Chapter Eleven: Reburying Bones

***

After everything that happened in the basement, after what Sam had revealed, they had piled back into the ambulance and driven to where Sam, Adam, Peter and his jock friend had crashed last night.

Now they were getting ready to find the spot where Sam had seen the witch according to her recollections of what had happened two nights ago. Josh was in the ambulance, handing out headlamps that Alisha and Kate took gladly, while holding on to some of the newspapers he'd taken with him when they left.

As Alisha secured the headlamp on her head, Deena looked at her and Kate and said, "I can't believe you two are wearing that."

"I can't believe you're above it when we're in the middle of the fucking woods and dead maniacs re after us," Kate shot back as she secured it. 

Kate stomped off as Alisha side-eyed her twin. "She has a point."

Deena just rolled her eyes and forego the headlamp as everyone else, wielding flashlights, followed after Sam toward where she saw Sarah Fier.

The first thing Alisha saw was Peter's car, now dark and silent, the hood still popped up. Police tape fluttered nearby, bright in the glint of their headlamps and the flashlights Kate, Deena, Simon, Leah, Zack, Sloane and Adam were carrying. Around them, the woods were dark and silent, not even the noise of insects or the wind stirring the air. It had Alisha's skin crawl with unease, like she was in a horror movie and the scene was right before the killer came out to massacre the unsuspecting victims.

Except she was, there were undead serial killers after her and her friends and siblings. It had Alisha's unease increase further.

As they stepped onto the red moss-covered ground, Sam took the lead, saying, "Okay, so I fell out of the car... here. I was crawling, and my nose was bleeding. And then..."

Sam's hand sunk into the moss, before something gave a dull clank. In the quiet of the woods, it was as loud as a gunshot.

"I feel something," Sam murmured, before she dug in and began pulling something out. They crouched around Sam, the unease tripling inside Alisha as Sam finally pulled out what she'd felt—a loop of thick, dirt-encrusted chains.

"Chains?" Kate asked in mild disbelief.

"Why would there be chains here?" Adam questioned.

"Oh! Not just chains," Simon whispered as Sam pulled out what was at the end of the chain—a human skull.

"Oh my God!" Sloane exclaimed, her and Zack staring wide-eyed as Zack gripped Adam.

"Holy shit," Kate breathed.

"Oh my God."

"Oh fuck," Leah murmured.

"Oh my gosh."

"Jesus Christ," Alisha hissed as underneath the red moss, chains and bones were revealed. An unmarked grave in the woods.

"No way," Simon breathed.

"Fuck," Adam hissed, clutching Zack back just as tight while he kept a steady grip on the flashlight.

Amid the chains, there was a lock and Josh grabbed that, looking at what was on it before confirming, "Fier. It's her."

He looked up and added on, "It's her grave."

The reaction was instant.

Sloane recoiled like she'd been shocked and clutched her pentacle in a death grip, Zack let go of Adam to stand up and walk away, shuddering at being on his ancestor's grave as Adam scooted back. Dread shivered through Alisha as Leah's face lost all colour, Sam looked like she wanted to hurl, Kate and Deena wore matching looks of horror, and Simon's face turned white as he sat up, fear crossing his face.

"Oh no, no. No! This is bad! This is really bad!" Simon exclaimed, voice shaking.

"No wonder the witch is pissed at us. I'd be pissed too," Kate muttered before she glared at Sam. "Sam disturbed her grave."

Sloane shook her head. "Simon's right. This is really bad. Sarah was already an angry spirit. With her grave disturbed..."

She didn't need to finish, but by the look on the Goth's face, Alisha could tell it was bad. 

Undead killers gunning for them for disturbing their mistress' grave bad.

Zack came back, still looking pale as he sat down. Sloane gave him a concerned look as Adam took his hand, squeezing it in support as Leah pulled her legs to her chest, terror stark as Simon sat back down and held her as Deena took Alisha's hand, squeezing it. All of them trying to comfort each other in the unspeakable terror that came with realising just how badly they were fucked.

