Day Beyond the Dead (Book 1)

by Dawn, Christina

  “Baby, wake up. It’s just a nightmare. I’m here,” Damion shakes Christa then holds her in his arms. “It’s okay. Everything is ok.”

  Christa opens her eyes and holds onto Damion while breathing heavily. The images scared her and not only the images but how vivid they were. It was so real. That’s a fate she would do anything to prevent.

  “While you get dressed I’ll go check on Bree. Ok?” Damion gives Christa a kiss before he walks off through the adjoining door.

  Christa starts to dress herself and smiles thinking about the love she made last night. It felt good to have her family back together. It felt great to be in Damion’s arms once again.

  Just then the door flew open, “I can’t find her!”

  A frantic look comes over Christa’s face, “What do you mean you can’t find her?!”

  “I can’t find her! She’s not in her room or downstairs. I asked the others and they haven’t seen her either. They haven’t seen her since she was put to bed last night. I’m at a loss Christa. I have no clue where she would go or why.”

  Christa thinks to herself, looks up at Damion and runs to the attic. She pulls down the stairs, climbs up them and starts to look around for Bree, “Bree? Baby are you up here? It’s mommy. I really need you to come out.” Christa continues to look in empty boxes and behind every nook and cranny. There was no sign of Bree. Damion walks over to Christa and grabs her hand. “I thought she might be up here, but I guess I was wrong. Remember when she would play hide and seek with me. This was her favorite place to hide. I just figured…”

  “It will be fine. We’ll find her. Let’s just check the rest of the house again and then the buildings. We definitely need to check the tunnel that heads from here to the big barn. There is a good chance she might be in there too. She use to go through it all the time to visit Snickers in the barn. Have you been out to the barn yet? I know you were here first so wasn’t sure if you had or hadn’t.”

  “No, I didn’t check out there yet. Wait a minute. Did ‘anyone’??” Christa and Damion both look at one another and head for the tunnel entrance. “Wait! Grab something to use as a weapon!”

  “What are you guys doing? You checking the barn? I’m coming.” Gerard grabs an aluminum baseball bat and heads toward Damion who was already at the tunnel entrance.

  Christa grabs a knife from the kitchen and a sledgehammer from the closet and hands it to Damion. “Darren, Tara…can you stay here in case she comes back?”

  “Sure. Be careful.” Tara gave a half-hearted smile. The fear was written on her face. Christa gave a nod and got behind Damion as they entered the tunnel.

  Damion looks at her and says, “Stay close to me and I mean close. I want you in arm’s length.” Christa nods and takes Damion’s hand.

  The tunnel is very dimly lit. The tiny slits of glass on the top that are supposed to let natural sunlight in to light the tunnel is completely covered by snow which let very little to no sunlight in. They slowly made it down the first twenty yards and then cautiously make the right turn to walk the next forty yards to the barn.

  They finally arrive at the barn and Damion looks back at Christa and Gerard before he opens the door slightly to peer through the crack.

  Christa whispers, “Do you see anything?” Damion looks through the cracked door and shakes his head no.

  Damion slowly enters the barn with Christa and Gerard following closely behind. The stalls were empty. There was not one sign of life to be found. The trio look at one another as they realize this.

  “Bree? Baby are you here? Baby please if you can hear mommy come out. It’s ok. I’m not mad, neither is your father. Just come out please baby.” There was nothing but silence throughout the barn. “This doesn’t make any sense. I am going to go check up in the loft. I’ll be back down.”

  Damion looked at Christa with concern in his eyes, “I don’t feel comfortable with that. I really don’t. I rather go up and look myself and you stay down here with Gerard while I do.”

  “I definitely agree besides we didn’t have such luck last time we split up.” Gerard couldn’t help but put his two cents in.

  Christa looks over at Gerard and then back at Damion, “I’ll be fine. Besides the odds of finding something undead up there is slim to none. From what I have seen they don’t exactly climb latters.” She places her hand on the side of Damion’s face and kisses him, “I promise. I’ll be fine.” She heads for the latter and starts climbing up till she reaches the top. Looking around the objects and bales of hay protrude her vision so she maneuvers her way around them.

