Someone was singing; more than a hum but lacking in words—it was pleasant, warm and called for him to wake. The discussion had continued without any real conclusion but Sara had decided to move Keira into the nearest room to rest on a bed rather than the dining table. He had insisted on staying with her so had brought the comfiest chair he could find and was dozing by Keira’s side. He drifted off from the exhaustion of the night but had struggled to stay asleep for long due to the constant images of his sister standing above the water and the spear that pierced Keira. But now he woke for another reason, the song that came from the girl to his side.

Keira was not awake, not conscious and hadn’t moved beyond them carrying her to the bed but it was her that sang. It wasn’t loud, her face and mouth barely moved, only held open enough to let out her vocalisation which was not a tune or song he was familiar with. He watched her, perplexed at the strange behaviour and unsure what to do but as her voice started to get louder, he decided to get help. When he reached the door she stopped.

“She’s coming…”

He turned to see her sitting upright, facing towards the wall with her eyes still closed.

“Keira?!” He ran to her but she didn’t respond. “Keira, what’s going on?”

Still no response but her body became limp and she fell back into the bed as she was before. She didn’t move again nor make a sound and looked as she had when he first placed her there. But then the song came again, not from Keira but the world around him. It was loud, echoing throughout the building as though played out of a tannoy system. He started moving back to the door but as he reached it, Sara flung it open.

“Finlay, is Keira okay?”

He hesitated, unsure how to even explain what he had seen, but she was already pushing past him to check on the girl. Ronan appeared before he could say anything and without a second glance, he rushed to Sara.

“We need you."

She nodded and followed the man back out the door leaving him to stand in the middle of the room, a numbness washing over him as the song continued. It wasn't Keira's voice any longer, the sound that continued to grow in volume was the same he heard in the forest, the singer was his sister.

His mind was reeling, it wasn’t over. He was sure they were safe, that they had escaped but that was nothing more than a delusion. He turned to his friend; she was still the same, silent and still, as though the strangeness of her actions moments ago had been a dream. Indecision filled him but he had to know what was happening and couldn't stay still any longer. He stepped out the door, following after Ronan and Sara.

Everyone was already starting to gather in the main room having heard the song and were unsurprisingly concerned. Most had seen the state that Keira and the others had been in during the night and now they were being woken by a strange singing that surrounded them. Faye was standing on top of a table, her sword in hand and taking note of everyone who was in the room. William was next to her keeping track as he seemed to have taken on the role of her aid.

Ronan and Sara were near the front door with serious expressions and deep in conversation. He started to walk towards them but stopped as William had noticed him and marched over.

“Is Keira okay?”

“She’s the same, stable.”

“Good, they’re waiting for everyone to gather while they figure things out, then they’ll tell us what’s going on.”

There was a scream from the back of the room and everyone turned to see but the girl apologised, waving her hands as it was nothing. He sighed, a long exhale as the exhaustion and confusion were getting to him.

“William,” he said as he watched the two instructors in conversation. “Do you think you can get some poles and blankets, maybe the table legs or something—but long and strong enough to hold a person.”

“I guess, but why?”

“A stretcher. I have a feeling we’re going to have to move from here and we’ll need something to carry Keira.”

He didn’t say anything but nodded and turned to walk back to Faye. Finlay watched him for a moment before hurrying over to the doorway. When he reached them, Sara gave him a forced smile but Ronan was staring at the ceiling.

“We’re trying to figure things out, Finlay, it’ll be okay. Don’t worry, you’re still safe,” she said, trying her hardest to reassure him.

“It’s my sister’s voice. She’s here.”

“I was sure it was confined to that space, I saw no other reason for it to call you there,” Ronan replied, still looking up.

“There’s something else…”

He told them about Keira and what happened before the song started, Sara looked surprised and Ronan leaned closer to him, looking him straight in the eye. It was as though he was searching for something inside his gaze, hidden behind his eyes but what the man was searching for, he had no idea.

“We’ll have to deal with that later,” he said, pulling back to his previous stance.

