The room was barely lit. A weak castoff glow came from an installation mounted on one wall and lit up iron bars separating the room into two parts. I had maybe three feet of space to breathe in.

I looked around, carefully, and tried to get a measure for the cell. There was a wooden stool on my side. Otherwise, the room looked empty. The cell was devoid any monsters or signs of life at all.

This was clearly a joke of some sort. Daniel might have led me into a trap. It wouldn't be the first time he jerked me around like a pawn. I turned around to knock on the door.

Danger. Feel something behind me. New weight. Close. Shivers crawl up back. Air confines. Barely breathable. Walls close tight. Head slowly cranes around.

"Hell,” I let out the word carefully as my stomach seized. Daniel said don't panic but a face was pressed up against the bars.

Energy spirals. Uneven jerks. Spins around the cage. Solidifies for a moment. Feel it again. Feel face. Pressure against polished metal rods.

"Hell. Hell." Daniel said not to panic and that was the only idea keeping me vaguely still. It might have been nervous fear. How could I remain stable though? A face had just vanished, then appeared again from emptiness, completely shoved up against the bars.

Its features were hollow with empty sunken pits where eyes should be. Barely female curves were buried under pale drawn skin, dirty clumps of hair and threadbare clothing. Fear radiated off her in waves. It was too dark and confining in here. There was no room to run. I had to get out. My arm wouldn't lift to knock on the door.

That other cadence of thoughts had switched to fully active. I wasn't drawing on any strength yet or laying claim. Survival mode with came with hyper awareness. Thoughts sat frozen on the cusp of fight or flight.

Heart hammers. Thuds vibrate out. Back presses to wall. Body tries to hunch. Make myself small. Coiled. Defensive. Creature moves. Weightless in a moment. Heavy and real in another. Glow of spirit. A wild sick thing.

Each time I blinked the person inside moved. They nearly faded out of existence then appeared at a new location in the cell. It would study a wall or stare at nothing. The path was random but looked confined within the walls. Not once did it appear on this side.

"Hell," I uttered again.

Caged. Form blurs on bars. Almost disperses. Loses weight. Look around. See charms. Warding stones. Defenses against the Old Things.

Every few blinks I saw her pressed up against the bars with that reedy face trying to squish its way through. Not once did it have any expression. She, if it could be considered female, wore a blank stare that didn't register my existence.

A minute passed. The fear didn't go away, but it did become familiar. Separation from my panic allowed my attention to travel around the room, trying to figure out what was going on.

The camera's tiny red light bleeped above me. It sat on this side of the bars. Daniel and Eddy were probably watching through the camera and laughing at me. Luckily their words were muffled by the heavy door and thick walls.

Hanging around the creature’s side of the room were small stones with holes worn in their centers, much like the one I had on my stairwell at home. They were similar to an item I had been exposed to during my testing hours ago. They must be doing something. Did they hold the weird creature in place? I tried to recall the words my other mind used. Warding stones, and old things.

The idea of this thing being in a cage both reassured and bothered me. Was it so dangerous that they had to lock it up? What exactly had this creature done besides be disturbing as hell?

Jittering movements kept right on going as I watched. Sometimes rapidly, one after the other. During its brief pauses, I could see the form of a young teenage girl. The exact age was hard to tell and her facial features were bizarre. She could have easily been eighty. Daniel had said she used to live where Rachel now lived.

If she appeared on this side of the bars I might just shit myself. I took more breaths and tried to straighten up. My back had been so firmly pressed into the wall that it almost merged with me. Bits of my brain hummed in readiness. If needed, I would desperately pull everything I could muster regardless of Daniel’s warning.

How the flying fornication would I get her, it, whatever, to talk?

"Hell."

What could I do? What would a normal human male do to make the unnatural talk? Recite poetry? Look for trigger words like cake, pizza, boobs and explosions? Tell a joke?

"Hello?" I barely managed to stutter the word out.

Maybe the old Jay could handle this. The old Jay was probably incapable of feeling fear. This apparition gave off a similar vibe as Kahina's NightShades. The flavor was different, and there was a lack of gibbering incomprehensible voices. Where they were maddening and noisy, this thing was like white noise covering pure static.

"Can you see me?" This time, I uttered four words, and clearly had grown daring.

The creature gave no verbal response. It almost seemed confused. Normally I sought to understand by studying people's eyes and body language. This creature had no eyes, which made my guess half accurate at best.

"Can you see me?" I asked again.

It paused then stood still at a wall. Its head tilted around at unbelievable angles. An accelerated blur of motion to the bars followed. Perhaps it could hear, but not see. Was that because of Muni's charm? Or was that because it was blind? My arm slowly waved back and forth in front of her face. There was no sign of recognition.

I felt slightly safer and almost calm now that the initial rush of panic had washed over me. Whatever it was, was female, trapped, and blind. She couldn’t have a real sense of smell either or it would be obvious an unwashed male stood on the other side of the bars. I stomped a foot on the ground twice but the weird energy creature showed no response.

The next step would be to figure out how she interacted with the world. Once I made it past that hurdle I could get some sort of response. It was the same strategy I used when collecting debts. Figure out what gets someone going.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

One shoe came off and I waited for her to be on the other side of the room. The creature appeared on the jail cell’s far side and I slammed the shoe against multiple bars.

Metal rings. Air hums. Energy inside goes into frenzy. Moves like fledgling for food. Focused. Hungry. Desperate.

