The Underworld Crown (Series)

Chapter 6

I was surrounded by pitch black. My feet were still planted against a hard ground, although it felt more like soil than anything else. It made me wonder whether I was still dreaming or not. I held out my arms in front of me, I could see the soft glow of my pale skin and the sleeves of my hospital gown in the dark.

Definitely not dreaming.

My eyes took a few moments to catch up with my racing heart, but bit by bit, the world started to come together. First, I saw the outline of an old building, its steeple rising so high it faded into the dark sky. I got a rush of sad memories at its sight; I knew this building – no, chapel – far too well.

The colour drained from my face and my breath hitched.

I wasn't in the hospital anymore.

I was in the graveyard. 

Old shrubbery hugged the outskirts of the chapel, climbing up its walls. I glanced around me nervously, half-expecting to see someone I knew. As far as I could tell, I was alone.

What was I doing? I was bare footed and dressed in a hospital gown in the middle of the night. To make matters worse, Milton's graveyard was the creepiest location I could've turned up at. Had I sleepwalked here? To my own knowledge I'd never sleepwalked before...

I tried to remember the dream I'd had, but even that was slipping away from me by the second. I vaguely remembered a woman with long hair and an empty plain, but nothing about that helped me understand why I was here.

I growled in frustration, tears pouring down my cheeks. What was going on? How had my life fallen apart in just a matter of days? I was only a month from graduating and then moving away from Milton. If there was ever a time to stay in one piece, it was now.

And how on earth had I managed to walk through a hospital and town without anyone stopping me?

I needed to call Camilla. She was probably worried sick and would help explain this madness.

Panicking, I patted myself down for a phone, before realising too late that since I wasn't wearing my normal clothes, I didn't have my phone on me. I could feel my sanity giving way.

A cloud gave way to the moon in the sky, providing enough light for me to notice my hands were coated in dirt. I held them out before me in horror, wondering what on earth I could've done to get them so dirty.

A soft breeze brushed my hair forwards and exposed my neck to its chill. I stood up straight, the feeling of déjà vu all too clear. In my confusion, I'd completely forgotten about the ethereal darkness that had been taunting me for days. Now that I remembered it, I couldn't think about anything else.

I stood in a protective position with my back to the church so I could look out across the graveyard. My hands were trembling by my sides as an overpowering sense of dread flowed through me. Something in the corner of my vision caught my attention and I whipped around to look at it.

Ihad to rub my eyes to make sure what I was seeing was real. An overwhelmingly large mass of the slinking, ethereal darkness moved through the front entrance gate and over the top of the fence line. It was moving towards me.

My breath caught in my throat, but my adrenaline to flee kicked in. I ran.

I sprinted blindly through the graveyard, still unable to see much ahead of me. I knew I was running further away from the car park, but my sole motive was to get as far away from the shadows as possible. I'd run through the woods if I had to.

I couldn't hear them chasing after me, but I could sense their urgency to catch up to me. They were desperate; I could feel tendrils of their coldness licking at my heels, masked behind my own panic to escape.

My feet kept catching on twigs lying discarded on the ground, making me to stumble.

A drop of rain fell from the sky, hitting my forehead and merging with my tear-stricken face. As I ran, the sky opened up and unleashed a downpour of rain, making it even more difficult to see in the little light. I was soaked from head to toe within a second.

My foot landed on something unsteady and my ankle rolled. I lost my balance and fell to the ground with a cry. I held out my hands to brace myself against the impact, but I ended up rolling and whacking my shoulder. The rest of my breath was knocked out of me.

I'd fallen a mere foot away from my mother's gravestone. Against all odds, the plaque stone was perfectly positioned to reflect the moonlight. My eyes ran over the familiar words: Here lies Sophie Jennings, beloved mother and wife.

At the sound of the darkness' whispers catching up to me, I stood back up with a groan, almost falling back down with the pain in my ankle. My eyes caught on what had made me trip – a lantern. One of the lanterns we'd used during the séance. Unwittingly, I had made my way back to the source of all of my problems. My eyes zeroed in on the ouija board that was exactly where we had abandoned it in our hurry to escape.

Just as I started to run again, the ground started to tremble and sent a bout of unsteadiness through me. It shook through my legs, making it almost impossible to move. An earthquake as well? Just my luck.

The shadows emerged in my peripheral vision, blocking my only chance at an escape. The shadows looked much more terrifying close up than I remembered. It wasn't just the fact that I could see their darkness swirling in front of me like a thunderous cloud, it was the feeling that crept through my body when I looked at them that shook me to the core. I felt...nothing. I was completely numb, my mind switched off.

I stood there, motionless even as the ground rocked with the force of an earthquake, unable to gather the willpower to keep fighting. It was like I was frozen, staring into the face of emptiness and sadness. I could hear something, too. Beyond the echoing chasm of whispers, were high-pitched screams. Screams of children, women and men. It was the most horrifying symphony in the world, yet my body couldn't react to the danger.

My scream got caught in my throat as the ground began to crack and collapse before my very own eyes. The earth was falling under, taking the graves – and soon to be me – with it. I sent out a silent prayer that I was still dreaming. I would do anything to have my sanity back, to be a normal teenage girl again. Flashes of my father came to my mind. What would he do if I died? He'd already suffered enough loss after my mother's death. I couldn't leave him.

The ground had given out in a circle around me, leaving me on an island. It was clear this was no natural disaster. My thoughts of dad made me grit my teeth and prepare myself to make a jump for it. It was roughly a three-metre jump, and as I looked down, I could see only darkness, meaning I had no idea just how far I'd fall.

It was now or never.

I pushed off from my good foot with as much strength as I could muster. My arms and legs flailed around, as if doing so could push me further. I landed on my knees – hard. A jarring shock ran up and down my legs and I forced myself to my feet with a cry. In my peripheral vision, I saw the ouija board slip into the abyss as the ground continued to collapse.

When I looked up, it was to find the shadows rushing towards me with the speed of a freight train. Instinctively, I took a step back, but my foot landed on unsteady ground and as though in slow motion, I felt the earth disintegrate and fall into open space. I fumbled drastically to grab onto anything, but all my hands gripped onto was air. The last sight I had of the real world was of the shadows leering down at me, emitting the sound of evil laughter.