“Keep an eye on her; leave the door open but for now, there’s nothing you need to do. We’ll protect this place and everyone in it,” said Sara.

“I think we should leave.”

“It’s still dark, Finlay, it’s more dangerous to try and move everyone right now and both Ronan and Faye are exhausted. It’s safer to remain here, together.”

He couldn’t deny her reasoning but he still felt it was wrong. Something about the situation, something about the night and everything that had happened made him feel that staying was a bad decision. He looked at Ronan but he was still studying the ceiling and showed no obvious interest in the conversation.

“I think we’d be safer outside, I think we need to move.”

“You’ve been through a lot tonight, it’s understandable you’re scared and want to run. We’re safer staying here for now, we’re going to figure out the best way to go back when it gets lighter and these two have had a chance to recover.”

“But…”

“Finlay, trust us.”

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“Why are you so sure we should leave?” Ronan asked, without turning to face him.

He looked between them and then to the ground, he wasn’t even sure why he felt this way, why he was arguing with Sara who obviously knew better than him. Yet it felt like the right thing to do, he couldn’t drop it; there was something about this situation that felt even more dangerous.

“When I was young and we were attacked on the boats, people went below deck to hide. They tried to find safe places in cabins and corners as though it would protect them. But below deck was a massacre—they had nowhere to run and the wraiths just passed through the walls as though they weren’t there.”

He looked back up and Sara was studying him, Ronan remained absent but he continued.

“Whatever that thing is, I know it’s stronger than the wraiths but it still moves and acts like they did. It was a wraith I saw at the river and there has to be a connection between them somehow. While we’re inside, it just means we can’t see them coming.”

Sara sighed and turned to Ronan who finally looked away from the ceiling.

“Faye said something similar,” he said.

“We don’t know if this is an attack or another attempt at luring you into the open,” Sara continued, turning to face him.

He looked down, realising his ignorance that they hadn’t considered this already. But Sara put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile.

“You’re not wrong, we’re making decisions based on limited information here. Honestly, it's a difficult situation but we decided it's better to hold out here for now.”

“It would be a good idea to prepare for the possibility of running though,” Ronan added.

“I already asked William to gather some things to make a stretcher for Keira.”

“Well now that I can get behind,” Sara replied. “Be ready, we don’t know what’s going to happen and if we decide to leave, we’ll be in a hurry. But for now, the more time we take the better.”

She glanced up at Faye making it clear her desire was to give them time to rest. His need to escape hadn’t addressed the fact that two of their strongest fighters were effectively out of action currently. Given the ease of breaking his and Keira's aura, the rest of the section was no match for that thing so they’d be exclusively relying on Sara’s strength.

Once again he was jumping to conclusions and actions without thinking everything through, even when Sara was making it clear she was trying to give the others time to rest and recover in case of a fight.

He thanked them and left to return to the room with Keira who was as still and silent as he expected. He felt frustrated again, it was hard not to blame himself and when he tried to make things better, tried to protect the others, he kept making bad decisions. For now, all he could do was focus on making sure nothing else happened to Keira and let the instructors deal with everything else.

He slumped on the chair beside Keira and picked up her hand, watching her slow breathing. She seemed peaceful—serene as though they were on a pleasant holiday and she was resting after a day’s fun and excitement. The song had become intrusive, loud enough that even the deepest sleeper would wake from it but it wasn’t unpleasant. The voice was elegant, even beautiful and held no hint of the pain or tortuous anger that it had in the forest.

It seemed as though it would go on forever, he continued to listen and wait, almost falling into a daze once again but then it stopped. Silence filled the room and he turned to face the doorway, looking for the others that were in the room beyond. Puzzled expressions and questions of whether it was over filled the silence. Faye as usual remained on high alert but there was nothing to indicate why it changed. Then there was pain.

Keira had gripped his hand as tight as possible, he spun around to find her rigid with her other hand clenched to the bed so that she was almost lifting her body up from the tension. She screamed with an agonising cry that startled him and he stood up to hold her shoulder with the hand that wasn’t being crushed by her grip.

“Keira!”

