The Den of Souls

The Den of Souls - Chapter Five

I bent over and took the notebook out of the box. And all hell broke loose.

Everything was happening so fast that I didn't even notice when Damien had grabbed on to me and pulled me down with him behind the headstone, the notebook sliding out of my hand.

The very moment I took the notebook out of the box, the room began to shake and split and crack open. The room became very dark and the dirt beneath my feet rumbled angrily. Lily, Leon, and Anna had all knelt down and were covering their ears with their hands as the wind screeched and blew past us.

On the ground, Damien pinned me under him and covered me with his body. We both struggled to keep our eyes open when we heard Anna scream at the top of her lungs. Her voice was so loud and filled with fear that I felt tears well up in my eyes from my own fear.

The wind whipped hard and the shaking did not stop and neither did Anna's screaming. I felt Damien move beside me as he tried to get up and see what was going on. Then, I heard Lily's voice. She was screaming too and shouting. I could hear the panic in her voice.

"Someone help! Get her away! Help! Ahhhhhhh!"

Just as suddenly as the shaking came, it stopped just as abruptly. In moments, the whole room stilled and the eerie silence returned, save for Anna's hysteric screaming.

Damien and I got up from where we were behind the headstone and true fear knotted in my gut as I looked over to where Anna was.

She was sitting down on the ground near a headstone close to Lily and Leon. Her brown hair was frizzed and curled with sweat. Her dark brown eyes were opened wide as she looked down at the horror in front of her and screams continued to reverberate out of her mouth. Her shoulders were tense, the small muscles in her forearms bunching as she tried to pull herself away.

Down in the ground, directly in front of the headstone, the dirt was raised and cracked and a thin, skeletal hand had broken out onto the surface. Its bony fingers had wrapped tightly around Anna's right ankle and seemed to be pulling her towards it.

"No! Get it off! Help me!" Anna cried.

The ground around the headstone beside me shook and another skeletal hand popped straight out of the dirt. This time, I screamed. Then, Lily screamed. Then, someone else screamed.

At the same time, hands were popping up like daisies everywhere across the graveyard. Some hands were skeletal and others had skin, but they all were the same – gnarled and broken and aimless – as they tried to pry themselves up from the earth.

The words from the church room flashed through my mind, "Don't Get Bit," and I whispered one word.

"Zombies."

Anna screamed again as the second hand appeared from the dirt and clamped down on her other ankle.

"Help me! Get it off of me!" Tears were streaming down her face and she started to hyperventilate, her chest rising and falling fast as if she had just run a marathon. She flailed her arms in the air and kicked with both of her legs but nothing was working to set her free.

"Help me!" Leon called over to Lily. They both ran down next to Anna and attempted to pull her free, but the skeletal hands were too strong as it pulled against their strength.

I grabbed Damien's arm next to me and shook him hard. He seemed to be frozen where he stood as he watched the scene unfold before him. His eyes were wide and his jaw slack. His bottom lip trembled in fear. I shook his arm again and he looked down at me, confused.

"Help them!" I cried, a single tear sliding down my cheek.

Damien snapped out of his reverie. He nodded his head and wordlessly wiped away my stray tear with the back of his hand before rushing over to help Lily and Leon pull Anna away from the skeleton. I looked around for Ian and Tricia.