Passage Through Midnight Part 5

Eric’s mind had not gone off the phone call he had with Biola about an hour ago. His mind couldn’t quite accept the conclusion they had come to…
‘More like supernatural.’
He didn’t really believe that. But he couldn’t help the feeling that it was somehow true; not that he didn’t believe in the supernatural, but the turn in events of the last couple of years had left one with the question of if the supernatural was still concerned with the natural. This sudden outburst of a supposed random supernatural visit didn’t seem to sit well with his train of thought. And yet it seemed the only approach to the subject; Then again, it could be a misconception, as this conclusion was drawn from 2 different events. Crazy coincidences do happen… even if it’s so rare.
His mind was going through this over and over when he was interrupted by a sudden crash in the hallway.
‘Hmph… must be the stoners doing what they do best.’
Dismissing it, he continued through his train of thought. Then there was another crash, this time, louder than the last one. Stoners must be having a pretty good time, but their partying was disrupting his attention, something he could not falter in right now.
Yet another crash, this time with people running and screaming. Now something definitely wasn’t right… Going to the door, he heard a sudden blast not far from his location. This wasn’t the work of stoners… something really bad was afoot. He opened the door and saw dozens of people running frantically towards the stairs, trying fervently to get away from something that he was not aware of. Stepping out and looking to his left, a friend of his grabbed his hand and tried to pull him away. Releasing himself from the grasp, Eric asked what was going on.
“There’s this creepy thing that’s tearing the place apart! It came outta nowhere mate, just started conjuring all these spell thingies, blasting walls and people!! Oh God, I think some of them are dead!!”
“Wait… dead? Where?” The guy pointed in the far distance, saw what was causing all the commotion and ran off. Eric looked back to see him run, then looked the other way to find some bodies on the floor.
Boys and girls…
Whatever this thing is, it’s not choosing. It’s just hitting. He looked up and was shocked… there it was. Floating about 6 feet above the ground, it wore what seemed to be tattered robes, with an amulet on its chest. Eric suddenly froze, wondering what this thing was that was slowly floating towards him. He got himself and turned to run, when suddenly a flash of light went past him and hit the ceiling… making it cave in, as it dropped its weight and blocked the way to the stairs. Eric searched for another route; only one available was the fire escape, and the thing was blocking it. There was no way he would be able to run past it and still survive… he didn’t even bother about trying it. Slowly the thing came towards him, each second the face getting clearer.
This wasn’t a thing… this was once a person! Eric could not believe it. Deeply he searched his mind for what this could be. A poltergeist maybe… but poltergeists don’t have the power to demolish structures with such ease. This wasn’t a poltergeist… then what was it? It was drawing closer… if this thing was hitting randomly, it seemed to have taken a sudden interest in him. He thought of what to do… nothing except running away came to mind. Then he remembered trapping circles, one in particular. Was it called Arcanum Sella or something… he could not remember. What he could remember that it was used to momentarily trap ethereal beings in the circle, how long it lasted he could not remember.
Searching frantically for anything to use and write, he took a piece of debris and began scratching on the floor. It seemed the thing understood what he was trying to do as it suddenly went through the floor and disappeared. Eric wasn’t sure it was an ethereal being, but this was confirmation enough. He kept scratching, making the circle bigger incase the being wanted to give him a surprise attack.
It was a rough work, but considering the circumstances he had no other choice.
Suddenly Eric began feeling cold… it was trying to enter him. He couldn’t move his legs, but his arms were able to move.
He was running out of time.
Frantically he wrote the inscriptions into the circle… all the while feeling himself being lifted off the ground. It was levitating him; probably planning to crush him in the air. He kept inscribing, putting in the final touch with a small circle in the middle of the main one. Suddenly, his body began to ache horribly. He could hear a foul cry behind him… one of pain and despair. Turning his head with much effort, he saw the being crying and holding its head. Then he dropped to the ground with a loud thud, gathered himself and ran for his room. Inscribing the same circle on his door, he heard snapping sounds like the cracking of bones…
The circle was working… but whatever that was, it was breaking free. The one on his door would hold it… but with the size it probably won’t be for a while. He had to find out what this was. He opened his drawers, looking for his journal where he wrote some facts about ethereal beings. A big crash, then more cracks and splintered wood signified that the being had broken free from the circle on the floor and was working on his door. He kept searching, his heart racing as he threw book and after book aside.
More splinters. Another cry, this one more of anger than pain…
Time was running out.

PTM

Chika had never felt this much fear in a very long time. He couldn’t even remember when the last time he had half this much fear was… He wasn’t sure he’d ever experience more than this. Even Biola was scared, because she hadn’t seen this much fear in him before…
Whoever called had tried to talk to Chika about coming over to UI to have the normal hangouts and such. It seemed it could have been one of the people he had tried earlier, but the line hadn’t been completely clear as suddenly there was intense noise in the background before a loud shriek came through the line and it went dead.
It seemed different parts of UI had been affected, because it was like the source was either in those places at once or there was more than one source. No one seemed to understand what was going on, as structures were intact. Nothing had moved, no distortions whatsoever… just a sudden shriek that got people blocking their ears and trying desperately to get away from the noise. In the process some collapsed due to the pain. The caller had seemed equally surprised, and maybe even more terrified. People had begun running away from something that couldn’t be seen yet. That’s when the shriek went off and Chika held his ear.
Consequentially Chika was in pains. The shriek must have been very powerful enough to warrant this amount of damage through a phone. Apart from the pain, his balance and everything else was in good shape.
“My God… We have to go there and help those people.”
“Are you thinking straight Biola? Whatever is causing all that involuntarily attacked me through a mobile phone! And you want to consciously go there and meet it?”
“I sound crazy… even I know that. But we have friends there; couldn’t we at least try and find out where they are?”
“And if we find them we do what?”
“Chika! I can’t believe you’re talking like this! It’s our friends I’m talking about you know.”
“Yes I do. But you’re not considering the fact that we have no idea what the source of the screams is or are. Just because we took on some minor creatures here doesn’t mean we’re equipped for something like this!”
“But Chika… these are people we know…” His argument was beginning to make more sense to her, but she couldn’t help but drag on with the issue. Chika started to walk away, and she was completely confused.
“Are you following me to the car, or are you going to stand there with that dumbfounded look?”