Oh boy, was I tired.

I was pretty used to staying up all night, so I thought nothing of watching the graveyard for a couple of hours and then just going about my day. What I did not consider however was that napping for a couple of hours would completely disrupt my sleep pattern and also that I wouldn’t be simply able to sleep through most of my classes, cause guess what! I didn’t have any classes, genius!

Also the healing process of my arm was quite a bit tiring. I might have caught a fever, I felt like shit.

I did not mention that however, when I met up with the others. Why would I. It would only piss them off, probably, useless as I am.

The sun was just shining its first rays upon the village, when I signaled the princess to leave her position, before anyone would wake up. I wondered whether they’d have roosters to wake them up or anything like that. My suspicion was confirmed when I saw Aurelia coming up the stairs to our floor and I could hear a crow in the distance. They probably had a different name for roosters, maybe they weren’t even roosters, only something similar, but the grimoire would translate it as rooster, because these animals basically function the same.

But enough on roosters.

The princess greeted me and I tried to also wish her a good morning, but I only managed to make some weird croaking.

I cleared my throat and instead brought up a weak “Mornin’ ...”

“Hoo, that did not sound great.”

“I’m fine,” I replied, my voice slowly returning.

“Should we wake the others up, or ...? Because I am hungry,” the princess replied.

“No need,” Raynard who just left our room said.

“Yep, we are up as soon as the sun rises,” Shelly now also appeared from the girls’ room.

How awfully convenient.

“Food,” Raynard said.

“Yes, food,” we all agreed, and thus went downstairs.

“What about Raven?” I asked the other boy.

“Oh, he’s awake. He was looking out the window, when I woke up, quite brooding.”

“Oh, for the love of ... What is that smell?” Shelly, who was a bit ahead of us, interrupted us.

“Yeah, I also noticed it, when I came upstairs,” Aurelia said. “Thought it was the animals outside, doing their thing.”

I arrived downstairs and now also noticed it. I quickly covered my nose. It smelled like death, not that I knew what that smelled like.

“Good morning, every- Oh lord, what is that smell?” Maria who came from the kitchen now also asked.

“Huh, so its definitely not normal,” Aurelia realized and now also decided to cover her nose, while also going around the room, seemingly looking for the source of the smell.

Everyone followed suit.

The foul smell made my head spin, so I decided to just open the door and let some fresh air in.

“Oh Jesus,” I muttered. I should maybe have stayed in bed.

I turned around and leaned against the door, watching everyone as their walked around in confusion. After a couple of seconds, I decided to rejoin them and then spotted a door, next to the stairs.

“What’s in there?” I asked, pointing at the door.

“Oh, that’s the door to the basement, where we store our foods.”

“Maybe something’s rotten?” Raynard questioned.

“Actually, Misha is responsible for checking on the food every morning ... speaking of which, where is she?” Maria looked at every one of us in a very unsettling fashion.

“Well, maybe she’s in the basement?” Raynard said, and without an ounce of hesitation moved to open the door.

As soon as he pressed down the handle to open it a crack, he immediately recoiled, covering his mouth and trying to suppress a gag.

“Holy- guh, that’s disgusting,” he gasped. Everyone immediately covered there faces, as the smell was wafting from inside the basement.

“I’ll go first,” Shelly said, moving towards the door.

So that was unsettling, even for her.

We all stayed close behind her.

A staircase led to the bottom of the basement. From somewhere inside a light illuminated the space sparsely.

Shelly stepped down, followed by Raynard, Aurelia and then me. Shelly ducked under a low-hanging beam and turned her attention towards the middle of the room.

“Misha?!” she suddenly exclaimed, and rushed down the remainder of the stairs.

“What?” Maria exclaimed at the mention of her daughter and we all quickly descended the rest of the stairs, to not be overrun by her sheer force.

Now I could see her as well, she was kneeling on the floor, a candle behind her. She had her back turned to us, and something was laying in front of her. It looked like some sort of package, but it was too dark for me to completely grasp what it was.

“Misha, what’s going on here?” her mother called out to her.

