The Hidden Graveyard: A Suspenseful Short Story

by Marc Layton

  “You’re just saying that because you like her,” I winked at him. He gave a knowing shrug as if to say, Can you blame me?

  We began our work online, diving into forums. We came across many who talked about spirits as peaceful or harmless. Obviously not the ones we were working with. Most of them had techniques to talk ghosts through their pain, allowing them to move on—nothing on the evil spirits and how to rid the world of their terror.

  As we continued to research, Meredith woke up to some hot coffee made by none other than Damian. She started to explore the family, and slowly but surely, she uncovered the whole story.

  “Come read this.”

  Damian leaned over her shoulder and read out loud, "February 20th, 1994, The Sonora Sonet. Over the harsh winter storm last month, four bodies were discovered in a home in the woods near Sonora Park. The Lindum family lived in a small vacation home in the park during the holiday season. The only entry and exit to the property are trails through the forest. The bodies of two adults, Benjamin and Abigail Lindum, were found in their bed, trapped in their small home in the middle of the park. The cause of death was deemed hypothermia. Two children were also discovered with evidence of cannibalism to their bodies. Investigation into the children is ongoing."

  Sitting back, we all fell silent. What a terrible way to go, hypothermia in your own home. Slowly turning into monsters until you eat your own children. But you still die in the end. Just awful.

  It was then that I remembered my parents. They killed my family, took them from us. Stripped us of our childhood just because they felt guilty. Is that what kept them on this side of the world? They couldn’t bear to go on and see the children they had sacrificed?

  "Well, that would definitely cause some unfinished business." Damian broke the silence. "I feel like this is why our parents have been reaching out to me. They want us to put an end to this."

  I slowly nodded. "As much as I don't want to do this, I believe you. I think we need to figure out how to make them finally leave the human world, or that graveyard will just keep growing."

  “Is this even possible? I’ve never heard of ghosts eating people.” Meredith said, puzzled.

  We didn't know enough about the ghost world. We continued to research online, sipped our coffee, and poured over blog posts, articles, and forums.

  "Look here!" Damian exclaimed. "This post talks about how a ghost can be condemned to devour human corpses because of the evil deeds they have committed on earth. I think eating your own children might count."

  "This is terrifying!" Gasped Meredith as she read over his shoulder. "Does it say how to release them from their sins? Send them onward?"

  “Unfortunately, no. We’ll keep searching.” Damian sighed.

  We were coming up empty until finally I pulled up an old thread of questions on a forum that were similar to ours. How do you get rid of an evil spirit who just won't go?

  On this thread, we uncovered a ritual to get rid of a ghost using the bones from their Earthly bodies. Supposedly, if you salted them and set them on fire, it would set the spirits free. This method sounded easy enough. But there was one problem - we didn’t know where to find their bones, and returning to that house in the forest seemed risky.

  "What is the likelihood that they are buried on the property? Maybe we can go through the woods to the backyard again, and they won't even see us?" Damian suggested.

  Meredith glanced at him, annoyance written on her face. “They’ll definitely be on the lookout now. They tried to kill you yesterday, or did you forget about that already?”

  “I didn’t forget, I just thought maybe we could make it work. They didn’t see us back there the last time!” he defended.

  I frowned. “What if we come prepared? Maybe if we lay a circle of salt around the bones first, since it seems like salt is important here. And then we can salt each body in the graveyard and burn it. That could work if we went fast?”

  Meredith considered the idea, chin in hand. "It could work, but still kind of risky. It seems like a bit much, we'd need a lot of salt, and we'd have to move quickly. Plus, it would take a long time to burn all of those bodies."

  We contemplated it some more, tossing out a few ideas here and there but ultimately coming up empty-handed. Feeling defeated, we grabbed our gear and set out to execute my original idea. We stopped at the local gas station and general store, grabbing all of the salt they had in stock, and by mid-day, we were walking through the forest again. Damian had been awfully quiet and clearly had something on his mind.