She heard that. I rung the bars a second time when the opportunity presented. It gained the same response of sudden focus. One of her hands passed up and down the walls in fast forwarded jerks of motion.

Her movements were almost like a vampire's. Would blood make a difference? I had nothing to cut myself with, and no desire to at this point. Fast healing would result in questioning. We were being recorded which meant all my actions had to appear human.

So far every action done fit within the normal human image, aside from staying in this room to start with. A sane person would be banging on the door to demand freedom. I reserved that bit of indignity for when the creature appeared on this side of the cage.

I was getting brave and went for the bars a third time with my shoe. This time, hands shot out from between the bars and grabbed my arm.

Danger. Arm trapped. Cold winds up limb. Pull. Desperately pull. Unable to escape. Her energy a latching yoke. Eyeless face stares directly at me. Deep. See nothing but holes. An endless abyss.

Hell. Hell. Daniel said don't panic. Daniel said...

Pull on strength. Fight for life. Brace foot on bar. Scream. Roar. Floor vibrates. Escape her grasp. Power too much. I fly into wall. Crash. Hurt. Arm tingles.

I was still pulling in every ounce of strength I could in panic. The walls felt cold and heavy. The floor was a solid thing pressing against packed dirt. For a moment, I could sense people in the other rooms. Daniel's footsteps were rushing toward the door. A massive body sat exhausted in another cell. A tiny plump woman in a third.

Creature backs up. I back up. Hug wall. She sees. Her mouth opens. Eye sockets widen. Her body shakes. Shivers. No jumping now. Too solid. Each foot presses lightly against the floor.

We were both absolutely terrified. Neither one of us could escape the other. Then she screamed and the world shattered. Each piercing bit of her vocals sunk into the material around me. Items vibrated with a painful intensity, and my senses, doubling up with both the auditory and the tactile, were overwhelmed.

I regretted every single decision that led me to this place, in this room, with noise sawing away at my mind. Saying yes to Daniel, talking peacefully with Father Tom, caring about Tal and Rachel.

The door behind me opened. Daniel had one ear covered. His eyes watering. Eddy was similarly pressed. Both people grabbed limp arms and hauled. The screaming noises spun down the hallway after us. Once I was clear of the room Daniel went back and slammed the heavy iron shut. It didn't help.

I tried to focus and attempted to retract my senses. The screaming went on and on. No pause for breath came from the weird apparition trapped inside the cell. It was relentless, the yells of a monstrous woman gone mad.

Other people showed up. Guns at the ready, looking for targets to shoot. The only potential victims were the three of us. I was the easiest, crawling desperately for the door. Trying to get away. Flight. Definitely flight. That scream outmatched everything my brain could comprehend. I had to flee and get away.

Daniel and Eddy were trying to get me to calm down. Other militia members poured in behind us to check their prisoners or the dead. I couldn’t feel anyone go into that weird woman’s room.

I broke through the small army and into the courtyard in eager panic for open sky. My arms hugged the dirt in desperation. Even here the ground vibrated with her scream. Not as intense, but sharp, painful, cutting. Slowly it died off but I couldn’t calm down.

"Relax. Relax, Brother. She's trapped,” Daniel said.

"Wha..." The left half of my face felt numb and both ears might be busted. Daniel had said something that was meant to be reassuring but it was gone lost in the ringing.

"You alright?" he asked.

That I heard. I tried to form a coherent sentence. One that adequately described just how un-alright I was. On a scale of one to ten, I landed somewhere in the hundreds. My mouth didn't work correctly. I wiggled my jaw, kept my eyes shut, and tried to drown out as many sensory inputs as possible.

People were shuffling around. The creature inside that pen could be heard again, wailing loud enough to be heard through solid concrete. It cut to the core, sending shivers rippling across my skin. This wasn't the same as Kahina's NightShades. This was a different type of disturbing.

Finally I managed to ask a question, "What the hell was that?" There should be a prize for that. I could add it to the pile of hard-won achievements.

"A White Lady," Eddy answered.

"White what?"

"White Lady.” Daniel’s accent hung between surfer and zealot. “We don't have a real name for her. Though with what just happened, maybe we can dig up some lore and get something more accurate."

My heart stuttered. "There's more?"

"Rarely. The Order has found four of them, only ever one at a time so far. This is the first one we've managed to capture." Father Tom had shown up as well. He was calm and thoughtful looking. I tried not to stare at the man. Weakness wasn't a good idea.

There wasn't enough left in me to keep going. I needed to pass out now, in the middle of the enemy's stronghold, with that White Lady creature so close. I stood, finding my legs pleasantly unstable.

"She only takes certain bodies. Those that die while mourning a lost love of some sort. Always female," Father Tom continued his lecture.

"Hell."

"That's the worst scream I've ever heard from her,” Daniel said.

"What does it mean?" I asked while dreading the answer.

"Death," Daniel said. "It means people are going to die." His voice was subdued and lacking any accent I had come to associate with Zach or his Sector agent tones.

"And soon," Father Tom said with a frown.

I nodded and almost passed out completely. Head dipped low. The world had blacked out for just a second.

"...man, we'll get you a bunk. Come on." Daniel tried to get a shoulder under mine but paused to look at Father Tom for permission.

Father Tom nodded, and between Eddy and Daniel I was dragged to the barracks. They deposited me into a bottom cot. Sleep was desperately needed. The last forty-eight hours had been rough. My consciousness lasted long enough to turn lengthwise before passing out.