As you grow, you improve and you mature. In the 8 years since I first published the original Through Death to You, I have changed substantially. To the point that I now find the original story so embarrassing that I can't actually read it. I hope others still like it, but I needed to rewrite it. For my own sanity. Here is that rewrite.
Rain fell in dark sheets from the sky, the unrelenting drops restricting visibility to only a few meters ahead, and limited the other senses even further. Ernst Fischer slowed down his truck even more than usual as he approached the town's borders.
It was fortunate that Ernst had decided to reduce his speed, as suddenly, a soaking brunet woman dashed out across the country road. Like a deer in the headlights, she froze at the sight of his truck. Slamming on the breaks, Ernst tried to swerve his vehicle to one side.
The horrific screeching of the tires seemed to release the woman from her trance. She jumped back, and once it was apparent that she was not about to be flattened, the brunet woman nodded in what must have been thanks, before bounding the rest of the way across the road and disappearing into the darkness blanketing the other side.
Anybody who was out in this weather and this late at night was either desperate, up to something, or both. Either way, Ernst wanted no part of it. Shaking his head, he drove on.
The brunet woman also continued on her path, racing through the rain. Under the relative dryness of a tree, she fumbled for a bit before turning on a flashlight of some sort. Under this new light, a glance at her watch warned her that it was almost midnight. That gave her approximately, five more hours before her disappearance would be discovered, but even with her goal at hand she still couldn't relax.
Carefully, she began to search through the unusually sturdy backpack that she had slung over one shoulder. She pulled a strange stone from the bottom of the bag, but as she began to repack, the brunet woman seemed to realize that something was missing.
"Oh nononono." She groaned emptying her backpack and carefully going over each and every one of the old books, which honestly deserved to be called tomes, that had been packed into her bag. Having assured herself that whatever book she had missed was indeed gone, the brunet woman shook her head vigorously, before muttering,
"Can't go risk going back. I'll just have to hope nobody will put the pieces together." She finished repacking her bag, and then turned her flashlight off. Unlike before however, it wasn't completely black. The strange stone the brunet woman had retrieved from her bag, was giving off a faint red aura.
Leaning over the rock, the brunet woman exhaled, her breath fogging the stone. As she exhaled, she spoke in an unnaturally deep voice. The words she spoke where not in any common language. They carried power fizzling in the air.
The red aura of the stone began to pulse in time with her words. She stood, brushing her hair out of her face. Then, she swung her pack over one shoulder and continued on into the darkness.