  “If we don’t make it through this, I want you guys to know that you’re the people I want to spend my last hours with.”

  Shocked by his sincerity, I responded, “You’re the people I want to be with, too.”

  Meredith furrowed her brow and looked back and forth between the two of us. "I don't want either of you talking about dying, you hear? That's not a good start to this trip. You should know better."

  An uncomfortable silence passed until she finally continued, “But if it was our last day here, I would like to say it was great to meet the both of you.”

  We smiled and nodded at her in thanks. It had been a wild journey so far. To think that just two days ago, I was sitting in my kitchen making coffee for my sleeping brother. Now I knew way too much about ghosts and how to free their spirits. The strangest part was that I felt comfortable with it. Even scared out of my mind, I felt determined to return to that house and execute this mission.

  It was like I finally made it to where I was supposed to be. I was supposed to be here. Destined, or something like that. Damian felt it too, I could tell by his confident walk and ability to be calm. We were all comfortable. With each other, with our investigation, with our abilities against these creatures. We were doing what we were supposed to be doing. It felt strangely perfect.

  "When we get there, we should walk around back and slip into the graveyard. We have to be quick and quiet; we don't really know what they're capable of. They could sense us coming or be ready for us."

  Damian and Meredith nodded. “Agreed.” They spoke in unison.

  "Damian, you have the salt. Let's each hold on to one, just in case. If anyone gets separated from the group, scream and draw a salt circle around you. I don't think the woman, Abigail, will come after us. She seemed pretty meek around her husband, but anything can happen, so be on guard."

  They nodded as the house came into view, and we craned our necks to try and see inside from so far away. The windows were clean but old and had a greyish filter on them. Damian stood on the outer edge and stopped every once in a while to check the windows and doors again. If anything moved, he would motion for us to stop. But it only happened once - he thought it saw a curtain move by a fraction inside. We all froze, not wanting to risk anything. We paused briefly before deciding we were safe to continue.

  As we entered the backyard, past the shed, and into the graveyard, we began salting the area in a large circle. Damian, our guard, looked up at the house, quickly turned to us, and yelled, waving his arms frantically.

  Meredith and I looked up from our salt paths to find Ben staring at us with wide eyes through a window. His anger was evident. We sped up quickly, running and laying as much salt as we possibly could. As we both glanced up, we saw Ben as he floated through the walls of the house (something I’d only seen in movies) and raced over to the graveyard.

  His suit blew in the wind, the fabric billowing against him. The air grew colder the closer he got. He turned increasingly pale and hollow as he raced toward us. Our hearts began to skip as we ran around the circle, ensuring we had done every step correctly. As we threw the last bit of salt on the circle, he came down to the ground outside of the graveyard.

  “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING HERE?!” he screeched.

  “Saving this town from your terrors. We know what you are and what you did,” Damian spoke with zeal.

  Ben gave a laugh that had an undertone of evil, his eyes glinting. “OH.
Do you?!”

  Meredith stepped forward, close to the inner edge of the circle. "Thomas and Jack? What happened to them?"

  “I think if you knew, you wouldn’t have come back here,” he turned his head to the side, giving us a smile with dead eyes.

  I finally got the courage to speak up. “You ate them. Your own children. How could you do that? You killed them!”

  Ben didn’t look at all fazed by my declaration. “Why yes. If you knew the answer to the question, why did you even bother to ask?!” He leaned as far as he could toward the circle surrounding us, eager to get to us.

  His face emptied of emotion as he stood larger. His body began expanding, taller than the trees, standing over us as if an invisible bubble was the only thing keeping us safe.

  "Why did you kill them?!" I shouted up at him, my neck almost at a 90-degree angle.

  He faked a few cries, mocking me. “Why did you kill them? Boohoo. We needed them. We were dying, we were going to die, and they saved us. They were given to us to be sacrificed."

