Dan Charrington Presents: The Undead Tome

�� "Can you believe that they are having these things every week?" said May as she exhaled a stream of blue smoke. "How much fucking spirit can those idiots have?"��
            May and her friend Lillith were walking side by side down the street, each satisfying the addiction that was so very popular with young people their age. May's black trench coat was dragging behind her, collecting every speck of grit off the sidewalk.
            It was a Wednesday afternoon and these two young ladies were skipping out on the pep rally their school was holding. Lillith had seen enough of the cheerleaders and football players congratulating themselves on a victory they hadn't even won yet, and she had suggested that the two of them just ditch the whole thing. May was more than happy to take advantage of any opportunity to just be away from the school which she already visited infrequently.
            Dressed in their dirty black get-ups, complete with black lip-stick, chemically enhanced hair, as well as their several ear, eye-brow and tongue piercing, it was clear, to me at least when I saw them, that these were not model students. I imagine their conduct as human beings shared some similarities with this rebellious mood they created. Lillith, who wore her hair down in a massive heap of orange-dyed tangles, looked as though her morning facial was made of ink and clay. Her voice was low and very rushed. She spoke as though she hated the act, and wanted to finish it as soon as she could. May was different however. She always found time--or made it--to say exactly what she was thinking. Her expressionism was made even clearer by her excited field of almost dangerous hair, heavily gelled and arranged like the hide of a porcupine across her skull. These two were out to find something wrong with the world, and bring it to life.
�� "Come on May, let's get some food. I'm starving." Lillith said.
�� "You just fucking ate. Quit your bitching."
�� Lillith remarked, "Half a tuna sandwich and a couple chips? You call that a meal?"
�� "Bitch, bitch, bitch. That's all you..." May stopped suddenly. Her eyes were locked on the large crescent moon painted in black on the sign hanging over my door. In a cryptic text below the picture were the words: "Black Moon"
�� Lillith hadn't noticed that May had stopped, and kept walking. Before long, she looked back and stopped walking. "May? Are you cool?"
�� "Have you seen this place before?" May said, continuing to look at the sign.
�� "Black Moon? Uhhh, yeah. I think I've been here once or twice." She wasn't really sure. It was true that she had been to every store like mine that she could find, but she wasn't sure if she had been in the Black Moon before.
�� "Bullshit Lil. You would have told me about this place. Let's check it out." Before Lillith could argue that the deli down the street was going to close soon, May had pulled the door open and entered. Lillith sighed and followed.
�� The room was dark compared to the noon-day sun that had been blaring down in their faces. May rubbed her eyes, smearing some of her dark eye shadow on her finger, and then flicked her cigarette onto the floor, grinding it into a dead pile of ash.
�� I was unaware the two girls had come in until I came out from the store room. They seemed to be mildly impressed by me.
�� "Welcome ladies. How may I aid you?" May just smiled seductively. Lillith was peering around, gazing at everything she could focus on.
�� "Dude, where the fuck did you get all this kick ass shit?" May exclaimed in amazement her attention bounced around the room.
�� "I can see you are impressed with my little collection of novelties. This is a rare occasion indeed." I answered contently.
�� Lillith was still looking from where she stood. She spoke again in a somewhat skeptical tone. "All of this stuff is yours, huh?"
�� I could sense the disbelief in her, as I often did in many of my costumers. "Oh yes. I've spent many years adding and adding to it all. It really is a wonder isn't it?"
�� "Dude, you're the wonder. This shit? This is just to fucking much! Have you got any, like, rat tails or something cool like that?" She seemed to be testing me. Her days of being in and out of fake, trick-or-treat horror stores had taught her to be mindful of cheap assholes that were out to gain a fortune off of little Manson wannabes.
�� "Perhaps you would like to take a look in the back room? I keep my most, shall we say, interesting items in there."
�� May's eyes sharpened as she began to lick her lips.
�� "May, come on. Let's blow. This place is a load of crap." Lillith was beginning to sound nervous. Maybe it was the fact that she just wanted to get something to eat really badly, or it could have been plain, old fashioned fear that drove her to want to just escape. Whatever it was, May wasn't about to let her so called friend get in her way of a good time. May wandered after me as I lead her into the room behind the main counter.
�� I must admit that I had not put much effort into the cleansing of my storage area. However, I felt that the cobwebs and dust gave it a certain, I guess you could say, romantic setting. Needless to say, May felt right at home among all the books and artifacts that were scattered all over the several tables. They each bore some symbol of power or wickedness that I could tell May was itching to discover about.
�� "Well, young lady. Do you see any of your rat tails in here?" She didn't answer. It was as if the store had possessed her and she was no longer in control of her actions. She brushed the dust off a stack of books I had stored on a small table and she began to read the titles.
�� "'The Powers Of Night', 'Identify Your Soul', 'Mastering Curses'. I've never heard of any of these books. How did you find these, man?" I suppose I could have told her then, but I doubt she would have been able to keep her attention focused on me before disappearing into one of the books. "Do you have anything on necromancy?"
�� "May, that's fucking enough. Can we get out of here now?" Lillith had appeared at the doorway, but was reluctant to come in any further.
�� "Shut up, Lillith. Just shut your face. I'm busy." May turned back to me. "Come on, mister. Show me what kind of heavy duty shit you got."
�� I turned and began to search through the shelves. I was determined to give young May exactly what she wanted.
�� "This, young lady, will please you greatly." I said as I drew the massive book its resting place. May took it in her hands and buckled slightly under its weight.
�� "Holy shit man, what the hell is this?"
�� "That, my dear, is what is known as the tome of the undead."
�� Lillith once again began to protest. "Oh my god. This is fucking stupid. Are we going to go raise the dead now May?" She sounded afraid of what the answer would be. May didn't answer her. She moved the large book to the table and let it fall onto the surface with a loud smacking noise. Her eyes gazed back and forth over the cover. It was a bright red cover with runes of an ancient language scribbled into it. She seemed to be hypnotized by it. I knew that this was going to be a successful exchange indeed.
�� "What does the cover say?"May finally asked.
�� To be perfectly honest, I had forgotten the exact translation of the title. However, I was not one to disappoint a customer. "I believe it is something to the effect of 'The gates of hell will open to those who hold this key' I can't be certain."
�� "Fuck me. Can this thing really raise the dead old man?"
�� "Hee hee. With this book, you can command the spirits of those long since passed, as well as the more recently deceased."
�� Lillith, now looking absolutely frightened, began to holler at her friend. "May, I am leaving. Now!"
�� May's eyes sharpened and she drew her lips tightly together. "Lillith," she said, not looking away, "why do you just shut the fuck " She spun around to confront her now agitated friend. "You are always going on and on about how obsessed you are with this shit, and now you are acting like a fucking pussy. Maybe you should leave pussy, and head back to the school with the other faggots."
�� It seemed to me that Lillith took the most offence with the fact that her friend May could ever suggest that she would feel more comfortable with the despised culture of students at her school that she hated so much. "Fine. Buy the fucking thing if it will shut you up. It's just a bunch of bullshit anyway."
�� "Ladies, please." I interrupted. "I must admit that you both seem..."
�� "Enough of your fucking babbling, old fart. I want this book." May exclaimed as she slammed her hand on the cover of the tome, which excreted dust from between each page as she did. "Are you going to sell it to me or not?"
�� Who was I to argue with a customer? "Certainly."

