16
The hideous creatures—once old men, once human—clawed at her body. They had her. Trapped, hemmed in, helpless.
Unable to drag herself away, she stared through the tattered rags they wore at the ulcerous sores in their decaying flesh. Here and there, bones—dry and chalklike—poked through shriveled, leathery skin. Like a circle of starving animals, they stared down at her through black, eyeless sockets. Gray, bony hands clutched at her, tearing at the dress she wore, at what suddenly occurred to her had once been a wedding gown.
Her hands and feet were held in viselike grips by fleshless hands. In the distance she heard the sound of bells tolling, far off, as if in another world. She wanted to cry out, but a cold, rank-smelling hand clapped over her mouth. Suddenly, at her feet the cir
