19

The Waking Dead

Fighting a dangerous undertow of panic, Lottica asked, "What are we going to do, Nick?"

"I don't know. We’ve got to think hard."

"Do you think they’ll hurt us?"

"I don’t know,” Nick answered. “They're obviously pretty serious about keeping us from going to Lebreima."

"And taking the Kareima," she added. "They must be the ones who broke in here and tried to get into Dad and Mom's—" she stopped. "If they know about the Kareima, don't you think Grandfather and Grandmother would know about it, too?"

She held up the gemstone she had been clutching so tightly. It still glowed faintly red and illuminated enough of her face so that Nick saw that his sister was on the verge of tears. He felt that way, too, but he was also angry. These men in their stupid capes had intimidated and chased them, had probably tried to rob their parents' grave, and had now locked them inside their crypt.

Nick kicked at the door. He pounded it with his foot. It stung, but he just grunted. Then Lottica was at his side kicking too. Futile, but necessary. Within moments they both stopped.

“At least we had the sense not to hit our heads against it,” Lottica said.

“Yeah, now we’d better use our heads and come up with some kind of plan.”

By the light of the Kareima, Nick checked his watch. It was just after nine. Soon, people would start to realize they were missing, though no one would have much of a clue as to where they’d disappeared.

Who’d think to look for them inside their parents' mausoleum? Could the metal door hold out against the caped men's tools until morning? Tomorrow was All Souls’ Day and many people would be visiting the cemetery. It was possible they could wait it out, but Nick didn’t think they could take that chance.

“Hand me the Kareima," he said. Using the stone's light, he examined the edges of the door and the surrounding frame. It looked incredibly solid, as did the rest of the concrete structure. He sighed. "Do you see any possibilities?"

Lottica shook her head. Suddenly, there was a roar overhead, and Lottica thought the caped men were going to burst through the roof. She and Nick ducked.

Nothing crashed through the roof, and quickly they realized it was a cloudburst with the stone roof magnifying the violence of the downpour. But it gave Lottica an idea. She scrambled on top of the sarcophagus, and Nick followed her lead. Nick held the Kareima up to the sharply peaked roof. At the crest near the back wall a few feet out of reach was an air vent.

Nick motioned to his sister. "Lottica, climb onto my shoulders and check out the vent near the back wall." He set the Kareima down on the sarcophagus and squatted so Lottica could get on his shoulders. He slowly lifted her towards the vent.

"Can you see it?" he asked her.

"Barely. Hand me the Kareima."

"I can't at the moment. See if you can grab the vent and tug it loose. If not we'll get you more light up there."

"What if there are spiders?"

"Lottica! It's creepy caped men or spiders. Your choice.”

Lottica felt blindly towards the slats of the vent. Her searching fingers found a smooth, cold handhold on the metal and tugged, but her fingers slipped off. "It’s wet and hard to grip."

"Try pushing on it." Nick said from below and inched them closer to the corner.

Lottica could see the vent a bit more clearly. She pushed and the vent flexed outward. She leaned in and the vent gave a little more. It also seemed much easier to see. She felt encouraged and drew back both hands, about to give the vent a solid whack with both fists.

"Ready?" she called down to Nick. But inexplicably, her brother slowly backed away from the vent. She looked down to ask what was going on. What she saw made her suck in a very large breath, as if she was about to plunge under water for a long, long time.

Directly at Nick's feet, in the middle of the Hawk of Lebreima engraved in their parents' sarcophagus, the Kareima had brightened dramatically. And as the two young Breimas watched, the heart-shaped stone began to pulse.

Slowly, at first and then faster and faster.

Nick lowered Lottica. They climbed off and backed away from the sarcophagus, watching the pulsing gemstone go optically ballistic. The soft reds of the Kareima deepened to a maroon, pulsing faster and faster. Then the maroon became purple, and in the center of the stone, a white pinpoint appeared. Quickly widening, bursting into a stupendous fountain of light.

It was the Fourth of July on Halloween.

Awestruck, horrorstruck, the siblings pressed against the door. Lottica clutched Nick's arm as bursts of light engulfed the sarcophagus. They had to shield their eyes from the blinding brightness. Then suddenly, the lightening-like flashes dimmed. The Kareima seemed to be shrinking, as if it were melting away. The eruptive bursts of light began shooting more directly up and not outward at them. They took a cautious step forward and saw what was really happening.

The Kareima was not shrinking. It was sinking.

The gemstone was melting through the stone lid of the sarcophagus, like a white-hot coal through ice. The other-wordly emanations became a tight vertical beam on the ceiling. With a final flash that left a perfect heart shape hole through the engraved Hawk of Lebreima, the Kareima dropped to where their parents' bodies rested.

Lottica gasped. Then she trembled. As did Nick. As did the entire mausoleum.

It was as if a small earthquake had hit, centered directly beneath them, or more precisely, beneath their dead parents.

Rattling hard, the sarcophagus shifted away from the back wall and rumbled towards Nick and Lottica. Multicolor bursts of light escaped from the hole in the lid of the trembling sarcophagus. The kaleidoscope of colors flashed more and more rapidly and the sarcophagus rocked like a possessed washing machine.

In danger of being crushed, Nick and Lottica flattened themselves against the far wall. In a final Technicolor blast, the mausoleum shuddered, the sarcophagus bucked forward and crashed through the metal door. It made a mournful clang. Like a cathedral bell falling from its tower.

All went dark and silent.

Heart racing, Nick pulled Lottica to his side, her head buried against his arm.

Lottica had shut her eyes when the sarcophagus slammed into the door and was too terrified to open them.

That is, until the impossible happened.

Until she heard the unmistakable voice of her mother—her extremely dead mother—saying softly and, oh so sweetly, "Look, Dale, our children have finally come home. I hope they’re hungry. I’m starved."