The Halloween Switch

The Deception

IN THE HALLOWEEN WORLD: 

He looked around at the forest, and the crows that were suddenly flying away, they were scared off by something. It wasn't him, the crows were used to him by now.

He turned back to the grave he was digging into and went back to clawing out the mud using his hands.

When he moved a rock the fume of the dead flared in his nostrils. He licked his lips in delight.

He was so hungry, he hadn't had a good meal since that horrible grave watcher showed up.

But since the grave watcher had been eaten by a werewolf, there was no one to stop Kaminari from getting his corpse.

A ghoul's job wasn't easy. One had to be careful and chose only the right corpses to eat. If the person had been dead for too long then they would be spoiled and nasty, not at all good. Kaminari had found over the years that the most recent deaths were the most delicious. They were still juicy and filled with all sorts of delights. Kaminari had always wondered what a freshly dead corpse would taste like. He on many occasions had tried to get a corpse right after burial, but everyone knows what a ghoul looks like and thus he was run out of the town over and over again. 

People hated ghouls for no good reason. They were simply devouring the dead, and who would miss them? It was doing no good at all that the corpses just decay away, just another ghoul who went hungry. And if a ghoul did their job right and covered the grave back up with dirt, no one would even know. 

Tricky business being a ghoul, tricky. 

But tonight, the cemetery was all his, he could have a feast if he wanted. The other ghouls wouldn't come here because they thought the grave watcher was still there, but he was gone. Kaminari knew only because he had watched the werewolf kill and eat the person so fast that there wasn't even a finger left for Kaminari to munch on. The werewolf had been so vicious and fast there was hardly any blood. People were talking about the werewolf all the time but never got to kill him. 

Thunk! 

Oh sweet zombie toes! 

Kaminari had reached the casket. Drool started to form at the edges of his mouth as he pulled the casket out of the grave. His stomach rumbled in anticipation as he thought about what to eat first. He could start with the liver. No! He would eat the heart, wait! He could do it the traditional way and start with the arms. 

Kaminari dropped the box and started to pry the casket open. The smell was heavenly! He prayed it would be an overweight woman! 

When the door of the casket finally opened he looked down and the drool went splattering all over his shirt. 

Disappointment.  

It was empty, another ghoul must have already gotten to it. Kaminari snarled and kicked the casket. It smashed into thousands of wooden pieces at his fury. It was not so much that a ghoul had gotten to it before him, he knew that a ghoul had to eat. It was the lack of marking the grave that the corpse had already been taken that made him so angry. He had wasted so much time! All Ghouls knew that once they finish their meal and bury the casket again, they pee on the grave so that other ghouls can smell it and know that the casket is empty! 

Kaminari ran his hands through his hair angrily. He would go hungry again. And its not like he had time to dig up another grave! By the time he even got another casket open, it would be morning and people would figure out that the grave watcher was dead and they'll send another one. Why did they bury people so dang deep!?

At this rate he would starve to death before finding such a perfect set up again. He couldn't live on buried pets anymore! He needed a real meal!

Kaminari sat down and glared at the casket.