Original Souls (A World Apart #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

itself forward and into the air. Then my entire body followed suit. I fell from grace just like that. No warning or anything, just the cold floor to comfort me as I hit hard, with a loud thud to the back of my head. I reached behind myself, grabbing my upper back and head in horror. It hurt bad. But more like one of those quick sharp pains that come and go. I wasn't down for the count just yet. But another trip like that and no one knows where I'll end up.
     
    I got up slowly. Took the liberty of caution this time around. I pulled out a pair of black gloves from a side pocket on my jumpsuit. They have this little sandpaper-like detail along the palms and fingers. They were perfect for traction. So it makes good sense that they could help me out right now. I slapped those sandy gloves on, and decided to give this staircase of doom another go. I put my hand on the railing, and positioned my boots so that the groves in the soles could fit into the edge of the steps. I walked, and I climbed, then I walked some more, and climbed a little farther after that.
     
    Somehow, I made it up those dreadful steps unscathed. Now,I must enter the lio n’ s den, of sorts. There's a door up ahead. It's a dark woodcut. There are so many figures carved into it that the detail is breathtaking. There are animals, people, and people-animals. They almost look like hieroglyphs of gods and genetically engineered humans. Weird stuff that only exist in myths. This door looks a little too scary for my liking, but it's where the footsteps must have been coming from. I figure this since I haven't seen anyone my entire way over. But I definitely heard footsteps a moment ago, coming from this direction.
     
    I reached for the handle, and no sooner than I touched it, did it suddenly open itself. Freaky to say the least, but freaky doesn't even begin to cover what I saw as the door turned on its hinges, revealing the interior of this massive room.
     
    Here before me, as I stepped in, I'm staring into the faces of seven tombs. Well, the faces aren't really dried out mummies or anything gross like that. Though the sarcophagus' I see in front me have outlines of those assumed mummy faces resting within. I guess the dead guys inside were represented on the outside to preserve their memories or something ridiculous like that. Maybe they were extremely important in their day. But the most I know is that they must have had a ton of money. I'm sure it wasn't cheap to commission those sculptures. They were gorgeous and detailed to a T. I truly feel like I'm peering into a past life just by gazing upon these dusty figures.
     
    The coffins were set up around the room in a circular fashion. In the middle of the large room sat a table or altar of some kind. It was covered by a white sheet with some indents from something just beneath it. Everything in this room is so dusty and grimy. It looks like it hasn't been entered in ages. I can't believe this room and these coffins are here. This place has been canvassed repeatedly. Not recently, but still these things couldn't have been put here recently anyway. There's too much caked on dust and grime. Why weren't they found and placed on public maps of this factory? It's strange. But the thing bugging me the most is that I have yet to find a soul around. No Corinth, my men are still missing, and I haven't found the mystery behind the footsteps either.
     
    As if a mystic force cued it, the altar at the center of the room began extending upward from its base into the air on a thick cylinder shaped marble pole that supported it. The sheet started to ruffle from the air currents it picked up upon its ascent toward the high ceilings. The platform of the altar started rotating counter-clockwise. And now I see something, something strange. It looks like someone is on the rotating platform. I saw no one on it as it began to rise, but whatever was beneath that sheet now looks like a person as it flutters about.
     
    Then suddenly, I