by Paul Harm
The kids had to enter the graveyard, because there was no way around it. Where they came from, there was a track leading to the front gate, which, besides the back gate, was the only one. On the far-left side a rocky slope made it impossible to get around without proper equipment. On the right side there was a little bit of forest left but it had the same slope a couple of meters into it. The back of the graveyard had a natural restriction, a canyon, carved into the rock by aeons of water flowing through it. After standing there frozen from fear, Mike took a deep breath. “We have to go, we’re almost there anyway, and I think he’s there.” “I’m not going in there.” Mathilda, now that they actually looked at her, lost most of her natural floridness. There was no one disagreeing with her because everyone would have just loved to turn around. “They found blood in Rick’s locker.” Joseph declared slowly and sadly. “You turn around or wait here, but I won’t turn around until I have tried everything I can.” Some color returned to Mathilda’s face and the way Joseph said it, slowly, mournfully and honestly, made her change her mind and gave the group some confidence back. “Fuck! Mike, there better be a barn at the end of that goddamn graveyard.” Lucia screamed at him out of a mixture of fear and anger. “I’ll show you, just come and see.” And with that they walked past the watchful eye of the gargoyle and vanished into the old gothic graveyard.
What looked like the gates to hell from the outside was one of the most peaceful and angelic sights the kids had ever seen. While they stood in front of the gate and argued whether to go in or not, the moon started to rise and shine through the gloom. With the temperature falling, the fog vanished almost entirely, just a little bit of fog here and there lingering around some tombstones. Through a partly cloudy sky shone the stars. Slowly but steadily snow started to fall again and all the crypts which had lost some of their frozen decoration started to pile up some new white garnishment. In the middle of the huge graveyard there was an unrivalled crypt, gargoyles guarding the entrance and angels vigilantly looking in the directions of the cardinal points on top of the crypt. The garnishments were from unreached beauty only peaked by the icicles hanging from every possible spot reflecting the moonlight in a strange blue color. The slowly falling snow and the full moon now rising right above the crypt gave it a calming sense of tranquility, for a moment they all just stared at the crypt.
Joseph made a step closer to the epitaph and began to speak slowly and clearly: “Here rests Morticia Antoinette of the house Seraphim. 1926 – 2018. Loved by her family, remembered as an honorable member of society. She fell asleep peacefully on July 27th in the year 2018. May she rest in peace.” For a moment they all just stood in front of the huge crypt filled with some sort of dread. “Stop that, Joseph, it’s just creepy.” Lucia obviously did not feel the moment as much as Joseph did. The wind began to howl violently now and the peaceful falling of little snowflakes turned into a full-grown blizzard within a couple of minutes. Thankfully Lucia was able to make sense of the graveyard’s map at the entrance. “Was there something moving you guys?” Mike stopped and looked shocked into the white wall of snow around them. “Would you mind not freaking everyone out, please?” Mathilda still sounded calm, but the missing color in her face told the true story. “We have to go, we’re almost there anyway, it shouldn’t be more than 10 minutes now.” Lucia gestured in one direction and they began to move fast towards the exit, tombstones and crypts left and right. They did not notice the shadow moving behind them. Now they could already see the back wall and there was another gate there which led into the woods beyond the canyon. They started to hear the river before they saw the other wall. Soon they would have to reach the other side. Suddenly, a silhouette appeared on Mathilda’s left, blurred by the thick snow.
Mike felt a strange sensation, and as if he knew somehow he looked into the direction, but it was already gone, leaving him staring into nothing for a moment. Lucia grabbed his hand and released him from his stare. The first thing they noticed about the gate was the similarity it shared with the graveyard: two huge pillars with the demonic guardians, the gargoyles. Icicles decorated the claws, chins and feet. Little piles of snow were assembling themselves on their heads, shoulders and arms. Again, there was a shadowy figure moving behind them. It headed straight for them but vanished again into the darkness before reaching the children. “My blood is running cold, you guys.” Mathilda had a bad feeling about this. They were all staring at the gate which really looked just like the one at the front, as far as they could tell. The river behind the gate now made the still far away sound of a roaring mountain stream. A flashlight moved at the right side, they saw it for a matter of seconds before its light faded into darkness. “Guys, I don’t like this.” But Joseph was the only one left staring in the direction, the others were on their way through the gate as quickly and as silently as they could.
