O Holy Undead Night

Darkness crept over Park Place as the temperatures dropped to a chill in the late October air. Under the seemingly protective cover of the encroaching night, three high schoolers made their way across Llewellyn Avenue, backpacks strapped on and flashlights in hand.

“How are we getting in again?” Amy asked, the fear evident in her shaky voice as she deferred to the group’s de facto leader, Zoe.

“There’s a loose board over one of the windows on the side facing the house next door. We’ll just move that aside to climb in. Super easy,” Zoe replied.

“And you’re sure we won’t get caught?” Amy asked.

Kaylen offered her a small smile and put his arm around Amy’s shoulders reassuringly as Zoe answered, “Yeah, of course I’m sure. God, Amy, don’t be such a wimp.”

The group continued on in silence as they reached the loose board on the side of the neighborhood’s long abandoned church. Just as Zoe had said, the group was able to easily climb into the building and move the board close to its originating place so as to not raise suspicion.

Once the group was in, they marveled at the height of the vaulted ceilings and the muted colorings of stained glass with a magnificent beauty of long ago. It was dusty and grimy in the church, but they couldn’t deny the hints of its former glory.

“Alright, does everyone’s flashlights work?” Kaylen asked the two girls.

A chorus of yes’s satisfied the boy’s protective instincts. He continued to inform them again that these flashlights were special. In addition to providing light, they would also pick up supernatural particles in the air. In essence, they were ghostbusting flashlights. It had taken Kaylen all summer to perfect the design and execution.

“I heard that ghosts are usually in the highest part of a building like an attic or something,” Zoe said.

“Well, there’s a bell tower isn’t there?” Amy asked and seemed to immediately regret suggesting as Zoe’s eyes lit up.

“Let’s go!” Zoe replied excitedly.

The trio, preceded by the light shining from their flashlights, made their way around the first level of the church looking for a door or a set of stairs that would lead to the peak of the building. Zoe moved boldly and without fear. Amy crept around much more cautiously. Kaylen was one part excited about the potential success of finding a ghost with his invention and another part concerned at the inevitable disaster bound to happen when his best friend Zoe’s curiosity got the better of her while simultaneously his girlfriend Amy’s fear got the better of her.

Kaylen was broken out of his thoughts when he came across a door in one of the corners. It was no bigger than a broom closet, and the door was slightly open already. The doorknob was surprisingly not covered with the same amount of dust and grime as the rest of the building, which went unnoticed by Kaylen.

“Guys! Over here! I found something!” Kaylen called.

The girls rushed over to see his discovery.

“What do we think? Think this could be the way up to the bell tower?” Kaylen asked.

Zoe had been frantically moving her flashlight over the door and landed on a small sign on which had been written “Bell Tower Stairway.”

“Uh yeah duh. I’d say so,” Zoe replied with a grin on her face.

Kaylen rolled his eyes at her but was just as itching to discover what lay above as Zoe.

“Wait, guys, what’s this?” Amy asked as she shined her flashlight to the much larger sign above the bell tower sign.

“Warning: Dangerous conditions. Asbestos flakes,” Kaylen read aloud. “I don’t know guys. Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Yeah, I don’t think we should go up there. We’ve probably been in here too long already,” Amy echoed her boyfriend’s sentiments.

Now it was time for Zoe to roll her eyes. “Don’t be wimps, you guys. This is what we came for.”

Before either of the other two could reply, they heard a crashing noise from above causing all three to jump to a freeze.

Zoe’s eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas as she turned to the other two. “Well, I’m going up. You guys have fun being scared little babies down here.”

Amy was still trembling in Kaylen’s arms from the shocking noise. Kaylen replied for the both of them, “You have fun up there, Zoe. We’ll be down here. Let us know if you see a ghost. Or die. Whichever comes first.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Zoe said right before she turned to race up the stairs two at a time.

Once Zoe got to the top of the stairs, she immediately had her flashlight out bathing the small tower room in light. She was panting a little from all the stairs it took to get up there and felt her heart rate pick up in anticipation of finding something supernatural.

One half of the room was blocked from view by the large bell hanging in the middle of the room. A quiet shuffling came from the hidden part of the room and a groan quickly followed.

This was it, Zoe thought to herself. Finally! A ghost in the flesh…well not the flesh but same idea.

Her heart raced as she slowly made her way around the bell to the part of the room she hadn’t seen yet. She knew she had to move slowly so as not to scare the ghost. This was its home after all.

Zoe quietly laughed to herself as she thought about her Catholic school days. If she found a ghost in the bell tower of the church, was it technically the Holy Ghost? Would she start speaking in tongues or something stupid like that?

Her personal amusement was immediately forgotten as her flashlight scanned over the decaying flesh of something, beeping to alert her to the obvious supernatural presence. Not a ghost, yet definitely not human. The undead monster-like creature turned to face her, life long gone from its eyes and skin as gray as the layer of dust that covered the rest of the church. As it let out an indecipherable groan, the smell of death on its breath washed over her senses, and Zoe screamed dropping her flashlight, glass shattering on the old wooden floor.

At the sound of her scream, Amy and Kaylen, who were sitting outside the window with the loose board and had almost fully recovered from the first alarming noise, seized up in terror. With one look between them, a full conversation conveyed, they grabbed hands and took off running.

Meanwhile, up above the usually quiet neighborhood lights, Zoe was still frozen in shock.

“What are you?” she asked in horror.

“A zombie apparently,” the undead monster replied.

“Right, uh, well, um, I better be going,” Zoe stuttered out as she began to walk backwards ready to escape.

“You’ve already been exposed,” the zombie said.

“Exposed?! Exposed to what?” Zoe began to panic a little.

“Didn’t you read the asbestos warning sign at the bottom of the stairs?”

All the color drained from Zoe’s face. She looked down at the trembling hand that still held her flashlight.

“No!” Zoe gasped in surprise as she watched her skin slowly turn gray while white flakes began to speckle her hand.

She looked up into the zombie’s face still in disbelief of the entire situation.

“Welcome home,” it said.

One year later, darkness once again crept over Park Place as the temperatures dropped to a chill in the late October air. Under the seemingly protective cover of the encroaching night, three high schoolers made their way across Llewellyn Avenue, backpacks strapped on and flashlights in hand.

The new trio of teenagers moved aside the loose board covering the window facing the house next door as they giggled in excitement of finding the ghost that legend has it lives in the abandoned church’s bell tower.

Unbeknownst to the intruders whose voices carried up to the church’s rafters and above, they were in for a surprise when they found what and who was lying in wait for them.

Footsteps began to make their way up the stairs to the bell tower. One set of lifeless eyes met another.

“Show time,” Zoe groaned out to her undead partner in crime.