Breath

My eyes were nearly shutting down for some sleep. Suddenly, I heard a sound. It was coming – I think

from one of the graves.

Today, meaning on Good Friday, in the morning I had to bury a man three meters below the earth. The night was already getting darker, above the light of the full moon casted a reddish shadow on the graveyard, making it eerie and spooky.

I came out of my room and switched on the torch. The tombstones were shining in the beam of it. My job was a simple caretaker in this 200-year old graveyard. Twenty years have passed by, but still this place gives me the creeps.

Walking a little more, the sound came closer to my ears. I realized that it was not any sound. It was a breath. The breath of a person...

The torch trembled in my hands. The term ‘gravedigger’ first came to my mind. But was it a ‘gravedigger’ really? The answer might be known…

I walked a little bit further. The moonlight made the yard look even creepier. Now, I saw that the breath was now distinctly heard. But from where it was, looking to the place, my blood ran cold. The spot in the morning where I had buried that man, from there, the breath…

A shudder went down my spine. Not one, but I have buried thousands and slept peacefully for so many years. But today, a feeling of dread grasped me slowly. Something was wrong was going on. But where? And who was it?

Shall I dig the earth up? I thought. The breath sounded even more menacing with every passing minute.

A new fear suddenly grasped me. The person whom I buried today – was he actually dead? Maybe he was not! And was trying to call me!

 Get a grab, man, my brain said. Still…

After I covered up the ground in the morning, I kept the spade just next to a small area of creepers. The breath now began to grow louder. I began to dig with the spade.

After ten minutes, the coffin came into my sight. As if by magic, the breath was coming from…

The coffin itself!

No, no! I tried to reason with myself.  I am not opening that wooden box! After all – however – maybe the coffin was the key to this short – yet strange and spooky – mystery. But still, something held me back. One part of my head told me that something was terribly wrong over here…

The breath continued to grow. Soon, it was as if the whole graveyard started to breathe now. I had to open it – now only - or else…

Opening the coffin slowly, what I saw made me curdle with fear. The man was lying there, but from his nostrils, breath came out like flames! And that’s when that corpse opened his eyes…his reddish-blue eyes nearly stung me!

Suddenly, two hands from the coffin held my neck tightly. How much I tried to free them, but no! My eyes began to close…before that I saw a mist surrounding near that man…as if he was…

I couldn’t watch any further. Darkness captured me. I fell to the ground… and at that moment, someone ran away from this graveyard…

***

When Bob - the second caretaker - went in the morning, he found Ross’s room empty. While searching for him, he stumbled upon a coffin, which upon noticing it, gave out a shriek and fainted out of shock.

Inside the coffin was Ross Friar, and his bloodless body was staring back at him!

***

The house was empty for a day. Its owner, Anthony Solder had retired from Earth only yesterday.

The grandfather clock down the hall gave out the sound of eight gongs. It was eight o’clock in the night. The old man laughed. He was experiencing a strange feeling, which was circulating all around his body. He was alive – that was all. He could not be placed in a wooden box and thrown beneath the earth. He sat down in a chair lying nearby, and stared into the mirror.

His reflection could not be seen in the mirror.

The old man looked down at his hands, and smiled.

They were – for now – bloodless. It will take some time though. After all, the body of Friar or any other person cannot decompose that fast!

***

M.Macabre, 19.07.2020

Image courtesy: Google Images