Creepypasta

They can hear you (~part 4)

Hai guys /.\ I decided to post the next part as well today :3 enjoy!
^---^
(=•w•=)~

One A.M., Friday...

Jim walked into the employee's building with a heavy sigh as he wiped the dirt off his boots against the ragged floor mat. Crawford was in his usual spot, sitting at his deck observing a mound of paperwork that didn't seem to be getting any smaller. His eyes were not deterred from their present course.
"Is it one o'clock already?" Crawford said behind his stack of papers. "I swear signing papers makes time fly by."
"I've been working for you for four years Crawford," Jim said. "I never knew you to be a good liar and your sarcasm hasn't gotten better with age. Besides, if you find paper work so boring I'll gladly take your comfy desk work while you go out and babysit a bunch of corpses."
They both shared a laugh as Jim made his way to the coffee maker.
"Sorry about your luck Jim," Crawford said. "But someone's got to do it."
"Isn't that the truth," Jim said as he poured a cup of coffee. "But right now is my break, and Ryan has all the weight on his shoulders right now holding down the fort."
"Not too bad out there tonight?"
"Same as always... dead."
Silenced ensued as Jim sat down at the lunch table towards the center of the room with coffee mug in hand. The only sound that filled the air between them was Crawford's pen fervently scratching against his papers. He knew Crawford wasn't fond of having noise present while he did paperwork, but after working three hours in total silence Jim was yearning for some audible accompaniment to relax his tension. Crawford's paperwork could wait.
"So the new guy is off tonight?" Jim said. "Greg is it?"
"Yeah," Crawford replied. "He has tonight and the weekends off. That's liable to change of course, but I figured I'd start him off with something he's used to."
"Used to?"
"Having weekends off, like a normal job."
"Well I certainly agree this job is anything but normal."
Crawford gave a dismissing grunt and continued with his work. Jim took a few short sips of his coffee. The pungent taste always kept him moving through his shift, even if Crawford wasn't a master at brewing the perfect blend. He was glad Crawford actually dished out the money to get an actual coffee maker rather than small packets of powder that had to be mixed with hot water. The powder would never fully dissolve and always leave behind little chunks that would float in the liquid. It would give the effect that Jim had specs of dirt in his coffee; it would constantly remind him of his job.
"You think he'll last here long?" Jim said.
"I think he'll do fine," Crawford replied. "So long as he sticks to the general guide lines he'll find this job to be quite rewarding."
Jim hung his coffee mug in front of his mouth before taking another sip. Someone else had just crept back into Jim's mind; the welcome mat wasn't out to greet him.
"Just like Matt did?"
Crawford's pen halted its present course, the tension in the air becoming a smoke screen of deceit. Crawford looked up to meet Jim for the first time since he entered the building.
"And here I thought we agreed not to bring him up again," Crawford said.
"I assumed you were going to tell the kid about our little issue we have here."
"There's nothing to tell so long as he sticks to the rules."
"I'm pretty sure Matt knew the rules well enough and look what happened to him."
"He stepped out of line Jim, plain and simple."
"What's to say Greg won't flub up and do the same? He knows Matt was here before him and-"
"You told him about Matt?!"
"No, not yet at least. I lied to him on his first night so that he would ease his way into working here, I told him Matt barged in here one night and quit on the spot. But he can't fully assimilate into the job if you keep putting a curtain up between him and the truth."
"Are you questioning my authority to run the show around here Jim?"
"No, sir, I'm just questioning why we're keeping Greg in the dark."
Crawford tossed his pen onto the desk and leaned back in his chair. The expression on his face gave that of someone who was playfully amused, but Jim knew all too well that deep down Crawford was anything but pleased.
"What good will the truth do him Jim, hmm? Even if I did tell him, how do you think he would react?"
"At least he would have it in the back of his mind in case it does happen. Do you realize how easy it is around here for everything to go to shit in a matter of seconds? You know as well as I do that our job can get boring really quick, and when you get bored you'll try to find any way to pass the time. If Greg isn't carefully aware of what can happen here... well, it's like I told him on his first night; boredom can kill a man."
Crawford's expression retreated from amusement into sullen remorse as he turned slightly in his chair. Jim garnered from the change in expressions that he struck a chord within Crawford, allowing him to see the error of his ways. Crawford's recollection was enough to make Jim tremble with fear.
"On Greg's first night, after I instructed him on the job, he went back into the storage room to grab his gear. I remember I was sitting here when he went back, I was probably doing more paper signing or something. After a minute or two of silence, I began to hear whistling coming from the storage room, 'Pop goes the weasel' or something close to that." Crawford gave a slight laugh under his breath. "I've never been so terrified in my life. You know how Matt liked to whistle a lot, he would sit there during breaks and work his wind pipe till it ran dry. When the noise came I had forgotten that Greg was still in the building, so when I heard the sound I thought that... Matt, he had come back... and that..."