  He began to shrink, standing only at about seven feet tall now, but still stalked the edge of the circle.

  Damian spoke quietly to keep the ghost calm and hopefully small. "But you died. And you're dead now anyway. So what was the point of murdering your innocent children? And why do you keep killing?" He gestured around him at the graveyard.

  “Enough about the children. What about you. Why are you here?” He began to grow again in his anger. “Why have you come back again and again to torture us?!”

  “The Sullivans - that couple with the two boys? You killed them,” Damian yelled.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. Can’t remember everyone you kill,” Ben shrugged.

  "So you've killed many?" Meredith asked.

  He looked at her, surprised by her strong voice, "Why yes, I have, little lady."

  “And why is that?” her voice sounded innocent, curious.

  He laughed at her. “You’re not as innocent as you sound. You, too, are evil inside. Everyone is.”

  We began to pick through the shallow graves, hurrying to find bones before the soil devoured the salt, and we were stranded. He sat patiently, mocking us, waiting for his moment to strike. His head stayed cocked to one side, with an empty smile a seat for his mustache.

  “Why?! Why are you doing this?!” he mocked. “No! Stop! Oh no! You’ll find us!”

  Glancing at each other, we realized we weren't going to be able to find their bones among so many others. We didn't want to destroy all of the evidence, either. We began to dig up each grave, taking one bone from each and leaving the rest, creating small piles and then moving on. One by one, we salted and burned the piles. Ben still chuckled to himself, pacing the edge of the circle and taunting our hectic work. We tried, but by the time we all huddled around the last grave and lit the bones, he was still laughing.

  “They must have them hidden,” I whispered to Damian and Meredith.

  "Wait." Meredith looked down, concentration drawing her brows together. "Remember when we went inside and toured the place? And I looked at all of those photos in their tubs in the storage shed? There's a very particular chest. It's in their bedroom. Before Damian screamed, I saw it in the corner by a reading chair when we were upstairs. I thought it was just a chest, but in the Christmas photo...they used it to store the kids' toys. Why would they keep that if they wanted to stop thinking about the kids? They've gotten rid of everything their kids' had. The only reason they'd keep that chest is if they wanted to hide something inside."

  Damian and I looked at each other and nodded. Meredith sounded sure of herself. We had nothing to lose. The only problem now was how to get up to the house - how to get past Ben.

  Damian spoke first and quietly. "Anyone have a plan?"

  We looked over at Ben, who was no longer watching us but still pacing. He seemed content to wait us out.

  "What if we just went past him? Went backward, into the brush?"

  Meredith reminded me, “You saw how fast he got over here. Once he realizes we’re gone, we’ll be dead. Plus, we don’t know where Abigail is. We can’t even take on one, much less both of them.”

  “Alright. I have an idea,” I said.

  A minute later, while Ben was turning to gaze around the property, Meredith and Damian flanked right and left. At the same time, I stood back into our safe circle and covered the rest. In one swift movement, we had him trapped.

  In the seconds he had his eyes off of us, we had encapsulated him in a salt circle, covering the ground around him with a thick white line. As he finally realized he had been tricked, he grew as tall as he could. Almost 15 feet tall he stood, larger than the trees but trapped inside of his circle. He released a thunderous roar, louder than anything I'd heard before. It shook me to my core. We left the safety of our circle and ran to the house as he screamed behind us.

  The door squeaked shut as we entered and turned on the dim lights of the first floor. Staking out the first floor, we carefully walked around the kitchen, sitting areas, downstairs bathroom. Checking the backyard periodically to make sure our giant was still contained – he was.

  “Where do you think she is?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,“ Damian replied, “but we need to keep an eye out for her.”

  We slowly walked up the stairs. Meredith and I checked the first room - no luck. Nothing had changed. Damian and I checked each side of the hallway, opened doors simultaneously, and communicated that they were clear. Only one door remained, and we weren't sure if she would appear to us or not.

