Ray's Lament: A Welcome to Dead House Prequel

Chapter #7 The Yearly Feeding

Running as fast as I could, away from the walking zombies that I once called my friends. They were close behind me as I tore down the street. Bullets of rain beat my face and there was a cramp in my side, but I kept going, all the way to my house. My friends were yelling behind me.

"Ray, you can't hide!" Mary shouted.

"There's no way out!" Bill called.

"Get back here!" Alyssa ordered.

I didn't listen. When I made it to my house, I practically went staright through the front door as I got inside. Locking it tight, I began running and shouting throughout the house for my parents.

"MOM?! DAD?! ANYBODY?! HELP!" I yelled.

No answer. My breathing was becoming staggered and winded. Tenacious pounding came from the front door, so I made my way out the back door, maybe my parents were in the backyard....they had to be....

Sneaking out the back door, I surveyed the yard. Nobody was there.....no one except for Max! He sat near the fence and gave me a blank stare as I approached him.

"Hey boy! We need to go! It's too dangerous here!" I greeted.

Max didn't get up and yip happily like he normally did when I spoke to him. Instead, he seemed to glare at me, a dull look in his eyes. I studied him closely until my eyes fell upon something else.

The hole in the fence was back....

Completely ripped apart, my dad's patchwork was strewn about the ground near the fence. The hole even looked bigger this time....

"Max....?" I stammered.

I reached out a hand to pet him, but he backed away, still glaring at me. And then, he turned and crawled through the hole.

"Hey! Max, no! Come back!" I called, sticking my hand through the hole.

And then, suddenly a cold hand wrapped around my wrist.

"Gotcha!!!" A voice cracked from the opposite side of the fence.

I screamed, and like before, started trying to tug my hand free. But all I did was help the person crawl through the hole. I recognized who it was immediately.

Robert.

He stood up and eyed me wildly with a maniacal grin. His red eyes glowing hungrily. There was a big tear in his forehead and another in his neck. He began walking towards me.

"Hey Ray, I killed your dog, and now I'm going to kill you!" He giggled.

I gasped. Max was.....dead? And I was next...

"NO!" I shouted, turning and running out of my backyard, back to the front.

The others spilled from the front door after me, along with Robert who followed me along the side of the house. I didn't know where to go, so I blindly ran into the woodland area that was across the street from my house.

Through the thick trees I ran, not really knowing where I was going. The rain shot diwn from between gaps in the leaves and made the ground muddy and wet. I kept running until I came across an iron fence. Looking beyond it, I saw graves, it was the cemetery....

"....Crap..." I muttered, knowing that I had no other option but to go in.

I slipped through the bars easily and began walking as quietly as possible down the dirt path. The graves looked untouched, like they hadn't been taken care of in years. All sorts of leaves and vines were growing on and around them. The stone was dirty but the lettering on the epitaph was still readable on each one.