Part 1 HERE * Part 2 HERE * Part 3 HERE * Part 4 HERE * Part 5 HERE * Part 6 HERE * Part 7 HERE * Part 8 HERE

With the haunting edifice of the Grand Anomaly Hotel as a backdrop, Ross and Zhara took a moment to collect themselves. SWAT officers were busily tending to the survivors, medics attending to minor injuries and emotional distress. But the labyrinth within the building was far from conquered.

“Look, we don’t have much time,” Zhara said, her eyes locked on Ross. “Miraculously, the portal’s still open and those dimensions could collapse any second. I have to go back in there.”

Ross raised an eyebrow. “And do what? You saw what happened.”

Zhara’s gaze hardened. “Negotiate, Ross. It’s not over. There’s still an entity in there and it still has hostages. We’ve managed to extract the ones from our present, but you’ve seen the time shifts in there…that entity has taken hostages from multiple times in the past. I have to do what I’m paid to do. I need to bargain with the entity for all their releases.”

Ross wanted to argue, to bring up the ghosts of her past failure, but something in Zhara’s eyes stopped him. “Fine,” he said. “But I’m going with you.”

Zhara nodded, her eyes conveying a complex cocktail of relief and resolve. “If you were expecting me to argue with you, you picked the wrong situation. Fact is, I may need an anchor to the physical plane and you just volunteered.”

Ross had no idea what that meant and he couldn’t ask her because taking a steadying breath, Zhara stepped back through the shimmering gateway.

The lobby was eerily still, remnants of the SWAT team’s infiltration scattered about – shattered glass, bullet casings, scorch marks from flash grenades.

“Show yourself!” Zhara called out, her voice echoing. “The spirits who were bound to this place have been freed, and the hostages in this time period have been rescued. There is nothing left to hide behind.”

A dark, mocking laughter filled the lobby, seeming to seep from the very walls. “Foolish mortal,” a disembodied voice sneered. “My powers are beyond your comprehension.”

Zhara began slowly walking the perimeter, senses alert. “I don’t fear you,” she bluffed. “If you had true power, you wouldn’t have needed to lurk in the shadows.”

The entity roared, enraged. Zhara turned swiftly, a Null Void orb flying from her palm towards the sound. It passed through thin air.

“Tell me who and what you are!” Zhara demanded.

A sinister whisper sounded behind her. “Oh my dear, that would ruin all the fun. But you are right about one thing…”

Zhara cried out as she was seized by an invisible force, immobilizing her. She was flung violently against the far wall, the wind knocked from her lungs.

“There are no more shadows for me to hide in,” the entity rasped, slowly materializing before her prone form. “Now, darkness shall reign!”

Zhara gasped for breath as the entity fully materialized, its form towering and shifting, more wraith than flesh. She had sorely underestimated its power.

“Why…are you doing this?” she managed to rasp out.

The entity glided closer, each movement preceded by a wave of bone-chilling cold. “I was summoned long ago with a promise of souls to feast upon. But those wretched mortals could not control me.”

It leaned down, an icy hand seizing Zhara’s throat. “When I am finished with you, I will finish what I began decades ago. This world will know despair and darkness eternal!”

Zhara focused her remaining energy, channeling it into one last desperate incantation. As the creature moved to strike the killing blow, her hand shot out, a pulsing orb of light erupting from her palm.

The entity shrieked as the orb made contact, pure radiant energy scouring its essence. Its form wavered, then exploded in a burst of vile shadows.

Zhara collapsed, spent. The blast had vanquished the demon for now, but at grave cost. She had nothing left to give.

As her vision darkened, she saw a figure rush through the portal toward her. Ross. Against all odds, he had come back for her. His strong arms encircled her as he called her name.

“Help me up…we have to get out now…or we’ll be trapped in the past…” she whispered hoarsely. She had done all she could. The rest was up to him now. Zhara succumbed to merciful oblivion, hoping she had won enough time for Ross to get them back home.

Ross held Zhara tightly as he moved toward the shimmering portal, the last vestige of their escape. Just as they were about to cross the threshold, a dark swelling of energy coalesced behind them.

Before Ross could react, he was slammed through the gateway by a powerful spectral force. Zhara slipped from his grasp, her weakened body left helpless as the entity seized her, its claws digging into her shoulders.

“No!” Ross cried out in vain as the gateway rapidly contracted. In a flash, it had vanished completely, the dimensional walls sealing shut once more. Zhara was trapped inside.

Zhara felt her consciousness slipping as the demon’s claws pierced her flesh. Then came the disorientation, the nausea, as competing dimensions pressed in. Reality warped and folded around her. She was adrift in a kaleidoscope of madness.

Fractured memories and visions flooded her mind in no logical order. She saw her mother baking pies in their little cottage, then a towering obsidian monolith carved with disturbing symbols. A sunny meadow dotted with wildflowers morphed into a vast desert where the sand swirled like water.

“Let me go…” Zhara muttered feverishly, no longer sure what was real. More pocket dimensions ripped through her psyche – she was freezing atop an icy mountain peak, then lost in an ancient library ablaze with fire. The visions cascaded faster and faster.

Zhara’s hands clawed the air blindly as she screamed for the torment to end. But the entity held her captive, forcing her to endure the disintegration of her sanity and sense of self.

She was adrift in endless worlds, untethered in mind, body and spirit. Reality had forsaken her to a fate worse than death. Zhara slipped into the merciful arms of unconsciousness, the dimensions continuing their twisted dance through her shattered mind.

As Zhara hovered on the brink of oblivion, she became aware of a presence – the entity, observing her frail form with malevolent amusement. Summoning the last shreds of her resolve, she called out to it.

“Wait…I have…a final offer…” she rasped, each word costing precious effort.

The kaleidoscope of maddening dimensions around her paused. The entity glided closer.

“You wish to bargain now, at the end?” it mocked. “What could you possibly offer me, little mortal?”

Zhara raised her head with great difficulty, looking into the swirling void that passed for its face.

“Return all the hostages…to their rightful times and places. Leave…this place forever…and you may have what you most desire.”

The entity’s aura flared with interest. “And what is that?”

Zhara haltingly rose to her knees. “My immortal soul. Given freely…and willingly.”

The entity seemed to mull this over with cautious intrigue, probing her essence for any sign of deception. Finding none, it finally extended a spectral hand.

“It is done. Your sacrifice will sustain me for eons untold in realms beyond. Enjoy these final moments.”

A thunderous rupture indicated the hostages returning en masse as Zhara felt her soul tear from her corporeal form. She screamed in anguish but did not resist.

Soon it was over. The entity had vanished, sated at last. Zhara’s body fell limply to the ground, now just an empty vessel with a spark of life fading fast. She gazed up as the dimensions stabilized and returned her back into her mundane reality.

Zhara smiled faintly. The hostages were safe, her fellow officers unharmed. She fulfilled her duty at the ultimate price. With her final breath, she surrendered herself to the inevitability of what was to come. Darkness rose to embrace her.

Not. The. End.