Hanging on Bones

Chapter 6: Bones ready for sleep.

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This is waaaaay too strange. Seriously, come on! I lost my head! Am I Dullahan or what!? I feel my body, just not the same way as I did before. The disturbing sense of distance. Still, I'm surprised it's not chopped up to pieces by now. My last attack must have connected then.

I got to get my bearings... first, what can I see? The view is tilted, but there is grass which is way too close for comfort and part of a grave. That does not give me much reference. Wait! I still have jaw bone!! By trying to open my mouth, sure enough, my head lifts a bit. Eureka! Opening mouth as far as it goes results in my head losing balance and rolling.

Damn, that would make me barf if I could! Just two spins and my head is stuck again, this time upside down. It all looks strange being reversed, but I’m at the foot of a grave now, with the view along this row reaching far off in the distance. I even see the path that has watering points. That is very good news.

Focusing on my body is surprisingly easy. It’s as if my head is still connected to it. Shifting my body and neck to the right and still seeing no effect, is disturbing as hell. It would be sooooo much easier, if I could close my eyes…. Damn.

Using my one good arm, I feel out the surrounding terrain. My body is in sitting up position, on top of flat smooth surface. I must have sat up by reflex, when trying to move my head. The puddle of sticky liquid must be the blood of that woman. To my right, there seems to be clear surface of the grave, while on the left I feel big lump of flesh covered by armour. Close behind her is the headstone. Since all the graves are positioned with the head on the uphill side, it’s very easy to tell which direction my body is facing. It might not be as difficult as I thought.

Not letting go of the headstone I move along it, until I reach the edge of the grave. Carefully lowering myself to the ground level between the graves, I crouch to keep the contact with the slab and go towards the legs of this grave. Reaching the bottom, I do few more slow steps and I feel out the end of this row. The headstone of the grave below is peaking out above to this level, so I grab it and lower myself these two feet. Keeping my hold on each grave, I repeat the process several times, until I see my own body shuffling half a dozen graves ahead. My skull has flown quite a distance downhill. The watering point I see is definitely not the one I assumed it to be, but I cannot complain. I found my head. Dullahan no more.

Ugh… The coordination of movements got little bit confusing for a moment there…switching the point of reference from my body to my head and back again left me staggering… Damn… I decided to keep my head as a focal point, as that seems more natural somehow… If one can think of anything as ‘natural’ in this situation….

More shuffling and staggering and I am picking up my skull. The process of putting my head back into its place using one hand, is not what I call fun. I almost toppled over again. This movement should be done with the body as a point of reference and definitely not the head. If I had anything to puke with, it would be lying on the ground and screaming in protest.

By moving my skull this way and that, I feel it drop a little bit too much to one side. Except for this, there doesn’t seem to be much damage and I’m able to move my head same as before. Some part of my spine must have chipped off or something I suppose. Now with my head back on, I can check out the surroundings. Nothing seems to have taken interest in our encounter, huh.

Retracing my descent I find our battle site. My dead nemesis is still lying in pool of red with mad grin on her face. To die that way and still smile, she must have been really twisted. My scimitar is buried deep in the middle of her chest. The whole mess looks way more gruesome then it felt. But beggars cannot be choosers.

Looking around to make sure no one is in vicinity, I bend down to search her. I guess my old habit of checking surroundings before I steal something, didn’t die together with my body. Other than the leather itself, armour she’s wearing, has only one big chunk of metal on the shoulder. That’s the place where her blade rested before each attack. I’m betting pure, double padded leather would be better over there, simply to make sure the blade’s edge does not become dull. But I’m guessing that since she is not experienced with that weapon, she would have cut into herself instead of using it properly.

The armour itself didn’t seem to have any sorts of pockets, but there were two pouches hanging from her belt. Opening first one revels only scroll of paper with something written on it. This is first time I’ve seen letters like these, so there’s no way I know this language. Most of the parchment is so covered with blood, that I would have hard time reading it, even if I knew those signs. The pouch itself has more value for me, then this piece of scrap paper. However, throwing the things away is not something I do, so I stow it away back where it belonged. I check the second small bag. There are few coins and small bottle there. This makes me very happy.

