27 Curiosity and Cats

I suppose it was about at that moment when the team realized that it would have been infinitely better NOT to open the coffin. The room in the crypt became chillier.. not cold as in winter, but chilly as in freezing the soul into despair and numbness and fear. Leila, in an adventuring get-up now instead of stark naked, had time enough to reach the top of the ladder as a ghostly form resembling the dead night coalesced above the coffin, taking a moment to get his bearings. The only other way out was through the door, and moans and scraping sounds from there hinted that it was not the best possible route out.

And then the undead creature attacked. It glided through the air towards Valeria, perhaps because she had opened the coffin. She dodged and screamed as the creature glided through her and into the stone floor of the crypt. Valeria stared in shock at her arm, left shriveled and covered in small boils where the creature had passed through her. The sickly tingling feeling in her leg hinted that if she'd remove her garments and look, the leg would be in the same condition. She shouted to Leila for a healing potion, and Leila tossed her one, but Valeria was too shocked to catch it, and it fell on the floor, shattering there.  Then Valeria had to leap onto the glass coffin and scatter dead roses all over the place as a ghostly arm rose from the floor and tried to grab her knee, and barely missed it. Sitting on the coffin she was closer to Leila, and the second healing potion reached her. Drai avoided a similar attack by flying, even though the room was small. The creature emerged from a wall, ready for a proper attack, and it was clear there was no avoiding it now.

"Run!", Drai shouted, and started another spell. Leila did not need any more encouragement, and scurried quickly up the ladder, while Drai's voice distracted the enemy. Drai cast a spell, making himself appear like stone artwork, but that did not fool the monster. With a sad grin it closed in and pushed its hand into Drai's chest, grabbing his heart while Valeria escaped up the ladder, deciding that drinking the potion could wait. A few seconds, and Drai's heart beat no more.

Shocked Leila and Valeria tried to tell me about what they had encountered, and some moments later telling anything more was pointless as the creature glided up through the earth, not bothering to use the hole Leila and Valeria and Drai had spent so much effort digging. Under the stars it looked around, and noted a group of four people walking on the road next to the cemetery, singing loudly.