Shivers 2

Bringing The Dead Back

It was under the hushed gray light of twilight that Lenny Mathison found himself at the door of the infamous New Orleans voodoo priest, called by locals as 'The Seer'. Bitter grief gripped his heart; his wife, Meredith, had perished in a car accident, her life snuffed out at its prime. Beside himself with sorrow and despair, Lenny had decided to enter the realm of the occult to bring back his beloved from the cold arms of death.

"Monsieur Mathison, d' dark arts are dangerous. You must tread carefully, cher," The Seer warned, his voice a mere whisper, drowned by the chirping crickets.

"But I must," Lenny pleaded. "I can't live without her."

And so, with reluctance, The Seer directed Lenny to a witch known as the modern-day Baba Yaga, hidden away in the Blue Ridge Mountains, her heart as cold as the peaks she resided upon.

"Baba Yaga, I need your help," Lenny implored when he stood before her.

She regarded him with eyes as frosty as the moonlit snow. "What you ask, child, is not mercy. It is a curse."

Ignoring her warnings, Lenny acquired the dreaded spell. He returned home, and under the ghostly luminescence of the waxing moon, performed the ritual.

Days passed with no sign of Meredith. Lenny's heart ached with regret. Had he merely been chasing shadows? But one night, a chilling whisper of movement caught his ear. An eerie creak echoed from the basement. Fear and anticipation laced with dread surged within him as he descended into the darkened depths. The sight before him stole his breath away – there stood Meredith, a grotesque caricature of the woman he'd loved. Rotting flesh hung from her bones, her eyes a hollow mockery of life.

Yet when she spoke, her voice was as soft as a lover's sigh. "Lenny," she crooned, "I need a shower."

He watched as she washed away the decay, revealing beneath the perfect, unblemished skin of the Meredith he remembered. She was beautiful, radiant even, and the sight of her swelled a desperate hope in his heart.

In his joy, he contacted The Seer and Baba Yaga, and invited Meredith's friend, Imogen, over.

Imogen arrived, a flurry of confusion and disbelief. Lenny, amidst his delirium, confessed his deeds. He saw fear flicker in Imogen's eyes as she whispered, "Lenny, Meredith wasn't the woman you thought. She was a monster... she planned to kill you."

Before he could comprehend Imogen's words, a flash of silver shone. Meredith stood, a cruel smile on her lips as she pulled the blade from Imogen's throat.

Laughing softly, Meredith confessed to her dark deeds. The infidelities, the murders, and Imogen's attempt to end her reign of terror through the car accident. With a predatory gleam in her eyes, she hissed, "You should have let me stay dead, Lenny. But now, I get to finish what I have started."

Lenny's scream echoed in the empty halls of his house as Meredith descended upon him, fulfilling her ghastly promise.

As the dawn sun cast long, mournful shadows across the silent house, the tragic mistake of tampering with the natural order echoed in the deadly quiet. Lenny Mathison, in his quest to reclaim love, had instead unleashed a demon of death.