Page 109 of When Bones Whisper
She shot another spell his way, but he just laughed, as if the pain she’d sent crawling over his body was nothing but a mere inconvenience.
Towering over her, he let out a humorless laugh and said, “I’m going to ensure you stay dead this time.”
She grasped around her, carving her fingers into the soil, yelling incantations as she lay surrounded by the bodies of her fallen family who did not escape on time.
He kneeled, his fingers wrapped around the sides of her head.
“Please, my son!”
Her ringed fingers dove for his eyes, but he just laughed, holding her still as he slowly tore her head from her neck. With a loud pop, and a grunt, her head ripped from her body, but it wasn’t enough.
Screaming, he ripped apart her limbs, lost in a rage she was worried no one could ever pull him back from. Her limbs tore from her body, her flesh peeling away from bone. Piece by piece, he ripped her apart, painting the ground with her blood.
It was a truly horrifying scene to watch, but Charlotte was transfixed on her monster as he destroyed what little was left. The night was silent when all was done, Nathaniel’s tears falling thick and fast.
“No!” he screamed into the sky. “Katherine, I am going to destroy you!”
Charlotte glanced around at the bodies. Katherine was smart enough to run while she could, but he would track her down. Of that much, Charlotte was certain.
Her fingers twitched as a faint heartbeat thrummed from her body, guiding Nathaniel’s eyes to the crypt.
“Charlotte.”
Her name left his mouth in a desperate plea. He ran his fingers through his blood-soaked, messy hair and raced to her, grabbing her hands.
It was happening. She had to get to her body. Running on the other side was like trying to push her way through deep water.
Come on. Please.
She had to get back to him.
A bone-deep chill spread through her as shadows moved in her periphery, briefly fading the grief that ached her heart. A prickle of goosebumps ghosted her ankles. The ground trembled slightly, drawing her attention down.
She stumbled back when she saw wisps of light carving through the fog-soaked earth below, unsure of what they were. It was only when they got closer to her feet that she realized the spectral light was in the shape of fingers. Her mouth fell open in a silent scream as hundreds of hands reached for her, arms growing longer as the spirits came for her.
Fingers clasped around her ankles, iciness running bone-deep, touching flesh that no longer warmed. A hoarse, raspy breath left her mouth when she tried to scream again as they slid up her calves, pulling her deeper, the earth giving way beneath them.
Soil crumbled around her legs, hips, then abdomen as she tried to fight against the things trying to drag her away.
When she looked up, half-buried in the thick soil, she saw the Smiling Woman standing by her body, neck angled, her grin more sinister than ever.
The demon's voice filled her head as Charlotte was dragged slowly into the ground.
You!
Charlotte gasped, watching her.
Yes,the demon confirmed as they conversed through their minds. Your body has long been promised to me. Your father leaving you alive was no accident. We ensured that you remained alive. That why he removed his hands from your neck just before your last breath.
Fingers hooked into her soul as they dragged her down, but every sensation was desensitized to the sheet of shock permeating her mind.
Why my body?”
Delanie stood a few inches off the ground when she spoke into her mind again, each sick reveal driving a harsher nausea into her stomach.
Gertrude needed your power and I wanted your body. She promised, for centuries, that she would break me out of that mirror our family imprisoned me in.
Charlotte’s eyes widened.