Beyond the gate, a narrow path wound up the hill and they heard the familiar sound of the river which must have been quite close by now. They made a run for it, still in turmoil about the flashlight and ended up at a tiny rope bridge crossing the stream. The forest became thicker around them. The roaring water calmed them down for a second, but the darkness and the recent flashlight still lingered around their minds, so they moved over the bridge fast and hastily followed the winding road up the hill. The silent night reappeared when they left the stream far enough behind and the only sounds they heard for a while were the occasional cracking of something in the underwood, and the crunching of snow under their steps. Then, surprisingly, a triple junction appeared in front of them. “Now that’s just great, what do we do now?” Lucia could not believe it, neither could the other ones. “I don’t know, I guess we could just try?” Joseph wandered around checking the surroundings. “I don’t think we’ve time for that, actually.” Joseph was grinding through the problem.
“I know I told you this before, but I still don’t like this. Let’s turn around now, it’s late, and I think we’re about to get lost in this maze.” “Don’t be so theatrical, Mathilda, it’s just a junction.” Lucia tried to calm her down. “It’s a triple junction, Lucia! How are we supposed to find the right one?” Her arms waved around to underline her hopelessness. “Guys.” Mike uttered rather softly while walking backwards but now Joseph got into the argument too and they were having a full-fledged fight going on. “Guys.” Mike stepped back and found himself in the middle of the arguing group. “You never had the nerves to get through this, we should have never let you dangle along!” “GUYS!” They looked at Mike rather shocked as they found him pointing at the path behind them. Something moved in the dark. “SHIT!” They took the path in the middle immediately and did not stop running until they reached a cabin in the woods, which was the only thing the tiny road led to.
Fortunately, the door was not locked. Inside, they took a look around the unusually large cabin. Spiderwebs hung from all over the ceiling and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. The cabin had a minimalistic kitchen and a bigger room with a couple of chairs and some kind of antechamber. After locking the front door with an iron wrench they found leaning against the wall next to the door, they checked the cabin for additional entrances and were relieved to discover there were none. They sunk into the big dusty chairs in the living room. “Holy, fuck, guys what was that?” Mike hissed as he fell onto one of the big sofas. “Can we please not talk about it?” Lucia replied slowly. “Agreed.” Mike shut up again and they were continuing catching their breath. “This was a bad idea from the beginning. We should have never come here; the police is here anyway all we did accomplish is getting lost and probably being kidnapped by a fucking hillbilly.” Mathilda had tears in her eyes, although it wasn’t clear if she was that desperate or just angry. “Now don’t panic, that shadow we saw could’ve been anything. Maybe it was just the person that takes care of the graveyard, that would make much more sense anyway.” Joseph tried to calm her down. “Could we please not talk about it?” Lucia repeated in a strong but still very calm vo
ice. “The door is closed for good behind us and in case we got to make a run for it we just do that using one of the windows.” Mike sounded determined and like a man with a plan.
