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But in my hurry to follow the fae, I didn’t stop to consider that he ed, it was to the sight of four ghouls--threearound the fae Their gazes shot toward me at once A malevolent smile split the face of the feh distance between the two of us for houl wrapped her skeletal hands aroundh the hastly realh I knehat a useless endeavor it was, I couldn’t help but struggle to break free But I ly--the end result would’ve been the sa only see her hands deeper into eness of feeling a ghoul’s touch I still didn’t understand how, like the fae, they were able to touch ghosts

She draggeddeeper and deeper through the levels, sinking through the floors with such speed that I had no hope of counting how h thick stone floors and ceilings until finally we arrived in another vast chahtless and completely bare, except for rows of coffins--not white like the fae’s, but black--lining the walls

Horror rushed through houl reached one of the coffins, flipped open the lid, and proceeded to wrestle me inside Before I could even attempt to zoom back out, she had slammed the lid shut over ing into wood Scra up on all fours, I tried with all the willpower I possessed to try to pass through the walls of the coffin, but I already knew before even atte it that I would be unsuccessful This was a box just like the fae’s A box just like Julie’s

Gnarled hands shot down through the lid and cla me so firmly it felt like I’d been strapped into a helmet

A pain seared my head Pain unlike any I’d ever experienced Pain that I hadn’t even thought possible for a ghost to experience And then I lost my vision At least, my exterior vision A blur of colors washed over ave way to a vision so crisp and detailed, I struggled to believe it wasn’t real Consciousness of houl’s hands digging into my head faded The vision before an to htht the visions would never end I thought the pain would never stop There was no escape, none at all How could there be when it was real? The world in which I’d grown up--in which there had been peace, happiness, faaping black hole

Then, after my heart and mind had been slashed to a pulp by slew upon slew of torturous scenes, the visions began to blur and bleed into one another I becaain… and then of fir me Even still, I couldn’t open my eyes, and my mind remained trapped in the darkness I couldn’t shake the belief that everything I’d witnessed had happened I’d seen it I’d been there The experiences were actually palpable--a hundred times more palpable than the dream I’d believed to be my real life…

My mother, father and sister, stripped to their underwear and strapped to wooden stakes, as hordes of horned goblins danced around the chant A fire roared beneath the and heroic--di for ht as the fla speed, higher and higher until the fire had sed theeon, wearing a tattered old nightgown that bulged with her protruding stonant Jeramiaha hand on her shoulder before stooping low to press a lingering kiss against her cheek He grasped her hand, upon which lay a silver ring--a ring that ain, this ti up at me hopelessly "You should’ve come back, Ben," she breathed as my cousin dreay "You should have come back…"

No! I can’t take this!

I can’t bear it any er even possessed, I realized I was crouched over on all fours, er clutched me When I slowly raised my head upward, it was to see that the lid of the coffin was open, and staring down through it was the grinning fe layers of pointed teeth

I wanted to bolt away, away froth in th Weren’t they already dead, after all?

The ghoul reached down and grippedme up toward her As much as I loathed her touch, I felt so weak in that otten out of that box It was a struggle just to raise htain, I could barely concentrate on where she was leading me But it was out of this chamber of coffins, and then upward This caed doard as a punish her subtle, translucent for hold on me, she sped up, and by the tie of my pond