In the Graveyard

“It's another cold night.” The man who spoke these words stood in the middle of the Park City Cemetery. He was not there to cause any mischief but quite the opposite; he was the only individual within the small town who was brave enough to be called the caretaker of the Cemetery. The man wore a blue beanie on his head, which he made sure always covered his ears. He also wore a gray flannel shirt, buttoned up brown trench coat, black jeans, and large brown boots.

“It's always cold here, though,” he chuckled to himself as he looked up at the moon. The others had always been afraid of the cemetery during dark hours, but they never told him that important information before offering him the job, not that their fear would have persuaded him to forsake the dead. He had the strange belief that the dead deserved protection just as much as the living.

it's like he had always said, “they're just trying to sleep, no need to wake them, that'd just be rude.” The moon seemed to be larger than it had ever been before. The man stood there mouth agape as the moon slowly went from a bright, almost blindingly bright, white to a dark red akin to a pool of blood.

“What in the world?” He muttered to himself as he removed his beanie and scratched his head. He stood there pondering what could have caused the strange change in the moon's coloration when he suddenly heard something behind him.

“Hello?” He said as he turned towards the noise. He shined a large flashlight in the direction that the noise had originated from and saw a horrifying sight: five massive creatures that stood like humans but looked to be around eight feet tall and had larger muscles than any human that had ever lived. Where feet should have been were hooves and their hands, which had only three fingers, had massive talons instead of adequately lengthened nails. The area that truly terrified the caretaker was the creature's head; it was a cow skull with no eye sockets that seemed to be grafted to its massive body. Its huge neck seemed to have absorbed the skull. Its gray skin stretched over it in some areas as if it were reaching up and grabbing it to hold it in place. Now that he looked at the five creatures' skin, he could see that it looked like half dried concrete. The bull headed monsters held massive coffins that had chains attached to them, making them seem like oversized tote bags.

“What are you… Wait. You put them down!” He screamed furiously as he saw that the beasts had dug up some of the graves and were grabbing the bodies. The beast closest to him opened its coffin and tossed the corpse it had been holding into it before grunting loudly, ripping one of the many tombstones from the ground and chunking it at him. The tombstone slammed into the caretaker's face with so much force that it broke into multiple pieces, which then broke another tombstone behind the caretaker upon hitting it. The caretaker fell to his knees, barely able to catch himself by holding the ground.

“Well then,” he stammered as he caught his breath and wiped the blood from his nose and forehead. He stood slowly, his legs shaking as he did so.

“it seems you've chosen to ignore my pleas for a peaceful resolution to this circumstance. Then we must end this quickly so as to not bother the resting any longer than needed,” he spoke firmly as he walked a short distance and pulled the shovel which he used to lay the dead to rest from the ground and pointed it at the creature that had thrown the tombstone.

“Only a creature of the utmost cowardice would steal the dead and refuse battle with the living. Now, come you cow skulled beast, attack!” the caretaker screamed in anger, his footing finally becoming firm atop the ground once again.

The beast lunged at him, claws ready to shred him to pieces. It moved so quickly that it seemed like it had been fired from a cannon. The creature, which was significantly heavier than the caretaker, squealed like a scared pig as he stepped to the side, grabbed it by its abnormally thick neck and used its momentum to force it onto its back before slamming it down onto the ground. The caretaker knew that he had to end the fight before the others could attack so in one quick movement he placed the shovel to the creature's muscular neck, placed his foot above it and then slammed it down harshly. The shovel dug into its throat but was stopped short at the halfway point because it was not long enough to reach the other side. He pulled the shovel from its resting position within the creature's throat and swung it behind himself.

“Don't think you can catch me off guard, you disgusting body snatchers!” He screamed wildly as he swung his shovel behind himself. The shovel broke in two while connecting with another snatcher's face. The snatcher had been lunging at him, obviously thinking that it had the upper hand; it was proven wrong as it fell to the ground seemingly dead; the force of the blow had shattered the skull that it seemed to need to survive. The beast's flesh slowly pulled away from what was left of the skull before quickly melting into a gray puddle that resembled pudding. The caretaker looked away from the disgusting sight of the liquefied corpse and back towards the two body snatchers that were now standing completely still and blankly staring at him.

