Specter: Prologue

Only three of the bank robbers made it back to their predetermined meet up locale. The other two, the inside men, had died in the fire bomb they had set off. Scorching flames and high velocity shrapnel also took the lives of three police officers, the bank staff, and an unknown number of Dick and Janes who were standing in line to make their weekly deposit. The robbery had been a complete success. No one even knew there had been a robbery.

Headline news would be reporting on the horrible explosion that took countless lives and that caught rescue officials off guard. They wouldn't find out about the robbery until weeks after the fact. No living soul could identify the men that set off the bomb. Only the security system had seen anything, but the fire had destroyed the recording terminal. No evidence. A clean get away.

They were standing in the middle of a dusty lobby to an abandoned apartment building. All the windows were covered with a thin plastic sheet declaring that the building was going to be demolished shortly, the plastic sheeting had been there for months. Truth be told, this tower of decaying rubble would probably never be torn down by man. Natural causes will be the only thing to eat away at this tower of emptiness, until someone can make a few bucks off of the space the tower rests. A few of the rooms had been jury rigged by the group of outlaws to lay low for a few days just in case everything didn't go as planned.

In a nervous silence they made their way up the stairs glancing back over their shoulders every few steps as if expecting a squad of Lawmen to come charging out of the shadows. Even after making it to their makeshift apartment it took them a few minutes to finally relax.

Jerry, the driver, sank to the floor with a wry grin on his face. While a small man, only looking smaller beside the mountain of a man holding up a cash reader showing a hefty sum of money transferred to their account.

"Kid," said Jerry as he looked directly at the smaller man. "We were already going to be rich. Just by pulling the job, and getting away. Did you really need to cut Baxter and Tina out of the profits by blowing ‘em up with the bank?"

Kid game a nervous smile and swallowed. "I slipped."

"You slipped?" Jerry barked out a laugh and slapped his knee. "Slipped. That's funny stuff."

"I think it's a damn shame," said the big man in a low grumbling voice. "Tina was the nicest piece of Asian pussy in Sharon city."

"You'll get all the Asian pussy you can stand once we're living in paradise."

Kid was looking sick. "It really was an accident."

"For an explosives expert you're a real wimp." Jerry snorted. "I thought you'd done stuff like this before."

"Mostly just in simulations. The smell just isn't the same when you're working with the real stuff." Kid put his hand to his face; his hand couldn't hold back the spray of vomit.

"Do that kind of thing in the hall." Rumbled the big man.

Kid walked out into the hall and closed the door behind him. The room was uncomfortably silent. Neither of the two bank robbers were in much of a mood to discuss the heist or current events. Vomit stench was beginning to fill the room while the streetlights from below and from neighboring buildings lit their concerned faces.

A loud thud from the hallway startled them both and Jerry sprung to his feet while the big man opened the door. It took their eyes a second to adjust to the darker hallway. They noticed Kid staring towards the stairwell.

"It wasn't me." Said Kid without looking over his shoulder at them.

Jerry and the big man glanced meaningfully at each other. Another thud from the stairwell this time louder. The security door to the stairs was left propped open by the Jerry with a chair that he had found in one of the abandoned rooms. Kid walked towards the railing pushing his glasses higher up on his nose with a forefinger. Each step was a little wobbly and his eyes danced around the hallway in front of him. Finally he reached the stairwell and leaned over. Nothing but the darkness.

He waited. Then he noticed a door they had come through swing shut with a loud bang and rebound open.
That's weird he thought.

"Guys," Kid turned around. "It's nothing but an automatic door jammed on something."

That's when kid disappeared over the railing. He yelled but the scream was cut short. And nothing but a sick gurgling sound followed. Jerry's eyes went wide and he started running towards the other end of the hall where another set of winding stairs lay.

The big man shouted after him. "Where do think you're going? You fraging piece of..."

He might have had more, but a blow from behind brought him to his knees. Jerry glanced quickly over his shoulder to see a dark billowing shadow standing behind the big man. Two ivory white arms snaked out of the shadows wrapped around the man’s neck and snapped it clean around. Jerry started running faster than his legs had ever managed in the past. His lungs burned and his heart pounded against his chest. The door to the stairwell just seemed out of reach. Straining for that last burst of strength he dove for the metal door jerking it open. Door slamming behind him, Jerry ran up the stairs two at a time with only his hands running along the railing to keep from slipping in the near dark.

After making it to the eighth floor he barreled down a hallway and kicked open the door to a room. Slamming the door behind him he fell to the floor with a sigh of relief.

"What the ever lovin' frag was that?" Jerry gasped for breath.

"What. Who. These things are not important."

The electric outlet in the room was scorched. The wall right above it was blackened. The shadow in the corner of the room was full and moving. Jerry got to his feet and reached into his jacket for his knife. Blade leading, he advanced on the shadow waving the steel from side to side. Quick as lightning a white hand lashed out and caught him by the wrist. There was a resounding thunk as the blade embedded in the false wood floor and Jerry was tossed like a doll into the far wall.

Blood running from his lip Jerry stood and looked for escape. One of the windows wasn't whole. Only a thick green tarp kept the room from being exposed to the caustic environment outside. He leapt into the tarp with all of his weight and it held for a moment before a cord snapped. Jerry fell head first toward the street below only to have his drop halted suddenly as a hand painfully gripped his ankle.

"Please just let me fall!"

He was pulled into the little room as if he weighed nothing and the shadow of a man didn’t say a word. As the wind whipped by Jerry almost passed out from the head rush and the utter fear.

"Tell me wh... what you are now!"

"I told you before. These things are not important."

The figure approached Jerry and lifted him to his feet. Up close the figure appeared to be human but all of his features were not quite right. Like a wax statue that wasn't quite finished, his face was smooth and had none of the flaws that all but the most glamored vid stars. His eyes were nothing but pale mirrors... though not empty... just not very full either.

"I'm going to do you a great honor. I'm going to tell you my story before you die."