He didn't know how, but he knew the silhouette in the sphere had escaped its prison. That is was no longer a shape in the ball, but a living, hungry creature. A hungry creature who had a taste of his essence. His soul.

In the moments before the piece of his soul was devoured he could feel the creature's hunger. It's brutality.

He soul jumped the cops and moved most of them to the back side of the train car. Amy and Clarinthia both raised eyebrows.

"Sorry." Amy was panting. "I just never thought I'd get to meet you. To be the one to help you."

"Trust me, meeting me is the worst thing that could have possibly happened to you." Dixon nodded at Scott, who was still unconscious. "We need to move, right now."

"Why?"

Dixon pulled on a seat cushion, hoping it would pull off. "No time to explain. Just help me find a way to construct something to carry Scott in. Does anybody have a knife?"

Amy pulled one out of her pocket. It was large, but mostly built around utility rather than combat.

"Good. Cut some of the fabric off the couch." He walked to the center of the train car where there was a series of metal poles.

Amy began cutting, while Dixon forced a few police officers to smash a hole in the ceiling and floor with their guns. The holes were around the metal support poles and this allowed Dixon to pull them out to use as the stretcher.

Clarity hobbled over and took the pole and laid it down. She exchanged a somber look with Dixon and then pulled the seat cushions from Amy. With precision, she fastened everything together to make a crude stretcher.

"I guess I'll have to carry you on my back." Dixon said to Clarity.

"There's no need. We've located a crutch. It will be slow going, but we'll manage." She grimaced a little. “We are low on energy though. So we won’t be much use to you should the worst happen.

“Hopefully the worst has already happened.” Dixon turned back to Amy. "Are there any other injured? We need to get moving fast."

"Not really."

"Ok, gather them, and help me carry Scott."

The group had their things packed quickly, and Dixon picked up his end of the stretcher while facing away from it, Scott's head right behind him.

"We're heading away from the last platform?" Amy asked, picking up the rear of the stretcher by Scott's feet.

"Danger is coming from that platform." Dixon started walking.

They moved through a few train cars. Starting first with the one he was tear gassed in. There were still remnants of the gas, and his eyes twitched in discomfort. But he wasn't able to scratch them for fear of dropping his friend.

Once that was clear, it took them a few train cars before they found other passengers. The new passengers readily joined the group with a working flashlight. Dixon was just glad to get as many people out of the path of the incoming monster as he could.

Dixon kept his squad of dead policemen in the shadows, around the trains, and out of sight. He didn't want to scare off any one else. If that creature from the sphere came down here looking for him, there was no telling if he would feast on the souls of those he crossed.

They reached the end of the train and stepped into the tunnels. It was bigger than he thought it would have been. The locals were leery of walking on the tracks in the dark, and with good reason. If the power did come back on, there would be nowhere for them to move should a train come barreling down the tube at them.

Dixon assured them the power wouldn't be coming back on for a while. They had no choice but to step into the dark.

There wasn't really a lot of room for stepping. Amy was trying to keep her flashlight pointed at everyone’s feet to help them avoid tripping, but there were too many people. Clarity hobbled along with her crutch, occasionally moaning in pain, but otherwise keeping up.

Dixon's hands and arms ached after a while. The pace was slow, and the tunnel stretched on. He shrugged his shoulders in an attempt to keep them loose, but Scott was a heavy guy.

They found another train and rested there for a while. After fifteen minutes, Dixon grew anxious about his pursuer. He could almost feel it getting closer.

"Time to go." Dixon ordered.

They were almost all back out on the tracks, when nearly a quarter mile ahead, one of his dead cops spotted a glowing red ghost. Then two, then five. A few green ghosts were there as well. All in all, about twelve ghost from the legion league were standing in a tunnel junction. Behind them, three tunnels split off from the tunnel they were now in. The league was standing right in the middle, obviously prepared for a fight.

They were trapped. Behind them, some unknowable monster of a shadow stalked them. It was possibly very close. In front of them a more knowable but still formidable group of soul jumpers and scribes blocked the path of escape.

Dixon sent all of the dead cops running ahead to confront the legion league. They had a few flood lights set up, pointing brightly in all directions.

"How are those lights working?" Dixon asked through the first cop to arrive. All of the cops were now in battle stance with guns pointed right at the Phantom Queen.

"A little consolation prize from one of Pavarti's nearby labs." Brooke rubbed the top of of a light with her finger. "Nothing in there was effected."

"Move out of the way." Dixon ordered.

"No."

Dixon looked around at the crowd of passengers next to him. "Everybody, there's going to be gunfire up ahead. Don't panic. They're the good guys taking out the bad ones."

