The Dead Side ° horror ✔️

Chapter Ten

Author's Note~ Unedited. If y'all catch anything let me know.

Chapter Ten

I fell out of the bed ensnared in the sheets. Declan was up after me, worried as he looked me over. I yanked at the blankets trapping me and unbundled my body to run for the girls. The screams were getting quieter, fading into almost nothing. She couldn't hold on anymore.

I nearly went sliding in the hall, almost crashing into the others. The door to my room was ajar, meaning they weren't in it. Please let them be okay. Please let them be okay.

Jo was in the doorway, eyes glazed over. Blood covered her face like a splatter. Completely unresponsive- so much so that I felt my gut wrench. Jessie had stopped screaming.

Her body was on the gravel in the driveway, seeping blood everywhere onto the rocks under her. Her small fingers were twitching, a small motion- the only thing she could do anymore. The Creature above her had taken a bite from her neck, leaving her to choke and gurgle her own blood until she was dead. Her head had lolled to the side as her eyes stared me down. They were caught in a glassy impression of the screams that had managed to escape. Her small pink lips- now crimson from the blood spilling out as she died- were still slightly open. She died screaming.

It was pulling open her chest and reaching in, discarding any organs or tissue it didn't want. One of her lungs flew a few feet from the gaping hole in her flesh. It dug in further with its claws, pulling out her heart and taking a bite.

I started to scream.

It was the type of screaming that was horrifying and disturbing enough to curdle blood. I fell against the porch, kicking at the empty space in front of me in an attempt to get away from the scene. My breath caught as the tears began to flow down my cheeks. I kept screaming as the Creature released the hold on Jessie and started to make its way to me.

Its eyes were eerie and bloodshot. The blood was all over the mouth and running in a thin trail on its neck. I stared back at it and resisted the urge to run. Who cares about dying?

The parents were crying with Jo in the living room, unable to look at what was happening. I couldn't hear Tristan or Alex behind me, so they must have been sleeping still. How could they sleep through all of this?

"Imogen!" A gunshot punctuated his cries as Declan killed the zombie before my eyes. I watched it drop at my feet and fell back, staring up at the pale sky. I wished it had killed me- but I was glad that he'd saved me too.

"All my fault," I managed to whisper. His figure loomed over me as he reached down to scoop me into his embrace. I went limp as he stroked my face, wiping my tears away.

"What were you thinking?" Declan buried his face in my shoulder. I reached up and barely held onto him. He tightened his grip on me and put me on his lap. No responses could come, I felt dead.

"Imogen," He said. "Say something."

"I'm giving up on you?" I guessed the lyrics.

"Not funny," He wiped the blood off my face. I gulped. Declan was breathing slower now as he saw that I was fine.

"I'm sorry," I tried to sit up, but I was hit with this wave of regret as soon as I tried. And then I was numb again.

I stopped being able to feel anything as I stared at the ceiling. I couldn't speak through the violent sobbing plaguing at me every moment. Giving up, I just let the waves carry me back under into the void.

I don't remember getting to the couch- just eventually being there and having Alex and Tristan try to get me to talk. Someone was next to me with my legs resting on their lap.... but I didn't know who. The pain was awful, like Layla and my family dying all over again. I could've stopped it. I wish I had.