》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚❦ In which Anthony 'Lockwood' Lockwood thinks he sees a girl from his past and passes it off as a hallucination.
Or in which Harlow Meadows returns to the city of her youth with her own budding business and gets swept up into mystery...
Eloise Baker was among the few who had the displeasure of living near Central Gate cemetery. Throughout the years she has learned the graveyard holds no malicious force other than overgrown shrubbery that risks twisted ankles or brambles that seek to slice flesh. In regards to what happened that Tuesday evening and Wednesday early morning she had no words, except the elderly lady did have words.
Mrs. Baker awoke to the sound of screaming, first wondering if she didn't properly shut off her stove and went to bed with a burner beneath boiling water. She entered her decently sized kitchen, remodeled with the newest wallpaper and appliances for her grandchildren's amusement even setting up a designated chalkboard along one wall for them to play games or draw on.
After switching on the light, she noticed no flame beneath the kettle, yet the screams still rang. Then, as suddenly and curious as they arrived the screams died out. Mrs. Baker cautiously examined her house, made sure to turn on as many lights as she could and dialled DEPRAC. It was they whom she shared her words with, describing the strange and unusual nightly activity. Finally, just as they were about to hang up, the receptionist told their partner 'It's just another crazy old bat, probably just a tom.' Mrs. Baker was quick to interject she lived near a graveyard that had been working on evacuations. The silence that followed made her believe they did hang up on her, yet there was still shuffling and when they asked her to repeat everything Eloise hung up on them. She knew what she heard now, and there would be none to convince her otherwise.
There would be no sanction from nightmares tonight.
Everything was placed on a spring, not walking nor running but springing, jumping from one location to another without even laying a foot on the ground. Everything was moving too fast, there were only blurs. Still, Harlow was in front, abreast with William as she searched for anything unnatural, any eerie light that she knew lanterns do not emit while looking for the flare and dimming of lanterns. Caws of crows among the tilting lyrics of sparrows, the sparrows are ignored from the abnormality of the crows with their sleek black feathers and raspy caws demanding attention as they too search and call out to others.
However, under the reign of night screams are nothing more than birdsong. Fleeting attention captured then released, the unquiet dead dancing to their song of terror while the quiet dead simply remain. They are drunk from life and now have eternity to sleep everything off as they simply remain.
Diane and Lou laid on the floor, screaming and convulsing as they approached, voices no different than the crow's. "Evelyn, Clara, stay back." Harlow warned but they were already shaking. "Rowan, Gregory take them back fifteen paces." She looked at Tom, Harry, Matthew, and Silas. "Which grave?" They stared between the girls and Harlow, she snapped her fingers twice, gaining their attention. "Which grave?" The air elongated, a great crescendo unheard by the living until the Sensitive's shrill shrieks pierced the night air once again.
