One
Blake
“Tell me again why we’re doing this?” We pulled up in front of the old graveyard that had been the subject of more than one nightmare in my childhood.
“I told you, I just need to see if it’s true. We’ve heard this story since we were kids. I want to know if anyof it’s real.”
“Blake, you realize this is basically grave robbing, right? If one of the county cops sees us out here, they won’t hesitate to arrest us.” Aaron leaned forward in the seat and looked out the window at the dark graveyard before turning to meet my eyes. “We’re fucked if they catch us.”
“I think there’s a limit on how long they’ve been dead,” I lied. I had no clue about any of that shit. We’d been told a bandit from the “olden days,” as my grandfatherloved to say, was buried here with the gold he’d stolen from a train that was headed to Sacramento from Shasta County. My grandfather told me that story every day, from the day I was born until just last week. I knew he believed every word of it, and I believed it because he did. Which led to me getting into more than a few fights with other kids who were sure he was crazy.
“I don’t think so. What are you going to do if the story is true?” Aaron asked, and I knew he was trying to stall me. But when he looked at me the way he was right now in the dim glow of the dashboard lights, I was willing to spend a few more moments talking to him. I’d had a thing for Aaron for years,but he was all about thegirls, so I knew there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell there would be anything more between us than friends.
“First, I’m going to show everyone in town that Grandpa isn’t nuts. Then I’ll pay off my parents’ house, and who knows what else.” I hadn’t actually thought through much more than getting Aaron to come here with me and actually dig up the grave.
“Blake?” Aaron asked and settled his hand on my shoulder.
“Oh, sorry, just getting caught up in my head. Come on, let’s do this.” Aaron gave me a tight smile and a nod before we both got out of the truck.
“Here, we’ll need these.” I handed him a shovel from the bed of the truck and a pair of gloves, before grabbing a shovel, pick, and gloves for myself. We walked through the cemetery gate, and I secretly hoped the grave was empty, and we weren’t about to dig up a hundred-year-old corpse.
The closer we got to the grave, the more my heart pounded, and I knew if I asked, Aaron would be more than willing to go back to the truck and forgetall about this night. But another part of me figured we’d come this far. Why not check it out?
“God, I hate this part of the cemetery,” Aaron grumbled. There was a line of old spruce trees that had been planted probably before our parents were born. They were full of birds and rats and who knew what else. During the day they were chattering and noisy going through their routines, but now they were silent, and it did nothing to make me feel better.
“There it is.” I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to announce it. Aaron had been here as many times as I had through the years and was just as familiar with it as I was. We stood in front of the old tombstonewith an unknown name that had faded over time, but we didn’t need a name on the stone to know it was the right one. “Let’s do this.”
Without waiting for him to answer, I tossed the pick on the ground and started shoveling. The ground was hard, and even using the pick, it took us close to an hour to get down even a foot. But thenwe hit a layer of darker soil, and thedigging got easier.
We were so deep we now had to stand in the hole to throw the dirt out. The smell of damp soil and decay surrounded us and the temperature inside the hole was much cooler than the warm night.
“How much deeper do you think it is?” Aaron asked and wiped at his forehead.
“I’m not sure. I mean, it’s supposed to be six feet deep, right?” Just as the words left my mouth, Aaron’s shovel made the unmistakable sound of hitting solid wood. We’d brought a small battery-powered lantern, and it provided just enough light to illuminate his eyes that were now wide in shock before a grin spread across his lips.
We threw the last bit of dirt out of the hole and dug enough around the edge to lift the lid. The coffin was old and very basic. “I’m surprised we didn’t fall through that old wood.”
“Oh god, don’t jinx us,” Aaron said.
After making enough room to lift the lid without having to straddle it, I pulled the pick down and used it to pry the lid up. “It’s really stuck. I didn’t think they didmuch more than nail them shut,” Igrumbled as the two of us moved around in the small space, both trying to make enough room to get some leverage.
“Finally.” I shoved the edge of the pick under the lid and had the leverage I’d been fighting for. The two of us wrenched on the handle and the lid cracked free.
“The smell, oh my god. I have instant regret,” Aaron said, and covered his face.
I ignored him, held my breath, and after a final push, the lid popped open. I slid it completely off and was shocked to see a remarkably well-preserved body. Not that I had anything to compare it to as this was my first dead body.“Ew nasty,” Aaron said as he plugged his nose before pulling his shirt up to coverit and leaned in for a better look.
“Doesn’t he look a little too well preserved?” I asked andleaned closer. The corpse—er man, was dressed in a dark cotton work shirt that had started to rot, and a pair of jeans. I was about to reach into the coffin when, as I leaned in closer, his eyes popped open. “What the. . .” I scrambled backwards inthe cramped space, pushing Aaron into the dirt wall as he tried to claw his way out with his bare hands.
In a flash, the man in the coffin was gone. “Where’d he go?” Aaron asked, just as a hand, skeletal thin but still covered with skin, reached down into the grave.
“Can I give you a hand?” a voice from above asked in a strange accent I couldn’t quite place.
The two of us turned, both still wide-eyed with fright, but too curious to say no. I took hold of thehand offered and was pulled up so fast I nearly fell. Aaron was pulled up right after me.
There in front of us stood a man, no he couldn’t be a man. “What are you?” The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. Seeing him up here, it was even more obvious how ragged his clothes were, and while he looked nearly starved, his skinwas a deathly grey color butshowed no signs of deterioration. His eyes were brown, but so dark they appeared black.
“What do you think I am?” His voice was smooth, and something about it made me want to listen toevery word even while my better judgment told me to get the hell out of here.
