Potter's Field: Dimensions of Time

Chapter One/Part Two: Skeletors

A crash of cold sea spray hit the side of the boat, splashing up to soak the back of Ben's shirt.  "Son of a jigsaw puzzle," he shouted, jumping to his feet to escape another wave overflowing into the boat.  Annoyed, he turned on Takamiya-san.  "Oy, Takamiya-whatever, what's up?  Why aren't we there, yet?  I thought it was just off the coast."

            Takamiya-san looked around nervously, anywhere but at Ben's face.  "This way?  No, no, directions say this way, but not this way," he mumbled.  Ron the Russian stared off into the fog in silence.

            Ben rolled his eyes, tucking his hands into his pants pockets.  "Yeah, yeah, whatever."  He walked the length of the boat, stopping at the stern, and tugged his hands out of his pockets.  Cupping them around his eyes, he adjusted his sight, narrowing his focus until he could see even the smallest detail three hundred yards away.  Keeping his hands cupped around his eyes, Ben turned in a slow circle, hoping for a glimpse of something that would spell the end of his stay with these nutcases.

            He'd turned almost full circle when a hazy outline caught his attention.  It stood out against the fog, and it wasn't no trick of the light neither.  Squinting, Ben focused his sight on that dark smudge, twisting his hands to tighten up the focus.   A small lamp lit up the porch on a large, four story mansion.  By the looks of it, the building was old, probably condemned, and most definitely haunted. 

            "Oy, Takamiya-dude, I think I found it."

            Forty-five long minutes later, after Ben finally took the helm from Takamiya-san who seemed unable to steer in a straight line, they pulled alongside the island's only dock, nearly capsizing a dinghy tied to the end.  Ben jumped off the boat immediately, not bothering to offer help in tying up their vessel.  He stalked up the dock, hands in pockets.  He nearly stumbled over a skeletal body that lay across the ground, its bottom half broken and hanging by half the hip bone into the water.  He grimaced and looked over the edge of the dock.  Yep, more skeletors in the water, laying half out of the water and in the mud.  A few bodies with a thin coating of skin had bloated with water and floated aimlessly across the surface of the foggy ocean, stuck in the seaweed forest of the shallow waters.

            "Ugh, necromancers," Ben grumbled, stepping back, almost tripping over another body.  "Can't be bothered to clean up his own mess, I see."

            Ron stepped easily over the skeletons and past Ben, big arms stiff at his sides.  He didn't even spare Ben or any of the bodies a glance.  Takamiya-san shuffled after Ron, darting around the dead bodies, keeping his arms folded protectively around him. 

            Ben grumbled, stuffed his hands in his pockets and started after them.  He paused at the end of the dock, mouth agape as he finally saw the place that had so much rumor connected to it.   

            The island was exactly what Ben expected.  He'd thought it would be strange, mysterious, maybe a little frightening – much like its owner.  And it was.  But the reality of the island overflowed his expectations of it.  The entire island was covered in graves.  Empty graves.  It seemed most of the bodies had dug themselves out of the graves to wander about the island before falling in an eerie line pointing toward the mansion on the western end.

 Empty eye sockets stared up at him from sunken faces. Pale skulls grinned at him as he stepped over them.  Thin mist settled over everything, barely disturbed by Ron's direct stride and Takamiya-san's darting shuffle.  Ben had to suppress the urge to tiptoe, as if his normal gait would somehow be the catalyst to those dead bodies suddenly turning their gaping mouths and thin fingers on him.  Ben had seen a lot of freaky things in his career – just thinking about the time at the haunted circus still gave him the heebie-jeebies.  But this place, this island graveyard, might just top his list.