Billy Bones: Beyond the Grave

Chapter 8

I reached down to grab it, and at the last moment, decided against it.

Instead, I covered it in dirt and patted the ground.

The raven didn’t look pleased. It fluttered its wings and hopped about in a fit, all the while croaking its anger at me.

“Maybe another time,” I said. “I’ve got enough trouble right now. I don’t need any more.”

I got up and quietly swept through the graveyard to catch up with the others. They didn’t seem to notice that I hadn’t been with them.

Goliath snaked through the graves, eventually doubling back to the area I had just come from. His nose sniffed at a furious pace. He smelled the tombstone where my name had been etched into the surface. Goliath paused to look at me, and then continued on. Three stones further he came to a tombstone that read Susan Wilholm-Banesatin. He sat in front of it.

Miesha knelt down. “Perhaps this is the woman from the market?”

“She didn’t look dead,” I said.

Then again, what was defined as dead in the Afterlife wasn’t exactly clear.

Liz crouched, fingering the dirt in front of the grave. It looked freshly disturbed.

“Looks like someone’s been digging here,” she said.

“Or someone crawled out,” Kenji muttered.

We all shivered at that thought.

“So what now,” Miesha said, “we dig up whatever is under there?”

Liz looked around. Against an old willow rested a bunch of shovels. She raised one eyebrow. “Not a bad idea.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “All right, then.”

We each took a spade and got to work. And what work it was. My dead muscles were aching by the time we finally reached the wooden casket that lay waiting for us. Fortunately, it didn’t look like anyone had busted through the wood and zombied their way out. That still didn’t make me feel any better about what may or may not be lying inside.

I sat down for a moment. My head pounded and everything in my body ached. That hunger in my stomach gnawed away at me. Kenji sat next to me and rubbed his temples. The two of us looked at each other, and then at the horizon. We had another problem.

“Sunrise,” Kenji whispered, pointing.

Liz put down her shovel. “Oh, criminy!” She looked around in a panic. The sun was rising fast.

“Quickly,” she said, and ran toward a stone mausoleum. She yanked keys out of her handbag and thumbed through them.

“Hurry!” Miesha shrieked.

“Don’t rush me!” Liz screamed back. Then she shoved one of the keys into the iron lock. After it clicked, she yanked on the door. It barely moved.

“Don’t just stand there, you numbskulls! Help me pull!”

We all grabbed the door and tugged.

Goliath barked as the sun crested the trees.

Then we slipped through the door and pulled it shut, just as the sun’s rays struck with full force against the other side of the door.

I couldn’t see a thing, but I could hear the others breathing heavily.

“That was close,” I muttered.

“Too close,” Kenji whispered beside me. His berry breath was potent.