Death Embraces

by J. C. Diem

  Up I went. Before dragging my head and arm out of the wide hole I’d made, I took the opportunity to check that the coast was clear. Manoeuvring the bag up to ground level, Lefty pulled the plastic open while Righty propped my head up. Sweeping the area, I ascertained that it was clear before proceeding.

  It was easier to cover up the hole successfully with my head overseeing the work. I couldn’t actually bear to watch my severed, magically possessed hands at their work so looked away most of the time. After I patted grass and dirt back into the excavation, I took a quick peek to make sure it didn’t look too obvious. The quick glance showed me that anyone with half a brain would see a hole had been dug. “Damn it! Why does my head have to be so big?” I whispered.

  “Who said that?” a startled voice called from somewhere nearby. If I’d had live blood in my veins, it would have drained out of my face.

  Cautious footsteps began to approach. They no doubt belonged to the guard who had been set to watch my remains. My panicked hands raced towards the bag still containing my head and arm. They quickly dragged it behind a short, squat headstone.

  Positioning my head so that I could see around the edge of the grave marker, I watched as a scruffy vampire dressed in soiled jeans and a ratty black overcoat came to a halt near the area I’d just fled from.

  Casting around the ground, he held a stake in one hand and a torch in the other. Unlike the old days when the torch would have been a stick with fire on one end, he was holding a modern battery operated flashlight. In a pinch, it could also serve as a skull cracker.

  I held my breath, not that I had any, as the beam swept near the hole I’d left. At first I thought I was safe then the beam swept back and zeroed in on the all too obvious depression in the ground.

  Hunkering down, the vampire guard prodded at the lumps of grass and soil that I’d pushed into the hole in my pitiful attempt to hide it. The hole instantly collapsed and the tunnel was exposed. “What the hell?” Bemused, the guard hunkered down for a closer look. As he did, my hands made their way stealthily across the grass and around worn graves until they were flanking him. “It almost looks like something dug its way out,” he mused to himself.

  As he came to that conclusion, my hands leaped to the attack. Catching sight of Lefty, the vamp screeched and swung the torch at it. I made the hand dance backwards out of reach. Meanwhile, Righty leaped into the air and latched onto his sleeve. Beating at it, the minion didn’t realize Lefty was now scampering up his back. Standing, he whirled in a mad circle, slapping and punching himself in an effort to dislodge my dismembered hands.

  “You know, you really should have staked me out in the sun,” I advised him just as my hands reached his head.

  Whirling, the guard spied my face peeking at him from behind the headstone. His eyes went round with terror then his head disintegrated as my holy marks unleashed their black magic. I hadn’t been sure the power would work since my hands weren’t currently attached to the rest of me. It was a relief to see the power was still operational.

  Working quickly, I dragged the guard’s now empty clothing away with Lefty as Righty did a better job of covering the hole I’d made. With luck, the guard’s disappearance wouldn’t be discovered for several days. If someone noticed that he was gone then the rest of my body parts might be exhumed. So far, I was only halfway towards gathering my remains. I needed more time and wasn’t sure that I’d get it.

  Gripped by urgency, I gave up the luxury of being squeamish. Yes, I’d been hacked into eleven pieces. Yes, I had to possess my own limbs and force them to gather myself together. “Get over it,” I told myself.

  Taking my own advice, I left the arm inside the bag but sat my head on top of it. I’d brought the rock along as my new lock pick and it stayed in the bag as well. Shoving plastic between my teeth so I could grip on tightly and not fall off, I compelled Lefty and Righty pick up the handles. Like the smallest and weirdest dogsled team in creation, they moved in tandem and shot off into the night.

  It was far easier to navigate through the cemetery now that I could see where I was going. My head bounced and flopped and eventually fell onto its side as my hands scampered across the dark green grass. One eye was enough to see with and I made excellent time making my way back towards my torso.

