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Printed from https://shop.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1548911-The-Inscription
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by Amy Author IconMail Icon
Rated: 13+ · Short Story · Young Adult · #1548911
When young Kevin reads a tomb stone he's curious what the inscription means.
         'He could resist everything except temptation, and this was very tempting.'
         That was the inscription. Only a select few knew what it meant. One more was due to join that select few however and have it has his inscription too.
         "Oi! Ger' up you lazy toad!" Kevin hollered at his older sister. He knew she'd only slept for about two hours because she'd worked the late shift, but he didn't care. It was too tempting. He had to wake her up. He dived on top of her and carried on jumping on her until she finally hit him so hard he fell off the bed and went sprawling like a dying bee.
         "Get lost you turnip!" Loraine groaned, clearly agitated, and drifted into a limbo where she is neither awake nor sleeping. While like this Loraine would agree to anything, Kevin knew this, so he asked for her car keys. She threw the keys at him and just said for him not to drive the car off a cliff.
         Kevin is only twelve years old, but he still got into Loraine's car and managed to drive to his friend's house, who lived next door to a cemetery.
         The two friends went for a stroll in the cemetery often, and today was no exception. Today however, they found a gravestone they hadn't seen before. It was inscribed;

                                                           'He could resist everything
                                                           Except temptation, and this
                                                               Was very tempting.'

         "What's that supposed to mean?" they asked each other. After deciding neither of them knew what it meant they went back and asked the friend's mother.
         She explained what temptation was but couldn't explain what was meant by 'and this was very tempting'. So the boys temporarily forgot about it and decided to go play 'bumper cars' with Loraine's car.
         How Kevin knew how to drive it we'll never know, but we know what he did with it.
        With Kevin in the driver's seat and his friend in the front passenger, they wound the old Camaro around the winding grit roads down to the beach. The stench of fast food and petrol filling the car.
        As they arrived, there was a graying, crooked shape gentleman siting on one of the damp, moss covered stones to the side. He refused take his eyes off the boys. Yet they didn't notice. They did on the other hand notice that the orange beach ball stapled to the sky was on fire and sending a warm glow down to the earth.
         The boys played hide and seek, but Kevin took it too far. He decided to look for his friend via car. He drove into a hole by accident and lost control. The car jerked, swerved and hopped to the edge of the cliff.
         Suddenly the car stopped with the front two wheels dangling off the edge of the cliff. As the car was teetering on the edge he heard someone in the back seat reciting the inscription he read earlier. Kevin turned to see where it was coming from. Sitting in the back seat was the old man that had been watching him earlier. Grinning, the gaps in his teeth becoming clear.
         "This is what was meant by the last bit of that inscription. Just too tempting wasn't it? You just couldn't resist it." The man laughed. All of a sudden he was gone, the balance in the car no longer even the Camaro started to tip forwards. Kevin sucked in his last breath as the car slipped forwards, off the edge. Into the murky brine below.
         Now, anyone who goes to visit Kevin they can see that his tombstone reads:

                                                                       Here Lies
                                                                     Kevin Jones
                                                            He Could Resist Everything
                                                           Except Temptation, and This
                                                               Was Very Tempting.
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