"Peter And The Dead Men" - Page 46

Around the corner of the scary church, a hobo appeared. Its face was a horrible mass of burned wrinkles, with blackened teeth jutting out of a lipless mouth.

“RUN!” Peter screamed.

They pounded through the forest, crashing through vines, over logs, through branches, whatever stood in their way.

Twice Peter felt the brush of a hand at his back.

Twice, he pulled farther ahead in a burst of adrenalin and never looked back.

Dill was off to his right, looking like the devil was at his very heels.

Peter could see the sunlight up ahead through another two hundred trees. The empty field lay just beyond the forest.

If only he could make it to the sun, it would be alright.

There was a swipe across his neck. He felt the rough touch of burned wood…or burned bone…scrape across his skin.

A hundred feet away…

Fifty feet away…

Ten feet away…

Something pulled at his shirt. Tugged hard.

It was dragging him back into the darkness.

With a prayer and all his strength, Peter flung himself forward, over the last shadow cast by the trees, and slammed down into the ground.

He dragged himself to his forearms, panting, his chest heaving. Dill was a few feet away. His breathing sounded like a dying man in the hospital. Both of them looked back.

At the very edge of the forest, where the last bit of shadow ended and the sunlight began, thirteen men in black stood, their burned faces and their sightless eyes fixed on Dill and Peter.

Dill screamed.

Peter screamed.

It didn’t matter how much their throats and chests burned, the boys got to their feet and ran and ran and ran.

* * *

They didn’t stop until they had passed the garden and reached the rose bushes.

Peter looked behind him to make sure they were clear. Five hundred feet of empty field stretched behind them.

He collapsed to his knees and tried to keep from throwing up as he gasped for air.

“Dude…hhhh…hhh…that was…messed UP,” Dill panted.

“Now…do you…believe me?” Peter gasped.

Dill rolled onto his back and nodded his head. “Yeah…oh man, I think I peed my pants…”

“Again?!”

“Just a little. I mean, not really, it’s just something I say,” Dill stuttered, then scowled. “Why the crap did you take me out there when you knew about those freaks?!”

“You didn’t believe me! Besides, I didn’t know they’d be waiting for us!”

<< previous page | next page >>

Copyright © 2008 Darren Pillsbury. All rights reserved.