  Back into the ground I went as dawn drew alarmingly close. More litter covered the hole I made this time. Mouldy and smelly, the discarded plastic bag filled with trash had been there for weeks. No one in their right mind would touch it so the hole should be safe from discovery.

  If I kept up this kind of speed, I would have the rest of my body gathered in one place in another two days at the most. I prayed to a God I could no longer name out loud that I would be given the time I needed.

  Chapter Six

  Quickly and efficiently, I dug my way towards my torso then tucked my head and arms into the nest I’d made beside the box. I was adept at working blindly through the soil by now and dragging my head along for the next trip would only slow me down. The bag wouldn’t be big enough to hold the next piece of my remains but it did hold the lock breaking rock so it had to come with me. The rock was too big to carry and dig at the same time.

  Turning my hands in the direction that I could feel my lower body buried in, I set them into motion. It took me almost three times as long to dig a hole wide enough so that my hips would be able to pass through it on the return journey. Dragging half of my body along the surface would be far too risky this time. The holes I’d have to make to get it to and from the surface would be impossible to hide.

  It was a journey of only two hundred meters but it took me almost the entire day to dig a wide tunnel to the box. Reaching it at last, Righty bashed the lock open then my hands worked together to make enough room to open the lid. They got it halfway open and hoped it would be enough.

  Lefty slid inside and explored what was in the box. It encountered my navel and the ragged, torn flesh above it. At the bottom were the jagged stumps of my legs. Thankfully, my body wasn’t missing anything else. No one had been sick enough to remove my privates Jack the Ripper style. But they had removed my clothes. It was going to be harder to transport a large object like my lower body without something to hold on to.

  Working their way beneath my butt and lower back, my hands levered my body onto its side. Then they pushed the dirt I’d been buried in up against it to prop it in place. Eventually, they worked the body up high enough to slide it out of the box. The broken stumps of my thigh bones gave me the best purchase to drag with on the return journey.

  I had quite a gathering of limbs by the time my lower body came to rest with the others. I had also created quite a network of underground passageways. I could now simply backtrack down the wide path I’d made and then angle off towards where my legs and feet had been laid to rest.

  This time, I opted to take my head along. It would be awkward trying to drag my head and a leg at the same time but the bag would hopefully help with the transportation. It wasn’t quite sunset when I reached the spot where I’d freed my lower body. My right leg was slightly closer, buried off to the east so that would be my next destination.

  My head was in the bag and Lefty was dragging it as Righty started making its way towards the surface. Now that my head wasn’t in its usual spot back in its box, I couldn’t feel the watcher when night fell. If I’d been better at multitasking, I would have been able to possess my hands and sense vamps on patrol at the same time. Unfortunately, I was new to this and hadn’t honed my abilities perfectly yet.

  Waiting for a painfully long twenty minutes for any guards on patrol to move away, I continued my dig upwards. A quick peek told me that it was clear of enemies. I’d chosen a good spot at the base of a fallen headstone to surface this time. With teamwork, Lefty and Righty shoved the stone until it covered the hole.

  Riding the plastic bag and holding on with my teeth, my head was raced across the dewy grass towards my right leg. Heavy clouds started to spit rain when I was
halfway there. By the time I was fifteen feet away from my leg, the rain had settled into a solid downpour.

  It was miserable work digging in dirt that quickly became sticky mud. Liking my ruse from last time, I pushed over a loose headstone and dragged it over to cover the hole as I descended again.

  My head went into the bag and I blindly dug my way towards my leg. Lefty bashed the lock open and I had my limb out in short order. My right foot was a mere fifty feet away, almost within reach. I decided to continue the journey beneath the ground.

  Working with practiced ease now, my hands churned through the dirt like tiny bulldozers. They had my foot out and in the bag within half an hour. Backtracking along the path I’d made, I now had a head, leg and foot to get back to the rest of the gathering. As I’d suspected, it was awkward to drag them all at once. The leg wouldn’t fit into the bag no matter how much I bent it at the knee.

