Page 60 of Once Upon a Curse for True Love
“Alpha team, report,” the senior agent in the control room demanded.
No one answered him.
“Perimeter teams, be advised,” he continued, voice tightening.“We’ve lost contact with Alpha team.Maintain positions and prepare for a hostile exit.”
Andromeda’s gaze jumped to the external camera feeds.The darkness that had consumed the lab was now seeping out of the building like smoke, curling around windows and doors as it spread across the facility grounds.It moved with purpose as if guided by an invisible hand.
Andromeda’s attention locked onto the feed showing Donatello and Sarah Michelle at the eastern exit.They stood shoulder to shoulder, weapons raised, faces set in identical expressions of determination.The black cloud had not yet reached their position, but it was coming, rolling toward them like a tide of night.
Movement caught her eye on another screen.A figure emerged from a side entrance of the facility, moving with unnatural speed despite its stiff-jointed gait.
“Graves!”she gasped, pointing at the monitor.“He’s escaping!”
“Which exit?”the senior agent demanded.
Andromeda’s heart plummeted.“Eastern.”
Directly toward Donatello and Sarah Michelle.
“Eastern perimeter team, be advised,” the agent shouted into his comm.“Target is heading your way.Do not engage.Deploy containment nets only!”
On the screen, Donatello and Sarah Michelle tensed as they received the warning.They spread out, taking positions on either side of the exit, stunners raised.The containment net sphere glinted in Sarah Michelle’s left hand as Graves charged through the door at inhuman speed.In the grainy camera feed, he appeared less human than before—his movements jerky and puppet-like, his face concealed by the growing shadows that swirled around him.
Donatello fired without hesitation, his stunner ray striking Graves in the chest.The lich staggered.Sarah Michelle darted forward, activating the sphere and hurling it toward him.
Andromeda held her breath as the globe arced through the air and landed at Graves’s feet.But before it could activate, more tendrils erupted from the lich in a violent explosion—a void so deep it consumed light itself.Not even the sun’s rays could pierce it.The camera feed from that sector had gone black.
“What’s happening?”Andromeda demanded, gripping the console.
No one had an answer for her.
Crackling static carried Donatello’s voice, taut with controlled fear.“Visual compromised.Target moving.Callidora, circle left!”
“On it!”Sarah Michelle’s reply was followed by the sound of movement.
More stunner fire, the sounds distorted through the speakers.Then a raw, furious bellow that could only have come from Graves.
“I missed!”Shelly’s voice was strained.“The net didn’t deploy!”
“Fall back!”Donatello shouted.“Regroup and—”
His words cut off as a terrible sound filled the comm system—a wrenching, tearing noise that made Andromeda’s muscles lock.
Donatello and Sarah Michelle both screamed in pain.
And then nothing.
Silence.
The feed remained black, the black fog having engulfed the entire eastern sector.On other monitors, the cloud of impenetrable blackness was moving, concentrating on Graves’s position.
“South perimeter, can you confirm visual on the eastern sector?”the agent in the room tried.
“Negative,” came the tense reply.“A massive black cloud is covering everything.We’ve lost visibility.”
The other teams reported the same conditions.
Andromeda sat frozen, unable to breathe or think.The tightness in her chest had transformed into a crushing weight that threatened to collapse her lungs.In the black screen where Donatello and Sarah Michelle’s feed should have been, she saw only her reflection—wide-eyed, pale, terrified.
