DARK REALITY-A Horror Tale Read Online Free PDF Page B

himself he would never do it again. Somewhere in the center of him where his man spirit resided, he felt what he was doing was against all nature. Already he had broken the very rules of the world by raising animals, but to raise a human being was…well, it was a bad business. He knew that, sensed it, even though he could not stop from trying to do it.
    With each thump on the girl’s dead chest, he prayed harder. Do this for me , he prayed. I want her. I need her. She is mine. Sweat dripped from his face. Outside the moon had slid around the edge of the world and soon the sun would peak from over the lip of the blue sea. He could not be found here in the day, performing this ritual on the child. If others discovered he could raise a human being, they would bring every death on the island to him. Corpses would rise higher than the roof of his hut and drown the sky.
    If they knew of it and he failed, they would dismiss him as a charlatan. He’d be thought of as someone who had cruelly made a grieving mother believe in the impossible. Rather than a king, he would become a pariah. His people knew no forgiveness. When you did a horribly wrong thing, you were cast out.
    He pounded. He prayed. He feared defeat. And then life happened like a spark taking hold on massed palm tree shavings.
    Her eyes opened.
    Mujai sank back onto his heels in true astonishment, his hands frozen over her still body. He had not really, in the heart of him, believed that this could happen. He wanted success and now that he had it, he was mortified.
    “Speak to me,” he whispered in sudden fear. “If you can hear me, speak.” Would she be mute like the chicken, the dog?
    “My master,” she said. “I have come back for you.”
    Mujai nearly passed out. He could not move even an eyelid. His mouth gaped.
    She slowly sat up, woodenly, like a doll made of sticks. The black irises of her eyes were so enlarged they nearly covered the original mud brown color of her eyes.
    “I saw Death,” she said. “I was lost in the dark.”
    “Yes.” He gasped the word, the air in his lungs so short he was on the verge of fainting. “You were dead. I brought you back. You…you will live with me now.”
    The girl pulled her legs beneath her woven palm skirt and she leaned forward on her hands so that her perfect little face was mere inches from his.
    “Of course I will,” she said in a breathy voice that sounded nothing like a child’s voice. “I will come live with you.”
    It felt like a threat to Mujai. At the very moment he knew he should feel exultant and powerful, he was overwhelmed with the greatest fear he had ever experienced.
    What could he do? He had brought the dead to life and now he owned her. He had bargained for her life and she belonged to him, whether he feared her or not.
    He rose shakily to his feet and held out his hand. “Come with me, then,” he said. “We will go.”
    Her hand was shockingly cold. He forced himself not to cringe from her touch. He wondered if she would ever feel warm, feel human again.
    Outside the hut the girl’s mother fell to her knees, mewling like a newborn. Tears ran down her face. “My baby, my baby, my baby lives,” she cried.
    “Goodbye, Mother,” the girl said formally and without emotion. Then she moved forward, pulling the witch doctor behind her.
    It seemed she knew the way home.

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