Chapter 77: I Need To See It...

When Louis saw the man who had died before him in the hospital standing there, half of his face was covered in blood.

Thud~

Gulp~

Noticing the dead man standing before him once again, Louis's eyes widened in shock.

He took a few steps back, his face going pale.

"Please follow me, Louis."

The man spoke in a low, creepy voice, slowly turning around and starting to walk into the dense fog.

Phew~

Taking a few deep breaths, Louis stepped outside to check if he was hallucinating again.

But the moment he stepped through the door, he realized he was standing in the middle of the forest, and the house he had just exited was no longer there.

"I am dead, but you tried your very best to save my life. I feel indebted to you."

The dead man spoke while walking forward.

"Victor Pascow! Is that you?"

Louis called out to the man walking ahead, a little sceptically.

Victor Pascow was the name of the patient who had died when Louis tried to save him at the hospital.

"Let me show you something."

Victor walked into the dense fog, and when Louis followed, he found himself before the path blockage in the Pet Cemetery.

Louis looked left and right to spot Victor, but he couldn't find him anywhere.

When Louis tried to climb the blockage, a hand suddenly emerged from inside it and pulled him in.

Ahhhhh~

Gasp~

When Louis opened his eyes, he was in his bed while his son was preparing to jump on him to wake him up.

'Fuck... what is this freaky dream.'

He cursed in his mind, catching his son in mid-air as he jumped.

"What the..."

When he lifted the quilt to get up from the bed, he noticed his feet were covered in mud.

"Gage, don't disturb your father."

Rachel entered the bedroom, collecting clothes for laundry.

Noticing his wife had entered the room, Louis covered his feet with the quilt and looked through the window with shocked eyes.

'Why are my feet covered in mud?... Was meeting Victor a dream or real?... Did I meet Victor's ghost?...'

These were the only questions on his mind while looking at the forest through the window.

When he first saw the forest, it felt beautiful and green, but now it looked very mysterious.

Days passed...

On Sunday, Ellie had invited her new friends from school to the house to play with them.

When Louis was chatting with the kids, he noticed Jud standing at the corner of the road, signalling him to come out.

Seeing Jud's gesture and his serious face, Louis came out of the house, confused.

"What happened, Jud? Why are you standing here?"

Louis asked Jud, glancing at the kids who were chatting in front of the house.

Sigh~

"Well... look at this."

Jud removed a cover beside his leg, revealing Church, the family pet, with a dead body bearing bloody puncture wounds on his side and blood crusted on his nose and mouth.

"Jesus... what happened?"

Louis exclaimed in shock, seeing Church's condition.

"Wild dog. All kinds of animals in those woods... or might be hit by that truck when he came outside."

Jud patiently explained the possibilities of how Church had died.

Sigh~

"It's already going stiff."

With a sigh, Louis checked Church's body to see if there were any vitals.

"We must not let Ellie find out."

Louis covered the body again and asked Jud not to explain it to his daughter.

At night...

After consoling Ellie that Church would come home soon and putting her to bed, Rachel walked towards Louis, who was sitting quietly and thinking deeply.

"Church is dead?"

When Rachel came near, Louis explained to her that Church was dead.

"How???"

Rachel was shocked and asked how Church had died.

Louis explained what had happened earlier to Rachel.

The topic slowly drifted to Rachel's past traumatic incident.

At midnight...

Suddenly, Jud called Louis to come to the Pet Cemetery to bury the Church.

When Louis arrived, he was shocked to see the same place he had seen in his dream where Victor had taken him.

"This is the right place to dig a pit."

Jud pointed at a spot he had selected to bury Church.

Hearing him, Louis nodded and started digging a pit with the shovel Jud handed him.

"That's my dog Biffer right there."

Jud pointed at a few graves before them, trying to console Louis, who looked emotional.

Sigh~

"Death changes you when you're a kid. Gets into your bones."

Louis shook his head with a defeated look, not knowing how he was going to console his daughter.

"Jud..."

While Louis was digging, a whisper entered Jud's ear, giving him goosebumps.

"Mr. Louis, do you love your daughter? Will you do anything for her?"

Jud, who had stopped talking for a few minutes, suddenly asked an irrelevant question.

"Yeah. I will do anything,"

Louis answered immediately, not knowing the weight of the words he had just spoken.

"Then stop digging. Follow me..."

Jud responded by taking Church's body and asking Louis to follow him.

Louis also stopped digging and followed Jud curiously.

"I need to see it..."

Jud started climbing the blockage, asking Louis to follow close behind him.

"See what, Jud?"

Jud ignored Louis's question, walking toward the deadfall.

Louis followed, holding the shovel in his hand, stumbling in the dark.

Jud was already climbing, scrambling over dead branches.

"Where the hell are you going?"

Louis asked while climbing the blockage right behind Jud.

Jud disappeared over the top of the deadfall blockage.

Louis dropped to the ground on the other side.

He took a few cautious steps, shovel still gripped in his hand, scanning the dark trees.

There was no sign of Jud.

Suddenly, Louis noticed Jud's flashlight and hurriedly followed him, shouting at him to wait.

Louis pushed through the trees, losing the trail.

It was pitch black as dead branches scraped at his arms.

He paused, noticing something carved into the trunk of a tree.

Seeing the weird symbols, he blurred out for a second and came to consciousness when Jud called out to him.

"The sound of voices long dead."

A whisper entered Jud's ear when he blurred out.

Louis saw Jud standing in a low swamp with clumps of grass jutting out of the black water.

Fog curled as Jud waded into the shallow marsh.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Louis cursed while entering the swamp.

Jud ignored him, wading into the water.

Louis came to the edge of the bog and paused, his vision blurring again.

"The darkness is alive."

Once again, Louis heard whispers from the woods.

"Over there."

Jud paused in the water, pointing at something.

When Louis followed the direction, he saw a circular mound of dirt sticking out of the marsh.

"Bury your cat here."

Hearing Jud ask him to bury Church there, Louis was confused and asked why.

"Jud, are we doing anything wrong by burying Church here?"

Louis asked suspiciously, noticing Jud's weird behaviour.

"No... no, it's the right choice to bury your cat here,"

Jud reassured him.

Having Jud's reassurance, Louis dug a pit and buried Church.

Both of them then left the place.

The next day...

The sun rose. Louis and Rachel were waiting for Ellie to wake up in her room to inform her about Church's death and console her.

"It's about Church, honey. Jud and I went to look for him last night. Remember how I was telling you how sometimes when cats move to a new home, they get the urge to explore?"

Rachel tried to explain gently.

"It's okay. He didn't run away."

Looking at her parents confusedly, Ellie explained that Church didn't run away.

"He was outside my window last night, so I let him in."

Both Louis and Rachel were stunned.

Seeing this, Ellie pointed at the window and explained how she had met Church early in the morning.

Louis noticed cat prints on the comforter and thick black mud.

His blood turned to ice cold.

'No... no, it can't be Church.'

Trying to push the unwanted thought out of his mind, Louis tried to explain that the cat was not Church.

It might be one of their neighbours' cats.

"No, it wasn't. Look."

Ellie shook her head in denial and pointed towards the cupboard.

Creak... creak...

Both Louis and Rachel turned slowly towards the cupboard, which was slowly opening.

Meow~

Church was standing before them in the cupboard, looking at them without breaking eye contact.

'Shit! Did I fuck up?'

Louis's eyes widened in shock.

His hands trembled as he cursed what had just happened.

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(Author's POV)

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