Page 37 – Melissa

You run. You run like hell itself is chasing and guess what? It is. You manage one last glance at Darren, but you don’t have time for pity or sadness.

The skeleton reaches back into the chasm and lifts a huge sword out of the fiery fissure. With empty, soulless eye sockets, the hellish warlord gazes through you – penetrating you to the depths of your soul. You can feel the beast grinning and soaking up what little hope remained in the broken room.

Your feet burst into motion and you smash your way through the basement door and into the mountain wilderness. Thankfully, the skeleton doesn’t follow you out of the basement.

You reach the lake and an ear-splitting scream makes you turn back. Was it Darren’s final death howl as the skeleton impaled him? Was it Heidi’s pained shriek as she was harvested by hell’s warlord? You’re too far to distinguish the voice through the hissing of steam and the sound of your heart pounding in your ears.

You crouch down behind a pile of stacked firewood and wait. There’s nowhere left to run. With the lake at your back and an active portal to hell between you and your only transportation down the mountain, hiding feels like the best option.

Only a brief moment later, the skeletal monstrosity emerges from the smoldering basement walkout with a mighty sword in one hand and a bloody head in another. You stifle it, but a high-pitched yelp escapes your lips at the sight of the disembodied head.

The creature howls with delight and launches the head toward the lake. It lands with a dull thud among some brush not far from the lumber stack. Hair streams out behind the head but with all the blood, you can’t tell what color it is.

The skeleton takes a step forward, slowly scanning the lakeshore. This might be your best chance to make it to the car. If you’re faster than the skeleton, you could make it. You have to make it. But what if the severed head thirty feet away is your beloved Darren? Would life be worth living without him?

What do you do?

To make a run for the driveway, turn to page 51.

To investigate the severed head, turn to page 60.