Chapter One: The Haunted

The floor creaked eerily as they stepped on the floorboards of the house. Dried leaves littered the entrance, the following passage empty and silent like the graves. The front door swung, and Arlo jerked, pointing his MAC-114 at it.

"Activate your UV visors." he ordered the team of six beside him. All of them dressed in the same black vest and trousers, all taped with kevlar. Their faces are covered in black masks.

The team responded to his orders and they trooped in a uniformed and precise formation. The passageway as seen from the visors was empty and seemingly endless. The walls held different writings and palm prints. The languages were recorded by their visors and were being streamed live by the 'Sector.' A division of the United Nations Alliance Force (UNAF).

Arlo got their call while he was in the hospital, keeping his sister company. It was supposed to be his leave. He'd just finished a mission about two weeks ago! His captain told him they needed him back on the job for one more mission, and pleaded with him. It was supposed to be a retrieval mission, they were looking for an artifact, an otherworldly artifact as they called it. They claimed its energy could trump Nuclear powers. They'd given them a map, and had sent him in with a team. Their job was to locate the artifact, secure it and wait for the retrieval team which should be hovering above ground as they infiltrated the spooky house.

He had to leave Aria alone in the hospital, the girl had been bedridden for three months now, diagnosed with stage three lung cancer. She told him to be careful and not let the Pale old lady get to him. He smiled at that thought, his fourteen year old sister's little poem. He began to recite it as they walked in.

"There is," he paused for effect, just as she would. "A pale old lady in a frail black dress," he breathed twice and made three clicking sounds.

*click! click! click!*

The breath of his teammates were audible now, and so were their footsteps echoing against the walls. "With her," he continued. "Thin old bones, too broken to stress."

*click! click! click!*

They jerked, pointing their guns at the wall as the room lit just as he finished the last click. Candles lit on both sides of the wall downwards along a staircase that led into a basement of sorts. He took off his visors and so did his team and he signaled them to move forward.

"They asked," he continued, his voice now a mere cracking whisper, just as the little girl would. "How she walks with such Finesse?"

*click! click! click!*

They reached a large brass door with a large diagram carved on it. It was a skeleton holding a heart in its hand, a rag of clothes hanging down its shoulders seemingly dancing in the wind. Right above it! In plain English the word "Transformation," was written.

"Revealed in," he completed the final part. "Her eyes, with a glow of death!"

He pushed open the door and it opened soundlessly into a well lit and empty room, save for the coffin on top of a giant slab, right in the middle of it. They walked in, and spread out in a uniform step. Their faces fell on the different murals on the walls.

"This place is rather ancient," one of them said.

"I agree," another replied.

Arlo ignored them and took off his mask signaling for them to be at ease. He allowed his gun to hang from his shoulders. He used his hand to ruffle his black short hair. He walked up to the coffin and examined it. For some reason, dust hasn't settled on it. It was a silvery coffin, and a diagram of a spiral was etched on it. Written simply on it were the words, Deity in making!

Arlo examined it again with his visors, but it revealed a normal coffin. "Is Captain scared?" one of his boys said and the others laughed. Only three of his team were beside him examining the coffin, the rest were curiously examining the murals.

"I am indeed scared," he replied. "This place is way too spooky," he admitted.

"Don't tell me you believe in ghost stories, the only thing I am scared of is his traps and bandits. Rest is easy." Jake said, with his thin voice. He appeared a bit scrawny and easily frightened, but he was the bravest among them.

Arlo nodded and slid open the coffin, just as he did, he jerked backwards as the lid fell on the ground in a loud crash. Even Jake fell to the back. Inside the coffin was a woman, probably in her late thirties, her body as pale as death itself, she was wrapped in black clothes, she seemed asleep instead of dead. "What the hell could be preserving her? Jake asked.

"Maybe something underne..." his voice was drowned by a scream.

They turned back instinctively, turning their guns towards the sound. The scream had come from one of them who was standing above another who had fallen face first to the ground. The remaining four rushed towards them.

"What the hell happened to him?"

"I don't know, one second, he was examining that mural, next he said something and then he just went all hemorrhagic." he said, pointed to the mural with the word spiral etched on it.

Arlo reached for the soldier and turned him upwards and everyone almost tumbled. The soldier had blood flowing from all his holes, eyes, mouth, nose and ears. "Don't touch it," Jake screamed. "Probably some disease could be contagious."

On hearing this Arlo nodded. "Everyone's mask and helmet on!" Just as they did, the lights in the room died.

"The hell?" Jake said as they all activated their UV visors.

First all they saw was darkness, and then slowly, a figure's hand flew out of the coffin gripping its sides tightly, and then the body sat up. Then the lights flickered on, and then nothing was there anymore. The coffin was untouched and nobody was coming out of it.

"You all just saw that right?" just as he said that, a squelching sound came from beside them and they turned sideways. Another one of them was having his neck ripped about by something.