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.He followed dutifully, watching her closely.She seemed happy, almost at peace as she led him through the maze of new and old gravesites, not seeming the least bit scared.Not that it mattered: he was plenty afraid for them both, and his trembling hands proved it.“What are we doing here?” he asked anxiously, scanning the area to be sure nothing else was going to jump out at him unexpectedly.The cry of a lone owl flying overhead made his heart beat faster, and suddenly every terrifying horror movie he had ever secretly watched on his laptop while his parents slept came to mind.He knew it was foolish, knew the dead could not come to life, but it didn’t stop his imagination from working over-time.“It’s late, we should go home,” he said, his voice trembling slightly.“Can’t this wait until tomorrow, when it’s light out?”“Nope, we’re already here,” she told him, coming to a stop at a freshly covered grave.“Why are we here?” he asked woodenly, staring at his grandmother’s final resting place warily.“I have a surprise, but first you have to promise not to tell anyone what you see here tonight.” She let go of his hand and walked around the grave, lighting a small battery-operated lantern that she had placed there earlier in the evening to illuminate the area.“I don’t know what you are up to, but I think we should go home right now!” he cried out angrily.The pain of his grandmother’s passing was fresh, and he did not appreciate her dragging him to her grave in the middle of the night to play some sort of sick game.“Just promise and this can all be over,” she said, barely able to contain her excitement despite his clearly agitated state.Wanting only to leave, he gave in so they could get it over with and get out of there.“Fine, I promise.Now what is so important you drug me out here?”“Look!” she said, turning the lantern she held to light the area just off to the side of the freshly covered grave.There in the shadows of a tall evergreen stood his grandmother.Her white hair pulled into a bun, wearing the brightly flowered dress they had buried her in, holding out her arms to him a with an awkward, lopsided smile.Immediately he looked to Hope for an explanation, for any idea how such a thing could happen, but she just smiled, seemingly unconcerned that his deceased grandmother was alive and standing before them.“Well, go on, she’s been waiting for you,” Hope said giving him a little push toward the woman.Hunter’s feet were leaden as he edged towards his grandmother, unable to believe she was standing before him after he had spent the last week mourning her loss.He wanted to believe it was true that somehow she had come back to them, but the closer he got to the waiting figure, the more he noted things that were terribly wrong.Her once-vibrant eyes were now hollow and lifeless.Her skin, which was always porcelain, was sallow and sickly in appearance, and her jaw hung slack as if she had no control over it.He paused as the moonlight illuminated her clearly for the first time, noting the red Southern dirt that streaked her clothing, stained her hands, and matted her once-pristine white hair.Quickly, he realized that whatever it was that stood before him was not the fun-loving, outgoing grandmother he had known, but a real-life zombie raised from her grave.As if sensing his hesitation, she moaned his name, clumsily reaching for him.Immediately, he took a step back and looked at Hope with fearful eyes.“What have you done!” he screamed, horrified by the situation before him.“I brought her back, so you don’t have to miss her anymore,” she murmured, realizing for the first time that bringing his grandmother back might not have been such a brilliant idea.“Brought her back?” he bellowed, staring at Hope in disbelief as she wrung her hands, noting for the first time the large bandage that covered one of her palms.He stared at the bandage, recalling a time when had she told him that she could raise dead animals with just a drop of her blood.He had thought she was joking with him, but now as he looked between her and his dead grandmother, he realized she had been telling the truth.“Did you raise my grandmother from her grave?” he asked despite the evidence before him.She nodded and he fell to his knees, his body shaking as tears filled his eyes.“How could you do this? Why would you even try?”Hope ran to his side, placing her arms around him, pleading with him to forgive her, but he refused to look at her.What she had done was cruel and the pain he felt seeing his grandmother in such a sad state was agonizing.Shoving her away, he stood on shaky legs and turned to go.“Hunter, please, I just wanted to make you happy!” she cried out, tears streaming down her cheeks as she sat on the dew-dampened grass, regretting what she had done.He stopped walking and turned to look at her, hatred taking the place of the love he had always felt for her.Then he looked over her shoulder to his grandmother, who shuffled toward them.Her motions were awkward and slow as she moaned his name repeatedly in a barely audible tone that freaked him out.Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to hurt Hope the way he was hurting, and before he could stop himself, he let loose the rage inside of him.“You are a freak, Hope Lancaster [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]