Until death do us reunite

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the first droplets of rain stirred up the late summer dust. Midnight had passed recently. Wind was gently whistling through the houses of the small town from Wisconsin. It was singing the dreadful song of loss and unrest. Omens of things to come.

Karen Stevens was twisting in her bed. She woke up panting and drenched in sweat. Hear heart was beating wildly, and her eyes darted all around her room. She sat up and looked around. For a few seconds, she was still lost half-way between her nightmare and reality. Shadows and light were twisting before her eyes with serpentine slyness.

She gasped when the first fat raindrop hit the windowpane on her left. Then more drops followed. In a short time, the rain began pouring with full force. Another thunder sounded, this one closer. Faint light erupted outside, illuminating the night with an electric haze.

Sweat drenched her nightgown, and she now felt the chill in the air. Acid in her stomach rose and burned her throat. Drinking wine without eating much was not such a wonderful idea. But a drink or two before bed helped her go to sleep, and since the accident, she had a terrible appetite.

About a year ago, her boyfriend, Tyler, had died in a terrible accident. He used to be a firefighter. An explosion at a burning gas station had a launched a piece of steel piping at him. Even though he had been wearing full protection, the sharp piece of metal travelling at insane speeds had pierced his helmet, skull, and brain. He had died on the spot.

Karen had mourned Tyler’s death. She had loved him back then, and she loved him even now. Although he was dead, and she had recently found somebody else, Tyler always lived in her memory. Karen had remembered many times, and with tears in her eyes, how she had promised him she will be with him forever. Fate, however, had other plans. Wherever he is now, she thought, at least he is not suffering.

She wiped the sweat from her face and forehead, then leaned back. When she pulled the blanket back over herself, the back door downstairs opened. The creaking of the old hinges was unmistakable. Her eyes opened wide, and her breathing stopped. Nobody should have been in the house but her. Being a woman in her early twenties, she was still living with her parents, but they were visiting a friend.

Frozen in place, Karen listened. Soft thuds were coming from downstairs. Footsteps? It can’t be. She had locked the door before going to sleep. Or had she? Now, she was not so sure anymore.

She thought about calling the police, but the telephone was downstairs as well. Maybe if she remained in bed, motionless and soundless, the intruder would go away. Her whole body was trembling, but this time not from the cold. The rain kept beating at the window with ferocious intensity. Lightning struck close by, and it illuminated the room. The accompanying thunder made her grasp her blanket tight. Shadows danced on the walls for a few seconds.

The door to her room had not been locked, though. Karen looked at it. The key was in the keyhole. All she had to do was to get out of bed, go to the door, and turn the key. But she listened some more instead. No sound came from downstairs.

All right, let’s do it, she thought, then gently got out of bed. Being slim, she moved easily and without making a sound. Karen crossed the distance of a few feet between the bed and door with a street cat’s agility. She leaned close to the door and placed her ear against it while carefully placing her fingers on the key. Still no sound. Her fingers tensed, and she turned the key. It clicked louder than she had expected.

Shit, she whispered, and her heart pumped faster. A thud came again, but this time from a little closer. Then another thud, but this time, a wooden creak also followed. Whoever was inside, had heard the click, and now is coming up. There was no other way out of the room besides the window. The bathroom and closet were dead ends.

The thuds came with regular, unwavering frequency. Karen was looking around in desperation. She had to figure something out, but her mind was a racing jumble of thoughts. Maybe if she stays completely silent, the intruder will leave her alone. Going out through the window was a risky option. There was nothing under it to help her climb out easily.

So, Karen stood between the door and the bed, as if frozen in time and space. The thuds came from closer and closer. Her heart was beating so hard, she felt it push against her rib cage with each beat. With two definite thuds, the intruder stopped in front of her bedroom door. A few seconds of pause came. Only the sound of the rain beating on the window and the roof was audible.

Somebody was probing the latch. Karen raised her hands to her mouth in order to hold back a scream. The latch moved a few more times, then a pause came again. Thunder roared again, and Karen almost fell on the floor. She felt the strength from her legs drain away in an instant.

Another thunderous sound came, but it was not coming from outside. Whoever was at her door banged on it with considerable force. Her plan to wait it out seemed useless. Another bang came, but this one was more powerful. The wood of the door made cracking sounds, and the thin walls of the room shook.

Karen screamed. There was no way to hold the screams back anymore. Somebody was out for her blood. The window, she thought, it was the only way. Get out, jump down, and run to the neighbors. This was the new plan, but when she ran to the window to open it, another bang sounded. The hinges broke, and wood planks splintered. She heard the door fall onto the floor behind her.

