A Villiage Legend

‘Come on, chicken,’ laughed Kate.

‘You know, if you don’t want to do it you don’t have to,’ added Sophia.

‘Yeah, we’ll only call you a chicken for the rest of your life,’ Kate chimed in again.

‘I’m gonna do it, alright! I just need to prepare myself,’ sighed Destiny. Her friends were so immature, but also, unfortunately for her, much braver than she was.

The lamp behind them, the only light around, kept flickering ominously, threatening to plunge them into darkness.

‘You know, everything people say is just legends anyway,’ shrugged Destiny, trying to persuade herself she wasn’t scared.

The shadows of the leaves from the surrounding trees cast eerie shadows across her friends, making even their familiar faces seem foreboding. The chill October wind whistled through the branches, causing the shadows to writhe hauntingly. In a sudden gust the chain around the gate in front of them rattled and clinked, the ghostly sound of metal on metal.

‘It’s obviously locked for a reason,’ said Destiny in response to the noise from the gate. ‘We shouldn’t go in.’

‘Well, of course it’s locked,’ said Kate. ‘It’s Halloween, they obviously don’t want people going in and wrecking the place.’

‘Or searching for hidden secrets,’ smiled Sophia, excited by the prospect.

‘Honestly!’ Destiny rolled her eyes. ‘Anyone would think you two were Goths or wiccans or something!’

‘Right then,’ said Kate pulling out the hair pin she had brought with her. ‘When I open this we have to search the whole grave yard for the oldest grave stone or tomb.’

‘Who gave you permission to be in charge?’ moaned Sophia.

‘No-one, just do it. And then, as Destiny lost the dare, when she sees the light she needs to dig it out!’ Kate handed Destiny a shovel.

‘Come on, Dee, it’s just a legend. Nothing’s gonna happen to you,’ Sophia reassured her.

************

In school, the girls had been learning about their village history and Halloween tales. Their teacher, Mr. Havers, enjoyed trying to spook the students so he turned out the lights and began telling his story.

‘The story I’m going to tell you is one of the oldest Halloween myths there are, but supposedly anyone who succeeds, which is next to no-one, is scarred for life.

‘Legend has it that at midnight on the 31st October strange things happen by the oldest memoriam in the grave yard. Part of the task however is finding said grave, and so far no-one has survived to pass the search and is willing to pass on the knowledge with the legend. It is said that one man has managed to succeed in this feat which is how the tale arose, however he was so traumatised by what he found he has refused to pass on any information as to where in the yard to look.

‘The story he told goes like this: on arriving at said grave a glowing ball of light appeared from out of the ground. On seeing this light he grew curious and proceeded to dig into the grave. As he felt his shovel hit the hard wood of the coffin the light erupted into a bright beam shining out from the floor towards the sky.

‘The next thing he heard was the cracking of the wood of the coffin. Too scared to run he looked down. Two hands, which seemed to have talons as opposed to fingers, were breaking their way out of the coffin. As the hole in the wood grew larger he saw what appeared to be two red lights.’

‘Lights in a grave?’ Kate asked, sceptically.

‘What were they really?’ asked Destiny.

‘No-one knows. He didn’t stay long enough. At the sight of that unnatural phenomenon he turned and ran, leaving the grave open and his shovel on the floor.

‘The next day, he dared to return, only to find no trace of what had happened the night before. And no-one has found it since, or at least no-one has lived to tell the tale.’

**************

‘This probably isn’t a very good idea, and it could take us ages anyway,’ said Destiny looking round at all the headstones.

‘Just because you’re scared!’ teased Kate. ‘Come on, get searching.’

So the three girls split and searched the grave yard checking all the dates.

‘Hey,’ called Sophia. ‘These ones are really worn out; I bet it’s one of these.’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Destiny as she approached the mausoleum. On the door it had the words:

‘THE ATROPINE FAMILY 1642’

She reached out towards the door but it wouldn’t open.

‘It’s locked,’ she muttered to herself.

There was a padlock on the sliding lock of the door and as she inspected the padlock a spider scurried over her hand. She let out a short, piercing scream which echoed around the graveyard.

