Dreaming With The Dead : Part-2

Fifteen minutes in the graveyard. Boon or bane, Emma thought.

A soft bound and she was across the open drain separating the road and the jungle. The temperature  - did it actually drop so suddenly or was it just Emma's feeling? She stared at the gate ahead. The wrought-iron half-gate, three feet above the ground, must have been a handsome black some day. Now the paint peeled off from where it had managed to stay stuck through the years. The hinges were all rusted, and it seemed the gate would crumple to dust if anyone as much as even touched it.

Eyes fixed on the gate, Emma took a step forward. And she stumbled. Slight disturbances over her shoulder that Leah had made a move towards her. As Emma steadied herself, she smiled. "Always the elder one," she muttered to herself. She glanced down at what had made her trip. Not an inch of ground could be seen. It was all overgrown with grass, covered with dead leaves and had creepers running all over. "Just my type of thrill," she mumbled, even as she felt an involuntary shudder.

She pushed the gate open with one hand. And the next second, she regretted her action. The gate creaked loudly, swung a little and the hinges gave away. Emma rushed to catch it mid-way of its fall, and placed it lightly on the ground along the boundary wall. "I never touched it," she mumbled. She took a deep, long breath and stepped forward. She looked above her head and stifled back a scream. Had she seen a glimpse of a pair of monstrous eyes and a mouth? A second step ahead told her she was wrong. "Holy crow..." she breathed. The banyan trees flanking the gate looked remarkably monstrous, with a hollow in place of a mouth and rare slits of sunlight as eyes. The dangling roots made them look like Medusa. "Nice placing," Emma thought, and walked on.

Another fifty meters of walk took her well inside the forest - or so she thought. Her friends' voices were now sounding muffled. Maybe because of the thick trees. Or maybe because of the air, so thick with eerie silence you could slice it with a knife. It all may have seemed quite uninviting to others, but to Emma, it was nothing short of mesmerizing. Her brother Adrian had been inside many times, and she envied him on that. There was no denying that it all gave Emma the creeps like hell - the trees, the creepers, the graves and light mist with a strangely familiar smell - but she enjoyed it all.

At least she thought she did...

There was a great many variety of trees in the jungle and it was almost impossible to decipher which was which unless you had a close enough look - there was hardly any light in there. At rare spots the sunlight fought its way through the thick canopy and hit the ground like sparkling gold.

And it was in one of these rare golden spots that Emma saw it.

It was silver and gold, with a sharp edge, glinting mysteriously in the sunlight. Emma picked it up, but hardly had the time to register its beauty when something caught her across the ankles and she fell face-down on the moss-and-creeper-strewn ground.

After what seemed like a long time, or maybe no time at all, Emma flicked open her eyes. The smell of moss filled her nose, and she took a deep breath. It was the sweetest perfume. She got to her feet and looked around. Suddenly, there was a rustle nearby, like footsteps on the carpeted ground. Emma's heart raced. She gulped hard and stared, trying to look through the darkness. Her brain urged her to turn around and run as fast as her legs could carry her, but her heart whispered, "Stay." The next second she heard a voice, so familiar and welcome as ever : "Emma!" Leah called out. Emma heaved a sigh of relief. "You disappoint me, dead-men!" she thought, as a wide grin spread across her face. "Emma!" Leah's voice wafted through the trees. "Em....ow! Oh, this scarf!" Emma shook her head. The scarf had probably troubled Leah more than Emma had. She trotted off towards Leah.

"You know, I sometimes have a point when I tell you to tie the scarf like before," Emma called out as she approached Leah. Leah looked up from the branch at which she'd been tugging and cried, "Em! Where were you? I've been looking for you all over! Oh, thank God you're safe...."
"Nah, a dead man over there just invited me for a cuppa, I'm going, see ya!" Emma chucked, "And snap the twig, Einstein," she added, breaking Leah's scarf free from the tree, a twig dangling from it.

"So, what made you come and look for me?" Emma asked, launching into a conversation like it was a evening stroll in the park. "Your fifteen minutes are up," Leah informed, "and I was worried," she confessed. Emma shook her head. "Always the elder one," she said, and smiled. Leah returned it, and her wandering glances fell on the object in Emma's hand - silver ad gold, glinting in spite of the darkness. "What's that, Em?" Leah asked.

Emma looked more closely. It was a locket - gold and silver on a gold chain. It was oddly shaped, it didn't look like a holy cross. Something else glittered across the shorter arms. Emma rushed to the patch of sunlight in front of her and held it up to look closely. "It's a sword," she breathed. It was a beautiful piece of work - the handle and the hilt were pure gold, and the blade was a gleaming spotless silver. Across the hilt, embedded in the gold, gleamed little round stones. Emma couldn't believe her eyes. Could it be........
"Moonstones, yes," Leah answered her thoughts. "That's worth a fortune, that locket. Pure gold chain, silver, moonstones and all.." But Emma wasn't listening. Something pulled her back into memories - memories unknown to her, where she was just a stranger. But it was all familiar too. She heard a distant voice in her head, exclaiming, "Moonstones, Lewis? Oh, shouldn't have..." And then another voice said, "Shh...!"

