The group returned back to the library to join the other men, the women reunited with their husbands, feeling more secure. The howl of the dog grew louder, as if it were all around them. Hank looked to the windows just as the candle in the holder sprang to life, giving off a yellowish glow. He stared at it and a loud said, "What the hell?" The others looked to where Hank was looking in disbelief at to what they were witnessing. It was then that the house started to shake, the walls appeared to be breathing as they expanded in and out. The women screamed, begging their husbands to leave, remembering the note that told them to get out. Their eyes were glued to the windows and to the walls and it was then that they all saw glaring back at them the red eyes of a beast looking in at them. It was half man, half dog, it's teeth bared as saliva dripped from it's huge jaws. Hank grabbed Bonnie and told everyone to follow him. They ran to the kitchen but stopped, the sight they beheld to gastly to soak in to their minds. Sitting at 10 of the place settings were the 10 girls missing since 2008. They appeared as ghostly apparitions, their faces now a hideous disfigurement, half woman, half dog. On the plates before them, the bloody heads of Hank, Bonnie, Joe, Brenda, Frank, Violet, Ollie and three other members of their group. The eyes in the heads looked on in a deadly gaze, as the young girls dug their sharp talons into the meat and began a cannibalistic feeding frenzy. The girl known as Cassie looked up as her strong canine jaws clamped down on the head of her father, the bones making an appalling crunching sound, blood and fragments of brain oozing from her gaping mouth. Her dead, stark raving mad eyes glaring upon the living watching from across the room. She dropped the meat to the plate, throwing her head back so far it sat on her back as she screamed a madning sound before leaping to the table on all fours, ready to leap upon the living. The others joined her as they readied themselves to pounce upon their prey. The parents seemed frozen to the spots they stood in, some vomited, others screamed out, some just stood motionless, their hearts pounding as they looked on in horror. The house seemed to shift under their feet, a loud heartbeat thumping, echoing through out the old house. Then in the window appeared the beast, it's high pitched howl filling the night air and the ears of the parents. Hank yelled for them to follow and he pulled his wife by the arm back to the library. He yelled for the men to help him bust out the windows. They grabbed books from the shelves and slammed them against the glass but they would not break. Brenda screamed at her husband. "Do something Joe! Hurry!" Hearing that, Joe held on to Ollie for support, lifting his leg and kicked the glass with his boot but even that would not break it. Hank looked around the room as the deafing howls of the undead shook the house. There was no escape from this room and they had very little time to find a way out. Joe screamed out, "The broken window, upstarirs, where the letter on the desk was." They all ran up the stairs praying their ferocious attackers wouldn't be at their heels. But it was too late for those last few that climbed up those stairs. There were temendously loud screams of help as the beasts slaughtered them, gushes of bright red blood gushing and splattering against the dingy white walls of the stairway. Those that made it to the room broke out the remaining pane of glass and Hank ordered the women to jump. Not one woman put up any resistance because they all knew that falling to their deaths would be better than the death that would await them were the beasts to capture them. One by one the women jumped to the yard below them and then the men followed. Hank yelled out, "Burn it, burn it to the ground!" The men looked for sticks, anything that would burn and lit them with cigarette lighters and matches. Bonnie screamed out to her husband, "No Hank, our children are in there." Hank turned on his heels looking at his wife, "Those are not our children Bonnie, not anymore." The women watched as the men touched the flaming sticks and branches to the house. There was a resounding blood curdling scream that erupted and Hank knew it was the house itself making the sound. A ferocious wind picked up, a down pour of rain began to fall, lightning flashed across the sky and moments later to their horror, the fire went out. They looked on as the house referbished itself, the deafing cries of the beasts nearing. They all knew if they didn't make a move quickly there would be an execution, their own. Hank remembered the cellar door and ran to it, the rest following him before they would meet their doom. He ran down the concrete steps and bent down pulling for all he was worth to open the doors. They finally released but not in time. He heard screams and turned around, watching in excruciating horror as the beasts ripped the hearts out of Joe and Brenda Sever, Frank and Violet, Ollie and the other three members. The screams filled the night air along with the ripping sounds of flesh and bone. He turned back to the cellar doors and without hesitation he pulled Bonnie in with him, the others following behind. There was no time to notice that it wasn't a basement at all. The room was filled with a blazing fire that seemed endless. There was no floor and Hank, Bonnie and the others fell screaming to what they were sure would be their deaths, their bodies burning from the raging inferno they were now a part of. Falling, their bodies tumbling as they fell, head over feet, arms reaching out for something, anything to stop them. But the fall was endless, there was no end for their nightmare had only just begun. And just before Hank Logan drew his final breath his perched lips voiced, "They won't stay dead." Conclusion..... Bonnie Logan sat up as she heard the screams of her husband Hank. His arms swinging, his legs kicking, his clothes soaked with sweat. She turned to him, "Hank, honey, wake up, you're having a nightmare sweetheart, wake up." She shook him a little until his eyes opened. He looked up at her then at his own body, touching and feeling each part of himself and her. "Oh my God, you're ok, I'm ok, what about Cassie? Is she ok Bonnie?" His wife assured him that Cassie was fine, asleep in her bed as it was three 0'clock in the morning. "It was just a nightmare Hank, everything is fine." He lay there in the darkness holding his beloved wife as he told her of his hellish dream. She listened and then softly kissed his brow, suggesting he go take a nice hot shower and change clothes. He smiled and slipped from their bed, breathing a sigh of relief that he had only dreamed all of this. As the hot water splashed in his face he felt his body relax. He was home and his family safe which could only mean the others were safe as well. It was a dream but now it was all over and his life could return to normal. His thoughts were interrupted by a sound he knew only too well. He thought at first it was only the wind howling but then he heard it again. He turned off the water in the shower, his heart quickening in beats as he listened. His stomach tied up in knots as he jumped from the shower and peered out the window. What he saw made no sense to him at all. A thick fog moved slowly near the ground, lightning danced an evil dance across the night sky. In the bushes he saw the red eyes glaring back at him and just across the yard he could make out the errie shape of headstones in a cemetary. He threw on his robe and ran so fast he stumbled in to walls as he made his way to Cassie's bedroom. He stared at her empty bed as his body trembled. He ran back to where he had left his wife snuggled up in their bed. It too was empty. He ran like a mad man to the living room, picking up the phone, dialing Ollie's number. No answer. "What the hell," he muttered and hung up the phone. He ran to the living room window and stopped dead in his tracks as he saw the candle holder sitting in the window sill, as the candle glowed its yellow glow, casting light to the outside. His heart skipped a beat, finally realizing his demise. It wasn't a dream at all. He had become a part of the house, a fate in which he had no choice in. As the lightning streaked across the sky, Hank Logan threw back his head and howled as his last human thought raced through his head, "They won't stay dead!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE END?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For anyone who would wish to see the entire story together, along with an image of the house and complete with sound effects, please go to my web page at http://www.angelfire.com/marlys-corner/TheFog.html