Alone In The Grove - Part 2

The cemetery was large and decrepit, only two of the headstones were still standing and several of the graves showed signs of being dug up. Beer bottles and cans littered the edges of the grove, rusted and ancient signs of parties long past. A condom had been pushed over a long, thin branch, a victory flag of a successful conquest. The elements had shrunken it until it fit over the branch like brittle, aged skin. Each time the wind blew it seemed to beckon to the viewer, inviting them further into the cemetery.

Chris stared at the mock-finger for a long moment before turning away, looking instead down at her swollen ankle. “Oh this is just… fan-fucking-tastic.” She said, unlacing her shoe and slowly easing her food out. “Ow, ow damn it.” She bit down hard on her lip before grabbing for her bag.

“911, what is your emergency?”

Letting out a sigh of relief, Chris thanked the cell phone gods for giving her service out there. “Hello, yes. My name is Chris, I was in an accident and I need… I don’t know, I guess I need someone to come get me.”

“Are you badly injured?”

She shook her head. “No, I was riding my bike and I think I broke my ankle.”

“Did you lose consciousness?”

“No, no I just fell off my bike.”

There was the sound of typing as the operator filled in the form. “Where are you located?”

Chris glanced around, taking in the crumbling headstones surrounding her. “I’m… I’m in a cemetery. I think that it’s called Bachelor’s Grove, at least that’s what my map-“

“Miss, Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery is off limits to visitors.” The woman’s voice had lost the trained calm and sounded angry.

“I didn’t know that. I’m not from around here and I was just biking through. I didn’t mean to end up here. I had no idea that it was off limits. It was an accident.”

“Ah yes, you accidentally broke through the fence and accidentally ended up in an off limits cemetery and accidentally-“

“Look! The fence was open, I didn’t know it was off limits and I don’t really think that it’s the important thing right now. I’m hurt and I need some help. OK?”

There was a long, icy silence before the woman spoke again. “Unfortunately all of our paramedics and fire squads are in a neighboring township dealing with a very serious fire. The majority of our police are there as well. As you are not seriously injured and didn’t lose consciousness, I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait until an ambulance returns.” She sounded rather pleased as she said this and Chris could almost imagine the smug little smile she had to be wearing. “It shouldn’t take longer than a few hours.”

“What? Are you serious? You expect me to sit in a cemetery, by myself, until five or six o’clock?”

She gave a little laugh. “Of course not.”

Chris let out a sigh. “Good, good.”

“I expect you to sit in a cemetery, by yourself, until nine or ten o’clock.”

“What!?”

“Thank you for calling 911. An officer will be with you at the earliest possible time.”

With a very solid click the operator hung up on her, leaving her sitting, dumbfounded, holding her silent cell phone to her ear. After a moment she laughed and dropped it back into her bag. “This is… this is just fabulous.” She said loudly. “Lets start filming the horror movie now, already got the injured blond alone in the spooky cemetery. Come on Freddie Kruger. Come on Jason, time for the slashing.”

An hour later she was leaning back against the headstone that she’d crashed into, a small fire burning off to her left. The sun was starting to set and there was no way she was going to sit in a dark cemetery alone. The dying light was already starting to cast strange shadows between the trees and stones. She pulled out her knitting and tried to ignore the throb in her ankle, working until the shadows were too thick, until the darkness was pushing in on her small fire, trying to extinguish it.

“Oh yeah… this is just… so much fun.” She said out loud, peering around herself in the darkness. Glancing down at her watch, she scowled. It was getting close to ten o’clock, she’d nearly finished all of her water and she was completely positive that if she ate one more energy bar she’d get sick from the taste.

Her eyes had just started to droop when a bright light danced across her lids. She opened her eyes and looked around, spotting the bobbing flashlight beam. “I’m over here!” She called, lifting a hand and staring to wave. Her hand froze, then seemed to wilt in the air as she watched the light dance around the cemetery. It wasn’t a flashlight beam, it was more like a floating orb of blue light. As she watched it seemed to spread and expand into the ghostly shape of a woman. “Oh my god…” She whispered softly.

The figure glided through the stones, not disturbing the high weeds as she passed through them. Dressed in a long, white gown with shoulder length hair, she moved from stone to stone, seeming to search for something.

Chris pressed a hand hard over her mouth to keep herself silent, staring at the woman. It wasn’t happening, not really. She wasn’t seeing what she was seeing, she was just dreaming is all. A mixture of pain from the broken ankle and exhaustion from how far she’d traveled. That was all, that was all.

The ghostly woman sat down on one of the stones and hung her head as if defeated. A few moments later she began to sob, the sound echoing in the silence, sending chills up Chris’ spine. “My baby… they’ve taken him… my poor lost dear…” She continued to sob, her arms curling up to cradle a child that wasn’t there for a few moments before dropping to rest on her legs.

“Not happening. Not happening.” Chris whispered softly to herself, pressing her back against the headstone as if she could pass through it and hide in safety on the other side.

Quite suddenly the sobbing stopped and the woman’s head slowly lifted, staring off into the darkness for a long moment before slowly and deliberately turning to look at Chris, catching the woman’s eyes with her own colorless, milky white orbs. “Chrisssss…”