  “Bree, baby, are you ok? It’s mommy. Please come out baby. We all are worried about you. Now is not the time to hide baby. It’s ok to come out.” Christa began picking up bales of hay to see if she was hiding beneath one or perhaps fell asleep there. After tediously searching and not finding any sign of her daughter Christa knelt down and took a moment, placing her face in the palm of her hand.

  Damion cannot see Christa nor hear her and he starts to become worried. “Christa? Are you ok? Please say something. Did you find her or any sign of her?.......Christa?!”

  Christa knew she had better reply to Damion before he became too worried. “I’m fi-“Christa found herself lying on her back with the corpse of Damion’s dead mother on top of her trying to tear out her throat. Christa was pushing on her throat keeping Damion’s mother just mere inches from her face. “Damion!”

  Damion took off instantly up the stairs and got to the top in seconds. Looking around for Christa he sees her on the floor with the corpse of his mother on top of her. Damion runs over to her and pulls his mother off of Christa and then picks up the sledgehammer he was carrying and swings it full force at her head. Blood splatters everywhere as the sledgehammer makes contact with his mother’s head. Her head giving way underneath the force.

  Damion stands there looking at what is left of his mother. His breathing quickens as he tries to suppress the anger and sadness. After a moment he turns around and goes over to Christa, “Are you ok? You didn’t get bit or anything did you.” He looks all over her body looking for a bite mark.

  Christa grabs his face seeing that he is just barely holding on, “Damion, baby, I am fine. You got to me in time. Ok?” Christa places her soft lips on his. “Bree isn’t up here either. Baby, I’m getting worried. If she isn’t in the barn then where is she?”

  “We’ll find her. I’m sure she is ok. She’s a smart girl.”

  “You’re right. I’m sure she’s fine but I rather we find her as fast as possible. Every moment she’s not with us is more of an opportunity for things not…” Christa couldn’t bear to even speak the words let alone let her mind think them. Damion’s grip tightened on her as she stopped mid-sentence. He could feel the desperation in her tense body.

  They started to head back down the tunnel when Christa stopped. She went over to the barn door and opened it. The latch was already undone. The snow was white and plentiful. Christa scanned her surroundings looking for any sign of Bree. Nothing. Just as she was closing the door she noticed faint footprints in the snow. They were visible but just barely due to the continuous snow fall.

  “Damion! There’s footprints!”

  Damion and Gerard joined Christa at the door. They looked at the footprints and went out into the cold to follow them. Christa’s worry grew more intense when she saw the direction they went. The woods. Thousands of thoughts ran through her mind when she had noticed this. What caused Bree to head into the forest in all this snow? Was Bree suffering hypothermia? Was she running from something? She tried to push the thoughts far from her mind and concentrate on the only important thing. Finding Bree.

  As they broke into the tree line Christa felt the chill of the wind as it hit her face. They started calling out for Bree to no avail. The footprints went further into the woods when they all but disappeared. The snow had started falling too fast for them to keep up with the trail that was steadily being covered.

  Stopping whe
re the trail disappeared Christa assessed each direction, “Bree!? Bree!!? Where are you?! It’s mommy! Please baby come towards my voice if you can hear me!”

  “Christa, this doesn’t feel right. Why would she go this far into the woods?? I just don’t understand it,” Damion couldn’t help but feel like he was missing something.

  “I agree,” Gerard added. “If anything she would just go back to the house and knock to get back in. She had to be following someone…or something. I only saw one set of tracks though so I don’t see how that’s possible either. I know she definitely wasn’t running from something or we would have definitely saw other tracks, but we didn’t.”

  “Let’s split up and cover just a small amount of ground,” Christa couldn’t help but try every option she had.

  Gerard quickly interjected, “Nooo, no no no. That’s not even an option Christa. Should I remind you what happened last time we did that? That’s just a really bad idea.”

