Noah jolted awake.
He had heard someone scream. Karmen?
He raised up on the bed. Beside him, Parrish stirred.
"What was that?" she whispered.
His first thought was that their barricades had failed. He pictured a window somewhere in the house with rotters pouring through it, nothing to stop them. His gut churned and he felt ill down to his core.
"Oh, God, Karmen," he said.
Noah jumped up from the bed and bolted down the hallway. He took the stairs so fast, he practically glided down them. The house was veiled in pitch-black darkness and by the time he reached the bottom of the stairs, he knew.
He reached for the light switch in the hall as a test, praying for light. But no light came. The sickness in his stomach doubled.
The power was out.
The door on his father's containment unit was powered by electricity. If the power went out, it opened as a safety precaution unless someone was there to override it.
He wanted to throw up. What if Karmen was hurt? Or dead? He would never be able to forgive himself. He'd brought them in to this house and whatever happened now was his fault.
Karmen screamed again and Noah took off toward the kitchen.
There was no room for hesitation and indecision.
On his way in to the kitchen, he grabbed his baseball bat from the corner. He swallowed back tears. He knew what needed to be done.
He smacked the bat hard against the wall, wanting to get its attention away from Karmen. If she was even still alive. Behind him, Parrish came running up, a flashlight in her hands. She swung the light wildly around the room until it landed on the figure against the far wall.
His father.
Karmen was curled into a tight ball on the floor and his father lunged at her, his hands scraping against her skin. Noah ran forward and slammed the bat against the top of the island. His father turned then, his face a grotesque mess of bruises and sores and decomposing flesh.
A moan escaped from Noah's throat. God, he didn't want to do this. But the thing standing in front of him wasn't his father anymore. It wasn't.
A single tear fell across his flushed cheek. The zombie staggered toward him, its blood-caked hands reaching forward. Noah hesitated, his hands gripping the bat so hard it hurt. His hands went cold and a light frost coated the bat. He reared back and with a terrible cry, he swung as hard as he could.
The thick part of the wooden bat made contact with the thing's head and blood splattered in an arch across the back wall. The zombie's head separated from its body and fell to the floor at Karmen's feet. She wouldn't stop screaming, but Noah could barely hear her. His heart thumped against his temple and he staggered backward. He dropped the bat and brought his hands up to his head, crying out as he bent over in agony.
On the floor, the thing that used to be his father shuddered and shook, then went still as it died for the second, and last, time.
Such a tough chapter! Can you even imagine having to do something like this? Breaks my heart <3.
Thank you for reading Death's Awakening. Be sure to vote and comment to let me know what you think so far!
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Death's Awakening
الخوارقLife is about to become a nightmare... Sixteen-year-old Parrish Sorrows lives in the shadow of her prodigy sister, ignored by her parents and shunned as an outsider at her private school. But today, everything changes. An ancient evil awakens, sprea...
