Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #17 August 2015 | Page 16

away from the apparition.

Jessica stared at him. She was still trying to
process what had just happened to her. Words weren’t
coming to her. There was only a swirl of feelings, all
underneath a surface of terror.

The spectre’s face contorted. The thin lips
drew back. The mouth open wider than a human
mouth could and a deep moan emerged. Jessica felt
invisible hands tugging at her, trying to lift her off the
floor.

Donny looked over at Stewart, who was getting some footage of the remains of the ghost. “Dude,
you okay?”

“Help!” she screamed. She swatted the air
around her, but didn’t hit anything.

“Yeah, yeah,” Stewart said, buzzing with fear
and excitement. “That was pretty awesome.”

Stewart kept the camera rolling as he grabbed
her shoulder. It felt like she was being lifted off the
floor, but there was nothing that visibly had hold of
her. “What the hell?”

Stewart nodded and kept filming. Donny
looked at Jessica. “How about it? You still want to
do this? If not, we can walk you back to the van and
finish on our own.”

At the sound of the shouts, Donny and his
teammates exited the room they had been searching.
He saw the spectral woman hovering in the middle of
the corridor and opened fire. The Mk3 made a slight
whirring noise as it pumped out pulses of energy.
They tore at the framework of energy that held the
spectre together. Distracted, the ghost lost her telekinetic grip on Jessica. She felt a last, violent pulling
sensation and then was free.

It took another moment for Jessica to collect
herself. Then she said, “No, I’m good. It’s just a little…”
Donny said, “Freaky?”

The ghost turned slowly to face the men shooting at it. Her physical form was composed of bits of
dust, bacteria, squirming insects and whatever else she
had found floating in the air or stuck to the surfaces of
the corridor. As the energy pulses tore into the body
she began to crumble. An arm fell away from the body
and then popped like over-filled water balloon leaving
a red mist hanging in the air. Chunks of her body exploded, splattering the floor and walls with a noisome
black ichor. The creature was able to let out one last
inhuman howl before her energy framework completely destabilised, and she faded from this world. What
was left of the body immediately collapsed, leaving
behind a smoking lump of black filth.

Donny skirted the edge of the ghost’s remains
and skidded to halt in front of Jessica. “You okay?”

She nodded. Donny let out a whoop of adrenaline fuelled excitement. “Wow, you got the full ride.
Manifestation and a telekinetic attack.”

“You go that right. You guys still good to go?”

“I was going to say fucking terrifying. But,
sure, freaky works too,” she said, laughing.

“Okay. Listen, you guys stick right on us,
okay? You get lost in here, you could get in real
trouble. And not just from the Caspers; this place isn’t
structurally sound. Right?”

The six people made their way deeper into the
dark halls of Passencelle. Jessica noticed that there
were patches of a crusty, fibrous material on the decaying walls. It sparkled faintly in the weak light.

“Get that,”she said to Stewart. “Donny, what’s
this stuff?”

Donny shined his entry light on one of the
patches and chuckled. “Ectoplasmic discharge. Ghost
jizz.”

16

Jessica recoiled, her noise wrinkling in disgust.