It hit Emma hard on the heart like an electric shock. A pang of horror and a deep feeling of loss engulfed her, and she found herself being tortured by a distant scream, a voice so troubled, so familiar...

"Em?!" Leah cried, shaking Emma by the shoulders. Emma came to her senses. Gone was the scream, the voices, the horror.
"You fine?" Leah asked, her voice heavy with concern.
"Yeah..yeah.." Emma lied. She knew convincing Leah wasn't so easy. But Leah asked no further questions.

They walked on, deeper into the forest. The trees now got thicker, the graves more ancient. It was hard to make out the names on them.
"Shouldn't we go back now, Em?" Leah asked, and she clearly wasn't as fond of the atmosphere as Emma.
"Hang on, Li," Emma replied.

They walked further, Emma leading, the sword locket clutched in her hand. Maybe it was some sort of talisman that made her forget what it felt like to be afraid when she was in the midst of darkness and dead. Emma saw Leah flinch at the slightest rustle, and a swooping bird once made her jump right on top of Emma. Emma's head was blank, unknown to all the creepy feelings Leah was having. This place... it was more than just a graveyard. Something within her told her that this place, this path that she followed so involuntarily, held many answers. To what questions, Emma did not know.

They soon lost track of time and position, as they kept walking deeper and deeper into the forest. Leah now winced at every other step. But Emma thought otherwise. The green forest floor, towering canopy, the breath of forest in the air, the little beams of golden sunshine - why, there was nowhere as beautiful! Although she was far from home, and this place was far from welcoming, she could feel a warmth around. Like she was getting closer and closer to a goal. And after that she'd be able to relax.. Her job would be done.. She'd be at peace.. Rest in peace.. RIP, as the headstones around her said..

"What was that?" Leah breathed. Emma turned around to face her.

Leah had stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes wide with terror, she looked around to her left. Slowly, very carefully, she turned her head.
"What was it, Li?" Emma asked.
She strained her ears for some sound. None came.
"Something moved. There...over there..." Leah said, pointing at a nearby clump of trees.
"What was there, Li?" Emma asked, "Did you see it?"
"I...I saw something glint...I thought it was the sunlight...but it was all silver...and solid...and...and then...there was this axe..."
"Axe?!"
"Yeah...like hanging in mid-air or something...but then...then..."
"Then what?"
"I heard this...this swish...like a cloak...you know..."
"Cloak? Axe?"
Emma rushed to the clump of trees. There was nothing there. No axe. No cloak. Not the slightest sign of footsteps. She walked back to Leah, who looked petrified.
 "There's nothing there, Li," she said, grabbing Leah's shoulders, and smiled. Leah couldn't return it this time.
"No, Em! I saw it! I'm sure I saw it! It was..."
"No one could have been there, Li...!" Emma interrupted, "there's not the slightest place to hide back there!"
"I don't know...Oh, Em! I don't like it here...This is...this is BAD!"

Emma felt a stab of disappointment, like someone had insulted her very house.

"It's not bad, Li...This place isn't bad..."

Leah stared back at Emma. Colour drained from her face.
"We're in the middle of a graveyard, Em. There's no one alive, not even half-alive, around us now! I don't understand why..."
 "There IS something about this place!" Emma said, her voice now lined with the plea of understanding, "there's something in here - I don't know what - but it's gonna open many secrets!"

She began to pace backward, looking around her. "Look here, Li! It's all green...so peaceful...so quiet...It's all so calm, secluded, like I've always wanted! What could possibly go wrong in such a place?! It's all so..."
She tripped. And she fell flat on her back. She sat up and looked around to see what had obstructed her path...

A body. And a pool of blood.

It was a girl's. She wasn't more than a year or two elder to Emma or Leah. Her body was oddly twisted, like someone had broken her pelvic joint. Emma's gaze travelled up the body, and another awful sight awaited her.

Where there should have been a neck, were pieces of flesh, like minced meat. The blood was still trickling out, and it engulfed the shoulders, and the head lay in a gleaming scarlet puddle.

Dreaming With The Dead : Part-1

The thick growth of trees blocked away most of the sunlight, and all you could see ahead was leaves, branches and more leaves. Creepers wound themselves on any surface they found; you couldn't dare to stand there for long in the fear that you too would be engulfed. Out of the ground rose shrubs and graves, alike if you saw abundance. A thick carpet of moss spread over the forest floor and on the graves, obscuring the names. Some headstones were cracked, as if gnawed at by the remnants of the graves beneath.
And through the eerie mist and silence pierced the high-pitch laughter of a group of friends walking past the graveyard, oblivious of the atmosphere within.

