No rest for trouble

Chapter 20

Grace crawled out from the front end of the car. She pulled herself up using the hood of the car and standing upright. She looked down both ways of the street. "Come on. Nobody has waken up yet." Grace told Marxes. He rolled out onto the street from under the car. Marxes got his scooter standing upright. He used it to pull himself up. Grace and Marxes turned to look at the old building. "So, are we going to find out who the person who was chasing us is?" he asked Grace. She nodded. The two friends climbed back into the old, abandoned building. They looked inside the dark room with the cash register. Marxes turned on the flashlight app on his phone. He shined the light under the counters once more. Marxes felt that he might have missed something. Grace also looked in the darker areas of the store. There was a yellowed newspaper article that was covered with dust on one shelf. Marxes took the newspaper and shook the dust off it. The dust fell on the floor. Grace and Marxes let out a cough. Marxes set the newspaper back on the counter. It was only one headline that grabbed his interest. "Grace. Look, over here." He said pointing a picture of a teenager.

Grace looked at the picture and looked disappointed. It was nobody that she knew. Marxes read the story under the picture. "Teen dies due to horse buggy accident. Has been laid to rest in the quiet street cemetery." "That makes no sense to me. Was he buried in the grave that we knocked over?" Grace asked. "I don't know. The newspaper did say that he was buried here." Marxes mentioned. "The boy's name was William." Grace spoke as she read through parts of the newspaper story. Suddenly they smelled the weak smell of rotting food. Marxes and Grace looked at each other. They both felt that they should be hiding again. The smell of rotting food was getting stronger by the minute. The agile monster landed on the lawn outside of the abandoned building. The undead creature walked up to the window. It hopped inside. The monster sniffed the air. The smelly monster made a snarl. It walked towards the small area behind the cash register, before the room with the coffin lying on a table. The creature started to look under the shelf. There was nothing there. The creature did happen to see the newspaper story on the counter. The creature looked at the paper. He read the words in his mind. The monster remembered how he was going back from the store with his mother and father when he was alive. The sound of a horse walking along the street rattled in his mind. Then another horse buggy came racing down the lane on their side of the street. The creature remembered as he held his arms in front of him. There were only teenagers who were driving the horse buggy for fun. Their laughter only haunted him. The horse buggy swerved dangerously around his dad's. The horse buggy tipped over. The monster was sitting in the side of the seat close to the left edge. The smelly creature remembered as he fell to the ground, and the buggy crashed into him. His mother and father screamed as they fell. His mother's scream made him a little sad. Then his memory was nothing but a blur. The monster snarled angrily. "I was William." The creature said as he looked into the open window.

The undead monster wandered further into the establishment. He walked on the wooden floors as they creaked. Marxes watched as the undead monster moved across his hiding place. The coffin was sealed shut on the table. Grace was hiding in it. The angry creature let out a growl. It looked around the coffin. Grace could hear the creature sniffing the coffin. Marxes stared out from the small hole from a floorboard. He used part of his T-shirt to block out the awful stench of rotting food. Grace was very scared. The undead creature seemed to have walked away from the coffin. Grace breathed a short, but silent sigh of relief. Then the coffin lid was ripped open. The angry monster let out a growl. Grace held onto her ears, trying to block out the loud sound. Marxes heard the noise from his hiding place. Grace whimpered as she was grabbed by the T-shirt collar. The monster pulled her out of the coffin. The monster let out a snarl. Tears ran down the sides of Grace's cheeks. Marxes looked from his hiding place. The agile creature held Grace out in the area behind the cash register. While being in the room where they made coffins all at once. Marxes' hiding place under the floor was in the coffin making area. The monster only took one step into the other room before Marxes lifted the floorboards up. He only lifted them up slowly but not loudly. He didn't want the floorboards to creak against each other. The angry creature had been scowling at Grace for a few seconds. She covered her eyes. Marxes was standing out of his hiding place. He was only standing on the dirt floor of the hiding place. He slowly had the wooden planks aimed at the undead monster. He threw the bunch of wooden boards. They all smashed against the monsters' back. The boards were splintered on the ends that hit the creature. The agile monster turned around and stared at Marxes in surprise. Then it tried to capture him.