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�� That night was particularly bitter. The wind was rushing through the empty branches of the cemetery. It howled and whistled with the relentlessness of a child who couldn't be told enough that he was being a nuisance.
�� Lillith buttoned the top of her coat as she continued to walk behind May, using her as a shield against the wind. She kept asking herself in between periods of trying to keep her mind off of how miserable the wind felt blowing leaves and dust in her face, how she had ever agreed to come with May on her stupid little necromancy trip.
�� May was excited. She had been reading through the book all day. The secrets that it contained were her obsession. All she could think about were the dark practices that the book outlined in detail. She couldn't wait to test the book's authenticity.
�� Arriving at the cemetery, the two stopped to rest. May dropped the brown backpack from around her shoulder. If fell to the ground in a limp fashion. "Fuck this is going to be so great. The air just feels right tonight" May said.
�� "You still think that something is going to happen? Man, I knew you weren't too bright, but I would have thought you would have got at least some fucking sense in you by now." Lillith had given up on trying to convince her friend that her new little toy was nothing more than just that, and instead decided to just ridicule it for her own amusement.
�� "Let's see who is cracking the wise ones after I sick my pet zombie on your ass, bitch" May snapped.
�� Lillith rolled her eyes and followed silently. Before long, the two of them arrived at what May called a "suitable grave " The stone was labeled: John Grant
�� "Well, looks like this will have to do." May said as she started to unpack. She removed a small pouch, several wooden sticks, and probably the most vital thing, the book itself. There were several small slips of paper protruding from all edges of the book. May had been busy that day browsing and cataloging the pages she wanted to remember with paper ripped from the pages of her history notebook.
�� "So what exactly is it you hope to accomplish here tonight, May? Are you thinking that Johnny boy here will rise up to take you out for a night on the town or something?"
�� May ignored her friend's pathetic attempt at humor and knelt by the side of the grave. She could feel herself beginning to get more and more possessed with the idea of actually conducting her little experiment successfully. She took the small pouch in her hand and motioned for Lillith to take it.
�� "May, come on. This stopped being funny a long time ago."
�� May became frustrated. "Just take it, for fuck sake!"; Lillith wasn't sure if it was her sudden burst of anger or the forfeit of her tolerance that made her give in. Either way, she took the pouch reluctantly. "Now, just hold on to that and don't open it until I tell you to."
�� Lillith stood silently, looking off into the distance. She knew that they would be in shit if they were caught here, so she decided to watch for any cops.
�� May began to flip through the pages of the massive book. Finally, after she found the one she was searching for, she began to read. "The spirits of these men and women have passed into the realm beyond us. For them salvation is already achieved. It is one of these free souls that I know command into the body before us!" Her reading started to sound, to Lillith, more and more as if she had known the words all her life. "Before me shall this one rise tonight. He shall live not like the living, but be dead not like the dead. I shall command him. Through the sands of time..." she said as she motioned towards Lillith to open the pouch and sprinkle what was inside on the grave. Lillith, not wanting to seem like the type that would stand in the way of her friend's little imaginary spell casting, complied and let the open end of the pouch fall towards the grave. From within the leather container, a fine, sand-like powder glided in the wind towards the dirt at her feet.
�� "Excellent" said May, becoming more and more focused on every word she spoke. "Now for the inscription passed down through the dark ages to this time:

�� Ye who sleeps in the dark of night,

�� Shall on this earth again take life,

�� Thy soul will feel the touch of sun,

�� Your immortality will be with mortals one

�� Arise now fallen son of man,

�� Take the life that has given its hand

�� With every word she spoke, the wind began to buffet both the girls with an unknown ferocity. Lillith was now assured that their deeds should never have happened that night. "May, let's go. This is getting weird!"
�� May stood, repeating the rhyme again and again. The howl of the wind became almost more than Lillith's legs could bear. Could an unexpected tornado have just suddenly come to life here in downtown Brooklyn? It wasn't possible, Lillith thought.
�� Unable to keep her balance in the hurling wind, Lillith stumbled to the ground. May also feel to her knees, the book tossed from her hands and landing a few feet from the grave.
�� "This... this is amazing!"; May shrieked. The blowing had kicked up dust and before long, she could hardly see the tomb-stone before her. She could hear what sounded like Lillith, screaming some words of fear that she couldn't quite hear. She could also hear something else. It came from the grave itself. A scream which drowned out Lillith's and began to terrify May.
�� "What the fuck is that?" She yelled. Her vision began to blur and her head was becoming disoriented. May passed out; the ground rush upward to meet her now unconscious body.

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�� A red pain shot through May's leg as she became conscious once again. Her head was swimming in a sea of confusion and disbelief. She strove to try and lift her heavy head from the dirt. There were no sounds to hear except from the ringing that stirred her to whine.
�� She could see Lillith not too far from where she was laying. Lillith had also toppled to the ground and now laid silent.
�� "Li-Lillith?" May spoke with a cracked voice, as if she had just been strangled and was now fighting to fill her lungs with air. "Are you alright?"
�� There was no answer. The body of her friend didn't budge. She began to panic and struggled to get to her feet. The dazing noises in her mind were beginning to subside and she could once again fully control her limbs. As she began to make her way over to her injured partner, she stopped suddenly and stared at the grave of John Grant. It looked as if it had been unearthed and was empty. There was a hole that fell more than fifteen feet and May could see right too the cold, moist soil at the base.
�� "My god... What the fuck?" Her hands enclosed around her mouth. "It worked! It actually worked. I don't believe it." The fear began to mix with a disturbing sense of excitement. "That old fart at the store wasn't shitting me."
�� Suddenly, a thought occurred to May that caused her to take great concern in her recent activities. If John Grant wasn't dead in his grave, as he should be, then what had happened to him? This was a question that caused May to forget about her friend Lillith, who still hadn't changed her position, and begin searching for her creation.
�� "Where are you? Where did you go, Johnny boy?" She began looking throughout the graveyard like a child looking for its lost puppy. She ran, never too far from the grave, but far enough to have scouted the entire field that the graves were resting in. She still found no sign of her new creation.
�� May was finally starting to feel the fatigue of her long night of necromancing. "Well, wherever you are, Johnny Boy, I hope you are having fun." She laughed, and began to gather her collection of tools together. She managed to find all of her stuff and bag it, except the book. She couldn't remember what had happened to it, nor could she see it at this point. "Aww fuck!"; she shouted. "What the hell man, I just got that thing. Goddamnit."
�� A sound from behind her made her turn around. It was the sound of shuffling, like the sound she hears as bodies pass by each other in the crowded hallways of her school. She figured it was probably Lillith coming to herself, but when she looked, she saw nothing but her friend still lying on the ground.
�� "Come on Lillith, its time to go. Party's over." May put her hand on Lillith's shoulder and began to rock her back and forward quickly. "Lillith, come on. I'm beat man. Let's go." Still, Lillith didn't move at all. A mixture of confusion and frustration began to fill up May's head. She shook her friend harder. "Lillith? Hey Lillith."
�� May knew now that something was wrong. "Shit. What's wrong Lillith?" She shoved Lillith over onto her back. Lillith's eyes were closed and she laid with a frozen look of unfamiliarity on her face. "Holy shit, Lil. What the fuck happened to you?" The question began to drive their way into May as she sat and tried desperately to revive her friend. Did May kill her? Had something happened to her while she was raising Johnny from his dirt nap? Maybe the ghost of Johnny had done something to her? No, that was silly, wasn't it?
�� "Damn you Lillith! Why don't you wake up?" The fear was searing through May's heart. She couldn't leave her friend here unconscious--possibly dead--in the middle of the night. What if the cops found her? What if Lillith woke up and she told them everything that she and May had been doing that night. May began to think of a way to get her back to her house. Finally, she decided that she would just have to carry her back herself.
�� "Lillith, you little shit," she said as she gathered her friend into her arms. "It's a good thing you are so little, cause if you weren't, I'd leave your ass here with the rest of the dead folks." She didn't mean what she said. However, the idea of begin found in the cemetery at what must have been close to three in the morning carrying� an unresponsive body away from a recently disturbed grave had given her a sharp motivational push, something which always brought out the worst in May.
