The Truth Among The Graves

Emma's head throbbed. The surface beneath her was comfortable but was not her bed or her blankets. She opened her eyes to the soft gleam of stars overhead, the sky a deep blue.

"What the heck?" she thought to herself as she sat up to get a better look at the area around her. Shock adorned her face as she found that she sprawled out on grass, surrounded by headstones and tombs.

"Amanda can throw one hell of a party, don't know how we ended up here, but probably her fault, somehow." she thought as she surveyed the apparently endless graves, any thoughts or awareness of how she had ended up here completely gone. Amanda was Emma's co-worker and had been the host of the party.

"Great, all over my best dress, not hungover at least," she muttered as she stood, her legs shaky. She brushed the muck off and took a step forward, her footsteps barely made a sound on the velvety grass as she searched for a path. The dress she wore had no pockets and there was no trace of her phone anywhere.

"How can a graveyard be so huge?" she wondered. The pale glow of the moon cast long shadows that seemed to dance on the strange landscape. The deeper she went, the more nervous she became. Her thoughts wandered more and more to how she had ended up here.

"Worry about that after you've found the way out of here," she thought as she gazed around. There was no clear route between the rows and rows of headstones. The area was not totally flat; every so often the ground was dotted by a few trees and sloped upwards. The cemetery was clearly well-kept. Maybe she could locate a keeper or a guard? or one of the other party guests?

"HEELLLLPPPP!" she called out. "AMANDAAA!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

The hope that someone would hear her and come to her rescue faded as fast as the echoes of her scream. As her eyes scoped the space ahead, only more tombstones greeted her.

"Amanda wouldn't leave me here, would she? We had my mom's care!" She thought to herself before she chose to head toward a large, elaborate statue of an angel that was to her left. The statue stood tall among the other headstones, the hands clasped together. Before the statue stood the shape of a person.

"Oh thank goodness! That must be a guard!" she thought, thankfully as she approached, she froze up as she got twenty feet away however. The shape had not grown any clearer.

"...fault..." A soft word echoed from the shadow.

"Uh...umm...hello?" she uttered nervously. Now alerted to her presence, the shape made a loud happy squeal and moved toward her just as shapeless and formless as a shadow on the ground. Emma let out an appalled scream, turned away from the strange shadow, and began to run.

She dashed through the headstones. A glance over her shoulder proved the shadow had begun to pursue her. The unnatural form floated above the monuments, no feet or legs to speak of. Emma's heart almost pounded out of her chest, and sweat coated her forehead as she ran.

She snaked her way through the tombstones. No matter how much she attempted to confuse the shadow or how fast she went, a random glance showed the shadow had matched her pace.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled fearfully as she sped forward at breakneck speed, as fast as her legs would carry her.

As she screamed, she was sure she heard a low "sorry", but she dared not look back. Soon, she couldn't go on anymore and collapsed. She looked back and found the shadow was no longer there.

"Safe...Amanda's so gonna get punched tomorrow." She thought as she heaved. Her legs were sorer than she could ever remember, and her ankles pulsed from agony. She massaged her ankles as she pondered her conundrum. The shadow was gone, at least for now, Amanda was nowhere to be found, and she wasn't sure exactly what would have happened had she been caught.

"Best not to worry about that." She exhaled as a shudder ran up her back, and she looked to the sky. The smooth orb above offered a fluorescent glow but no comfort. At long last, her legs recovered, and Emma stood back up. She scanned the tombstones carefully to be sure the shadow was not present and read to pop out at her. The only shadows were those cast by the headstones.

Unsure of what path to take, Emma headed the way she was sure was further away from the angel statue and the odd shadow. A heavy sense of unease had taken over her stroll through the cemetery. Every soft rustle of grass made her jump. Every unexpected shadow caused her to leap for the cover of one of the larger tombstones.

Her paced was slow and after what seemed not too long, a gentle glow appeared not far ahead.

She started to walk toward the source of the glow, each step careful, her senses alert to every sound, nervous after her last encounter.

As she approached, the glow became clearer, the source an old lantern hung on a post. Below the lantern was a gravel path.

"Oh god, a way out!?" Emma hopped onto the path out of sheer joy. She raced along the walkway, desperate to be free. As she got near a bench, she zoomed to a halt. There was a shape of some type on the bench. Emma trotted toward the shape. She kept her footsteps soft and muted.

The shape became sharper as she approached, and she found that the shape was a man. The man's head was skewed downward as though he were asleep.

"How odd, but he could be dangerous." Emma thought as she reluctantly attempted to sneak past the man.

"You're out late," the man spoke as she moved past.

"Yeah! Just out for a stroll!" Emma caught off guard, spun around and acknowledged the man. "Thought you were asleep."

"No one but the dead are asleep here, ma'am. How are you?"

"Good! Thank you!" Emma muttered, her nervousness as clear as glass. "Well, have a good day!"

"You too."

Emma began to walk away but stopped and let out a groan. He was the only normal person she had met so far, maybe he could offer some type of help. Emma turned back around. The man looked toward her.

