Cobwebs In Corners

Holly Jenson quickly walked through the empty graveyard as the crisp autumn breeze brushed her cheek. The orange leaves blurred her vision as she rushed passed all the oak trees in her path. She wasn’t in any hurry or looking for a particular name as she rushed passed unfamiliar, grey headstones; she simply just wanted to escape from her emotions and her boyfriend.

‘Why is Kevin such a jerk?’She wondered in the depths of her mind. Her arrogant boyfriend of ten months may be “quite a catch” as her mother would say, tall, blonde, and obviously handsome, but that was just his mask. Holly knew the real Kevin Barker and he was horrible to say the least. In fact, Holly began to view the word “horrible” as an understatement. Just earlier that evening, Kevin purposely picked a fight with Holly about her talking to Connor, an old high school friend whom she hasn’t seen in five years. Connor was married and nothing was going on between them. Why couldn’t Kevin just accept that?

Holly didn’t care though. She just shrugged it off and kept on walking. This was normal behavior for him; she was practically immune to it by now. In Kevin’s eyes she was merely ungrateful and lazy. He always told her that she had nothing going for her and that she was even lucky to have him. But was she really? She began to wonder why she even stayed with him. He was obviously no good for her and uncaring. Holly couldn’t even recall the last time she thought he meant it when he said he loved her; actually, she couldn’t even remember the last time that he said he loved her.

Kevin and Holly met at a New Year’s party that year and immediately hit it off, but once they made their relationship official things changed. Kevin changed. He became verbally abusive and untrusting. Holly was always wrong and even when she wasn’t, he wouldn’t admit it. While he plays his Mr. Nice-Guy card in front of her friends and family in an attempt to win them over that’s not the real Kevin. And the worst part is that when Holly tries to tell someone, no one listens, well… Except for Kevin and that only causes an argument later.
‘I guess that’s just one of love’s blind-sides.’ She thought to herself.

Holly’s phone soon started vibrating. She immediately took it out of her hoodie pocket to see that Kevin was calling. However, Holly was not in the mood so she simply took out the battery, put the phone back in its place, and continued her walk of peace. But now something was different. Holly was so concentrated on her frustrating thoughts of Kevin that she didn’t notice how deep into the graveyard she traveled. She didn’t see any familiar scenario and was immediately overwhelmed by a sea of panic. Holly turned on her heels and quickened her pace only to be suddenly stopped. It felt as if all the life and breath had been sucked out of her body and replaced by a hypnotic trance. She couldn’t help but remain frozen on the spot simply staring straight ahead of her and then, almost as if acting on an impulse, Holly stepped towards a vine covered grave that looked as though it hadn’t had a visitor in decades. The faded words were covered by leaves and other weeds that had begun to grow back. Some of the stone was chipped and the silver that it appeared to have once been was now browned by dirt. What on earth possessed Holly to come to this grave was unknown but she suddenly knelt down and pulled the plants away from the monument as though her life depended on it. She continued to brush off some of the dirt and make the grave look presentable. When she was confident in her work she stood up, brushed off her pants, and took a step back. Holly looked around and slowly tried to regain her composure by breathing in and out. It seemed as if she had snapped out of her trance and was just left there to recover. As her breathing began to go back to as normal as it possibly could she turned her attention back to the ancient headstone as she mouthed the words while reading them silently.

IN MEMORY OF VICTOR L. DANIELS
BORN OCTOBER 12, 1924
DIED OCTOBER 12, 1944
VETERAN OF WWII

October twelfth, today. Feeling overwhelmed with coincidence Holly put her hand on the grave for support; however, she realized it was a failed attempt when she felt her head hit the cool ground, rattling her consciousness. Not wanting to awaken the pain, Holly just laid there for a moment until her eyes unwillingly fluttered open.

“We are gathered here today to honor a loved one and a valiant soldier.”

Holly looked around. She was in the same exact place where she had fallen, but something was different. There was a casket with a large American flag covering it in front of the headstone which was surrounded by a group of people, all dressed in black.

“Is there anyone who would like to say any words about Victor?”Holly quickly identified the speaker as a priest, but that didn’t make her experience any simpler to comprehend. She rose to her feet and cautiously stepped towards the crowd, but as she did so she crushed a twig with her foot creating an obnoxious cracking. The crowd seemed to pay her no mind, almost as if she didn’t exist…

As she approached the people, Holly stood behind a young woman who appeared to be in her mid-thirties. She was in all black except for her cherry lipstick and refused to make eye contact with anyone. Holly lifted up her finger after thinking for a second; she then held her breath as she tapped on the lady’s shoulder. She didn’t budge. Holly scrunched her eyebrows and then tried again.

“Excuse me ma’am,” She whispered, barely audible for her own ears, “but where am I?”

Holly never received a response. In fact, the unidentified woman simply walked away as Holly noticed the crowd dispersing. She looked around as everyone shook hands and climbed into their cars, all of which looked exactly the same.

‘The graveyard hasn’t changed.’ Holly could establish that she was still in the Oakfield Cemetery, but it wasn’t the same one she ran to after her argument with Kevin. There were much more trees and a significant difference in the number of graves. The emptiness of the area screamed out at her as though beckoning her to go back to where she came from, but Holly was unaware of where that was or even how to return. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. It was off since she took out her battery. Holly sighed as she tried to locate her battery in her pocket, a task that proved impossible as thunder broke the silence.

But something else broke that silence along with the natural event. A laugh. A suspicious, amused laugh. Holly looked up to find herself face to face with a man who appeared to be in his twenties. He had on a white tank top and heavy looking green, camouflage pants. His light brown hair was shaved off and his blue eyes had story to tell, a story that Holly couldn’t pull away from as she sucked in his appearance like air. She then noticed a silver dog-tag gently hang from his neck as he spoke to her.

“Are you lost?” She broke away from trying to read the small letters on the metal and met this stranger’s gaze. All Holly could do was nod as she realized she couldn’t find the words to speak. The still unidentified man laughed once more as he pulled Holly towards the grave she had just come from. She looked at the stranger in the eyes as he gave her one last quick smile before placing her hand on Victor’s headstone and vanishing.

Holly opened her eyes and looked around. The air was much colder and the night was closing in on her. The casket that was once in her view was now nowhere to be found. In fact neither were the cars, group of people, or the stranger. They were instead immediately replaced my all the graves she noticed were missing before. None of this made any sense to Holly, so despite the fact that she was in the midst of a cold sweat and shaking with fear she simply got to her feet and walked home without saying a word of this to anyone. All the while she was trying to convince herself that she hit her head too hard on the ground and that it was all just a dream.


But something in her gut told her that she was dead wrong.