Page 5 of Buried Souls
“Oh, hell, no, I’m not staying here.”
I’d rather be soaked through to the bone than be a willing meal for those ferocious beasts.
Pulling my thoroughly drenched coat over my head, I march into the forest, leaving the car and all other links to civilization behind.
CHAPTER 3
“Reckless Decisions”
“Why did I have to leave the car?” I grumble out loud, dragging my mud caked feet along the rain soaked ground. “I could have been warm and dry right now, maybe even fast asleep, dreaming of chocolate chip muffins.”
Saliva pools in my mouth as I imagine the delicious pastry, its decadent taste dissolving on my tongue.
“You also could have been eaten by wolves, Elena. Eventhough—” I glance around. “You canstillbe eaten by wolves.”
Unease rises in the pit of my stomach as my surroundings and the hastened decision that I made hours ago based on acute fear instead of sound judgment, strike me.
I quicken my pace, dodging the numerous rocks and holes coating the forest floor, while my ears strain against the deafening silence that seems to have intensified ever since entering the woods.
The fog thickens as I venture deeper into the unknown, the translucent tendrils blending in with the towering beech trees, swirling like wraiths through the densely packed vegetation.
Something moves—
“Elena.”
My hair smacks me in the face when I abruptly jerk around as the whisper of a shadow passes behind me. Every one of my nerve endings has been lit, as if sensing some hidden danger, even though nothing obvious seems to be amiss.
The air is thick with the musk of earth and decay. Mist clings to the undergrowth, curling like ghostly fingers among the roots and fallen leaves. The forest breathes around me—a cathedral of gnarled branches and tangled shadows that seem to pulse to the beat of my own thundering heart.
I check my surroundings.
I know I heard someone call out my name. I know I didn’t imagine it.
I couldn’t have.
“What the hell was that?” I murmur out loud, gaze flitting about.
A beat passes. Then two.
My heart rate slowly returns to normal when what seems like ages passes and nothing happens. I take a step back, eyes still wide and assessing, then stumble like a newborn fawn and fall flat on my face when my foot catches on a pile of rocks. Myleather bag drops to the ground, splattering mud all over me, and I rub my aching forehead, pain shooting through me, as I carefully stand back up.
“Could this day get any worse?” A frustrated exhale leaves me as I inspect myself. My eyes narrow once the odd looking rock formation catches my eye. “What in the world—”And my entire body goes into complete lockdown at the disturbing sight before me.
A pair of mutilated limbs connect to a slender body, its shape unrecognizable, while muscles and bones are shredded and strewn haphazardly at ninety degree angles. Coarse fur drenched in dark blood covers the remains, the thick liquid oozing down the creature’s decapitated form, soaking the ground beneath it a deep red.
A long gash stretches across the dead animal’s belly, splitting it open, making the intestines hang out, and leaving an empty cavity overflowing with maggots and flies. A strong coppery stench exudes from the fresh carcass.
I grimace, my stomach turning from nausea. Bile rises in my throat when a long fat worm slithers out and onto the ground from the remaining stump of where the missing head should be.
Barely holding down my breakfast, I take a wide step back and flare my nostrils in a desperate attempt to take in much needed oxygen, and that’s when I smell it. My vision blurs as tears sting my eyes. The scent of decay and something so unnatural, sowrong, attacks me, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. A strong gust of wind smacks into me, lifting my hair and violently whipping it back and forth before it ceases altogether, as if someone has pulled a switch.
I feel a presence at my back, and I freeze.
Crippling fear engulfs me, rendering me incapable of movement. My heart rate spikes. My pulse thunders, while every morsel in my body vibrates with the need to flee as a maliciousenergy presses up against me. Chills sweep over me and my breath catches when a puff of icy air brushes against the shell of my ear, as if someone is standing behind me and breathing down my neck.
It’s only the wind.
You’re imagining things.