�� The weight of Lillith's body didn't take long to wear away the strength in May's arms. Before long, she was gasping for air as she hurried down the poorly lit street. "Only three more blocks to go,"she thought to herself rounding on of many street corners.
�� She stopped suddenly. A noise had caught her attention. It had sounded much like the voice of some invisible onlooker, quietly laughing at her as she ran hunched over the body of her friend Lillith. She turned her head to see who had caused the noise. All she found was the darkness of night that she had already passed. Was she going crazy? Or maybe, some pervert had noticed her and her rather vulnerable friend alone on a city street early in the morning and saw in them a ticket to a free good time. Whatever it was that had laughed at her, May knew she had to get off the streets before she did go crazy.
�� Lillith's house soon came into view through the black night, and May sighed in relief at the sight of it. Her arms now ached and her back was killing her. "Hang on, Lil. We are almost there." She managed to say as she climbed the stone steps of Lillith's patio.
�� Again the sound of laughter crept from the shadows and made its way to her ears. She spun around in terror and cried out, "Who is that!" There was silence. May was now feeling a coldness in her fingertips. She swallowed hard, and then returned to the screen door before her, trying desperately to open it before her invisible assailant had a chance to laugh at her again--or worse reach from the night and grab her.
�� Crashing through the door as it opened, May stormed into the living room, which sat filthy and crowded with beer bottles and dirty laundry. Lillith's father was obviously not home. "Most likely in jail again, that fuck." Lillith lived with her father alone, and they tried to avoid each other as much as they could. Once, May had told Lillith that she should straighten out her father. You know, real daddy-daughter talk. That resulted in Lil getting the belt. May made it a point, from then on, to follow Lillith's example and just avoid the old convict.
�� May rushed back to the door and shut it tight, turning the lock. She was breathing out of control now. Her thoughts were a scrambled mess. Would her follower try to get in? And who the fuck was following her anyway. Then, the most frightening thought May had that evening struck her with the force of a tidal wave. What if her new shadow was... Johnny? John Grant? "That's impossible." She thought to herself. The fear began to grip her tighter and tighter. She moved away from the door, and back up slowly away from it. She could feel tears only seconds away from streaming down her trembling face. She then remembered Lillith.
�� May knelt by the deflated couch that Lillith was laid on. "Jesus, Lil. What the hell is going on? Please don't be dead!" She put her hand on Lillith's neck. She didn't know how that whole reading of pulse shit worked, but she figured that if it worked for all those movie and television stars, it would work for her. At first, she felt nothing. "Come on, bitch! Wake up!" She kept moving her fingers, searching for something, anything that would assure her that she wasn't be herself. Still, there was nothing.
�� The sudden bang at the door made May scream and jump to her feet. She raced to the lamp by the couch, switched it on, and then cowered on the floor. The tears were now flowing like a faucet.
�� There was another bang. This one was louder. Someone was at the front door. May heard herself whimpering. "I don't want to die. I don't..." She cried into her hand. The door banged again. The whole room shook. May screamed again as the door knob began to twist.
�� May stumbled to the door and grasped the handle. It twirled violently in her hand and she stood, frozen in terror, trying to prevent the monster outside from entering. "Damn it, Johnny. Go away. I'm sorry. Don't hurt me." The door began to shake and crash against her body, which she braced against it.
�� Suddenly, the door came forward with a force that knocked May onto the floor. She winced at the pain and turned to face the creature that had busted through the door.
�� There, in the doorway that she had felt a doorknob spinning and a wooden door being attacked, stood nothing but the stagnate night air. May looked around confused. Her heart was racing. Had the monster rushed by her in the instant she had been knocked down in? Getting to her feet, she ducked into the living room, then into the kitchen, and finally into the dining room. There was no sign of the intruder. May ran back to check on Lillith. She hadn't moved at all.
�� "What... is going on?" she said out loud. Her head felt heavy and tired. She collapsed to the floor. Her bones cried out in fatigue. She laid at the feet of her friend. She was trying to catch her breath when she though she noticed Lillith's chest moving.
�� "Lillith? Lillith! Are you alive?" She climbed up onto the arm of the couch and took Lillith's face in her hands. "Lillith! Say something! Are you alive or not!" May stared at her friends face. Lillith's lips were pressed together, and they look chapped. Her hair looked even more destroyed than usual. May began to pray in her mind that Lillith wasn't dead as she stared through her tears into Lillith's closed eyes. They opened suddenly.
�� "Jesus!" May screamed as she flew backwards onto the floor once again. "Lil! You're alive!" Lillith rose from the couch, quickly, as though she had just slept for an eternity and her strength was now fully restored.
�� "Yes, I'm alive." She said. Her voice was different. She spoke sharply, and sounded much deeper. She dropped onto May's chest, crushing all the air out of her lungs. Her hands found their way to May's neck, and they began to squeeze. May gasped for air, but none came. She looked into Lillith's eyes, which glowed with an amber tint.
�� Lillith smiled. "And I have you to thank for that." May lost all feelings in her fingertips, then her chest, and finally in her head. All she could hear was John Grant laughing at her. He finally raised her head from the floor, and with a swift movement, broke her neck in several places.