Alisha watched too many horror movies to know how bad disturbing a grave was—and how it ended for those who didn't immediately pay retribution for their actions.

Josh shook his head, muttering, "Now she's sending her henchmen after us."

Alisha whipped to her brother, as did Kate as she questioned, "Henchmen? As in every one of those sickos on your wall is gonna be coming after us?"

"Josh, you better clarify on that fast, because are you saying we're gonna have to deal with every single killer gunning for us?" Alisha asked, fear making her voice shake. There were hundreds of killers spread out over the course of three centuries, since the very first with Cyrus Miller. They barely got away from Ruby and Skull Mask. If every single one was coming for them...

They wouldn't make it through the night.

Her brother didn't say anything, which had Zack let out an appropriate, "Shit, we're fucked."

No one argued. They were very, very fucked.

A crack sounded, ricocheting through the silent woods. Alisha's heart jumped to her throat as they all turned to the noise, Josh whispering, "Did you hear that?"

Trying to control her heartbeat, Alisha assured, "Probably some animal stepping on a twig or something."

She hoped it was just an animal.

"Hold up. Hold up," Simon hissed. When he saw he had their attention, he continued, "She's mad because we disturbed her grave, right?"

"Yeah. Basic graveyard etiquette, witch or not, is that you do not disturb someone's grave," Sloane confirmed, before looking at the bones of her ancestor and whispering, "I'm sorry we disturbed your grave."

"Yeah. So?" Deena hissed.

"Whatever you're gonna say, man, say it now before we're axe-murdered by her zombie killers," Adam hissed.

"So, let's un-disturb it!" Simon suggested, hurrying on despite the looks they gave him, "Just put the bones back, rebury them, and put her to rest!"

"No, that's so stupid!" Deena exclaimed.

"That's genius," Josh and Sloane said in unison. They gave each other a look before Sloane went on, "She'll still be angry, but it might appease her."

"Yeah! In... in Poltergeist—" Simon tried to explain, only for another crack, this time much louder, to interrupt him.

Flashlight and headlamp beams swung around wildly, lighting up the dark woods, ominous and pressing them in. A shiver skittered down Alisha's spine, like icy fingers.

"I'm willing to give the reburying the bones thing a try," Alisha said, eyeing the woods.

"Agreed," Adam murmured, eyeing the woods warily, too.

"Whatever. Let's do it quickly so we can go," Kate muttered.

That decided it as now they all got organised on one thing—reburying Sarah Fier's bones and appeasing her angry spirit and putting her undead killers back to rest before more came and killed them. Hopefully.

It'll work. It has to work, Alisha thought as she got set to work on burying the bones with Deena, Sam, Simon, Kate, Leah, Sloane, Zack and Adam as they dug the grave deeper, while Josh stood watch, looking for any sign of Shadyside's murderous ghosts come back to kill them. It tore at Alisha's heart, but Josh had volunteered and nothing she or Deena could say could have him change his mind.

Instead, she focused on burying the bones, working between Kate and Sloane as she did, ignoring the feeling of touching human remains, even if it was just bones. Not like she could complain, when Sloane and Zack were helping them rebury their ancestor's remains, the same ancestor who cursed them to die. Zack's face looked green at the edges, Adam giving him worried looks—those and everything else she'd seen told Alisha there was something more happening between them than simply friendship—while Sloane looked paler than usual, hands trembling as she breathed in and out.

"You okay?" Leah asked her at one point.

"So much anger..." Sloane whispered, breathing in and out shakily before she continued in helping them.

"Deena, Deena! Find something to, like, wrap her bones!" Simon yelled.

Deena did so, running to the car for something as Alisha reached for something else—only for her hand to sink through another patch of moss. A patch that wasn't Sarah Fier's grave.

Wha— Alisha thought, but it was dragged away when Kate shouted, "Alisha! I need your help with this chain."