Suddenly, a scratchy noise appeared out of nowhere. Their fingernails dug deep into the old and dusty chairs’ armrests. They exchanged alarmed looks but did not make a noise themselves. There it was again! Like something scratching on wood, probably the front door. Again! But no, that was the wrong direction, where did it come from? Their looks wandered around the room, and there it was again. A shiver ran down Joseph’s spine. The fourth time it appeared they all looked to the same spot on the floor. It seemed to be directly in front of Joseph’s feet. He jumped up but wasn’t able to move aside the carpet, which covered the scratching sound’s source. He was shaking too much. Mike kicked it aside and in front of them appeared a trap door. Lucia and Mathilda both got up and looked carefully at the trap door until finally Lucia and Mathilda both grabbed the big ring on it and swung it open with momentum. The sound it made and the dust it swirled up were both not helping their anxiety. They took a collective step back and stared into the black pit that appeared in front of them. Slowly, the dust settled, and a stairway showed itself. Mike took out his multifunction device he never left home without, and a flashlight shone deep into the pitch-black hole. A spiral stairway led deep into the lower floor’s darkness. Mike took a look around them and was convinced no one was going in there. So, he took a deep breath, pointed his flashlight into the narrow stairway and with that, he went in followed by three others. The reason being that the staircase was actually pretty solid, there was a tunnel at the end and it reached the left side of the house. Something rushed through the cone of light the lamp casted. “Was that a rat?” Lucia asked with disgust. “Maybe... well probably, don’t let it bother you, might have been a cockroach, just focus on what my grandmother used to say about rats. If you see one, there are probably dozens.” Mike and Joseph laughed and Mathilda’s look darkened. They arrived at a wooden door, and when they opened it there it was.
“What the fuck, dude?” Mike rushed towards John, who had clearly seen better days. Dried blood was on his face, his arms, his clothes, hell, it was all over his body. “Don’t let the door close.” John’s voice sounded exhausted. Joseph turned around and caught the door while it was closing. Now that he saw John too he could not help but cry. Tears rolled down his cheeks and while the others cuddled up to John he could not because he had to hold the fucking door. They cried there together in the darkness, both out of relief and sadness just for a couple of moments when they realized that the person who did this might still be around and the police might not help calming that maniac down. They pulled John up on his feet and supported him at his way out. When they came back into the cabin they realized that John would not be able to walk outside with the clothes he was wearing.
The door buckle moved almost soundless, but they heard it and the door started to open for a second until it hit the iron wrench. Again, it closed, and it swung open again hitting the wrench hard. The kids froze in place, but their heartbeat did the opposite. Hard knocking on the door started. “Police! Open the door or we’ll have to open it by force.” Relieved and surprised Lucia started towards the door and removed the iron wrench. When two policemen saw the four of them with John in the middle supported by two of them, so he would not fall, one of the policemen activated his communicator. “We found the kid. We need a medic up here, he looks a little beaten up, send along something to eat and a warm blanket, we’re beyond the graveyard at the cabin we saw on the map.” “Copy that, we’re sending in reinforcements. Good job!”
After a full investigation with the head of the search, Detective Harrison, and a long argument justifying their actions, and even though they felt like they were not appreciated for their bravery they did not let it bother them. They knew it and when they looked at each other it was written all over their faces. They had outsmarted the police and found their friend, they were heroes, nothing less. Turned out the shadows and silhouettes they saw in the fog and the darkness had been two curious police officers who thought they had seen something suspicious and followed the kids’ tracks they had left in the falling snow.
The evidence they found in the cabin and in Berners’ locker spoke for itself and even though Harrison had interviewed Rick, he was already judged guilty by Harrison, Principal Victoria, the teachers, parents, scholars, everyone, even the janitor looked at him in such a way you could tell he was judging him. This ultimately led to his dishonorable release from the school and it took the Berners quite some time to find a school that was willing to take him in again. Either the new school was far away enough to not have heard the story, or they just did not care. Some malicious tongue said the military was looking for people like that. Even though John was in the hospital for half a day and at home for another two, he rose to some popularity, not because he got abused but because four of the rather respected kids in school saved him. Soon this story became one of the school’s most popular legends, still being told at campfires by scholars long after all of the original members of the story graduated into university and started to work afterwards. It had a happy end after all, the kid was found, the bad guy punished, and life long friendships prospered from it, seems legit.