‘What happened?’ asked Kate as they rushed over. ‘Did you find it?’

‘I think it’s this one but there was a spider,’ replied Destiny.

‘Just a spider? We thought something had happened to you,’ said Sophia with an exasperated sigh.

Kate pulled out her hair pin yet again. ‘This lock is far too new for this tomb,’ she said as the padlock clicked open. ‘Now you go in and search in there while we carry on out here just in case.’

And with that Sophia and Kate left again. A deathly silence fell over the graveyard; it was as if not a single soul was left alive. There was no sound, not even the wind blew to create a rustling in the trees. The only noise Destiny could hear was her own ragged breathing and the sound of her heart as she stepped forward into the tomb.

It was darker than night, and quieter than space. A damp musty smell clung to Destiny’s nostrils. She pulled her torch out of her pocket and clicked it on. The beam was reflected back at her from the thick, silky webs of a thousand spiders. As she slowly edged forward she realised the ground beneath her dropped away. The beam of her torch was adjusted to illuminate the stairs in front of her. Carefully and cautiously she placed one foot at a time on the next step until she reached the chamber.

There was no knowing how far underground she now was. The damp rotting smell grew stronger as she noticed the glint of her torch imitated off of the ripples of the water below the bridge she was now standing on.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

The condensation caused by the absent heat of sun against stone fell slowly back towards the pool. The walls were lined with coffins, each on a shelf like a filing system of ancient ancestry.

Destiny took in the scene around her. Why had she let her friends pressure her into this? The incessant dripping was slowly driving her crazy. She was readying herself to return to the surface and tell the girls she had found nothing, when there was a clatter to her left. She spun round and aimed her torch like a weapon.

There in front of her was a boy about her age with a floppy black fringe and piercing blue eyes.

‘Who are you?’ she asked. Her voice was shaking violently.

‘My name’s Jinx, can you please lower your torch?’ his hands were raised in a gesture of surrender.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked, lowering her torch slightly.

‘Me and my mate Gavin thought we’d investigate certain legends for ourselves.’ At the mention of his name another boy stepped out of the shadows of the coffins.

‘How did you get in here, the door was locked?’ asked Destiny.

‘We climbed the gate,’ Jinx told her.

She looked confused for a second and then realised what he meant.

‘Oh no, not the graveyard, the mausoleum. The door to the mausoleum was locked.’

‘No it wasn’t,’ said the boy called Gavin. ‘We unlocked it.’

‘No, my friend just unlocked it,’ corrected Destiny.

Then there was a cracking from behind them.

The coffin that Jinx had disturbed had spilt clean down the centre of the lid.

‘Let’s go,’ said Jinx and headed for the stairs as the other two followed.

Before they reached them, Gavin turned back round. There were now splinters of wood lying around the coffin as the hole grew larger. As he watched, a hand protruded from the fissure in the wood. It was ghostly white; the skin was brittle and almost transparent like it had been stretched over to much bone. The fingers were like talons, the nails razor sharp. Gavin didn’t wait to see anymore, but turned and scurried after the others.

As they reached the exit they tugged the lock, but nothing happened. They combined their strength and tugged, but still the door wouldn’t move. Destiny hammered on the heavy door.

‘Girls,’ she called. ‘Come on Kate, this isn’t funny.’

Outside in the grave yard, Kate and Sophia were still exploring when they heard the faint pleas for help.

They ran back to the mausoleum.

‘I know you locked the door, now let us out,’ came the shout from the other side of the door.

‘We didn’t lock anything,’ said Kate staying back, scared by the ominous glow emitting from the edges of the door.

‘Something’s after us now open the door,’ screamed Destiny still hammering on the door.

Kate fumbled with her hair pin, almost dropping it and losing it among the grass.

‘Quicker, quicker,’ called Destiny.

The lock clicked open and the three tumbled from the tomb, dusty from the cobwebs. As they turned to close the door, they saw two red lights advancing up the stairs towards them. They heard undead hands scratching against the door as it closed.

They ran from the graveyard and the gate and chain clinked as they threw them shut behind them.

I guess no-one would ever truly know the mysteries that graveyard held.