"Oh, everyone knows you're lying!" said Penny, still chuckling over the 'truth' answer Natalie had given.
"Oh, come on!" exclaimed Natalie, as usual her voice sing-song and accented, and flicked her hair out of her face.
"OA!" Hannah exclaimed, "Over-Acting!!!" and began laughing. Everyone followed, shouting, "OA!" as Natalie shook her head. They walked on.

With their major test over, Emma & Leah had got together with their bunch of friends - Beth, Donna, Amy, Hannah, Penny and Natalie - and planned a trip of their colony. As they were walking, Leah had struck upon the idea of playing "truth or dare" - a new application on Emma's phone that she'd taken from her cousin. After an interesting and 'untruthful' round of the game with Natalie on the answering side, it was time for another round. Emma tapped on the 'play' button and, after a whiff of tense air, witnessed the popping up of a familiar name on her screen:
"Emma, it's your turn."

Emma held up her phone for others to see.

"Hmmmmm," said Donna and Beth in their usual smirky way.

"Woohoo!" Natalie exclaimed and started clapping.

Leah raised an eyebrow at her and then looked at Emma, "Go on, choose something!"

Emma held her finger on top of the screen and did a quick inky-pinky-ponky in her head.

"yep, my pinky wants a DARE," she thought to herself, stopping at the top of the option in gleaming red letters - "DARE". She tapped on it and Penny announced, "She's chosen DARE!" There was another round of 'hmmmmm's and 'woohoo's followed by claps and then the task popped up on the screen:
"Spend at least fifteen minutes in the nearest dangerous place."
Emma stared at the task for what seemed like ages and as soon as she comprehended the exact meaning of the gleaming red words on the screen, she gulped hard.
"You bloody traitor! How I wish I could throw you away somewhere!" she muttered at the phone.
Leah snatched the phone from Emma's hands and read the task aloud.
"And that means..." Penny whispered in a dramatic way.
"The Graveyard," Hannah thought aloud.
There was a familiar sound of hands clasping to the mouth and everyone turned to look at Natalie. Except Leah. She was looking at Emma with an immensely intense expression. Emma looked back at her and nodded.
"I'm in."
"You sure?" Leah asked, now with an air of a concerned elder sister about her.
"Yep!" Emma said, a bit excited about the task. Heads turned back to her.
"Go on, baby! Give us some thrill!" Hannah said, thumping Emma on her back.
"So guys, I'm gonna go in and spend an amazing fifteen minutes with the dashing dead. Watch me!" Emma said, now making cool and funny hand gestures. Leah couldn't help noticing the slight tremble in Emma's voice. But this is what Emma had wanted all along. Ever since her brother, Adrian, had told her about his visits to the graveyard, she had wanted to get in there, probably shake hands with a dead man or shake a leg with two. There was a short walk, which Emma covered in a couple of steps, that would land her right in front of the gate of the graveyard. She turned around to see all her friends giving her a "thumbs-up", and Leah's face a bit contorted.

Emma turned around to face the gate of the creepy graveyard. It was the most uninviting gate Emma had ever seen in her seventeen years of 'life' (if it could be called that). Slowly, she moved towards the graveyard, all set for the adventure that awaited her inside. Leah saw the perfect figure of her best friend climbing the gutter-barrier, crossing it and moving towards the gate. Emma stumbled a bit and Leah instinctively took a step forward. But Emma regained balance and so Leah backed off.

Emma slowly caught hold of the rusted iron handle of the gate and gave it a slight push. It was as if she had awoken the gate-ghost which shook violently with a loud, creaking noise. Emma was sure that if the gate fell off, it would make a noise loud enough to awaken the dead. So carefully, she caught hold of the gate and placed it aside.
"I never touched it," she mumbled. She dusted off her hands and stood in front of the entry, looking uo at the tall, dark figures of the banyan trees with their roots dangling from all sides in an oddly creepy manner. They looked like large, black replicas of Medusa. Emma felt a chill run down her spine. At that precise moment, she was suddenly haunted by the urge to turn around and run away from the terrible place. But, she didn't budge. She wasn't sure why she couldn't back off - either it was her strong determination, the fact that she'd been waiting for this all the while; or it was simply because she was having cold feet. Literally.

Leah watched Emma standing in front of the gate for four whole minutes and then she saw her stepping in. Emma's first two steps were uncertain but she took her next steps quickly. Leah knew how much Emma had wanted to go in. She silently prayed as she watched Emma's figure getting smaller and smaller with every passing second and finally, she disappeared in the shadows. Emma was gone.