Ghostfinders 01 - Ghost of a Chance

Beasts on your own. Along with how to fill in next-of-kin forms.”
    “The Project believes in encouraging individual effort,” said Erik. “Along with basic and advanced treachery, back-stabbing, and general unpleasantness. Survival of the fittest. Trample on the weakest, glory in their plight.”
    “No, I’m pretty sure that last bit is only you,” said Natasha. “Nasty little man.”
    “Heh-heh,” said Erik.
    “I think I’m going to go and sit by somebody else,” said Happy. And he got up and moved away from Erik to sit down beside Melody. Who immediately punched him hard in the arm.
    “Ow!” said Happy. “What was that for?”
    “For sneaking pills when you were expressly told not to. I’ll think of other things to hit you for later.”
    Happy nodded unhappily. “I suppose a pain-killer is out of the question?” And then he broke off and looked round sharply. “Hold everything, go previous . . . I think the charge running through that circle flushed most of the chemical goodness out of my system. I haven’t felt this sober in years. I don’t like it. But I am definitely feeling things. Heads up, people; there’s someone else here.”
    They all looked around, but there was no-one else to be seen. The darkness was back beyond the windows, where it belonged, and the car seemed perfectly normal.
    “Are you sure?” said Melody. “It isn’t just . . .”
    “No it isn’t just!” snapped Happy, up on his feet and glaring about him. “I am, unfortunately, entirely clear-headed again, and I am telling you. There’s a presence in this car. Not a ghost, not as such. But I can feel it, like a background noise, like a flickering light, or a voice calling from another room . . . It’s here, and it’s alive . . . ”
    “Yes!” Kim said suddenly. “It’s a man! I can sense him if I concentrate hard enough. Over there, by the end doors.”
    And again everyone looked, but even when Kim pointed, they still couldn’t see anything. JC even lowered his shades for a moment, but it didn’t help. He looked at Happy.
    “Not a ghost. A presence. Alive, not dead. So who is it?”
    “I think . . . it’s the man who killed me,” said Kim. “Or what’s left of him.”
    JC leaned in close beside her. “Are you sure?”
    “He’s not entirely dead, but pretty close,” said Kim. “This is part of him. His mind, his spirit . . . driven out of his body by some terrible trauma.”
    “Oh good,” said Natasha. “I was starting to feel peckish. Don’t look at me like that, it was just a joke!”
    “Well, what’s it doing here?” said Melody.
    “I think he’s trying to warn us about something,” said Kim. Her gaze had softened, and her voice was no longer angry. “He feels so sad, so hurt, and so very afraid.”
    “Warn us?” said Happy. “Warn us about what?”
    “About what’s waiting for us,” said Kim, her head cocked slightly to one side, listening. “He desperately wants to warn us about what he saw and what happened to him. He says he has a name for us.”
    “What name?” said JC.
    “Fenris Tenebrae,” said Kim.
    “Oh shit,” said JC.
    “What?” said Natasha. “What?”
    “Fenris Tenebrae,” said JC, and his voice was very cold and very grim. “The Wolf In Darkness. The Devourer. One of the really old Great Beasts, and the most terrible.”
    “What’s so bad about a wolf?” said Natasha.
    “You eat ghosts,” said JC. “Fenris Tenebrae eats civilisations, and worlds. It is the end of all things, given shape and form and appetite.”
    “Oh shit,” said Erik.
    “We never stood a chance,” said Happy, softly, bitterly. “Right from the beginning, we never stood a chance. It’s been playing with us . . .”
    “More fool it,” JC said steadily. “We can do this, people. There’s always a chance.”
    “Of course,” said Kim. “We’ve got you.”

    The train slammed into a station, and a cold, characterless light shone through the car windows. The train slowed smoothly to a halt and stopped. The five living agents and the dead woman stared out the windows. The station had no name and no markings, no destinations map, and nothing at all on the bare stone walls. No-one moved on the empty platform. The car doors opened silently and waited. JC looked at the doors, then at the station beyond.
    “So this is the station the Beast made for itself. Bit basic. Not big on details, our Beast.”
    “It’s not playing games any more,” said Melody.
    “It doesn’t