IX. Until We Meet Again
Slowly they woke in the middle of the day, still drunk but not as bad of a hangover as they expected. “Wow, how late is it?” John babbled looking over towards the young mothers and their children walking through the park where they had spent the night. Fortunately, they fell asleep a little further away from the main lawn and routes through Kanopy Park. “I’ve got no idea, but it sure seems to be headache o’clock.” John chuckled but only for a second until he moved, realizing the same fate had struck him too. Justice, in a way. Joseph never had a high resilience for alcohol, it was poison after all, and resilience against poison is usually achieved by constant exposure. He held his head protectively with the same hands which had enthusiastically filled all the nasty stuff into it yesterday. Some might say it sent mixed messages, others just referred to it as human. Despite the fact that their heads hurt badly, and they felt sick in general, it was a truly beautiful day. The sun already stood high in the sky and a soft breeze turned about the grass
“Let’s go and get some breakfast?” “Sure, let me just grab my jacket and we’re good to go.” Joseph grabbed the jacket and elegantly got up, looked for a tree to lean on for a second and stood all by himself not even a couple of seconds later. John underwent a similar ritual and now they were good to go, kind of. Sure, when they came in sight of the kids they stopped playing and some mothers grabbed their little ones a bit closer, but hey, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. And besides the way they looked, and to be honest the way they smelled, it seemed almost like they were regular visitors to the playground. Sure, still drunk but not in a dangerous way, just the regular amount of inappropriate. It is probably just the unusual sight of two men coming out of the woods that alarmed the mothers and caught the attention of their children. Anyway, they were gone so fast that things returned to normal as soon as they were out of sight again. No harm done.
“Wendy’s?” “If it’s good enough for you it’s good enough for me.” Thankful for all the buildings around Joseph, which offered the occasional lean on, he sighed while leaning against the wall of yet another skyscraper. It took them almost an hour to get there but they decided that it was the better move to walk instead of using the cascade waterway system for obvious reasons. The diner was scruffy looking and had the charm of a 1940 Hollywood movie setting. Big glass elements made up the facade making it look like they were already inside before they actually were, inside the smell was overwhelming. Coffee, something that smelled like pancakes, freshly baked bread, a scent of sugar in the air and lots of rumbling background noises from the guests’ and waiters’ chatter. It felt familiar, alive and like coming home.
“Have we ever been here?�
� Joseph, who was the last of them remaining full time on Earth, was a little shocked he never heard of the place. “I don’t think so.” John wasn’t in a particularly good mood after their bender, he kept quiet and if he had had anywhere near as much liquor as Joseph, he had every reason to be moody. It would have been ok to be in a hospital right now confessing his sins to a medical station. “Hello, what can I do for you?” The waitress was a young woman probably in the process of attending university and just getting over her three years in public service. “I’ll take the vanilla pancakes and a coffee, a big one. Actually, I’ll take a whole pot if that’s possible.” “It’s possible.” She almost managed to hide her smile. To be fair, seeing hungover people was unusual but it happened every now and then. The two of them were not a pretty sight, for one, they looked beaten up and furthermore they had an earthy smell on them. All in all, it was a ‘not your everyday thing’ that lingered around them. “I’ll take the fried potatoes and a big, no, the biggest orange juice you got. And we going to need a second coffee pot as well please.” Joseph smiled at her with his swollen eyes, it did not carry the usual warmth with his words, but the woman recognized the gesture for what it was: good intention.
Outside people passed by and for a while the two of them did not talk, but focused on getting themselves together. After they took a very long time where they focused entirely on their breakfast, they felt refreshed enough to talk again. “I always envied you for living up in the starry night.” Joseph glanced out towards the now crowded streets. “Reality of living in space would disappoint you. Even though it’s magnificent at first it gets old as everything else does.” John took another bite. “It never loses its majestic view though. I remember visiting Sapphire, a deep space research facility on Enceladus, for the first time, and the night sky seemed so different to me. Like this little window you look at from Earth, even though constantly changing, holds some familiarity, a sense of belonging if you want.” John’s thoughts drifted far away. Joseph could tell sadness and emptiness accompanied John’s thoughts and for a second the light in his eyes vanished. A shadow of terror flashed over his face, his eyes went dark, he seemed like a different person for a second. Joseph had never seen something like despair or agony on his face before. It was as alarming as it was fascinating. John snapped out of it so fast Joseph could not see it enough to get an idea about just what that was, but it felt like dread, dark and dangerous.