Living Dead Girl

Chapter Two





I woke, and it was dark as pitch. The air was dank and musty, and I felt confined, closed in, and confused. I tried to move my stiff muscles, but they had almost seized up from being so sore and cramped in a tight damp place.



Groaning, I tried to shift more and my arms banged against the top of something solid and wooden. I felt around and the more I did the more panicked I became about the entire situation. I was feeling the confining insides of a coffin, and I was not happy about it.



As I became more and more panicked I came to the obvious solution: I had to get out of here. I began searching blindly for the slight indentations that signaled where the pieces of wood met. The lacquer and smooth wood finish made it difficult, but I began fingering and pulling at the pieces, splinters stabbing under my nails.



The pain was increasing with every bloody splinter, as my nails split and peeled back, but a glimmer of hope hit me. I began working more and more at the boards and then had a sudden epiphany, after some finagling, I grabbed my pen out of my sock that I had absentmindedly stuffed in there after class, sighing with slight relief. I used the poor pen for all it was worth until I hit dirt, and then yanked at the edges until I got a piece of the wood to crack. Pulling at it, and groping blindly in the dark, I broke the piece.



Dirt began to fall in with every movement of my fingers. I had the quick mental flash of a small slide of dirt pouring into the coffin and smothering me to death, but I pushed it out of my mind as quick as it entered and continued on my dirty task.



Spitting out the occasional piece of dirt that hit my mouth, my brow furrowed in concentration, and I ripped at the pieces as hard as I could in the space I had. My elbows were getting bruised from banging the bottom of the coffin every time my fingers slipped or the wood broke. I slowly realized that my fingers felt slick. My eyes widened as I understood what it was, blood. Then the pain hit me.



I cringed and bit my lip to bear it as I continued on with my intended escape. Taking a deep breath from my limited air, I reached up and felt dirt. I felt around to find the edges of the wood to study the size of the hole. Determining it to be of the appropriate size for me to squeeze through, I began to claw at the dirt, eyes closed and mouth tightly shut, I raked dirt into the coffin and when it piled up to much I shoved into the bottom of the coffin, and continued with my clawing.



After what seemed like hours of clawing and then packing the dirt into the coffin I stopped. The air was getting thinner with every breath I took. I was sweating, gasping for air, and my hands ached. Taking a short break, reality hit me. I need to get out of here soon, I’m running out of air, and soon I’m not going to have any more space to pack in the dirt. Fuck.



Deciding that if I was going to die, then I was going to do it from exhaustion damn it. So inhaling, I reached up and continued my slow ascent. After a few more swipes I felt dampness, not the dampness that I had hoped would have eventually numbed my battered fingers, but dampness as in the dampness you find in the first few layers of dirt after it rains. Overjoyed at this revelation, yet ill because I wouldn’t have stopped if I had known I was this close, I took I big swipe out of the earth, and suddenly the sky was falling.



The dirt crashed into my face as the last few inches of dirt collapsed on me. I felt the rush of fresh air, and then the raindrops. Had I not been so glad just to see something, anything, and be out of that hellhole, I would have bitched about the rain, but for now, it was welcome.



Using more energy than I thought possible, I crawled out of the tiny hole, dragging my nearly lifeless body out of the dirt behind me. The hole began to collapse in as I drew out, but I didn’t care, I just collapsed on the solid ground and lay there in the rain.



I just lay there until the cold shocked my body and I could feel again. I lifted my head up to look around. The rain seemed relentless, and didn’t look as though it wanted to stop any time soon. “Okay,” I said breathlessly, “the rain is now annoying.” I spat, and looked down at the outline of my hand against the dark earth.



At that moment lightning flashed and showed a corpse pale hand in place of mine. I gasped and another bolt hit showing my familiar tan arm this time. This woke me up enough and with that I began my ambling my way slowly to my feet.



After several failed attempts, I used the headstone, and eventually made my way up. I looked about, and realized that one corner of the sky was getting lighter. Dawn was approaching, but it was still a ways away. Gathering my bearings, I set my way back to the school, with a vengeance.



* * *



The cemetery I had been buried in wasn’t that far away from the Boarding School, so I reached it in a decent amount of time. As I reached the front door, I raised a fist to bang against, and realized my pen was still in my hand. I let out a weak chuckle, and decided that if these people had wanted me dead, it might not be smart to waltz back in to show them, Hey you didn’t get it right the first time, so here’s a free second shot!!!!



I sighed and worked my way to the side panel Rana and I used occasionally to get back inside when avoiding the front corridor. It took considerably longer than it should have to scale it, but I didn’t care, and once I hit the top, I felt like rejoicing, but had enough sense to contain myself.



I got to our window and found it locked. “Curse you Rana!” I shouted without thinking, and jumped as someone approached the window. “Oh shit.” I said, thinking I had blown my escape. “No shit ‘oh shit’, I should kill you for waking me this late.” Rana growled while yawning. I was so relieved to see her in one piece, I went to hug her, but only succeeded in falling through the window.



“Oh, shit, sorry, wait a sec.” She giggled and ran to the lamp to switch it on, her giggles stopped. “Wow, you, you look like shit.” She stammered. “Thanks for the concern, you would too.” I spat using the wall to brace on while I stood up. “What happened to you?” Genuine concern flooded her voice.



