Orpheus - Haunting the Dead.pdf - Dice

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CORRIDORS
The murky aura around the hotel has thickened. It
now extends at least twenty yards away from the
building, forcing him to move back to the curb. What’s
more, there are things moving inside it. They walk like
people, wear torn and ill-fitting clothing. But their
faces are gone, replaced by naked flesh marked only by
a single, stitched-up scar.
Fascinated, Terrence moves closer. The things are
not alive, that much is obvious to his discerning eye.
And yet they don’t appear to be dead souls either. He
watches as one takes up a position beside the doorman,
placing a gloved hand on the shoulder of the oblivious
doorkeeper. Another follows three women as they
walk into the atrium. Indeed, any living person who
goes through the hotel doors picks up such a follower.
The rest move slowly back and forth through the
muddy cloud that swathes the hotel. Their sluggish
wanderings seem purposeful, but they don’t appear to
be doing anything.
Terrence raises the old army radio again and speaks.
The radio transmits to a broadcast station and from
there into the great net of radio waves that carry his
voice around the world. “I don’t know what these
things are,” he says. “But from what I hear, they’re
dangerous. If anyone is in the area, watch out for—“
He feels a hand clamp around his wrist, another
around his neck. Three more of the faceless creatures
swarm around him, pulling him off his feet. He struggles,
cursing, swearing at himself for assuming the creatures
couldn’t penetrate the barrier that had foiled him.
Then he realizes that they’re bringing him into the
hotel. He passes right through the brown cloud and it
seems no more solid than air.
Orpheus Facility #6, Level 4, Undisclosed Location
September 20, 6:13 a.m.
There is a low rumble. Ed feels his legs buckling,
then realizes the floor is moving. There are rattling
sounds as pens and staplers and CD-ROMs fall off the
HAUNTING THE DEAD
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