"Lewis knew Rose Rita's suffocating fear of tight spaces was overpowering her. He dropped the wooden box and thrust his hands down to her again. He felt her grab his wrists, and he hauled back. Rose Rita's head and shoulders popped out of the hole. She let go with her left hand and pushed down against the ground. With her shoving and Lewis pulling, somehow they hoisted her free.
"Rose Rita could not stop shivering. "Ugh! It was so d-dark down th-there, and it smelled like it had been closed off for a h-hundred years!"
Lewis heard something behind him. A dry, rustling sound, like crackly old paper being slowly crunched. A hoarse, wheezing hhaahhhh sound, as if something were breathing its last. Rose Rita looked over his shoulder toward the barn. She clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and filled with terror.
Feeling as if his heart were climbing right into his mouth, Lewis forced himself to turn.
Something was trying to walk from the ruined old barn.
Something big and gray and lurching.
Once it might have been a horse.
Now it was a lumpy, dry, silvery shape. As its misshapen forleg tried to take a step, chunks of grainy flesh fell away in a shower of flakes. The smooth brittle bones splintered. The mouth parted and horrible moaning sounds came out. The eye sockets were empty, but to Lewis they seemed to plead for an ending -- for death.
