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There was a heaving in my body and water was wrenched from it. It hurt. Once it was over I curled up on the ground, tears in my eyes. I don’t know how long I lay there, staring blankly at the dirt. The crowing of a bird seemed to snap me out of my daze. I became aware enough to feel the water against my face. I raised my head to look at the sky and then around me.
“Where the hell am I?!”
It was a rainy night. I was lying in the middle of a narrow dirt road but beyond that it was too dark to see. Feeling confused and scared, I pulled myself to my feet.
“Hello?” I called. No one answered. No one was around. I followed the road with my eyes until I saw some lights. It looked like it might be a village of some sort.
‘If there are lights, then there are people there,’ people who probably knew where I was and could let me borrow a phone. I’d use my cell phone, but it wouldn’t even turn on. ‘Hell of a time for it to mess up! Piece of shit!’
I followed the dirt road with my feet this time. The rain was coming down heavier now, and it was freezing! My clothes clung to me as though I had gone swimming in them. I was barefooted too, so my feet were going numb. I wanted to run and quickly get out of the rain, but I couldn’t see.
While I walked I tried to summon whatever memories I had of before I went unconscious. The last thing I seemed to remember was sitting by the riverside and my brother sneaking up on me and scaring the shit out of me. Then I had jumped and fallen into the river. That was all I could remember. But I was obviously missing something, because I didn’t remember coming to this place. It was really freaking me out! I could feel warm tears in my eyes.
My attention went back to the lights. As I neared one of the buildings I noticed that the light inside was dim and flickering and that there were no streetlights or anything. In fact, looking at the rest of this little village, I could see that there were no electric lights at all.
I came close to a church and stopped several feet short of the door. It was a small church with a bell tower. I noticed that the style of building was old even though the building itself wasn’t that old. Through the window, I could see the flickering light inside, moving around in the dark room. So there was someone inside.
When the person appeared at the window, I tensed up. The candle vaguely illuminated the face of the one who was holding it. The person lingered for a minute, watching me as I watched them, then moved away and into some far corner of the room where I couldn’t see them.
‘Why are they hiding from me? Maybe I shouldn’t go in there…’ I turned to leave, but the sound of thunder changed my mind. I hastened to the door and opened it but hesitated again and took a moment to peer into the church. It was a big room with benches and a pulpit like so many other churches. On a table across the room I could see the candle but the mysterious person was nowhere to be seen.
“Hello?” There was no reply.
I again asked myself whether I should really go in.
The flash of lightening made up my mind for me. I slammed the door and pressed my back to it. With a sigh, I slid to the hardwood floor of the church. I wouldn’t go any further in, I decided. I looked around me at the darkness. It was so dark that I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face.
Thunder roared and lightening flashed, causing me to cry out and jump to my feet. An eerie laugh echoed around the room so that I couldn’t pinpoint its source. I choked back a scream and instead went further into the room- I didn’t want to just sit there and wait for him to sneak up on me, I was gonna find him, “Hey, where are you?” I called, “Stop hiding, you hooker!”
Anxiously, I searched my pockets for a weapon of some sort- there was nothing. I went towards the table where the candle I had seen earlier was. There were two empty brass candlesticks on this table. I picked one of them up; this would do nicely.
It was then that I caught sight of the coffin. It was sitting in front of the pulpit. Luckily, it was closed. I walked up to it to look at the flower arrangement on its lid.
Were they real or silk? When I reached up to feel, a pale, clawed, spidery hand appeared out of the shadows and grabbed my wrist. The rest of his body soon followed; he was very tall and clad all in black. His face held a chilling grin and was framed by long silver hair covering his eyes. A scream echoed around the room; it must have been mine.
I quickly pulled myself together and swung the brass candlestick at his head. He caught it with inhuman speed in his free hand and pulled it away easily. I surrendered it and instead went at him with my nails. He managed to toss the candlestick away and still have time to catch my hand, all the while smirking at me.
I don’t know how it happened but somehow he managed to pin me to a wall. ‘This guy isn’t normal!’ “What the hell are you?” I demanded.
“I’m simply an undertaker; no one to be afraid of, my dear,” He said, with some kind of English accent, “And you are?”
(AN: Sorry, people in the U.K. I don’t live there so I don’t know how to name the accents)
“Just a girl seeking shelter from the rain,” I explained, “Now will you please let go of me?”
“If you promise not to attack me again,” He teased.
“Fine,” I agreed, “You started it, anyway,”
Still grinning, he released me and walked toward the coffin. I watched him, not wanting to let him out of my sight. He checked over the display; I guess to see if I had messed it up. I went to stand next to him, “Ya know, I didn’t even touch it,”
“I’m glad- this family wouldn’t forgive me if something went wrong,”
“So… why are you setting up a funeral in the middle of the night, anyway? Is it gonna happen early in the morning, or something?”
“No, there’s just so much to do,” He explained, “And also…” He paused to grin at me, “I just get so excited about funerals!” His grin turned into a frown as he continued, “But now it’s raining, so I can’t go make preparations in the graveyard,” He sighed sadly.
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that so I just looked at him. ‘Is he really serious?’
Very suddenly, the room was spinning. I could feel myself swaying dizzily. The undertaker said something to me but I didn’t quite catch it. When the room stopped spinning, I found myself sitting in one of the benches. The undertaker was next to me, grasping my arm to keep me upright.
“Did you hit your head?” He asked.
I racked my brain for a minute, “Yeah… why?”
With his free hand he reached up and wiped something off of my forehead. It was blood. Next thing I knew, I was slumped against him and he was wrapping something around my head.
“Are you finally awake, miss?”
I sat up, “Yeah, what happened?”
“You fainted from blood loss. For a minute I thought I might have to arrange your funeral, too!” He laughed, “However, I managed to stop the bleeding,”
I wasn’t sure why he was so giddy, but I was thankful anyway and told him so.
He smiled back, “You’re welcome,”
“If you don’t mind me asking,” He continued, “Where are you from? I’ve never seen clothing such as yours~,”
“Oh, you haven’t?” I looked down at my clothes; a red and black, long-sleeved T-shirt and arctic camouflage pants that I had rolled up to avoid getting muddy on the walk over here. I didn’t think they looked so strange.
“Ah- that reminds me; the whole reason I came to this village here is to ask where I am,” I explained.
He explained, or at least attempted to. First he told me we were in [insert odd-sounding village name here]. Apparently that was pretty close to [insert another odd-sounding village name here]. When I told him I had never heard of either of those places I managed to find out I was somewhere in England.
“I take it that surprises you?” He said in response to my shocked face.
I could only nod. That couldn’t be true… No way! But what if it was? How would I get home? What were my parents doing right now? And how did I get here anyway?
I must have looked really panicked because some of the humor had gone from his voice when he asked, “Miss?”
“I don’t remember coming here…” I said faintly, “I don’t remember coming to this country…”
“What do you remember?”
I recounted my story of falling in the river, realizing in the process that that’s when I had hit my head and that my clothes were the same as what I had been wearing at that time. So, that must mean that not much time had passed between me being near my home (in the U.S.) and me being here (in the U.K.)
He couldn’t offer up any explanation of course, so we lapsed into silence. It was then that I realized I was exhausted. I didn’t really want to fall asleep in front of this guy, though. He was still a stranger, after all. And anyways, I was pretty uncomfortable in these sopping wet clothes.
Eventually sleep took me, anyway; I sank (almost) willingly into its arms…
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