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A light fog has lifted from the ground, covering the gravestones and curling around our ankles.
"Dude, it's time to get out of here," Felix says, backing up toward the car.
We all hurry, wanting to get out of the cemetery before the fog overtakes us.
Before the dead come alive.
We all shut our doors quickly. I can't hear Vera's screams anymore, but I can guarantee her cries are ripping from her vocal cords.
I reverse out of the cemetery, the dirt and rocks flinging up on the sides of the car. I pull back onto the street, making my way back to my house.
"How long are you keeping her in there for?" Levi asks, staring out the window into the foggy night.
If we leave her in there until morning, we won't be able to get her until tomorrow night, when the door opens back up.
"I'll grab her before sunrise," I say.
It only takes a few minutes to pull into my driveway. I drove around town when Vera was in the car, making it seem like I was driving across town, maybe even out of town.
Little does she know, the cemetery she's in is only in our backyard.
21
VERA
"Help! Someone please help me!" I scream, pounding on the solid stone door, with my foot and my shoulders. Anything I can use to thrash harshly against the door as hard as I can.
At least, I think it’s the door. There is no light, no windows, and from the feel of it, no door at all. My fingers trace around every inch of the room, and there's nothing. I walk with my back to the wall, tracing every surface with the little wiggle room my hands have with my fingers. No crack where the seal of the door should be. It's like it dissolved once the door closed.
"Please, someone. Please," I weep, my knees and the toes of my feet feeling sore. I can't pound with my hands being tied behind my back. The only things I can use are my knees, shoulders, and feet, but they're already sore. It feels like they’re forming bruises.
"What did you do to me?" I cry.
What the hell is wrong with him? How could Malik put me, or anyone for that matter, in a place like this? He hauls me through a cemetery and throws me in, what? What the hell is this, a tomb? This shit is crazy! This entire place is absolutely batshit, and so is everyone that lives here.
I lean my head forward, pressing my forehead against the cool stone. It feels damp and rough against my skin.
It feels like everything stops once I hear a giggle behind me. My eyes widen, the hair on the back of my neck instantly standing on end. Spinning around, I lean my back against the wall, holding my breath. I glance around, expecting to see someone. Or no one. I don't know, honestly. All I see is darkness.
It’s The Room of Atonement all over again. Although this time feels so much more sinister. The air in this place is ice-cold. Standing in a six-by-six cement cube in the middle of a cemetery leaves a chill on your skin. I can feel how alive this place is, which doesn’t make sense when you’re surrounded by death.
The giggle peeps out again, and I feel like every drop of blood drips from my veins. I can barely catch a breath as a shiver washes over me.
It's not the giggle of a child, like I'd expect.
It's the giggle of a grown woman. Not raspy, but throaty. Dark, like nothing is funny at all, but there's an evil in the atmosphere and she relishes in it.
"Who's there?" The most cliché question possible flows from my lips. But what else am I supposed to say? There's a fucking voice in this tiny, square cell, and I'm the only one Malik put in here.
"Me," the voice whispers against my ear, and I swear I can feel the lips against the shell of my lobe.
I scream, sprinting away from the sound. I slam into the wall, my shoulder taking the brunt of the force. It knocks me off balance, and I fall to my ass. Tears fill my eyes, because this place somehow feels so much more menacing than The Room of Atonement. That place, surrounded by God and so many people.
This place. This place is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by death.
So much death.
I can feel it with each breath, as if every time I breathe in, I can taste the decay, the disease, and torture they endured before they died. It's bitter and rotten on my tongue, and it makes me want to gag.