All of the cops under his command opened fire. The bullets bounced off an invisible wall, inches in front of Brooke. He tried shooting the others. They were likewise protected.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Pretty neat, huh?" Brooke shouted when the gunfire stopped. "I saw Azurand do something similar back on Cova, I just had to find out how.”

Twelve more of her souls shot out of her body and at his cops. Dixon thought nothing of it, he already knew she couldn't soul jump the dead.

Just before the souls reached the cops, something changed about the texture of them. They grew less cloudy and murky and more solid. The first one ripped through the closest cop and tore him in half. In a few quick seconds, all of his cops were on the ground and in pieces.

Dixon's ghosts had nothing left to cling to, and they returned to him around the corner.

"Turn around. Run." Dixon shifted his weight and looked back at Clarity. She was leaning against the wall, eyes closed, and the color was draining from her face.

The crowd didn't move, as if frozen in fear.

"I thought you said we were being chased by a monster," Amy protested.

"I did, didn't I?" He set his end of Scott's stretcher down. "Wait here, I'll see what I can do. If I don't come back, pick which fate you fear worst and run from it."

He started to run, the legion league was already rounding the bend. He could see the invisible shield now, a light red glare in the shape of the tunnel.

"You're very resourceful." Brooke shouted. "Killing those cops to get them out of my control was a particular touch of genius. But, heartless. Do the rest of these passengers know how those fallen officers died?"

"It didn't come up."

“You would've been a good team mate of mine."

"I've got enough crazy in my life." Dixon shouted back.

"True." Brooke smiled and almost two dozen souls appeared by her side. "You're trying to save a bunch of people in a tunnel by killing their sworn protectors. And then you try to convince them you can save them. Well, I think it's time they discovered just how powerless you were."

Dixon turned and ran. He picked up Scott and slung him over his shoulders. Her ghosts tore into the other passengers.

"Get back in the train!" Dixon yelled at Amy. She was beside him, carrying Clarity.

Someone next to them fell as he was impaled by a hardened spirit.

"Leave him!" Dixon reached the entrance door and opened hit.

He threw Scott into the train and climbed in. He pulled Amy in and she moved the other two back. Three more people were helped in, before another was impaled.

He soul jumped a few of the passengers to get them running a bit faster. From here, he could also see clearer to move them out of the way of flying soul spears.

After a minute, those who remained alive were on the train. He shut the door and moved in deeper with the rest of the crew.

"How was she doing that?" Amy said.

A soul spear clanged against the glass outside. "She's throwing a part of her soul at us."

"Is that why we can't see it?"

Dixon forgot about that part. From their point of view, those people were torn to pieces by something invisible.

"Yes."

A woman next to Amy was soul jumped by Brooke. And a man at the end of the crowd. Then two more. Soon all of the passengers except for Amy, Scott, Clarity and Dixon were possessed.

"Are you going to kill all of these passengers Dixon?" Brooke said through Amy.

At once the people got up and converged on him. He stepped back and grappled the arm of a man to his left. A the rest of the group reached him, he threw the man into crowd, knocking them down.

This cleared a path for him to run to the other end of the train car. On the other side of the door, the monster was walking towards him.

"Come on Dixon, you know you want to kill us," Amy called out behind him. "Or maybe I should do it for you."

Dixon turned back around. At that moment, Brooke's soul hardened and shot out of Amy’s body. She fell, and the spirit soared like a spear towards Dixon.

He tried to block it with his soul. But his never liked being out in the air. And there was nothing solid about it. It did nothing to slow down the soul spear.

There was only one thing left for it. At the last second, he opened the door to the train car and jumped out of the way.

The soul spear shot through the open doorway, and the silhouette monster caught it. Somewhere outside of the train, Brooke screamed in pain. An unknowable sound escaped the silhouette and it let go of Brooke's soul.

A few things happened at once. First, the silhouette started evaporating and writhing in pain. Second, all of the possessed passengers fell as their soul jumps were released. Brooke was down. The others were vulnerable.

Since the soul eating monster was gone, Dixon sprang to his feet and ran back out of the train and into the dark tunnels. Brooke and her cronies were running away, and all he could see was their ghosts in the distance.

He ran in the darkness for a minute, picked up a few weapons from the fallen police officers, passed the spotlights, and gained on one of the closest scribes from the legion league.

He shot the guy in the leg.

"Ahh!" The scribe fell to one leg and Dixon kicked him in the face.

Dixon then shot out at the colored Ghosts in the distance, some of them fell down, others were behind the corner.

He ran at a slower pace, following but not gaining on the legion league. After a few minutes, he reached a dead end. A locked door on the side of the tunnel. He tried breaking the lock with a shot from the gun, but it did nothing.

Red and green ghosts shrank in the distance behind the door. He cursed and kicked the door, earning himself a stubbed toe.