Pulling her hand loose—and trying not to think about disturbing another grave—Alisha helped Kate put the chain back in. Looking up, her eyes widened when she saw Sloane.

"Sloane, your nose is bleeding," she told her.

Sloane blinked before she rubbed the blood away from her nose, staring at the blood in shock. "I hadn't even noticed..."

"Zack," Alisha heard and she saw Adam look at Zack in the same way, his nose bleeding as well. Zack reached up to wipe it away, staring at the blood and looking freaked out. He made to touch one of Sarah's bones with his bloody hand, but Sloane grabbed his wrist and exclaimed, "No!"

All eyes turned to Sloane, who let go of her brother's hand and said, "Wipe your hand, Zack. Don't touch her bones with your blood. I have a feeling."

Zack frowned, but didn't question it as he wiped the blood away on his jeans and let Adam bury that bone instead. Alisha turned away, wondering if being next to their ancestor's bones had caused the siblings' noses to bleed. She looked over to her sister, who was next to Sam, a letterman jacket in her arms, concern in her face. She was staring at Sam.

At the blood leaking from her nose.

Chills shivered through Alisha, at another person's nose bleeding, as Deena murmured, "Your nose."

She moved away, toward the grave with the jacket, ready to wrap the bones. Alisha turned away, focusing on that instead of the creepy oddness of Sloane, Zack and Sam's noses bleeding simultaneously and so suddenly. Like hers and Deena's had, before the crash.

Just think about burying the bones, Johnson. Just think about that, Alisha told herself, now focusing on wrapping the bones in the jacket, having as much covered by it as possible.

"Guys? Guys, I think there's someone in the woods!" Josh warned, right as the woods rustled.

That and Josh's warning had everyone's fear spike as they moved faster in burying the bones, Josh's shouted, "We need to hurry!", helping little. Alisha's heart beat a panicked drum inside her chest, fuelling her movements, until, finally the bones were wrapped, reburied. The grave now undisturbed.

"There, there. We're sorry," Simon apologised in a whisper.

"Rest in peace, Sarah. We're sorry for disturbing your rest," Sloane murmured, before pulling something out of her bag—a crystal. She placed it on top of the grave.

"Please stop sending your killers after us now?" Zack requested.

Silence. No snapping, no movement from the woods, no sign of undead Shadyside killers.

Nothing.

"Did it work?" Kate asked. Looking between Sloane and Josh, she repeated, "Did it work?"

Josh didn't answer and Sloane shrugged, saying, "I don't know, I've never put a spirit to—JOSH LOOK OUT!"

Sloane's screamed warning had Alisha whirl, heart jumping to her throat as she saw Josh—and the axe-wielding shape coming straight for him.

"JOSH!" Alisha screamed as her brother jumped out of the way, the axe-wielding shape that Alisha now saw had a burlap sack over his head came charging forward, Sloane yanking her brother back out of his way, right past Sarah's grave and toward Sam standing at Peter's car.

"NO!" Deena screamed.

"Sam, DUCK!" Adam yelled.

Sam remained frozen in terror as the killer swung his axe down—and Deena tackled Sam, the axe clipping the cheerleader's shoulder and shattering the window. But Alisha was running, sprinting back toward the ambulance, everyone else doing the same as Deena screamed, "Run!" She was holding Kate's hand, refusing to let her go as Simon had hold of Leah, not letting go until they reached the ambulance and scrambled into it, Kate instantly moving to the driver's seat as Alisha whirled, heart in her throat, searching for any sign of her twin, where was Deena, where was Deena?!

That was when she saw her, Deena and Sam running toward them, the axe-murderer right behind them, features still obscured by the sack.

"Go! Come on, go!" Simon yelled.

"Deena, Sam, get in! Hurry!" Leah yelled as Sloane, Zack and Alisha leaned forward, ready to help them in.

They barely caught them and hauled them in before the axe-murderer had caught up, the doors swinging shut as Deena screamed, "Start the car! Go!", and Kate peeled out of there like a bat from hell, leaving them inside and rattled by another near-death experience.