  In the end, Lefty pulled the leg by the bone sticking out of my ankle while Righty pulled the bag filled with my head, foot and the lock breaking rock. We made our way back up the tunnel to the surface and pushed aside the headstone. It was still bucketing down and no one was in sight so we made a break for it after covering the hole again.

  Lefty kept losing its grip on my leg and mud splattered into my eyes but I persevered. At least I had a ready-made tunnel leading to the collection of body parts and didn’t have to dig a new one this time. Pushing aside the headstone where I’d hidden my earlier excavation, I shoved my leg into the tunnel. It fell the four foot distance to where the tunnel became horizontal and fetched up in a small puddle of water. My head and foot went in next and I dragged the headstone back over the hole.

  Bending my leg at the knee, I managed to manoeuvre it into the tunnel then dragged the newest components back to the rest of my parts. That had been my quickest run yet and the night was only half over. I decided I would try for the last two remaining pieces of my puzzle despite the mental exhaustion that was making concentration increasingly difficult.

  My left leg and foot were in the opposite direction from where my right leg and foot had been buried. I figured it would still be quicker just to use the same tunnel back to the surface then race across the ground rather than begin a new tunnel to the west. In short order, I was pushing the tombstone aside again. Peering out through the opening in the bag, I checked carefully for guards.

  I didn’t spot or sense anyone so swung the plastic bag out into the rain again. My head stayed in the bag to shield it from the rain rather than riding on top this time. The plastic was very slick now and there was a good chance that my head could fall off and slow me down. I could see through the opening well enough to navigate around obstacles. The bag slid easily across the wet grass, aiding my speed.

  After reaching the spot where my left leg had been stashed, I dug my way down a couple of feet. There were no handy loose headstones in the nearby vicinity to cover the hole with this time. I was forced to waste time digging a head sized divot of grass up some distance away.

  My eyes swivelled left and right in sentry mode as my hands did their work. The rain showed no signs of letting up any time soon. No one liked to stand out in the rain whether they were vampire or human. If anyone else was guarding my dismembered corpse, they were probably doing it from the shelter of their car. Vampire sight was much better than a human’s but even we had trouble seeing through rain this dense. I sure as hell was anyway.

  With the tuft of grass now ready to cover the hole, I stashed my head back in the bag and dropped it into the shallow tunnel. The tuft worked well to hide my excavation then my hands went to work digging towards my leg. Upon their arrival, I used Righty to bash open the lock.

  Time was running out so in a monumental effort, I split my consciousness between both hands. I removed my head from the bag then sent Lefty and the bag with the rock in it off towards where my foot was buried. It was only twenty or so feet away. Meanwhile, Righty began to dig the soil away from the box containing my leg. It worked more or less on automatic pilot as my left hand dug a narrow tunnel to the last prize.

  Smashing open the lock, Lefty worked frantically to free my foot. Seizing it by the big toe, it stuffed the foot into the bag. The rock went in next then Lefty dragged the unprotesting bundle back towards my head. Then Lefty joined its twin and freed my left leg. Trembling with exhaustion, my hands stuffed my head back into the bag. Righty dragged the bag and Lefty dragged the leg as they patiently worked their way back to the surface through the tunnel they’d already made.

  The tuft popped free then my body parts began to emerge from the hole. When all were clear, the grass went back into the hole again. Fear began to ooze into me as I felt the earth beginning to warm. I’d taken too long to free the last of myself and dawn was about to arrive.

  Snarling with effort, I seized my leg with Lefty again and the bag with my head, foot and the precious rock with Righty. It was mental exhaustion rather than physical exhaustion that was slowing me down. Do you want the Comtesse and the evil that animates her to win? I egged myself on, picturing unleashing the holy marks on the blonde’s head. If I could kill her then Luc would finally be free. Considering he had tried to kill me, I wasn’t exactly sure why I cared so much about freeing my one time companion from his seven centuries of bondage. It gave me something to focus on so I used it.