The undead creature tried to grab the front end of Marxes' T-shirt collar. Marxes grabbed onto the monster's left arm that was reaching for him. He pulled onto the arm. The odor that came off the creature was seeping a little into his nostrils. Marxes tried to block the smell out, but it was no use. The undead monster was slowly being pulled into the coffin room. The agile monster let go of Grace. It tried to scratch at Marxes' arm. The youth ducked out of the way. The monster accidentally made a scratch mark on the wooden wall on its left. Marxes tried to run out through the backdoor. The agile monster jumped onto the ceiling and quickly crawled towards the backdoor. The monster gave Marxes a fright when in landed standing on the area next to the front door. The angry creature let out a snarl. Marxes quickly ran towards the cash register area. The agile monster grabbed onto his left arm as the youth was trying to flee. Grace got up from the floor. She put part of her T-shirt over her nose. Grace went to help Marxes. She pulled on Marxes' right arm. The undead creature wasn't giving up so easily. It had a hard grip on Marxes' wrist. The youth fought back by kicking his leg. "Are you a guy trying to play a prank on us? Because you actually look like a boy wearing a zombie costume." Grace shouted. The creature didn't answer. It was focused on taking Marxes away. "William, leave us alone!" Marxes yelled. The undead monster didn't answer. He only snarled. Grace tried to scream for help. The agile monster tried to put its smelly hand over her mouth. Grace felt sick as she let go of Marxes. Grace jumped over the counter. It tried to reach for her. The youth ran for the open window. The undead creature threw Marxes on the floor as it went after Grace. It leaped over the counter. Both of its hands caught her on the ankle. Grace fell only two centimeters away from the window. The monster immediately pulled her away. Grace held her hand against her mouth. She tried to withstand the horrid smell.

Marxes stood up. "Let her go. The cops already know about you. They have seen you running off the middle school grounds. Even if we told our parents, they would believe us. Because they also saw you." He spoke. The monster stopped what he was doing. "Even if the police catch me and my friend. They will be asking us about you. They would think that you were helping us out right?" Marxes continued. The angry creature snarled at him furiously. The monster looked back at Grace. It ran up to the desk. After it jumped over the counter. Marxes was knocked to the floor. The undead monster roared and ran for the backdoor. It was knocked off its hinges. It flew into the air like a frisbee. But landed close to the iron gate. It made a metallic sound. The part next to the bottom and the middle of the pieces of fence that was hit by the old door was a bit bent. Grace got up. She still had the upper part of her T-shirt covering her mouth. The stench of rotting food was still present in the air. Grace went around the desk. She helped Marxes back onto his feet. "So now we know who this dude is, should we go and tell our parents, or maybe even the teachers? I mean its like I said. The police knew he was there. We could tell the principal that the monster kidnapped me, Holly, and you. That he tried to frame us for breaking into the school." Marxes suggested. Grace nodded her head. Then a shiver came up her spine. "Wait a minute Marxes. What if the monster is going to terrorize our parents? If they are all shaken up. Then the police would accuse us of some mean prank. Besides, who is going to believe the story of some zombie coming back to life? They might think we're starting to become horrible liars." Grace pondered. "Should we sleep in here? We could skip school today. Then we could make up some excuse to the principal about why we were gone. Then we could tell him the story about how the monster kidnapped us and brought us to the school." Marxes said yawning. "Good idea. We could go back home tomorrow. We should rest behind the desk. The workers are not going to come here till the missing body is found." Grace spoke as she rolled the two scooters behind the counter. They went to set themselves down on the hardwood floor of the abandoned building. Grace took one look at her phone. It was ten minutes after six. The two youths went to sleep. They laid on the wooden floor. The stench that the smelly monster left behind was starting to fade away. It made Grace a little bit awake while sleeping away, in an ironic twist.