  “Well we need to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time because it is really cold out here so I’m not sure how you would prefer to do that. Do you have a better idea?”

  “I’m afraid to say it but I agree with Gerard on this one Chris. We could make an already bad situation even worse. Let’s just cover ground fast and stay together. Remember, there is safety in numbers.”

  Christa knew she was out voted on this one so she conceded, “Fine. Let’s get to it then.”

  The snow continued to fall at a rapid rate as the wind whipped against their faces. Between the flurry type wind and the snow fall it made their range of visual much shorter, but it didn’t stop Damion from spotting something ahead of them that wasn’t the color of snow.

  “There’s something up ahead. I think it’s moving but I can’t be sure. Bree?! Stay right there we’re coming to get you!”

  Slowly they made their way through the dense snow until they got closer to the dark object. All they could make out is that it was someone in a big jacket, but that fact that they knew it was someone and not something was huge. Who else could it be but Bree?

  Damion approached first and grabbed the arm of the jacket and pulled it to turn the person around. The hood was covering the face so Damion went to pull it up slowly. A set of teeth quickly came at his arm. He pulled his arm back just in time falling to the ground but flung the hood up in the process. He couldn’t believe it. It was his father.

  “Oh my god Damion!” Christa lunges forward and stabs Damion’s father through the forehead. She watches him fall to his knees and then backwards lifeless. She turns to Damion, “Baby, are you ok?!? Did you get bit??”

  “No, I’m fine. I pulled back just in time.”

  “CHRISTA!! CHRISTA HURRY!!” A blood curdling scream came from the direction of the house and it sounded like Tara. The trio all looked in the same direction when they heard the scream. Christa helps up Damion and they all take off running for the house.

  They could make out the house just ahead. Tara stood on the porch still calling for Christa as she noticed them breaking from the shroud of the tree line.

  “There you are! Oh my God! Bree is inside Christa! You gotta hurry!” The look on Tara’s face terrified Christa.

  Christa went through the front door and found Bree in her snow jacket huddled in a corner shivering. “Mommy!” Bree ran over into Christa’s arms and started crying.

  Christa put her arms around her and picked her up, “Oh baby, I was so worried! You’re so cold. Why did you leave like that? You know better than that. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you babygirl.”

  Damion came through the door and put his arms around both his girls. “Daddy missed you.” He pulled Bree’s face to meet his, “What did daddy tell you about staying close? Don’t ever do that ever again. Ok baby?” Bree shook her head.

  Bree turned to face Christa, “Sorry mommy. I went to find Snickers but he wasn’t there. Instead I found papaw.” Christa’s heart dropped when she heard those words. “He scared me like those others did Daddy. He came after me but I got away.”

  “That’s great baby. I’m so glad to hear that, but where did you go? We looked everywhere for you.”

  “I went outside but I hid next to the other building but I covered up my footprints.”

  “Oh that’s my clever girl. You did a great job baby. That’s why mommy and daddy couldn’t find you.” Christa noticed Bree’s hand was bleeding. “Did you cut your hand on something?”

  “No mommy,” Bree proceeded to pull her glove off and there it was, “Papaw bit me and it really hurt.”

  Christa’s heart dropped and she collapse to her knees with Bree in her arms. The tears rolled down her face as she found it hard to catch her breath. “Oh my God Damion….Oh my God. My baby.”

  Bree was starting to get upset, “What’s wrong mommy? You’re scaring me.”

  Christa looked up at Damion and she saw the horror in his eyes. Damion tried to compose himself for Bree, “It’s okay baby. Mommy’s ok. She was just really worried about you. That’s all.” Damion reaches down and picks up Bree from Christa’s arms. “Come on baby, let’s give your mommy a minute. Let’s go bandage that wound.”

  It was all Christa could do to watch Damion walk down the hallway with Bree in his arms. This numbness took over her whole being. It was as if time stood still and nothing mattered anymore. She couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that her baby would soon turn into one of those things and she might have to put her down. The more that thought sunk in the more she started to cry. The pain tore through the numbness and when it hit it really hit. Christa opened the door and ran outside in the middle of the front yard. She screamed at the top of her lungs and collapsed in the snow in a heap. Laying there uncontrollably sobbing the cold was slowly taking over her body. Through her bouts of uncontrollable sobbing she would have a calm moment of numbness. It’s in that moment she could feel each individual snowflake hit her face and melt into her skin.