  Shoving aside the tombstone that hid my now well used tunnel, I poked my leg into the hole then practically threw the bag in after it. Blinding light seared my eyes even through the plastic bag as the stone slid back into place. Steam rose from Lefty, which had come close to being fried. The skin was singed black in a few places but it hadn’t burst into flames and there was no pain, for which I was grateful. Being so very close to my goal, I didn’t want to stop now, not even to rest for a few minutes. My hands raced down the premade tunnel.

  At last, all eleven pieces of me were gathered together in one place. For a final time, I used the rock to break the lock on the box that contained my torso. Quickly but methodically, I cleared enough dirt away so I could get the lid half open. My right breast was itchy so Lefty dropped inside the box and scampered over to scratch it. I halted in mid scratch when I realized I could feel all sorts of itching and general irritation on all of my body parts now.

  Excitement and hope washed away my exhaustion and my hands moved with renewed determination. Maybe it would be possible to put Humpty Dumpty back together again after all.

  My hands pushed, pulled and bullied my torso until it fell onto the stack of body parts with a thump. Digging out more room with my head propped up to supervise, my hands positioned my body until I looked like the jigsaw puzzle I’d imagined when I’d first had the idea to break myself free. Finally, Righty seized my head by my wet, muddy hair and dragged it to the top of the puzzle. It carefully positioned my head so it sat close to my severed neck.

  Looking down the length of my hacked up self was disconcerting but I’d passed beyond the point where it could gross me out. All of my limbs were tingling where they’d been cut. I had the feeling that something very weird was about to happen.

  The feeling increased and then my feet began to tremble. They shivered hard enough to make scuff marks in the dirt. Like magnets, they were drawn towards my legs. Closing the small distance, the bones joined with an audible click. Now my legs began to shake. Twitching and shimmying, they worked their way up and reattached themselves to my lower body. This was followed by my lower and upper body reuniting. Then my arms jittered and jived over to my shoulders. Righty fled towards my right arm. Caught in whatever force was putting me back together, it snapped into place at the same time that Lefty did.

  Now my whole body was shuddering as it tried to reach the final piece of the puzzle. It wormed backwards two inches then the severed ends of my neck touched. Agony flashed through me from my head to my toes. My back arched and my feet drummed in the dirt. I let out a shriek that cut off when the pain suddenly disappeared.

  Lifting my hands to
my wondering eyes, the jagged marks where they had been severed were a vivid red. Then the scars began to fade and quickly disappeared altogether. The black spots on Lefty from its brush with the sun were also gone. I felt my neck and it was free of scars. Apart from the holy marks on my hands, I had no scars anywhere. No one would be able to tell just by looking at me that I’d ever been in eleven pieces at all.

  A smile touched my lips. It felt as cold and chilly as the rain drumming down on the surface a few feet above me. “Oh, Comtesse, you’d better watch out because I am coming to get you.”

  Chapter Seven

  Trapped beneath the ground throughout the rest of the day, I dozed until darkness fell. Even in my semi-sleep I could feel hunger gnawing at my insides. I hadn’t felt the blood hunger when I’d been in pieces but now that I was back together again, it was nearly all I could think about.

  Now that I was whole again, I was going to make a very large, very obvious opening when I dug my way out. Not even a headstone would be able to cover the tunnel I’d have to make, unless it was a very large one. I’ll figure something out when I reach the surface. Frankly, I was so eager to be out of the dirt and to search for food that I almost didn’t care if I did leave signs of my escape.

  Sensing no one in the nearby vicinity, I dug sideways a safe distance away from where my torso had been buried then began angling upwards. Water drummed down on sodden earth only a few feet above me. Excitement at how close I was to freedom had me clawing my way out.

  Muddy water trickled onto my hands as they broke through the earth. I rose out of the ground like a demon with vengeance on its mind. That thought disturbed me more than I cared to admit. Like all vampires, I had alien demi-god blood in my veins. Like them, I was also susceptible to becoming possessed by my own shadow. I didn’t want to imagine myself turning into the very thing that I was destined to destroy.