Clark Kent's Arc

Chapter 21 of 4

Clark stared down the open altar passage. Both hunters were sealed below now, sharing one dark cage. But the glass was all that held the wraith from the door above. Cold air rose through the passage, and with it came a sound. Slow breathing. Something tested the seam where the passage met the floor. Elena knelt by the crack and pressed her ear close. "It's here. Right under us." She pulled back fast. "The join is soft. Rust. It won't hold long." Clark had trapped both creatures in one place. He had not sealed the place well enough. If the passage split, everything he sent down would climb back up. A lanky mechanic pushed through the gate, a rusted key ring clanking at his belt. Orion had built half the traps in this chase. He dropped to the floor beside Elena and ran his fingers along the seam. "Rust all the way through. I can weld it. But I need it held shut while I work." Footsteps sounded behind them. The drummer from the wrestling shows crossed the chapel, orange hair wild, spiked bands on his wrists. He had heard breathing behind a curtain once and gone to face it alone. He stared at the crack in the floor and grinned. "Animal hold it," he said. "You weld." He dropped both hands flat on the passage cover and pushed. The metal bucked under his palms. Something below shoved back. The seam widened a finger's width. Gray fingers curled through the gap. "Now," Clark said. Orion struck his torch. Blue flame hissed against the seam. The wraith below shrieked and clawed at the lip. Animal leaned his whole weight down, teeth bared, feet sliding on the stone. "Move the glass," Elena said. "Bring the spiral here." Clark and Hogan dragged the cracked pane from the sealed door. They set it flat over the passage cover. The spiral faced down into the dark. The clawing fingers snapped back. The shriek dropped to a low whine. "It fears the shape," Elena said. "Weld while it hides." Orion ran the flame along every edge. The metal glowed and fused. Animal kept both hands pressed until the seam went solid and still. "Done," Orion said. He killed the torch. "Held together with heat and one welder. But held." Clark tested the join with his boot. Nothing pushed back. The breathing was gone. Both hunters were sealed under welded steel with the spiral pinning them down. Animal lifted his hands and flexed them. "Quiet now," he said. "Stays quiet." Elena stood slowly. She looked at the sealed floor, then at Clark. "You've buried them both. But the whole crowd is still packed in one room, breathing one room's air, with no way down and one gate up." Clark looked at the sealed passage. The air that had risen through it was gone. He had closed the only vent that fed the sanctuary. The crowd behind him had stopped moving, listening, waiting to breathe.