"Uh...Excuse me...Do you know the way out of here?" Emma stuttered.

"You're not actually out for a walk are you?" The man asked.

"No." Emma shook her head

"You're lost?".

"Yeah....."

"Why don't you tell me your story?" He gestured to the adjacent seat on the bench.

"Well..." Emma was oddly comforted by the man's demeanor but refused to take a seat. She wanted to be ready to run should she need to. She recounter her whole problem-how she had woken up on a grave, that she had gotten blackout drunk and Amanda. Tears started to flow as the ordeal caught up to her.

"Hmmm," he nodded after she completed her story.

"That's all? 'Hmmm'?" Emma asked as she sobbed. That was not the response she had hoped for.

"Sounds as though you've had a rough day," the man spoke gently.

"At the very least."

"Are you sure you don't remember how you got ended up here?" He pondered as he sat up more on the bench.

"Yes, absolutely," Emma nodded.

"What about before that?"

"Umm...well..." Emma struggled to recall how she spent yesterday. "Amanda, that's my co-worker, threw a huge party her house. There was a ton of alcohol and food, and we danced. The party went really long."

"Must have been pretty fun." the man mused. "You stay at Amanda's?"

"Couldn't, drove my mom's car."

"So you drove home?"

"No. No. We were all too wasted for that. Amanda...Amanda offered to take me home." Emma attempted to wrestle her fragmented memory forward.

"Was she sober enough for that?"

"No...well yes...She wasn't as drunk as me. She stopped much sooner so she could take me home." The tears started to fall harder. "She wanted to take me somewhere cool to watch the sun..come up...you know...stuff that only sounds fun when you're drunk.." Emma stopped, unable to go on.

"Don't remember anymore"

"No..."

"Emma," the man murmured. "You know you remember more."

"No... No..." Emma repeated as she backed away. "You... You're the shadow, aren't you?"

"Emma..." The man started, but Emma had already darted away, back among the tombstones. The man exhaled sadly and began to follow her.

Emma ran and ran, as far from the man as she could get.

"No... no... can't be..." she thought to herself as she ran. She went wherever her feet would carry her as long as she was further from the man, further from the truth.

She came to a stop and looked around. She was back where she had started, almost the exact same spot. She swallowed as she got near the grave she had woken up on. She had to know. Her heart sank as she read her own name engraved on the tombstone.

"There's no way." She sobbed as she fell to the ground before her tombstone.

"Emma." The man appeared and kneeled next to her.

"Go away..."

"Emma... Amanda drove off the road."

"Stop."

"No one walked away."

"No." Her tears fell to the ground, uncontrollably.

"But you already knew. You've always known. You were just scared." The man's arms wrapped around her, and he patted her back. Emma just let the man hold her for several long moments.

"Who are you really?" Emma asked the man as he let her go.

"Death." The man stood up.

"Are you here to take me away?"

"Yes, but not yet...You aren't ready." Death began to slowly walk away and faded.

"Not ready? Was anyone ever really ready for death?" Emma sobbed as she sat over her grave, even more lost than when she had started. Now she was just...empty. "My mom...my dad...my job....all gone..."

When no more tears would come out, she stood up and opted to go search for Death.

"Maybe he can tell me what to do to 'be ready' to get out of here." She looked at the shadows cast by the tombstones. Now that she knew she was dead, they were not scary, just sad. The cemetery had gone from strange and creepy to just gloomy.

She made her way back to the bench, but Death was nowhere to be found.

"Maybe he's at the angel statue?" Emma wondered aloud, frustrated. She retracted her steps back towards the statue where the Death, or the shadow, had chased her.

Her footsteps grew heavy as she walked, fear of what came next slowly enveloped her. She shook her head to clear the thought. There was only one way to know for sure, and that was to locate the statue.

As she looked forward, the statue slowly entered her gaze. The shadow was there, at the front as before. Emma could feel her heart throb as she approached.

"Death?" She called out to the shadow. The shadow appeared to hear her, and moved to the back of the statue, away from her. Puzzled, Emma got closer.

"Death?" She called once more, unsure of why Death wouldn't take human form the way he had at the bench. The shadow floated away.

"You aren't Death, are you?" Emma asked, but the shadow retreated further away toward the deep part of the cemetery. As the shadow floated over headstones, Emma gave chase.

"Get back here!" She called after the shadow as eluded her. The shapeless form fled from her. Emma struggled to keep up as she darted through the tombstones, barely able to keep up. The shadow had a clear advantage.

"STOP, PLEASE!" Emma screamed.

"Sorry," the words echoed as the shadow came to a halt just ahead of Emma.

"Don't be scared." She held her arms out. The shadow got closer as though nervous.

"All..my...fault..." the words echoed from the shadow.

"No, we both should have known better," Tears fell from Emma's eyes as she wrapped her arms around the shadow. Slowly the shadow started to take form.

"Sorry..." Amanda sobbed as she returned Emma's hug.

"We all do dumb stuff when we're drunk." The sky above them started to turn shades of purple and orange as dawn approached.

"Now, you're both ready." Came the gentle words of Death.

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