  She kept praying this was all just a nightmare and she’d wake up at any moment to find Bree lying next to her safe in bed. Bree would wake up and do what she usually did which was play with Christa’s hair and kiss her face until she woke up. How would she deal with the fact that she’d never know that feeling ever again?

  “Christa, come on. Get up. This is doing no one any good. If there really is no hope for Bree. You should be in there making the most of the time you have left, not out here crying in the snow. Right now more than ever Bree needs you. She needs her mommy. You can’t lose it now. If something does happen then you can lose it all you want afterwards but don’t you dare leave her when she needs you Christa. Now get up.” Gerard places his hand on Christa’s arm and pulls her to her feet. He pulls her in for a hug before letting her go. “Christa, if I could trade places with her I would.”

  Christa pauses, “I Know.”

  Chapter 7

  Christa walked back in through the door and proceeded to look for Damion and Bree. She found them in the bedroom upstairs laying on the bed. Beneath Bree’s eyes they had already started to darken. Christa wondered if the darkness under her eyes was for real or her mind was playing tricks on her. She hoped it was the latter.

  Bree’s eyes lit up when she saw Christa, “Mommy! I missed you. Look! Daddy cleaned up my boo boo and gave me a Scooby doo Band-Aid.” Bree held up her hand and smiled at that fact. This only made Christa that much more upset. Even though it was killing her inside she put a smile on her face and didn’t let on to Bree.

  “That’s awesome baby. I’m sure Daddy did a great job. He always does.” Christa went over to the bed and laid down on the opposite side of Bree. Christa took her hand and brushed aside Bree’s hair and tucked it behind her ears. “How are you feeling baby? Is your hand okay?”

  “It hurts mommy. It actually kind of burns. I’m tired and cold too.”

  “Well you were outside a good while baby. Come here and snuggle with mommy. I’ll keep you warm.” Bree wiggles over into Christa’s arms
as Christa leans down and kisses her forehead.

  Bree looks at Damion, “Daddy? Are you going to snuggle with us too?”

  “Of course I am baby. Of course I am.” Damion moves closer and puts his arm around his girls. Damion and Christa lock eyes and a thousand words are said without one actually spoken. Christa laid there just watching Bree float off to sleep and then long after she was sleeping she still couldn’t help but watch. A part of her was afraid to sleep because she thought she would wake up and find that Bree wasn’t Bree anymore.

  As hard as she tried Christa couldn’t help but eventually close her eyes. The minutes ticked by followed by a few hours. Reality came rushing back to Christa as she suddenly opened her eyes.

  Christa let out a loud gasp, “Bree.”

  “Shhh, she’s still sleeping sweetie,” Damion whispered.

  “What? How long have I been out?”

  “Three hours now.”

  “Oh baby, have you stayed awake this whole time?”

  “Yes. I wasn’t about to let anything else happen to either of you. I had to make sure she didn’t….I just had to make sure you were ok. I don’t know if I could take it if anything happened to you on top of everything else. I’m barely holding on Christa as is. I couldn’t bare that. I couldn’t.”

  Christa places her hand on the side of Damion’s face, “I promise, nothing will happen to me.”

  Bree slowly starts stirring. The sudden intense tension in the air is more than evident with every move Bree makes. Christa can feel her heart beat accelerate as she waits for Bree to open her eyes. Just then Bree slowly starts to open them. Christa watches intently. She catches a glimpse but isn’t sure until Bree fully opens them.

  “Mommy, I’m hungry.” Her eyes were perfectly fine and with that Christa let out a sigh.

  “Oh pumpkin, I’ll make you something. You feeling ok?”

  “My tummy hurts but I’m not sure if it’s because I’m hungry or I’m sick.”