Crawford shook his head in woeful disbelief. Jim understood Crawford's feelings; he had expected to run into Matt again multiple times before. Matt was a good kid and a fine worker, but it wasn't in Jim's best interest to have a chance meeting with his former co-worker. It wasn't in anyone's interest at all.
"I can relate to you Crawford," Jim said. "I'm scared to see Matt again just as much as you are. And had I been in your shoes during that moment, I probably would have wet myself. But that's why you should realize more than anyone why it's important to tell Greg the truth. We either tell him the easy way, or he figures it out the hard way."
For a moment Jim thought Crawford would drop his ever present barriers and actually succumb to rational thought. He expected Crawford, just this once, to realize what was at stake for not only Greg but the entire team who worked the night shifts. Jim gave a disappointed sigh when he realized he had expected too much
"I feel for the kid Jim, he's young and bound to make mistakes. But he's also an adult, and one who's able to understand the workings of the world that have been presented to him for over twenty years. This cemetery has been in my family's care for five generations, it's basically a part of my lineage. I fear for the kid, I really do, but I'm not going to lose this place over him. Telling him the facts would just sully our reputation in his eyes. We'll keep holding it off until something actually happens. If we were to tell him about Matt he would think we were playing some sort of prank on him. That we were confusing dreams with reality, or that we were going insane."
Jim looked into his mug to find only a gulp of his coffee remained. He examined the latent liquid with disgust. It resembled the color of dirt, finely packed and unwavering in solidarity. He poured the rest down the drain and rinsed the cup out in the sink.
"Well, maybe we are going insane. Little by little, night after night, until our sanity falls down into nothingness. I've stuck with you this long because I saw what can happen here, and I know how to avoid it. Ethan and Ryan know as well, and that's the only reason they still stick around here. If you keep this kid in the dark any longer, one of these nights he's going to be gone. And if that happens a second time, I might just hang up my curtain as well."
Crawford looked onto Jim with a blank expression. The line between dreams and reality was thick, but even the brightest nights had a way of obscuring the borders, and make attempts at deciphering the signs all the more difficult.
"If you want to quit, I won't stop you. Until then though, we keep what we know between ourselves, and if he tells me you've been telling him any weird stories about this place, I'll tell him you're just trying to spook him on the job. Now, I think your break just finished."
Jim looked up to the clock along the wall.
"1:15 A.M.? I swear time flies when I'm arguing with you Crawford."
Jim placed his empty mug on the counter and made his way for the door. With each step he felt as though Crawford was going to shoot him in the back, end his troubles before they had time to walk out the door. Once Jim opened the door and felt the cold wind brush against his body, he felt that a loud blast from behind was out of the question. With his head slightly turned back, he figured he would give Crawford one more piece of his mind before returning to duty.
"That knowledge only we know of might just kill that kid," said Jim. "And I won't be the one to take the blame for it... not again."
With that Jim closed the door behind him, leaving Crawford alone with his thoughts and a large stack of paperwork he suddenly didn't have the right mood to work on.
The moon was bright against the backdrop of vast stars and galaxies across the night. Jim could only look with perplexity as he wondered if anyone out there had the same problems as those who worked with him into the long hours of the night. Such a unique issue, did anyone else across the globe face the same as they had? His gaze was broken as he noticed Ethan come down the path out of the corner of his eye and make his way towards the building. He didn't speak until they were inches apart.
"Your break over?" Ethan asked.
"Yeah," Jim replied. "Me and Crawford got in a bit of a verbal tussle."
"Oh yeah, what about?"
"Just over the new kid Greg and how he's doing."
"I've only worked with him two nights, but I think he's settling in pretty well. Before we know it he'll join us in the veterans circle, finally get an actual name plaque on his locker."
"I certainly hope he makes it that far."
There was a brief silence amid the two of them, the whistling of the wind filling the void between the loss of words. At least, they hoped it was the wind.
"I'm heading down the left," Ethan said. "You want to cover the right?"
"Sure," Jim said. "I'll see ya around."
They both began to tread down their respective paths, keeping their thoughts locked into the confines of their minds. Jim thought some more about Greg. He thought about Ethan being in on the "veteran knowledge" that he and Crawford knew as well. He wondered how Ethan felt about Greg not sharing in the knowledge the others knew. He thought about Crawford's submissiveness, Ryan's opinions, and Matt's reasons for no longer being with them.
He thought long, and noticed the field of gravestones that rested quietly to the right of the path. He didn't dare speak any of it aloud.

~/.\ [credit to original author] there ya go guys ._. Hope you like it :3 night night lovelies