“Wait a minute, there should be,” he started to speak, but he was cut off as he felt an immense weight upon his head as he was slammed into the ground. The creature had somehow jumped into the air and lunged at him without him even noticing. His head was pushed deep into the dirt as a small crater formed beneath it. The body snatcher grunted multiple times as if it were laughing while it grabbed the caretaker which was now lying face down on the ground in the crater by the back of the head and slowly lifted him into the air. The caretaker coughed loudly a piece of dirt flying out of his mouth as he did so.

“Three…” he said as he huffed, attempting to gasp for air after being removed from the dirt.

“I was going to say there were three of you,” he said, obviously annoyed that the creature would interrupt him. He looked at the beast for only a moment before grabbing its exposed skull. He held it tightly, hands clamped on either side of it. The snatcher automatically let go of the caretaker's head and slammed its balled up fist into his stomach. The caretaker hadn't even hit the ground before the force of the blow brought him back up. The caretaker screamed in pain but refused to release the grip he held on the snatcher. The beast grunted loudly before letting loose a barrage of hits, each one stronger than the last. The caretaker never hit the ground as the beast continued to release its furious blows; the strength shown by the creature was mystifying and seemed to be, to the caretaker at least, of a supernatural variety. He began to wonder if that was what being stomped on by an elephant felt like when he struck a bit of luck. The creature seemingly didn't know its own strength because as it threw its very last punch, the caretaker was thrown into the air. That painful sprinkle of luck plus the fact that he pulled the skull as hard as he could right as he was launched forced the skull to be removed from the creature's neck.

“That power was… impressive,” he said as he landed back on the ground. Once he took a moment to regain his composure and footing, he looked at the last two remaining body snatchers.

“You there, return the bodies, and I won't be forced to harm you,” he stammered before falling to one knee. The caretaker wiped his lips and saw the blood that covered his mouth. The only two body snatchers left alive quietly glanced at one another before running to their dead comrades retrieving their coffins which still contained the stolen corpses and dashed away out of the graveyard, their hooves clacking on the paved street as they did so.

“wait… no,” the caretaker struggled to speak as he forced himself to stand. He walked out of the cemetery slowly as he attempted to follow the body snatchers. Luckily, they hadn't gone far. He saw the two monsters directly down the street standing above a manhole. Both of the creatures threw the coffins they held into the sewers below before simply jumping down themselves. The caretaker followed slowly, struggling to stand, let alone walk. He reached the manhole after a short moment and leaned down and grabbed onto the ladder within.

“I can do this. I just need to get those bodies back,” he said as he struggled to climb down the long ladder. Suddenly, his arm felt weak and trembled violently. Before he even knew what was happening, he had lost his grip on the ladder and was falling to the ground. He groaned loudly as he laid on the concrete below the ladder he had just been on. He gasped loudly, attempting to catch his breath, but each time the stench he found himself surrounded by entered his lungs, he coughed up what little air he had obtained. The caretaker used what little energy he had left to go towards the one thing within the sewer he recognized but knew shouldn't have been there: a large stone crypt with two intricately carved statues in front of it.

He crawled within the walls of the misplaced architecture and whispered, “I'm sorry I couldn't… stop them.” he then closed his eyes, hoping to rest for just a moment. As he drifted into what he thought was a deep slumber, he felt something cold envelop him. The cold seemed to burn and soothe at the exact same time as if someone had wrapped him in ice. His eyes quickly darted open and mindlessly looked towards what had caused the cold sensation.

“What… are you?” He gasped as he struggled to speak through the pain he had endured. Before the shadowy figure that the caretaker had spoken to could respond, the caretaker closed his eyes, unable to keep going in his current condition.