A Welcome into Darkness

Mysteries of the Undead

It was a night unlike any other. Dark and foreboding and menacing. The sound of tires could be heard screeching down the asphalted street. Headlights made the night brighten up just a tad. All the while he was panting. What he previously did could not be undone. Tears soaked his face as well as the protruding sweat. He thought what he did would solve his problems but they only created more. Hitting a small pothole made the package rotting in trunk toss and turn. The thump of the body rolling into the backseat made him flinch.

How he performed this grueling act would be labeled as attempted murder. But how could he kill something that had already been dying? How would it look to an impartial observer? If anyone heard all that ruckus the authorities would have been called already, dispatched to his house, and he would be dragged in handcuffs in the back of a squad car. However none of that happened, it had been almost too perfect.

The signs on the side of the road seem to go in and out focus. His breaths became more sporadic and drawn out. The heart thumping completely out of his chest. Only a couple more miles out will be perfect. Outside the city limits well beyond into the country. The cars lightened with the traffic spaced out few and far between. Headlights danced barely as the dark wailed through the skies. The moon stretched out beyond this part of the city, cascading down into a valley. Eyes focused on moments that played before him like scenes from a movie. The way the stake pounded inch by inch. Breaths escaping and heaving. Reddish eyes glaring and subsiding. All of that washed over him as an incandescent cloud. It made him rage at first, turning into sadness then regret.

But he had do it. If not then this thing would come after him more and more. Peering in the rearview mirror he thought maybe the creature was behind him, making a flight towards his car mowing down the road. He had the faintest glimpse that this was not over, the creature would hunt him as if it already knew what he set out to do. It all began with his friend then his sister, and now it wanted him. That penetrating darkness huddling over him as a shadow stalking the room. He swore he could see those eyes glaring back at him in the rearview mirror, but it was just another car throwing on his blinker enough to pass. He hoped the driver wouldn't look to over to notice how nervous he was.

Once the cars dissipated from sight, he turned onto a gravel road. It took him all the way beyond a lush cornfield and into rustic plains. His lights went to high beams, the light widened and lengthened playing over the scene as if he entered into death row. That's what it felt like, walking down that green mile to where he would meet his own death. Only this time there was no chair, no executioner, no hangman, no judge awaiting trial just an ungodly creature which he knew would be after him sooner or later. Well beyond the plains a forest shot up and he drove off the beaten gravel road into tall thick grass.

Slamming on the breaks he let out a sigh. Right up against the edge where the forest met the pasture he parked. Stumbling out, he reached for his supplies in the backseat. The equipment felt heavy and once he opened the trunk, the scent of death fueled his nostrils. Coughing and gagging, he wrapped his hands around the black disposable bag. Sure she was heavy but he managed. Those tears came again thinking about his sister rotting underneath his arms. You had to do what you had to do. Lugging her foot by perilous foot, he kept his back straight arms bent, his grip tightening around what seemed to be her upper torso. His utility bag banged against his back but he carried on, the weight never constricting him. His conviction led him further into the forest, moon blotted out by oaks and maples, that dread creeping up on him like a snake.