him.
The skeleton was eating him.
He shuddered but didn’t move otherwise. Stunned. He should fight, but his limbs didn’t obey.