He called to her and tried to hold her in place as she started to thrash her body around in the continued scream. It was endless as though she never needed to take a breath but then as quickly as it came, she stopped and everything released again. The tension she held in her body, the grip on his hand and the bed disappeared. Once more she fell back onto the bed as still and silent as she had been before. Sara stepped around the doorway with William close behind.

“What’s going on, is Keira al—”

There was another feeling that stopped Sara mid-question; the pressure and weight of the miasma, ever-present, engulfed everything. It was heavier than he had ever felt, worse than facing the call of the guardians, worse than when he was by the pool with his sister. He almost collapsed under the weight of the pressure and he could hear from the other room that Faye was yelling through the cries of their pain that the others should call upon their spiritual forms.

Sara brought about the golden aura that he was familiar with and he watched as William called his own. He had fallen to his knees without realising it, one hand still holding Keira’s and he brought the other to his chest, to the amulet hidden beneath his shirt. He tried to call it out, tried to get help from his spirit, to protect him from this nightmare that weighed on his very being. But the spirit was silent, it didn’t respond and he realised he hadn’t heard from it, hadn’t felt it since the creature broke his aura by the pool of water.

Panic filled his mind and he spun around to look at Sara. She knelt down beside him and urged him to call upon his spiritual form but he couldn’t answer her. All he could do was mouth his response, to try and tell her that it wasn’t there, that it wouldn’t answer him. Again he tried, but he had already exhausted his ability when he invoked Foras and it felt as though there was nothing left within him.

He wasn’t only worried about himself, Keira was also unprotected. She was unconscious and weak in her current state, it was only a matter of time before this miasma would be too much for her body to hold. He struggled to pull himself up, pull himself over the bed to see her but she remained as peaceful as ever. His arms were shaking, his body about to collapse over the girl but then as quick as it came, there was relief.

The miasma lifted in an instant, returning to the mild level they had become accustomed to when they first arrived. He fell back into the chair he had sat on earlier and Sara slipped down to look him in the eye, checking if he was alright. But before she could even say a word, the onslaught over their senses continued.

It was the same sound that it made at the pool in the forest when his sister lifted her head back and let out that maniacal cackle—but now it filled the building as the song had done before. There was a scream from the room beside them, another followed and people started to shout. He heard Faye’s voice yelling over the top of them that they needed to stay calm and Sara darted to the door to find out what was happening.

“Stay with them,” she told William as she left.

He tried to look out the door but William was blocking the way, he was still holding the aura around himself and called out his weapon as he watched.

“What’s going on out there?”

But his answer came before William could respond as a wraith appeared through one of the walls. He yelled a warning and William spun around to see the creature descend onto him. His reactions were good and he swung his axe down and through the creature carving it apart in an instant. The scream, the shriek he was familiar with from his childhood resonated out from the smoke but it didn’t stop its attack. William followed his first strike with another which was enough to break the wraith apart and it vanished in wisps of continued shrieking.

“Found you.”

It was barely a whisper and he felt it as much as he heard it. He spun around to see his sister kneeling at the other side of the bed, leaning over Keira with a wide grin that sent a shiver down his spine. William didn’t hesitate and charged towards the girl, his axe held high.

“No!”

He yelled out leaping towards William as he knew what would come from that action. The black spear that shot out from the side of the girl leaning over the bed would have pierced his chest in the same way it had Keira but he managed to get in front of it. It did not pierce his skin, but instead, he felt it hit with a dull force that sent him backwards. A strong enough blow that he collided with William and they both fell against the wall with him curling around the doorframe.

The laughter continued all around them, even while his sister had spoken to him as though it came from some unknown source. There was chaos in the main room, wraiths kept appearing and disappearing in the walls around them and Faye was unleashing a barrage against any that lingered for more than a second. The others in his section huddled together, all maintaining their auras and weapons held out, ready to defend themselves whenever one got close.

Sara was back with Ronan and when she saw him curl around the doorway, crawling over the floor from the blow, she ran towards him. In a second she reached him and knelt down to check if he was okay, but as he dragged an answer out of himself she was already charging into the room.

"She's here..."