What Is It

Weimin freezes, reaching out to grab my arm to pull me back as he whispers, "What is that?" The thing was creepier than it should have been, but it had little to no skin and the skin it did have was rotten and hanging from its bones.

It was clearly trying to regrow the skin, but it looked like a painfully slow process. This must be why I felt like I had to hurry. If this thing was left for another day or so, there's no telling what I would have been up against.

I try to pull my arm away from Weimin's death grip as I say, "A living corpse. This is the part where you leave." He refuses to release my arm and without using my magic, I can't shake him off. He whispers, "I'm not going to leave you here with this thing. We should wait for backup."

Using my magic, I twist my arm free while hitting his chest with the palm of my other hand. A golden hole in the wall appears behind him, allowing him to be pushed through before closing it back up. He and backup would only make more work for me.

I turn back to the corpse to find it still watching me with those same eerie eyes. I straighten my dress, trying to calm my nerves as I step closer saying, "Now that it's just the two of us, we should get this over with."

It slowly tilts its head, causing a nauseating cracking sound to echo around the dark, empty space. It opens its mouth but the voice that comes out is something nightmares are made of. "You want me to die," it says in a raspy tortured voice.

If I had to take a guess, the body's voice box wasn't completely intact but the way it echoes around me has the small hairs on my body standing up. I nervously lick my lips as I take another step forward and say, "You have to be alive in order to die."

Its eyes watch my every move with the sharpness of a predator. Its mouth remains hanging open as the voice says, "But I am alive, just like you." I narrow my eyes, taking another step as I say, "You are aware, not alive. If you were alive, you wouldn't be a corpse right now."

"LIESSS," It hisses out before saying, "I know all about being alive. I AM ALIVE!" The ground shakes in its anger! I spread my arms out to keep my balance as I try to figure out how to take this thing down.

When the ground stops shaking, I take a few shallow breaths before saying, "How do you know about being alive?" I'm trying to make small talk with it so that I can cast a containment spell but what it says next has me pausing in horror.

"All I have to do is eat people and I know everything they know. I know more than you. The smarter I grow, the more I remember. I have been around for a very long time!" It says without moving its mouth at all.

As soon as I'm close enough, I throw out the containment spell, effectively locking the two of us in and just in time. Weimin was back and he now had several men, but they could no longer approach.

The human-like eyes look over to Weimin and the others before looking back to me and saying, "So you want to play with me alone?" I shake out my nervous hands and say, "Sure, let's play." I quickly lift my hand and summon all my power at once!

Instead of trying to fight this creepy thing, I decide to call the shard straight to me. Without the shard, it will become bones once again. I hope.

My hand turns gold as a bright light nearly blinds everyone! I feel the resistance as I try to call the shard to me. The ground starts to shake once more, causing the other tombs to fall over and crumble!

Weimin and his men yell but I can't hear anything other than the soul-piercing scream coming from the corpse! Several more corpses begin to crawl out of their graves as the air within the containment spell begins to violently swirl!

Its human-like eyes turn bloodshot as it continues to scream, fighting me with everything it has but luckily, it's still nothing more than a corpse. I yell back, pushing more magic into my hand, demanding the shard to come to me as a decaying hand grabs my ankle!

I tap into the ley lines, pulling more but raw magic. The air within the containment spell becomes distorted as things begin to levitate. My eyes burn with a golden light as my hair and dress begin to float.

The smaller corpse float up, suspended in the air as they try to snap and bite at me but the magic saturating the air was making it almost like we were underwater. Black blood oozes from the corpse as its skin slowly starts ripping away.

I yell out, "OBEY!" and watch as the corpse violently jerks! A large piece of shard flies straight out of the corpse and straight for me! It doesn't seem affected by the strange air as it flies at lightning speed!

I hold my hand out in front of me, gritting my teeth and waiting for the pain but in the next second, my eyes flash with panic. The shard bypasses my hand and hits me straight in the chest! As soon as it hits me, everything snaps!

The containment spells falls, causing a small shockwave to blow through the graveyard. The large corpse falls over, no longer alive as the others all fall to the ground like bones are supposed to.

Pain unlike anything I've ever felt assaults me. I slowly lift my hand up to my chest with a look of shock and confusion on my face. Everything slows down as I look down at the blood freely flowing from my chest. That bastard did it on purpose...

"LYRRRRAAAAAAAA!!!!" Mago yells out but it sounds far away.

I frown down at the dark red blood gushing through my fingers as I stumble back. The only thing I can hear is my own breathing, but it sounded all wrong. It was raspy and wet. I stumble another step, but my legs give out.

As I fall back, a pair of arms catch me. Weimin's face full of panic and fear fills my line of view as I look up at the dark grey clouds above us. Weimin lifts a shaky hand, afraid to touch my chest but all I can see are the clouds above him.

This wasn't how I thought I'd die but oddly enough, I'm not afraid. If anything, I felt a little regretful. I felt like things were just starting for me and yet...

Suddenly, it starts to snow!

I try to take another breath, but I choke and cough up blood. Weimin is yelling at me, but I can't hear anything. Everything is blissfully silent. When the snow falls on my face, I find myself growing sad. I couldn't feel it. I can't feel anything.

My eyes grow heavy and before I know it, everything is dark.

_________

Weimin yells, pulling her close to him as he panics. He just found her, and she's gone! This wasn't supposed to happen! She defeated the evil creature but did so at the expense of her own life! He looks down at her pale face and watches as the snow lightly falls on her long dark eyelashes.

Emotions he's never experienced before struggle to consume him. When the others try to move closer, he pulls her limp body close and yells, "Stay back! All of you!" They all pause, not knowing what to do.

Weimin lifts a bloody hand and lightly pushes her dark hair behind her ear before standing up with her. He carries her past everyone standing around them without stopping. As he steps out of the graveyard, several guards make way with looks of pity and gratefulness.

They all got a look at what she was fighting, they knew that she was fighting for their safety and even sacrificed herself in order to put an end to the evil thing. She was truly a goddess.