"That was the Camp Nightwing killer!" Josh yelled.

"That was a bust!" Kate yelled back.

"Yeah, maybe because it's not like the movies, okay? It's not as easy as putting bones to rest!" Deena snapped, snatching wads of gauze out. That attracted Sloane's attention as she started moving toward Deena and Sam.

"It should've worked! It always works!" Simon yelled.

"This is real life, Simon! Not a fucking movie!" Adam yelled back.

"Maybe it's her missing hand," Josh offered.

"Or maybe her spirit was too angry about being run over to care whether or not we put her bones back!" Leah exclaimed.

"Given what she did to our family and this town, I put my money on that!" Zack yelled, obviously talking about the curses.

"Whatever it is, we can't do it now before we get fucking killed!" Alisha shouted.

"Who gives a shit?" Kate cut in. "It doesn't matter. Hey, how do I not die?"

"We! How do we not die?!" Simon amended, looking at Josh as he yelled, "And I'm looking at you, witch nerd!"

"My question exactly a fucking hour ago," Adam muttered.

"I... I don't know!' Josh answered, looking lost. Alisha looked at her brother, heart aching.

"Oh God, we're screwed," Leah groaned, burying her face in her hands.

"Wait. Can't one of you like... control her killers?" Simon questioned, now looking at the Fier siblings.

"We can't," Sloane said from her position now at the cabinets as she looked through them, Zack nodding empathetically as he added, "We would know if we could, because someone in our family would have stopped one of the killers from fucking murdering them!"

"Okay, then, what do we do now? Because Leah is right! We're screwed! We're all fucking screwed!" Alisha yelled, sounding hysterical, but she didn't care, thinking it called for hysteria, they were screwed, they were all going to get killed, Alisha was going to die tonight and without telling Kate how she felt, oh God, they were going to di—

"They're not coming for us!"

That stopped the yelling as they all looked at Sam, face screwed up in pain as she pressed gauze to her shoulder, but lucidity danced in her face as she revealed, "They're coming for me."

"What?" Deena breathed, sounding confused. Alisha was confused too—what did Sam mean by that.

"I saw her again," Sam elaborated. "The witch. She... I disturbed her grave. She wants me."

Her words circulated around the room, Josh the first to believe them as he nodded, thinking over what had happened—when the Camp Nightwing killer had appeared. "Yeah. yeah, yeah. Nightwing ran right by me. I jumped out of his way, but it was like he didn't even see me. He went for her."

"And Zack—you were in his path. I pulled you out of the way, but he didn't even realise..." Sloane murmured, realisation coming into her eyes—as it came into Alisha's eyes, remembering now, how he was so singleminded, barely paying them a thought—going straight for Sam.

"Guys, no! Ruby attacked Simon. Skull Mask came after us at home, and tried to kill you and your brother, Sloane. And while you guys were babysitting!" Deena exclaimed, denial thick in her words.

The ambulance harshly braked, almost swerving off the road, before Kate appeared.

"No, he didn't," she refuted, climbing past and toward Simon. "Skull Mask didn't care about us. He wanted this."

Unceremoniously, she zipped down Simon's hoodie, revealing a blood-splattered white shirt beneath. The same shirt Alisha was positive he'd been wearing last night.

"Sam's blood," Kate finished, confirming that it was that same shirt.

"What the fu..." Deena breathed.

"Gross, dude," Adam muttered.

"Yeah! From the crash when Sam puked period!" Simon yelled, catching on. "It's Jaws, dude! A shark smelling blood! Kate's right! When we found Skeletor, he was all sniffy and weird with my shirt like a perv in a pantie shop!"

"Weird analogy, but he's right," Leah agreed. "And back in the hospital—holy shit, the hospital! Skull Mask ran right past us—he only cared about going after you guys. After Sam!"

"Yeah, but he came to our house too! And Sloane and Zack's!" Deena pointed out.

