A Graveyard Visible by Steve Conoboy

Author:Steve Conoboy [Conoboy, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78535-669-8
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2018-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

I imagined the fires of Hell nearby, stoked by the Devil. The thin air burned in my throat. I expected to turn a corner, see flicking flames around which demons danced.

My heart almost gave out when I realised we really weren’t alone down there.

As we flitted past yet another chamber, I saw a figure within. In the next there was something struggling on the floor. The next, a slithering mass pulling itself from a hole in one of those columns.

I saw these things. They’re real. They’re down there. Now, in those tunnels. God alone knows how many have risen from their graves.

‘Evelyn!’ shouted Landy. ‘If they get you there’s nothing I can do! You’ll wish I killed you first!’

One of those dirty, greasy creatures tested its voice, a crackling rasp that sounded like dry skin snapping. I was ready to throw myself on the ground, see which one laid hands on me first, Landy or the corpses.

A split-second before Evelyn’s gasp of joy, I tasted fresh air. It was the finest breath that has ever entered my lungs. She grabbed my hand again, but this time I needed no spurring.

We rounded the corner. A dead end! Then I saw the ladder, and Evelyn wasted no time climbing it. Neither did I. Nothing will move you faster than the fear of dirty, greasy dead hands reaching for your ankles, the fingers rotted down to taloned bones, tearing at your flesh.

I kicked out at hands that weren’t there. I’d left my calm, rational self far behind in those tunnels.

Evelyn dragged me up the last few rungs. We were out! I had no idea where we were, and I still don’t. Somewhere at the back of the graveyard I think. We were amongst trees. Evelyn didn’t give me much chance to think about it. She took the lantern off me and dropped it with hers before we were off and running again, despite how much my legs ached. I understood that out in the open those lanterns would have made us easy to spot and track, but as we ran helter-skelter along barely-there tracks, scratched at by branches, snagged by thorns and creepers, I wished desperately for some form of light. My heart pulsed hard in my head. One trip and I could smash my face in. One trip and I’d be caught. That monster of a man, his bellows chased us out of those tunnels, a troll spat out of the very earth.

‘Get back here, Evelyn! Get back here now!’ He screamed so loud I was sure that something must tear in his throat. ‘Both of you! Get here now!’

That voice gave me energy I didn’t think I had. I would run until my lungs exploded before even thinking of surrendering to that howling animal.

Evelyn led us on a baffling route, darting left and right and over fences and through trees and anywhere that provided at least some cover. She stopped so suddenly that I bundled her over for a second time,

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