If you didn’t know we were going on a death-defying mission, you might have thought we were just heading into the city for a road trip. But then you might’ve done a double-take at all the weapons we were packing into Leander’s car. 

Above us, the early morning sun peeked over the horizon. I yawned, stretching as I awaited my turn. 

Castor carefully placed a massive wrapped sword into the truck, taking up all the space. Poppy had brought her kunai, the chains attached on the end. She put them in the backseat. Nilo broke down a long spear into several pieces, unlocking clasps at each section. He put the result in his lap as he sat in the front seat. Next to the spear, he had a crossbow.

“With the Earth element, I work better at a distance,” Nilo said, noticing my gaze.

Unlike Nilo, my staff didn’t break down And I couldn’t get it across the trunk. I was going to have to put it in the car with us.

“Sorry, sorry,” I called out as I maneuvered the staff. It stretched from the windshield to the back window—and as I tried to fit it into place, it shifted and slammed into the side of Poppy’s head. She snapped around to face me. 

“I’m really sorry,” I told Poppy.

I gripped the staff and pulled it back towards me, but it got caught on the edge of the door. I frantically tried to tug it loose as everyone waited for me. With one final tug, the staff was free—only to slam into Castor’s cheek and side. He turned to me, murder in his eyes. 

“It wasn’t on purpose,” I said to Castor. In penance, I took the middle seat in the back, awkwardly shunted to one side around the staff. Leander took a look around and then carefully pulled out of the garage. Guess he didn’t want to risk driving like a lunatic with a car full of weapons.

We drove through an industrial neighborhood, mostly deserted. The only sign of life was the sloppily painted graffiti and the occasional semi truck. 

The car eventually came to a stop outside an abandoned church. On the left side was a massive warehouse, decrepit in its own right. On the right, a construction crew built a new warehouse. Workers crawled over the site like ants, manipulating steel beams and working in trenches. 

The church itself was a classic building, a massive Catholic cathedral behind a rusting iron fence. It looked as if it had been beautiful, once upon a time. Itt was now just falling apart Vines climbed up the side of the building, breaking through stained glass windows. 

The front entrance was broken, too, with one door laid in the front lawn and the other door half off its hinges. I could see graffiti all over the inside of the building. Near the front steps, there were a couple of broken beer bottles; glass littered the steps and yard. 

“We’re going in there?” I asked. Poppy rolled down the window and leaned out.

“This job will take you some pretty weird places. Better start getting used to it,” Leander said, popping a piece of gum into his mouth.

“According to earlier recon, two people killed themselves here a few months ago,” Leander said. “A couple.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Unknown,” Leander said. “From all reports, they were happy. But who really knows?”

“Who knows what goes on underneath,” Castor said quietly, looking away. The words seemed to mean something to Leander, and for a moment we were all silent.

“Do we have to fight in front of the construction workers?” Poppy asked, pointing at them as they worked.

“If you must,” Leander said.

“Won’t they, you know, panic if they see a Phantom?” I asked.

“People dismiss what they don’t understand. And if necessary, the Society will step in,” Leander said with a shrug.

We unpacked our weapons from the car. A construction worker stared at us from the worksite, his sandwich frozen halfway to his mouth as Castor unwrapped his sword and Nilo checked his crossbow. The worker’s mouth hung open—though whether from shock or for his sandwich, I had no idea.

“Don’t freak out,” Leander said as he handed my staff to me.

“I’ll try not to,” I replied, taking it.

“You all can do this,” Leander said louder, aiming this comment at the group at large. “This is one lower-level Phantom. A proper job to get your feet wet. You’re all perfectly capable. And just in case…”

Leander rummaged around in a duffle bag in the back of his car. From the bag, he pulled out a satellite phone.

“Standard Astral issue,” he told us, and handed the phone to Nilo. “Always give your long range team members the phone. It’s saved me on more than one occasion. Long range fighters are invaluable.” 

Nilo turned a deep red.

“If you get in trouble, and there’s an emergency, call me immediately,” Leander instructed. “I’ll be out here.”

“And what will you be doing?” I asked him. 

“Watching my sitcoms,” Leander said, gesturing at his phone. It looked like something from the ’70s was playing. I couldn’t believe it.

“Seriously?” I said.

“Should I just sit in silence in the car?” he said with a sly grin.

“It would feel more supportive,” I replied.

Poppy covered her mouth, but I saw her smile. Nilo kept his gaze on the ground as the sides of his mouth twitched. Castor strapped his sword to his side, disregarding us all. As usual.