"Deena," Kate said.

Her twin looked down—and saw her shoes, splattered with Sam's blood.

"Okay, but what about them?" Deena asked, gesturing to the Fier siblings, who had gone rigid. "Why did Skull Mask go to their house?"

Alisha looked down, and saw it at the same time Sloane did, the Goth saying in a trembling voice as she stared at her blood-covered boot, "Same reason he came to yours, Deena."

Like that, all of Deena's denial flew out of the window. Alisha gave her twin a sympathetic look as Simon exclaimed, "Sam bled on her bones, and now the witch wants more of her blood!"

"That makes... perfect sense," Sloane whispered. "A failsafe, more or less. If anyone disturbed her grave, bled on her bones, they'd be repaid with all her killers after them."

"Oh God," Alisha breathed.

"Okay, so what do they do in Jaws?" Sam questioned.

"Well, I'm pretty sure they didn't go skinny-dipping with the goddamn bait," Kate deadpanned.

"She's not bait!" Deena snarled.

"Yeah, she is," Josh said. At the looks he got, he explained, "Seriously, if we're right and they're after her... let's give these assholes what they want."

At that, the ten of them looked at each other, a plan steadily forming. If they used Sam as bait...

Maybe they could stop the killers and Sarah Fier after all.

"Okay, but first, we need to look at Sam's wound. An axe wound is no joke," Sloane stated, sounding more serious than Alisha ever heard her.

No one questioned it as Sloane moved to Sam, arms full of medical supplies. She looked at it before saying to Sam, "Good. Keeping pressure on it stopped the blood flow. But it looks nasty, and a terrible spot to get an infection. Hold still, this is gonna sting."

Sloane shook a bottle as Kate moved to drive again, looking at Leah and then at Alisha before she did. Once she was driving again, Alisha asked, "How do you know how to do this?"

"I want to be a doctor after high school, like my mom was," Sloane revealed as she finished shaking the bottle, dribbling a bit onto gauze before pressing it to the wound. Sam let out a hiss and grabbed Deena's hand, squeezing it tight. "I've had practice patching up Zack numerous times, and in fixing up injured cats, dogs, birds, bats, snakes, possums, really anything that was hurt. One time I nursed a baby deer back to health after its leg got broken in a snare. So, this should be pretty easy. Just clean and disinfect it, then bandage it. But it's gonna need stitches after we survive this."

Everyone stared at Sloane, at how efficiently she was patching up Sam's shoulder, working as she talked.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing. You're just... full of surprises," Kate said from up front.

Sloane smiled. "Well, this is the last surprise from me. Trust me."

It grew quiet as Sloane finished working on Sam's shoulder, bandaging it up before moving away, letting Deena take her spot as Kate drove them into town, to where they could hopefully end it.

The only place big and secluded enough they could kill undead serial killers and they could wash off any trace of Sam's blood before they could do the plan—Shadyside High School.

***

Heheheh >:)

Loved writing this!! Honestly, I'd be freaked out realising I'm on a grave as well, and want to rebury those bones fast (also, that scene gives off so much tension, especially with how quiet it was...)

Yeah, Sloane and Zack's noses bled again! That was because they're literally next to Sarah's bones, so their noses had to bleed (and Sloane had her brother avoid being hunted down by the killers as well like Sam)

As for what Alisha found... >:)

But Camp Nightwing killer has appeared! (and seeing him like that HURTS with the hindsight of 1978 😭) And yeah, they all know it's only Sam and why they were stalked/attacked as well. And the plan... >:)

And yes, Sloane aims to be a doctor! She wants to help people, so of course she would do that while also following in her mom's footsteps (and she absolutely helps all creatures who are hurt, no matter what—she'd probably help a bear if she could XD), and that plus patching up Zack throughout their childhoods gives her some experience with patching up injuries like with Sam's shoulder (not quite, but close)

But now, they're heading back to the school... and certain things will be confessed... >:)

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!