They Called Her Crazy Until the Coffin Moved
CHAPTER 1 - Three Taps From the Coffin
The first blow cracked the white coffin.
"Stop! She isn't dead!"
Sixteen-year-old Lily Ashford raised the ax again as horrified mourners retreated.
Her father, Richard, rushed toward her.
"What on earth are you doing?"
"I heard her! I swear I heard her!"
His wife, Vanessa, stood behind him in a fitted navy dress, clutching her pearls. Her frightened expression looked convincing to everyone except Lily.
Richard seized his daughter's arm.
"No. Step back."
Lily fought him.
"Please! She's breathing!"
Her grandmother, Evelyn Ashford, had supposedly died two days earlier after collapsing at home. The family doctor blamed heart failure and advised against embalming because of a suspected infectious complication.
Vanessa arranged the funeral with unusual speed.
Lily had questioned everything.
Her grandmother had been healthy enough to walk through the rose garden the previous afternoon. She had also promised to tell Richard something important at dinner.
Then Lily heard three faint taps beneath the coffin lid.
Three taps had been their private signal since childhood.
I'm here. Find me.
Lily swung the ax again. The wood split, exposing a dark opening.
"Help me!" she screamed. "Please help her!"
A pale hand emerged and gripped the broken edge.
The chapel erupted.
Richard released Lily and stared at the moving fingers.
"Call an ambulance!"
Several mourners pulled the damaged lid away. Evelyn lay inside, barely breathing, her skin cold and her lips colorless.
Lily reached for her.
"Grandma, I'm here."
Evelyn's eyelids fluttered.
Paramedics arrived and immediately found a weak pulse.
As they lifted her from the coffin, Vanessa began backing toward the exit.
Richard noticed.
"Where are you going?"
"I can't watch this."
Evelyn's hand suddenly closed around Lily's wrist.
She tried to speak, but only a faint whisper emerged.
Lily leaned closer.
Her grandmother repeated one name.
Vanessa.
Then Evelyn opened her eyes and looked directly at her daughter-in-law.
"Don't let that woman come near me again."