As if waiting for this trigger, a sudden shiver overcame Misha and she began to murmur something that was without a doubt a spell. Everyone either drew their weapons, or took on a fighting stand, or both.

“Maria, you should call the pastor!” Shelly exclaimed, while making a repellent gesture with her hand.

Maria at first reacted with confusion, before stumbling backwards a bit and finally climbing up the stairs.

“Misha, what are you doing?” Aurelia finally was the first one to say something. But Misha did not even seem to acknowledge her presence, instead continuing her murmur.

And then it occurred to me. That thing in front of her was a body bag.

“Guys, what is that spell, she is using?”

[This spell is unknown.]

The moment the grimoire said that, I knew, that whatever response I would be getting probably wouldn’t be satisfactory.

“I have no idea,” Shelly confirmed.

“Well, I’m sure not letting her get away with it,” Aurelia said, and quickly leaped toward Misha, pressing one of her fists gently against her temple.

“Misha, whatever you’re doing, stop it, or I might hurt you.”

As if prompted Misha stopped her chant. “It’s too late,” she said. The princess wasn’t the reason, she stopped. She had finished the spell.

“It worked ...” Misha whispered in awe.

What followed were erratic movements from the bag in front of the two girls. At first it was just a faint rustle, getting stronger and faster, like a human trying to break the surface of the water before drowning.

Still not acknowledging Aurelia’s presence she slowly reached for the bag and opened it gently through its content’s struggling motions.

“It’s Sasha ...”

“What?!” Aurelia exclaimed in a mix of surprise and shock.

The silhouettes of two limbs arose from the sack, at first barely more than sticks in my eye, though I soon realized they were arms. They slowly reached for Misha’s face.

“Welcome back ...”

I couldn’t see the princess’s face, but she was without a doubt frozen in shock at what was going on. The disgusting smell was by far our smallest concern.

Sasha’s corpse reached for her sister’s face. Misha probably was overwhelmed by the result her spell achieved, because I could not imagine how she thought of the corpse’s stiff movements as not creepy.

Which was why she let the corpse clench her fingers around her throat.

Sasha’s corpse had started to choke Misha, and while slowly raising from the body bag she pushed her on the ground.

It took our surprised screams for Aurelia to finally make a move and with one punch she broke through both arms of the withering corpse. It probably tried to scream in pain but instead just came a pained gurgle, while it flailed around with its broken arms.

I ignored the pounding in my head and now jolted towards the girls. I had no intention of fighting, but at least I could ensure Misha’s safety, by dragging her away. It took some force to break open the fingers that were still locked around her neck with the intention to kill her. It was the most disgusting sensation ever, to feel the bones breaking, but my mind was so fuzzy it was easy to ignore it.

Misha who was now gasping for air looked on in shock, as she watched her sisters corpse stand against the wall of the basement, her eyes simply ogling at each of us, one by one, without any other part of her body even flinching.

“Ugh, come at me you filthy monster ...” Aurelia said under her breath, but instead of actually waiting for it to move, she just punched the corpse square in the face. I expected blood to splatter everywhere due to the sheer force of her punch, but instead, it just cracked and it was more like throwing a vase against a wall.

It dropped onto it’s knees and then completely onto the floor.

“Is everyone alright?” someone shouted from upstairs, it was the priest, who now also entered the basement, together with a bunch of young men, who looked about Misha’s age. It got pretty cramped in here.

“Wh- what on earth is this thing?” one of the men said, and I directed my attention back towards, then princess, then the corpse.

It was now standing again, though it clearly had problems keeping its balance.

“What the-” Aurelia definitely was done with this crap, which is why Shelly dashed past her, drawing a short sword, to cleanly cut of the corpse’s smashed head, which dropped to the floor with a thud, shortly followed by the rest of the body.

No-one was daring to breathe for a hot second, before the silence was interrupted by pastor Ignacio. “Bring the remains of this thing out of here, and burn them! And then lock her up.”

His statement was accompanied by a deathly glare, both directed at Misha, who was leaning against my arms.

“I am disappointed in you.”

Misha’s heavy look met the floor, as she did not dare to look anyone in the eye.