A Story For The Dead

                    A Story For The Dead
                  By Matthew Boggs

Idele peered around the corner of her house, and watched as her little brother Quin snuck out the front door.  He quickly looked around to make sure no one saw him, and then hurried off towards the dirt road leading toward town.  Idele stealthily followed the eight year old boy, determined to find out where he had been sneaking off to every night after dinner.

         Quin shifted the heavy book in his hands, and then shivered as he tried to pull his cloak tighter around him.  The night air was cold, but he knew that it would be chillier where he was going.  The boy stopped and looked behind him.  Perhaps it had been a cat he thought he had heard.  He walked a little faster.

         Idele slowly let her breath out. That was close, she thought. She had been sure Quin had heard or seen her.  She was glad it was dark, and that there were lots of pine trees to quickly dart behind.  She was enjoying this little game, despite the bone-chilling night breeze.    The moon disappeared behind some clouds, and it became quite dark.  Idele wondered why Quin didn’t light the lantern he was carrying.  She nearly stumbled, and wished he would light the thing.

         Quin arrived at a crossroads, and his sister saw that he took the path leading towards the old church and cemetery.  This raised her curiosity level even higher. She felt sure that little Quin would be heading the other way towards town.  Why would her little brother be going to the church at this time of night? She shuddered. Quin had walked right by the church and had gone into the cemetery.  Her game of cat and mouse had suddenly become a lot less fun.  Idele paused at the entrance to the graveyard.  Every bone in her eleven year old body was telling her to go back home.  Her curiosity had been replaced with concern for Quin.  She took a deep breath and stepped into the graveyard.

         Quin stopped in front of the big crypt in the center of the cemetery.  He set down the book, and then lit the lantern.  He held the light up and looked around the graveyard. 

“What are you doing here?” Quin asked when he saw Idele coming toward him.
“What are YOU, doing here?” Idele retorted. 
“You’ve been spying on me!” He squealed.
“Yes, but only tonight. I wanted to see where you kept running off to. Now I wish I hadn’t. Why are you here anyway?”
“I read stories to the people in the tomb.” Quin answered.
“What people?”  The look Quin gave Idele made her feel stupid.  It also made her very uneasy.
“Oh, I think I understand. You still haven’t gotten over your friend Rourd dying, have you?”
Quin didn’t answer, he just bent down and picked up his book. 
“You read stories to your friend, don’t you?”  Idele asked, trying to smile. 
“Not just him, there are others who like to hear the stories too.”

Idele’s smile faded away.
“Maybe we should go back home. We shouldn’t be here at night anyway.  Isn’t this where they found Rourd that morning?”  She shivered and looked around nervously.
“Go  home.  I want to read them stories.  You really should go.”  He pushed open the door to the crypt.  It creaked as it swung open and Idele nearly jumped.  A musty smell wafted out of the tomb. She wanted nothing more than to run.  Her concern for her little brother won out though.

“Wait.” Idele said and put her hand on her brother’s shoulder.
Quin sighed and turned to face Idele. 
“If you’re going to come with me, I have to tell you something.” 
“What?” She said nervously.
“Are you scared, Idele?”
“No, I’m not scared.” She lied. 
“Good.  They hate it when you are scared of them. It makes them remember that they are dead. You must never let them know you are scared of them.”
Idele swallowed hard and nodded.  She had never heard her brother speak like that before.  His words had chilled her to her very core. 

         The two of them slowly descended the dusty stairs into the tomb. Quin’s lantern cast creepy shadows along the stone walls. Their footsteps seemed to echo into eternity, and the air grew colder with every step.  The young girl resisted the urge to run back up the stairs.

         The lantern light illuminated several stone coffins and sarcophagi.  Idele trembled and marveled at how calm Quin was.  The boy sat down in the center of the tomb, surrounded by cold stone coffins.  He patted the ground next to him and Idele sat down.  Her eyes focused on the nearest sarcophagus and she recognized the name. Inside the stone box was Quin’s little friend Rourd.  She knew her grandparents were down here somewhere too.  She turned her eyes back to her sibling, who was opening the book.  He began to read out loud, and the gentle sound of his voice took some of the fear and anxiety away.  This isn’t so bad, she thought.  She was starting to feel rather peaceful.

         The lantern flickered badly and Idele worried it might go out.  She was relieved when the flame stabilized itself.  Somewhere in the room there was a sound of stone scraping against stone.  She gasped and fearfully looked around.  The sound continued, and then there were more sounds coming from all around the crypt. .
         “You mustn’t be afraid, Idele. Remember, they hate it when you’re afraid of them.” Quin said sternly before continuing to read. 
         His words only made her fear increase.  She saw some movement on the sarcophagus next to them.  The lid was slowly sliding open.  She watched as a small grey, rotting hand pushed the lid off the coffin. It made an echoing thunk as it hit the ground.  Dust was kicked up into the air, and through the dust she could see a grinning face rising from the coffin. It had no eyes, and the flesh was falling away from the bone, but she knew at once who it was.  Rourd,  Quin’s dead friend.  He was climbing his way out of the sarcophagus,  the exposed bones in his arms scraping against the stone.  Idele wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. Her mouth was open, but no sound emerged.  Quin kept reading.  The thing that was once Rourd was shambling towards them.  Its mouth was open, and a sound like dry leaves being blown, rattled out of its throat.  The thing sat down next to Idele, and looked at her with empty eye sockets.
She grimaced and looked away. She was horrified to see the tomb was now full of shambling corpses.  Some were nothing but skeletons, while others  were in hideous states of decay. Flesh hung from bones, and in some cases limbs dangled only by shriveled tendons.  The smell was overpowering, and the girl gagged.  Corpses were starting to sit all around them, apparently listening to Quin’s story. The boy kept reading, not even looking up at the horrors around him.  Idele’s heart pounded, and she struggled to breathe.  Her whole body trembled with tremendous fear.  She felt a cold hand on her shoulder and twisted her head around to see.  The face she looked into was rotted and grinning grotesquely.  Worms and beetles were crawling around in its empty eye sockets.  A shiny necklace caught Idele’s eyes.  The horrible thing was her grandmother.  Idele shrieked. The piercing scream echoed through the tomb and up the stairs.
         She felt the cold hand on her shoulder tighten, the dead fingernails digging into her skin.  The grin on the thing’s face had turned into a snarling grimace.  Quin reached out and grabbed his sister’s arm. 
“No Idele! You can’t be afraid of them! You must not be afraid! Don’t be scared!” His voice begged, and she sensed a tinge of fear.    Idele lost control and shrieked. She slapped her grandmother’s decaying hand away from her shoulder and tried to get up.  Rourd had a hold of her legs and another rotting corpse had grabbed her by the waist. She shrieked louder,  and started to sob as she screamed.  She thrashed around, but the dead had a solid hold of her.  She heard the rattling of the horrors’ voices and could smell their rotting breath.  Her last vision was of Quin dashing up the stairs and out of the tomb.


         It was months before Quin returned to the crypt.  He hesitantly pushed open the door and descended the stairs.  He spotted the newest sarcophagus immediately and sat down beside it.  He set the lantern down beside him and started to read. It wasn’t long before the boy heard the familiar sound of coffins being opened by the things inside.  He looked up at the sarcophagus next to him and watched the lid sliding back.  A head rose up, its long brown hair obscuring its face.  A pale hand brushed the hair away, and Quin looked into the decaying face of his sister Idele. 
         “I told you, they HATE when you are afraid of them. Why couldn’t you have just listened to me?”
         The thing named Idele sat down next to Quin and waited for him to start reading again.