Page 84 of Grave Matter

Sydney, you’re home.

I straighten up, my heart pounding. The wind is playing tricks on me. Everything here plays tricks on me, even the people.

Especially the people.

I take in a deep shaking breath, my body trembling.

I start walking, grateful for my slippers, one uneven step in front of the other, my ankle nearly giving out on a few occasions. My eyes have adjusted enough to see that I’m in a small, open area in the middle of the forest and as long as I don’t look directly at the far-off light, I can see where I’m going.

That is until my toe catches on something, and with a cry, I go flying to the ground, landing in a pile of soft earth.

Soft, overturned earth.

I gasp, pushing myself upright but my hands sink in until the dirt is at my elbows. I’m about to panic when I realize that what I thought were stars behind my eyes are actually stars in front of my eyes.

The ground is covered in them.

Teal glowing stars with orange underneath.

Excandesco.

Excandesco, which means to flare and burn in Latin.

I’m staring at the Madrona mushrooms, glowing in their bioluminescence, and they’re all around me, lighting up the earth like fallen stars.

I marvel at them, feeling like I’m floating in the phosphorescent sea, but there’s a warning digging at the back of my skull. Something telling me to get up and keep moving. Something that says I need to get out of there, now.

I try to move, my knees sinking into the dirt now. For a second, I have a stupid worry about having to launder my damn pajama pants again, but that thought is quickly wiped awaywhen I realize what this mound of soil I’m sinking into actually is.

It’s a grave.

It’s the dog’s grave that Lauren and I stumbled upon.

It’s been unearthed.

And I’m crawling in it.

Nope, nope, nope, I think as revulsion rolls through me, about to pull my hand out when something in the soil starts to wrap around my wrist.

I scream.

I rip my hand out in a panic, frantically crawling through the grave, crushing the mushrooms, dirt flying everywhere, until I finally reach hard ground. I stagger to my feet, running straight into a tree that nearly knocks me backwards again, and I look wildly for the light.

I push off the trunk, lungs squeezing, heart galloping as I try to run through the dark forest, branches scratching at my body, pulling at my hair like they mean to hold me captive. I can’t help but feel like something is still around my wrist and I keep touching it to make sure there’s nothing there, brushing all the dirt off me as I go, zigzagging through the trees.

I’m close to the light when suddenly the air changes, and I feel something heavy at my back.

A dark presence, suffocating and ominous.

Dread personified, looming behind me.

Coming after me with the snap of branches and a low, hungrygrowl.

I yelp and push myself to run harder and faster than I ever have, until I burst through the trees and find myself behind the Panabode cabins. I’ve never been so happy to see Madrona Lodge before.

I keep running though, down the winding paths, straight to the ramp. I clamor down as it shakes wildly, then speed along the dock, nearly slipping twice before I reach Kincaid’s boat.

I scramble onboard, half crawling, my slippers nearly coming off as I fall onto the deck.