  As we grew closer to the door, we heard a low moan. Each step we took seemed to make it grow in agony. The outpouring of grief from Abigail became more and more apparent. We didn't have a plan as we entered the room, which scared us.

  Damian opened the door slowly, the three of us standing in the large doorway looking in. In her yellow dress, Abigail sat on the floor, strewn across the wooden chest we believed the bones were in. Her screams and low aching moans were louder than ever, shaking the floorboards. You could feel the grief in the pit of your stomach, like a growing ball of bad energy.

  “Abigail?” Meredith asked, stepping into the room tentatively.

  Abigail turned toward us, a hopeful smile on her face and tears streaming down her face. “Yes?”

  “I’m Meredith. It’s really nice to meet you.”

  Abigail tilted her head to the side slowly. A tear fell from her right eye and dripped down her cheek. She sat there for too long. Long enough for all of us to look at each other, in fear and confusion, then back at her.

  Snapping her neck back into place, she said, “It’s so nice to meet you too. Who are you?”

  “I’m Meredith. We’re here to help you.” She gestured at the two of us.

  “You brought friends?” she asked, crawling a bit closer to us.

  “I’m Damian, and this is Liam.”

  I nodded, bending down slowly to the floor so as to not startle her. She didn’t seem to remember us at all.

  She giggled, another tear rolling down her cheek. "Nice to meet you."

  Meredith slowly lowered herself down, speaking on the same level as Abigail. "Are you upset today?"

  Taken aback, she responded, “No. Why would you say that?”

  “We heard some crying from the hall. Are you alright?”

  Abigail touched her cheek and felt the damp skin. Surprised, she said, “I guess I am.”

  I leaned in a bit closer. “Do you know why you’re so upset?”

  She looked back at the chest on the floor, pulling herself towards it. “This. My children. They’re gone. It’s all my fault.”

  She whimpered and drew the chest back into her, curling her arms around it. Her legs went limp behind her as if she had no more strength from the grief.

  “It’s alright...” she sniffled, “Ben should be home soon...I should...get started on dinner. We have to eat tonight or...”

  As she got up to leave the room, she stood in th
e doorway, looking off into the distance. Meredith turned to face her, still sitting on the ground. "Or what, Abigail?"

  * * *

  "Or Ben will be angry. And we'll have to leave."

  “Leave where?” Damian asked.

  “Leave here.”

  Meredith chimed in as Abigail was about to close the door, “Why do you need to eat to stay here? What is it that you have to do?”

  “Eat more. Continue eating. Always eating.”

  “What are you eating tonight?” I asked.

  Abigail finally looked down at us, cocked her head with a confused look and answered, “Why, campers, I suppose. That’s what Ben usually brings home. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll bring me some locals. They taste sweeter,” she giggled and closed the door on her way out.

  9

  “So, they eat to survive on Earth?” Damian asked.

  Meredith kept her eye on the door. “Sounds like it. Ben is the monster. She sounds like a sweet and tortured soul.”

  “Sweet?” I asked. “Eating my parents was the kind thing to do?”

  "That's not what I meant, and you know that. I just mean she doesn't seem like she wants to stay here, to continue doing this. There must be two sides to her - one when she's with Ben and one when she's alone."

  I nodded. Abigail was clearly under the spell of her husband, the controlling psycho maniac who tried to murder us.

  The three of us turned our attention to the chest in front of us. As we pushed it open, a horrible smell wafted out into the room. Damian pulled up his shirt to use it as a face shield; I plugged my nostrils with my fingers, and Meredith had to physically walk away to not throw up her lunch. Damian began to look through the bones to make sure there were multiple bodies inside.

  He began to match up different femurs, finding at least three different pairs and setting them aside. As we sorted through the mess, Meredith sat in the corner closest to the door to avoid the smell. We attempted to separate them, but we were no anatomy experts, so it was difficult. We decided not to waste time and began to create a place to burn them all together, dousing them with our remaining salt.