Souls

Shayna shuddered as she drove up the entrance ramp to 1st Avenue. She always got the wiggins whenever she had to drive past Sloss Furnace. That place seriously creeped her out, especially since her ex, Howard, had talked her into going there for an “investigation” last summer with a bunch of his friends. He thought he was such a macho paranormal investigator, “way better than that Ghost Adventures idiot, Zak Bagans”. He had tried to provoke “Slag” by strutting around with his chest all puffed out and cursing at the top of his lungs. However, his puffery had only caused “Slag” to attack her. As she stood by one of the old blast furnaces and watched him crow, a voice said “I’ll show him – you’ll do nicely!” in a low, guttural growl. She screamed as three long scratches appeared across her midsection and began to bleed. Howard and his friends came running, only to stop dead as they saw the black shadow figure speeding towards them. They screamed and took off running as quickly as their legs could carry them, leaving her behind. The entity laughed, and then turned back to Shayna. The last thing she remembered before waking up in the hospital the next morning was those menacing red eyes bearing down on her. Needless to say, she didn’t stay with Howard much longer after that.

“Where’s your big man NOW?”

Shayna heard the familiar disembodied voice loud in her right ear, which scared her so badly she lost control of her car. She fishtailed off the pavement into the gravel, then spun around, hit the guardrail, and drove part-way up a light pole.

“Oh, my god, dude! Did you just see that?!” Aaron exclaimed as he filmed Zak’s intro to the episode. Zak turned just as the vehicle came to a stop at the foot of the pole.

“Jeez!” he exclaimed as he bolted for the scene of the accident. “Nick, call 911!” Zak called to the third man who pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed frantically as he followed far behind Aaron and Zak.

The first two paranormal investigators leapt over the guardrail and ran to the small SUV. Just as Zak reached the car, a black mist exited through the broken windshield. He took a step back as a head and shoulders formed. The figure cackled and then flew back towards Sloss. “Whoa!” He reached for the driver’s door but it was bent so badly it was stuck. He could see that the driver was unconscious and bleeding, but he couldn’t tell how badly she was hurt.

“The ambulance and fire department are on the way, Zak!” Nick said as he ran up to the car. “Zak?”

Zak was staring at the woman behind the steering wheel, dumbfounded. “D-did you just see…”

“The shadow figure? Yeah, man, I saw that.” Aaron said, wide-eyed. “You think that it – “

“Caused the accident? Oh, I’m almost sure of that.” Zak said, trying the door again. “Hey, guys, how about giving me a hand with this?” The three of them each grabbed onto the door. “On three, ready? One, two, three!” The door groaned, then sprang open under the combined force of the three men. Zak immediately checked for a pulse. “Oh, thank God, she’s alive!” He brushed her red hair out of her eyes and saw a large cut at her temple that was bleeding badly. He quickly took off his shirt and held it to the cut trying to stop the bleeding as best he could. As he stood there, applying pressure to her wound, he wondered just what color her eyes would be when she opened them. He felt an instant attraction to her that he couldn’t explain. It was almost as if he recognized her soul – like he knew her from a past life. He shook his head and looked at her again – really looked at her. She wasn’t familiar to him at all from a visual standpoint, but he could feel something pass between himself and her. He needed to protect her.

The ambulance and rescue squad arrived, followed shortly by the fire department and police. Shayna was extracted from the vehicle onto a backboard and then taken in the ambulance to the hospital. Zak, Aaron and Nick finished talking to the police about the accident and decided to follow the ambulance to the hospital to find out how she was.

“Zak, you do realize that we don’t even know her name.” Aaron said as they climbed into their rental van. “We have a lockdown tonight, too, dude. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“Still, Aaron, I want to know for sure,” Zak said. “She just looked so broken…so alone… We can’t- we can’t just load her in an ambulance and forget about her. After all, that shadow figure – it had to have caused the accident. I just feel – “

“Okay, dude.” Nick said, looking at his friend curiously. “I’ve never seen you like this. What is it about her?”

“I – I don’t know. It’s just like I feel like I know her. It’s almost hypnotic.” Zak looked at his two compatriots. “I know it sounds crazy, but I just feel like I should protect her, no matter what.”

They walked into the emergency room and asked about the lady who was just brought in.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything about her unless you’re her family,” the receptionist said.

“It’s okay Beatrice.” One of the ambulance EMTs who was at the accident walked up to the trio. “It looks like she is going to be fine, although she is still unconscious, and will be for a while. She’s had a nasty concussion and is suffering from a broken wrist, a broken ankle, and several contusions from all of the broken glass. Do you guys have any idea what caused the accident? I was told you saw it happen.”

Zak and Aaron looked at each other and then back at the EMT.

“No, not a clue.” Aaron said cautiously.