“A lot.” Was all I managed. She walked me to the bed and laid me down on the soft mattress, I wanted to sing arias. “I thought that maybe you were with Geoffry, but now I guess not. Wait, you weren’t with him were you?” She eyed me skeptically. I sat up abruptly. “Why would I be with Geoffry? Have you not looked at me this whole time?” I yelled.



“Keep your voice down, any way, Fry said something about trying to take you out somewhere, he kept asking for you, and then he stopped, so I assumed you were with him. And yes, you look disgusting.” She wrinkled her nose at me. “Eww, Geoff? You’ve lost your marbles.” I whined. “Oh you know he likes you, besides, he is kind of cute.” She mused. “That is so besides the point, and for your information I spent the night digging my way out of a fucking GRAVE!!” I yelled.



“What kinda party was that?” Rana said puzzled. “It wasn’t a party, Your conspirators found out I eavesdropped on the meeting, and decided that I needed to be silenced to ensure their safety, so they tried to kill me!” I raged on. Rana stared at me with her mouth dropped open. I shut it and nodded. “Yea, your boy Julian is a sicko.” I growled. “Julian isn’t mine, he’s cute and obsessed, but no, not mine thank you, and what, are you saying he did this to you?” She shook her head in disbelief.



“Actually, it was the Headmistresses fault, she commanded him.” Rana almost looked relieved. “But, he still carried it out, that is just as bad.” I said softly. “I know, but I don’t understand why they took such serious measures, I mean all they talked to me about is trying to develop my powers, they are just going to give me private tutoring lessons to work on me conjuring things up.” She said while pacing the length of the room.

“Did they tell you that you’re the Plague-Bearer?” I said worriedly, because she didn’t seem to be. “They made it sound okay.” She replied. I grabbed my aching head and fell back onto the bed. Shaking my head, I stood back up. I feel weak, I think I need food, something to drink, anything.” I said as I swayed. I stabilized myself on the large potted plant next to the bed.

I started to feel better. “Whoa!” Rana exclaimed and ran over to me. “What? What? I’m fine, I feel better now.” I said raising my other hand to fend her off. “No wonder why! You just killed our plant! Look!” She said pointing. I looked over and saw our plant wilting rapidly, my hand at its base, on one of the exposed roots. I lifted my hand quickly, and it stopped.



“Look at you, your color is back!” Rana yelled and then ran to her book and flipped pages. I rolled my eyes at her. She ran over to me, “I told you! I told you!” She gasped. “What?” I said flatly. “I told you earlier about the ancient signs of Death, and here it says that that was one of the things about Death, your hair, being pale, sucking the life out of our poor plant and your skin returned to normal.” She was grinning like the Cheshire cat.



“Rani, I can’t be Death, I’m not dead, see a pulse!” I said holding out my wrist for her to feel. We both put our fingers on it, and felt nothing, then a few seconds later, it started pulsing wildly. Our eyes widened. “Nox, they didn’t just bury you, they killed you.” Rana said quietly.



My breath quickened, I had flashes of me tied to a chair, several people standing over me, each taking a turn slapping me. “They didn’t just kill me, they beat me to death.” I whispered. “But where are the bruises?” Rana asked searching. I moved aside the flap of my torn shirt, buttons were missing, only faint blemishes showed, and they were quickly fading. We looked at each other in shock.



At this moment, Geoffry burst through the door. “Geoff!!!” I yipped. He blushed and looked down to see me holding my shirt open for Rana. I closed it quickly, tearing it more. Oh, well, this shirt is trashed. “What Fry?” Rana growled. He growled, “Don’t call me that. Any way, I was coming to see if you knew where Noxa was, I’ve been looking for you everywhere Nox, I heard them say they were going to do something terrible to you.” Then he realized how I looked.



“Oh hell.” He said, and came over to me. “What happened?” He asked putting a hand on my shoulder, making me wince. “Ooh, sorry, are you hurt?” “Um, yea, they got me, and tried-“ “No, they did kill you.” Rana interrupted. Geoffry looked lost. “Nox is an incarnation of Death, they killed her when she overheard what they were trying to do to me, which isn’t cool, but they decided to capture for eavesdropping-“ “Not again Nox!” “Geoff this isn’t time to berate me about eavesdropping, these people tried to kill me!!!” I yelled. “They did kill you” Rana chimed in. “Not helping.” I spat.



“How do you know?” Geoff asked. “Well, her hair is an ancient tell-tale sign for it, and she almost killed out plant because she was draining it.” Rana told him. He just nodded. “Don’t tell me your agreeing with this Geoff?” I pled. He hugged me too him tightly, causing me to yipe. “I’m just glad you’re okay now.” He said. “I told you.” Rana whispered.



He let go. “So, just hypothetically, we say I am Death, what am I good for?” I asked. “Reigning over the Dominion of Death.” Rana said. “Boring.” I yawned. “Controlling the Dead, any type of death, killing the living, bringing the dead to life.” Geoff answered. We stared at him, stunned. “Oh, and you’ll shift from life to death depending on the circumstances and how you use your powers.” He added. “That sucks.” Rana blurted. “You’re telling me.” I said.



“No, no, you’ll be the living dead, you wont be a true corpse, but at times you’ll be corpse like. You’ll be a Living Dead Girl.” He said. I stared at him mouth open. “Stop that.” He blushed and closed my mouth.



Shaking my head, I began to recover. After a few silent moments, I thought of something. “So, now what should we do?” They looked at me, considering the options, and the three of us sat on the bed plotting the next move well into the morning, the sun beating through the window.