Page 116 of Grave Matter

I almost collapse to the floor.

Then the girl turns away from me, and I feel her arm as it brushes past mine. Ifeelit. Cold, so fucking cold. And I watch in terror as she walks toward my door. She opens it and looks back at me, her head still at a horrible angle.

She’s trying to tell me something. Her eyes go back to normal, and they don’t seem as scary anymore. I’m starting to see the real girl underneath.

She steps out into the hall. It’s quiet except for the howling wind, and dark, with only the white emergency light on. The power must still be out.

Farida continues to stare at me, perhaps more expectantly than before.

She wants me to follow her.

My heart seizes up at the thought. The storm is still battering the lodge, rain pattering against the roof.

But I put one foot in front of the other.

She nods and keeps walking, going down the stairs.

And so I follow the dead girl once again.

We creep down the stairs and across the common room, where the fire is still roaring, but there isn’t a soul in sight, and then she opens the door and steps outside.

I’m immediately met with lashings of rain, my hair flying around.

Farida’s nightgown doesn’t even move with the breeze. She turns and walks toward the lab.

Oh no.

I stop immediately, too fearful to go on.

But she turns around and gives me a look, one that brims with intensity, and keeps walking.

I have to follow.

I have to know.

I hurry after her, glancing around wildly, expecting to see someone.

But it’s just us and the trees and the storm.

She walks to the door to the lab building and opens it, no key card needed.

I’m at her heels, scared to be inside but eager to be out of the storm. She walks down the middle of the learning lab, heading straight to the door at the end.

Just like before, she doesn’t need a key card to open it, and she steps inside the stairwell.

Oh Jesus, I think, stepping in behind her until the door closes with a soft click. I stare down at the flickering light at the bottom of the narrow stairs. I’m no longer afraid of the dead girl. I am afraid of this place. The real lab.

“What if Everly is down there?” I whisper to the girl. “Michael?”

She doesn’t say anything, just starts walking down the stairs.

Well, fuck. At first, I thought maybe this girl was trying to help me in some way or was trying to get me to help her.

Now I’m wondering if she’s leading me into a trap.

I’m still paused at the top of the stairs, too afraid to keep going, when Farida finally looks up at me from the bottom, her hand on the door to the left, the room I’ve never been in. She raises her finger to her mouth, a strange sight with her head at such a terrible angle, and tells me to be quiet.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

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