Awakening

chapter 2

So, back to the story. Later that night, at about 11pm, we set off on our long, long, LONG trek to Nightbrough village. Because my brother doesn’t see the point in investing in a car, we had to walk. Yes, walk, all the way!

The walk was agonising. Not only did my feet feel like they were being forced to walk on shards of glass, none of us talked for the whole time so the silence pressed in on us, just like the darkness. To me, silence is just UNBEARABLE! Why be quiet when you can talk?! Obviously, I didn’t mind too much. Whenever my brother talks it’s about something he did in French or English when he was at school, or how I should be fulfilling the Evens name and disrupting the whole school. So, I guess silence with my brother is just bearable enough.

When we got to Nightbrough, we noted that the rumors were true. It was dead. There was absolutely no-one about! (True, it was nearly midnight, but still.) The shop doors and windows had great wooden planks boarded against them and, most distressingly, some of the planks had huge chunks missing, as if someone had come along and tried to rip the planks off with their teeth.

“Katherine! Come over here, we found the graveyard!” I heard my brother shout from down the next road. All I could think was how irresponsible it was to leave me alone. Yeah, I know, I really need to get my priorities sorted out.

I ambled down the road to the graveyard absentmindedly. My brother wasn’t there as far as I could see. Knowing him, he had probably wandered further into the graveyard, looking for some weird shaped gravestone. Me, I prefer just wandering around ‘till I find something interesting to stare at. So, I walked right to the church and looked at it. It wasn’t really your normal churchyard, and there was something odd about the church itself. All of the graves were scattered in almost a garden in front, while the building itself wasn’t really anywhere near the village. The space the graves were located in was roughly about the size of two full football pitches but the church was tiny! It wasn’t until I had stared at the church for a long time that I realised what was odd about it.

1.       The church door was wide open.

2.       The lights were on.

3.       The church bells were ringing, signaling midnight.

4.    There were about 40 transparent-white people walking through me and through the open doors.

At first I felt like running, screaming for help. I thought I was going mad! Not only were people not acknowledging my existence, they were literally walking straight through me!

Instantly, I looked around for my brother but he was nowhere to be seen - the one time I needed him! Honestly! I turned to walk out of the church when I heard it. A young child’s scream; a girl of about 3. Looking back I saw her ghostly figure fall to the floor, surrounded by her own blood. Looking at her blonde hair and brown eyes, I recognised her. Right on cue, her mother ran out the door and grabbed the girl, hugging her close. The next bits went by in a blur. A rustle in the trees; a black cloaked figure looming over the woman; the mother running into the church, turning her back on the only child she had ever loved.

I looked back at the little girl again. But it wasn’t the little girl I saw. It was me.