I put both pouches aside and continue searching through the corpse. It’s hard going without moving her, so I rip out my scimitar from her chest and lay it beside her. Going through her armour inch by inch, I find three small throwing daggers hidden in her boots and on one of her writs. It sure is surprise that she has nothing else of value on her. You’re a girl, so where the hell are your earrings you monster?!

I guess I better get back to less pleasurable business of stripping her. After unstrapping forearm protectors, I throw away the damaged one, and put aside the other. Next up are the knee protectors and the heavy metal toed leather boots that seem too big even for her. It’s like she took equipment regardless whether it suits her or not.

Unstrapping the leather harness she has on her back, I put it also on the pile together with the rest of the stuff. Belt comes out next. I contemplate over whether to take the top of her tunic but decide against it. It has jagged entry and exit holes of my stab and the sleeve on one hand is cut to ribbons, so I leave it be. Getting back to the leather trousers I try pealing them off, but it’s of no use and I quickly give up. She must have had some sort of complex, because they are waaaaay to tight for her. Also all the blood that spilled from her arm and from her chest is already congealing. Everything is sticking to her like crazy. Also when person dies, the muscles holding up the bowels automatically relax. That makes her smell and from what I see the insides of that area must be quite a mess. I will NOT wear that, no matter the consequences.

Gathering all the stolen goodies on one spot, I wonder what to do next. Taking good look around, there are no signs of other humans except for some noises faar faar off. The only noticeable change is that the sky is starting to brighten. From what I remember, in all the folklore I heard here and there during my lifetime, the undead are week against the light. To the point that some of them meet their second end just from the rays of sun. Well, I better be safe and do not test this for now. But what about the equipment? How do I carry all that with just one arm?… Hmm…

Contemplating it, I am tracing with my sight the path we took when we fought. Well, we went down quite a bit, but the garbage container we started out at is still visible far between the trees. Ah ! The garbage container!! There were plastic bags there! It will not be pretty, but it will work! Leaving everything as it is, I ran for the bags. This stuff is heavy so I better take a lot of them.

Quick return and I have everything packed. I ended up using two sets of four bags to compensate for their size and weaknesses. I feel like I’m returning over packed, from shopping mall or something. Didn’t do that in a while now.

Being all the time vigilant about the noises and surroundings, I make my way to the grave. It took, more or less ten minutes to get back on the row my grave is on. The sky got considerably brighter. I never knew how quickly the sun rises.

Strangely enough, John is there, not far from my grave. The distance and the fact that this part of this hill curves to the other side, might have saved his undead life. This is practically other valley, with its slope facing the other way. The shout that agitated my happy little friends, might have not been audible here.

As I pass him, his gaze keeps following me through. That is strange. Last time he didn’t give me even a glance. I look down on myself and instead of white bones I see dark red congested blood. Damn I’m dirty. Dropping the stuff next to my grave, I make quick turn and dash for the watering point. There were no traces of humans and I still have some time.

While running I realize that my strides are lopsided. Quick glance reminds me of my lack of several inches of my foot. Do I risk it? Who knows? Maybe I can reattach it somehow? I got my head back, didn’t I? I decided to risk it. Instead of going for the closest watering point, I run down the hill to where my battle took place. I’m making it much faster, since I’m not as careful as before.

Combing through area proves difficult. The foot bone structure is complicated as hell and I have to look for five digits instead of one big piece. If I realized this before, I would not come here. I’m still lucky it’s just five, since they at least seem to keep together where joints used to be. There are plenty of small bones in the leg, huh…

They are not covered in blood like the rest of me, so I managed somehow. I spent good ten minutes on this. But the strange pressure I now feel, is not only mental but also physical. This cannot be good. Still, since I’m at the watering point, I give the facet a twist. To my consternation nothing happens. Well, there goes my hope of getting clean.

