Nick looked at his watch: 9.45 pm. Oh, he was late again. He thought, “Heck with this project.” It was keeping him in his office until late, as he had to submit it by the end of the month. He came to the parking lot and looked at the flower bouquet he had bought that evening when out for a quick coffee. He wanted to place it on Robert’s grave, who died last year on this day from a heart attack in his office.
He didn’t want to miss his death anniversary, so he went to his grave even though it was too late. He wanted to put this bouquet of pink roses on the grave, as he firmly believed that if he placed flowers on the grave, it will give peace to the departed soul.
In about fifteen minutes, Nick arrived at the cemetery and parked his car. He took the bouquet to lay flowers at the grave of his close friend Robert. He looked at the cemetery and found it strange to see so much light, but figured they had probably done some extra lighting. It was a little too windy that night. He could see the fallen leaves flying all around him as the gusts of wind were taking them back and forth.
Nick entered the cemetery and placed the bouquet of rose flowers on Robert’s grave and stood silently for 2 minutes. Then when he turned back to come back, he saw a little girl sitting on a nearby grave. The girl had a broken piece of green glass in her hand. She was watching in all directions of the graveyard through that glass.
Nick felt strange looking at the girl and the graves. He kept looking in her direction. Her parents were probably around, so he kept waiting for them. He was eager to see her parents come and pick her up and take her home safely with them.
But when no one came, not even after 10 minutes, Nick went near that girl. Looking at Nick, the little girl smiled. Nick asked, “Hey, what are you doing here alone and where are your parents?’
She showed toward a distant grave and said, “My parents have gone to the next graveyard. I live here.” Nicks smiled and speculated that she might live in a house near this cemetery and had come out here as a child does when they roam the graveyards close to their houses. Nick felt that the girl might have walked to this place and her parents might be worried about her whereabouts. Or maybe she doesn’t know how to go back.
He asked, “Where do you live, little one, and why are you sitting here alone?”
The girl kept smiling.
“Is there no one with you?” Nick asked again.
What the girl said surprised Nick. She said, “My dad left me here long ago. Now I live here all by myself.”
Nick was talking to that little girl, but his attention was on that piece of green glass in her hand. She was looking around with one eye through it as if it was a binocular and she was searching for something.
Nick finally asked that girl, “What are you seeing through this glass?”
Her answer took Nick by surprise. She said, “I can see people disappearing through this piece of green glass. It’s a lot of fun.”
“Disappearing people?” Nick understood nothing.
He stood there with the girl for some more time. Then, lifting her in his lap, he came out of the cemetery. While walking, she did not resist or say a word while in his lap.
Nick asked her name, and she answered in a calm voice, “Tina.”
As soon as Nick stepped outside the graveyard, a strong chilly wind started blowing. He felt his body shivering from the cold. But when Nick turned towards his car, he saw Tina, the little girl, standing near his car. He felt surprised because he saw no sign of cold on her, even though she was wearing only a white linen frock, nothing else. As Nick looked at Tina, she was looking at Nick through the piece of green glass.
Then the expressions on her face suddenly started changing. She called him “Uncle”. Nick felt as if someone was calling him from the backside. He turned around, but he saw no one was there. He looked toward his car. Nick was a little frightened now, as the little girl was nowhere to be found.
He thought maybe Tina was hiding behind the car, so he said, “Tina, let’s sit in the car.” I will drop you off at your home.
Tina was smiling, “Uncle, you want to see how people disappear through this glass, don’t you?”
Nick said, “I will see but later.” You just get in the car now. But the girl insisted, “No, you must see now.”
Nick wanted to leave now, but as she insisted, Nick took that piece of glass from her and looked through it in the cemetery's direction. What he saw froze his blood. What appeared in front of him was beyond his wildest imagination. No ordinary man could see and standstill. He saw the cemetery was full of people where he had been a little while ago. Everyone was wearing a similar gown and was roaming around slowly. And what scared him the most was that everyone was looking at him.
And when he looked around with the same piece of glass, he saw three burnt-faced bodies standing close to him. Nick saw Tina had converted into a small vampire and was looking at him. She was licking her tongue. All this happened within a few seconds.
He thought, “Is it the same girl whom he just brought into his lap?”
He became limp with fear. He immediately threw the glass and started for his car so he could run away from here. Then he heard a wicked laugh that sent a chill shiver running down his spine. And the very next moment, he was screaming in pain.
That little vampire was sitting on Nick’s back. Her mouth was moving slowly towards Nick’s neck, her sharp, long teeth shining in the moonlight.
The next morning, a passerby found him lying unconscious near his car at the gate of the cemetery.
#theinkwell Prompt #36 "Graveyard"