I spun my staff experimentally, getting a feel for it in my hands.

“Send me a message every hour,” Leander instructed Nilo, who nodded. “Though hopefully, it won’t take that long.”

He regarded us with a serious expression. We stood awkwardly in front of him, shifting from foot to foot and fiddling with our weapons. Except for Castor. His face and demeanor displayed nothing. 

“Remember your training. Remember all that you’ve already done,” Leander said to us. “You’re Astrals. And you can do this.”

His words seemed to give life to Nilo and Poppy. Nilo stood taller, held his spear a little straighter, while Poppy seemed to relax. Clearly, Leander had reached her in a way my words hadn’t. I was just comforted by the fact that Leander would be right here. Well, by that and the sat phone. 

Together, we started towards the church. Nilo, Poppy, and Castor headed straight in, but I paused. This was really it, wasn’t it? I looked back at Leander, who made a little shooing motion with his hand. I sighed and followed the others inside.

The inside of the church was somehow worse than the outside. Streetlights streamed through broken windows and holes in the ceiling. A rat scurried across the destroyed pews, heading toward the back. Everywhere you’d look, something was broken, decayed, rusted or rotting. 

We paced around the inside of the church, looking for the Phantom. Poppy picked up a bible and immediately dropped it as roaches and beetles poured out from its pages. She gagged, wiping her hand on her pants.

“You wouldn’t think there’d be a lot of places to hide here,” Nilo said, kicking at a broken pew. 

It was true. The Phantom we’d faced in class hadn’t been quiet. I didn’t imagine it would be hard to find one like that in a contained place like this.

Behind the altar was a small room, for a priest or something I guessed. When I stuck my head through the door, there was nowhere for a Phantom to hide that I saw. 

Castor walked past me, looking through the other rooms in the back. Poppy and Nilo took the second floor, which Poppy informed me was just more pews and rats. In short, nothing. 

How could this thing be hiding from us? Our first mission, and we couldn’t even find the monster. 

The first hour passed and Nilo sent Leander a quick text on the sat phone. Leander responded with a selfie of him laying back in the front car seat, not a care in the world. The bastard. 

On our third pass, Poppy had half given up. She laid herself on the altar, her feet dangling while she looked through the leftover crosses and bibles. Castor was nearby, rechecking the priest’s room I’d been in earlier. Nilo was upstairs, but like Poppy, I got the feeling he was just wasting time. 

I walked around the altar, tapping the floor with my staff as I went. Thump thump. Thump thump. Thwack.

Wait. I stepped back, tapping the ground again. I stepped forward. 

“You guys hear that?” I asked. Poppy sat up, nodding. Castor came over and crouched where the floor met the wall, running his fingers along the joining. 

“Perhaps a trap door,” he said. 

I heard Nilo running down the stairs, and he came to a stop in front of me. He closed his eyes and held out a hand over the floor. 

“I can sense it,” Nilo said. “There’s a room or something. It’s not solid earth.” He moved slowly, then stopped right next to the main altar. 

“Under here,” he said. 

We pushed the altar back against the wall. Underneath, there was a trap door. Like a real life trap door. The wood was distinctly less damaged than the rest of the floor, having been protected by the altar. 

“Is this for real?” Nilo whispered. No one responded. 

Castor wedged a piece of broken wood under the door and popped it open. We saw a ladder made of aged wood descending into darkness. From the seemingly bottomless darkness, there came a weird groaning noise. It rattled in the gloom, echoing up towards us. 

“Of course the Phantom would be down the dark, creepy hole,” I said. 

Nilo and Poppy had identical expressions of fear on their faces—but both were quick to mask it. Poppy noticed my gaze and gave me a swift nod. Nilo followed Poppy’s look and gave me a thumbs up. They were wonderful.

“Let’s go then,” I said in a voice that sounded much braver than I felt. I got on the ladder and started my descent. It creaked under me and shook unsteadily. Pieces of the wood came off in my hand. 

“Be careful,” I called to the others. 

Poppy followed me, then Nilo. Dust and wood, shaken loose by their movements, fell in my eyes. I rubbed at my eyes with the back of my hand as we moved down the ladder. Finally, Castor took the end, the ladder giving out a loud groan as he stepped on it. 

And then I heard a crack.

“What was that?” Poppy asked, voice panicking.

But there was no time to answer as the ladder came apart under us. We were falling. 

I slammed into the floor—but it didn’t stop there. The floor groaned under the weight of our descent and the rubble that came with us.

I reached out one hand towards the others—and then I was falling away.