Running back up the hill, I feel the pressure rise. My movements are getting slower and I start to feel tired. Damn, I didn’t feel tired since I waked up as skeleton. Damn, Damn, Damn.

As I turn into my row, there are beams of sunlight shining here and there through the foliage. Even though none of them hit me yet, my bones start to smoke! Seven Hells!!! This hurts!!! It hurts!!! IT F***INGGGG HURTSSS!!!!

Approaching my grave, I see through haze of pain, that the stuff I left there, is scattered and out of bags. The years of poverty and deep ingrained greed scream at me even louder than the pain. I was gone for barely fifteen minutes and already my stuff was stolen!! WRAAAAAA !!!! I throw the bones of my foot into the hole and with the quickest movements I can manage. Every single piece of equipment I can get my hands on, follows shortly after. I was already in mid-air when the last piece hit the bottom.

AAAAh what an relief~~~~ The pain is gone…. That was waaaaaaaay to painful. No way in hell, I will allow myself to stay out in the open so long, ever again.

….

The pressure did not disappear. As I look up, I see the oh so green and bright leaves, with peaks of blue sky …it feels as if molten lava is being poured into the holes my eyes used to be in. Damn!! AAAH!!! DAMN!! DAMN!! AAA!!! I HAVE TO CLOSE IT!!

Rising my right arm I feel it sizzle and start to burn, but I don’t care anymore. Putting all my strength to it, with burst of might I didn’t think I have, I shift the stone into the place.

Uaaaaaaaah…… I hurt all over the burned places… but it starts to subside as if touched by magic wand or something….

Wohha…. I will never EVER forget that pain. When I was alive nothing came in light-years of that pain. Even the times when I got stabbed by gang member, or when I had both of my legs broken, does not come close.

It’s over now … haaaaaa… I let myself relax…

…

…

Wait… wait… wait! Something must be wrong!! The pressure is not over!!! It’s not over yet, damn it!!

The deepest pits of hell!! No… HELL NO!!! My other arm!!! My other arm!!! I CAN F***ING FEEL IT!!!

Calm down… calm down… It’s on the west side of this hill… so I must have few minutes left…. Damn it! Damn it!! Concentrate!! Concentrate!!

Left arm… left arm… I try to move it. YES! It reacts! Slowly… slowly… to the left… ah there is the small tree. I feel trunk there…. Wait. Remember… remember the surrounding area… It was happening soo f***ing fast… What was there that I can use… Maybe…the small space between the headstone and the level of that row… no, too risky and exposed… Ah I know!!! The vase!!! There was huge-ass flower vase on the next grave!! If I fold it, my arm should fit! But the top will still be exposed, won’t it? … Maybe if I overturn it? I have really small chance at this working out but… there’s no other way I can save myself in that amount of time. I have to do it. I will go mad from that pain otherwise.

Slowly… slowly… ah here I go! The grave I was looking for! The movements are so friggin strange… I have to use my fingers as if they were five legs to pull along the rest of the arm… and now creeping up about one feet, to get on top of that slab… but I slide down… cannot reach it with fingers alone… damn! Damn! Damn! I have to get there… but how?... ah I will try using the palm as if it was real leg and rise the rest of the arm up. Yeah that’s it…. I’m on top…. Damn it’s already starting to hurt a bit…

Calm down… now… the layout… I should head to the right now… yes! There is the headstone… Got it! The vase! Now… just to get it on its side without breaking it… Yes! That’s it!! I’ve got to slowly fold my arm and…

Aaah…Aaah…!!! I’ve put my arm inside it, but this strange motion... Damn it’s rolling!! Hell! Please!!! Don’t break!!

It stopped…

Easy… Easy… yes! Yes! Yes! It’s better than I thought! Not only it did not break but stopped, with its lid pressed directly against something! That feeling is also gone!! I’m saved!

Haa… I slump down in my grave.

This was one hell of a night …

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Note: Hey there! Author-san here, I will now try my hand at writing side-story for contest Wizards in Wonderland. Still I originally planned for main story to be little bit further before i get that ss in. That means that if I do not complete SS on time, i will keep it off.

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