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Dan's Notes: This is the secound half of my big horror story. While it does stand on it's own rather well, you may not get the last part unless you have read the first half. The story itself is hardly Stephen King, but it's good stuff.
WARNING: This story contains coarse lauguage, and a lot of it. Please don't get mad at me, because it is how I wrote it. You have been warned.

The Undead Tome
(C) Copywritten 2001

This is my writing. If you want to rip it off, there really isn't much I can do to stop you, but you will be shunned in your next life. If you have something to say about it or want to comment, critisize, or question something, then head to the guest book and speak your mind there, or e-mail me personally.

My e-mail: [email protected]

          He sat there staring at me as he finised his story. I couldn't help asking "What happened to Lillith?"
           He laughed again. His cracked voice had gained strength through the course of his storytelling. I hadn't noticed until now. "Well mister Martin, poor little May was found the next day by Lillith's father. Neither he nor anyone else has seen Lillith since that night."
           That meant that whatever Lillith had become was still out there, roaming the streets of New York wrapped up in the skin of a teenager that was commonly seen in the Brooklyn area. This was bad news. Wait, what was I thinking? I was actually buying into Uncle Fester's bullshit here! There is no way that the dead could rise, could they? I remember hearing something about a murder/kiddnapping case involving two girls a while back... the missing girl was never found and the force dropped the whole case when the fingerprints of the dead girl came back as those of the missing one.
           "Are you alright, detective?" His voice shook me into attention. I hadn't noticed that he had been staring directly at me the whole time I was trying to make sense of his story.
           "Um, yeah... look, if you knew all this, why didn't you call someone? The police or missing persons or something."
           He looked directly into my eyes. His shitty little grin had melted away into a sickly stern look of grimness. " I run a business, detective. My customers pay the price, and I give them what they ask for. Do you understand?" His gaze pierced my eyes and shot right through me. "I only gave them what they asked for."
           I felt my stomache turn. "Thank you, sir." I said and quickly I left the store. I heard the Alchemist laughing as I pulled the door open.
           "Come back anytime."

Part one: