Rise From The Wraith

THE FIRST ENCOUNTER

Kael tried to get back on his feet while searching for his weapon. Fortunately, the rifle was lying only a short distance away from him. The bespectacled young man quickly reached for it and raised the weapon, aiming in every direction as he desperately searched for the monster that had just slaughtered his comrades.

Silence once again took over the corridor, broken only by Kael’s heavy breathing. He slowly looked around the dark hallway, his eyes struggling to adjust to the faint light. One body lay near the wall, while two others were several meters away, and none of them moved. The smell of fresh blood filled the entire room, mixing with the damp and suffocating air.

“Oh no…” Kael whispered.

His voice was barely audible.

He desperately hoped that at least one of his comrades was still alive, but reality told him otherwise. Every one of them had lost their lives to the Wraith’s brutal attack.

“No…”

Kael began to cry again.

Then suddenly…

Something moved quickly at the end of the corridor.

Kael immediately raised his weapon and fired at the black shadow.

One bullet.

Two.

Three.

Finally, one of Kael’s shots struck the dark figure. The monster was thrown backward and slammed into the wall with tremendous force. For a brief moment, Kael felt relieved, but that feeling lasted only a few seconds before the creature slowly rose to its feet once again.

Kael tried to fire again, but his ammunition had already run out.

“Damn!” Kael said.

The creature stood upright and stared directly at him. Its yellow eyes glowed sharply in the darkness, sending a chill through Kael’s entire body.

Kael took a step backward.

His body trembled as his left foot suddenly struck something behind him. He looked down to see what had touched his leg.

“Daren…”

Kael’s eyes widened.

Daren’s face was still turned upward, his eyes wide open and lifeless. For several seconds, Kael could only stare at his fallen friend, unable to process what he was seeing. Only then did the full reality of the situation finally sink into his mind.

There was no one left.

Kael was alone.

He would have to face the monstrous creature by himself.

The Wraith began moving toward him.

Kael immediately turned around and ran as fast as he could. With his right leg badly injured and forcing him to limp, the thin young man pushed himself forward without knowing where he was going. Every corridor looked the same, while the old staircases only carried him deeper into the abandoned building, and the sound of the creature’s footsteps continued behind him at an eerily calm pace.

It was not rushing.

It was not panicking.

It sounded almost as if the creature already knew that, sooner or later, Kael would run out of places to escape.

Finally, Kael pushed open a door and stumbled into an empty room. He immediately looked to the left and right, desperately searching for another way out, but there was nothing.

He was trapped.

“Damn it!”

Kael quickly shut the door and, while grimacing in pain, pushed an old cabinet against it. His body trembled from exhaustion, while the blood flowing from his wounds made his hands increasingly slippery. He tried to reload his weapon, but his trembling fingers failed several times to insert the ammunition properly.

Eventually, Kael collapsed into the corner of the room. He sat there, staring at the door without blinking. The sound of the monster’s footsteps grew louder.

Closer.

Closer....

Kael held his breath. Then, after several seconds, there was no sound at all. Kael frowned.

“What happened?” he whispered.

Suddenly…

GRAAAK!

The door was ripped from its hinges, and the old cabinet he had placed in front of it was thrown violently across the room. The Wraith slowly entered. This time, Kael could clearly hear its heavy breathing.

Kael immediately stood up and pointed his weapon at the monster, but he remembered too late that the rifle was already empty. Without hesitation, he threw it aside and pulled the knife from his belt.

His hands were trembling violently, yet he forced himself to remain standing even though every part of his body was telling him to run.

Kael continued backing away until his back finally pressed against the wall.

“Don’t…”

He did not know why those words escaped his lips. Perhaps fear had already taken control of his mind.

The creature stopped. Its yellow eyes stared directly into Kael’s eyes.

For several moments, neither of them moved. Then, without warning, the Wraith stepped forward. Its claw moved so quickly that Kael barely had time to see it coming. Yet somehow, his body moved before his mind could even react. He twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack, and the claw only grazed his shoulder before striking the wall behind him.

Kael fell to the floor. He stared at the wound on his right shoulder, holding his breath as fresh blood began to flow down his arm.

“Arghh…”

Kael winced in pain as he sat helplessly against the floor. But beneath the pain, there was something else.

Confusion.

He could not understand his own body.

I shouldn’t have been able to dodge that attack…

The distance between them had been far too close. His body was already exhausted, his mind was in chaos, and his vision had begun to blur. Yet somehow, his body had moved a split second before the Wraith’s claw reached him.

Kael slowly raised his head. The Wraith stood several steps away. The creature did not attack. It simply stared at him. There was something strange in its gaze.

It was not the hungry stare of a predator looking at its prey. There was something else behind those yellow eyes, something far more difficult to understand, as if the creature were trying to recognize a face it had seen long ago.

The Wraith slowly raised one hand. Its black claw moved toward Kael’s face. Kael closed his eyes. He had already accepted his fate. He thought he was going to die right there.

One second passed.

Then another...

Nothing happened.

Kael slowly opened his eyes. They widened when he saw the monster’s sharp claw hovering only a few centimeters from his face. His entire body froze.

The Wraith continued staring at him. Its head tilted slightly to one side, as if it were trying to remember something that had been lost somewhere deep within its memory.

Kael swallowed hard.

“Wh-who are you…?”

There was no answer. Only the sound of the creature’s heavy breathing filled the room.

Yet for the first time that night, Kael saw something he had never seen in a Wraith before.

Hesitation.

The claw slowly lowered. The creature took one step backward, then turned around and disappeared into the darkness.

Kael did not move. He simply stared at the creature’s back until its silhouette completely vanished from his sight.

Several minutes later, with his body still trembling, Kael forced himself to stand and limped out of the building.

He returned alone. His uniform was covered in blood, some of it his own and some belonging to the people who had failed to make it out with him. The woman they had been sent to rescue was nowhere to be found, while the four members of his squad remained inside the building, which might eventually become their final resting place.

Kael collapsed onto the steps outside the building. He sat there weakly, staring back at the dark structure behind him. His mind kept replaying everything that had happened, trying to make sense of something that made no sense at all.

‘Why didn’t that creature kill me?’

The question refused to leave his mind.

Meanwhile, deep inside the old building, from somewhere no one could see, the sound of footsteps slowly faded into the darkness.

Then a low voice, barely more than a whisper, emerged from the shadows.

“Kael...”

Kael did not hear it.

No one did.

Yet that night, for the first time in many years, one of the Wraiths had spoken the name of a human being it should never have known.