Just when she wanted to raise the windowpane, Karen heard what made her freeze. A long-dead voice, distorted and full of anguish, sounded from behind.

‘Karen, why are you running away from me?’

She knew the voice, but hearing it now made her bladder let go while shivers crisscrossed her spine. Time seemed to slow down as she turned to face the intruder. A human shape stood in the doorway. She could not discern many details, but the smell coming from it made her realize it was dead. A lightning strike illuminated the room, and she saw her assailant.

It was Tyler. Dead, but somehow alive again. His face was rotten, and with empty eye sockets, he was staring at Karen. The nose was gone, the lips too, and from the enormous gaping hole in his head, dark slime was oozing onto his shoulder. The clothes he had been buried in were torn, moldy, and soaked in slimy water.

‘Karen, why do you want to run away? Don't you love me anymore?’

She collapsed to the floor with her back to the wall under the window. No words came out of her mouth.

‘Ty-Ty-Tyler?’ she asked finally.

‘In the flesh,’ he replied.

‘But... but how?’

‘You promised me eternity. I’m here to take it. One can bury a man, but never a promise.’

‘You... y-you are dead.’

‘Yet here I am. I was alone down there. It’s cold, and I miss you so much.’

His voice distorted even more, as if he was crying. Karen was clutching the nightgown to her chest while trying to figure out a means to escape. The corpse took a step forward. Karen jumped up and turned toward the window. However risky it was, she had to get out of this nightmare.

Tyler was quicker, however. He closed in on her and grabbed Karen in a vice-like grip of death. She screamed as loud as her lungs let her, but a roaring thunder muffled it. A cold, slimy hand reached up and covered her mouth. The rotten smell and taste filled her nose and mouth. She retched. Burning fluids rose from her stomach and seeped out through the dead fingers.

She kicked and tried to twist, but the grip was relentless. Tyler dragged her out of the room, then out through the back door. Rain kept pouring endlessly. Large puddles had formed all over the ground. The sewer system was overpowered, and the water had nowhere to go, just like Karen.

Tyler was carrying her with deadly resolution. His grip on her did not waver a second. The endless fight for her freedom, or just for the ability to scream, exhausted her. But when she realized where the corpse was carrying her, she began fighting again in desperation. The road was leading to the cemetery. She knew what was coming.

Soon, they entered through the large wrought-iron gate. The chains which had been keeping the gate shut had been ripped away recently. Of course, Karen did not notice this. She knew only terror.

When they reached Tyler’s grave, she saw, to her horror, that indeed it had been dug up. An enormous pile of soil was lying around a hole. It was almost perfectly rectangular, its depth obscured by darkness. It looked bottomless, the sort of hole that appears in the worst nightmares. You start falling into it and you know the fall will never end, but then your brain snaps you awake. Had you fallen into one for real, your heart would stop in an instant.

Something else was there, hiding in the shadows. Karen saw movement in the darkness, just behind the gravestone. Maybe the caretaker or somebody else was out there. She tried again to scream for help, but the screams came out muffled. A tall figure walked closer. Its gait was definite, its robes black. It wore a large-rimmed hat, and an icy breath was drifting from its mouth. Rain was still falling, but it did not bother it.

The figure raised its head, and only a pair of yellow, serpentine eyes were visible from under the hat. Its hands rested on a spade. It looked like a century-old gravedigger.

‘We are home,’ said Tyler. ‘We can be together now.’

‘Don’t do this, please!’ she screamed when Tyler’s hand fell away from her mouth.

‘Now you will keep your promise!’ replied the corpse in a coarse voice.

‘No! Please! No!’

When the figure nodded, Tyler clutched her more tightly, then walked toward the grave. With her remaining strength, Karen tried to resist, but she was no match for the corpse disinterred from the grave. Tyler crawled into the hole and dragged Karen with him.

What had remained of the coffin was partially filled with mud. But it did not matter. The corpse lay down in his coffin, which had been only a place of unrest until now. He held Karen close to him in a death clutch while the lid closed on them. Eternal darkness enveloped both the living and the dead. The screams coming from the coffin slowly faded as the dark figure was shoveling earth into the hole. When it was finished with the unholy work, the figure slammed the spade into the ground. Red runes lit up on the spade’s handle, and the surface of the grave site slowly transformed. All signs of digging had been erased, as if an ungodly hand swiped everything away.

The mysterious gravedigger turned, and melded into the shadows just when Karen Stevens screamed her last scream. Down in the cold, dark grave, she had kept her promise.