Ghoul and His Boyfriend

what's libations got to do with it?

"This is the burial site of the servants of King Philip I of Spain. How does this relate to anthropology you might ask," a thin man spoke to a crowd of students, his hallow cheeks signifying his many years of dedicated work and teaching. A young woman, Elisa, spoke immediately to answer the inquiry. "Anthropology and archaeology are closely related. We study the human aspects of the past relating to cultural practices and archaeology is the dating and analysis." She responded as though it was rehearsed. "Very good, Miss Holt." Professor Ramirez confirmed with a light chuckle. In the back of the crowd stood Arthur, who unlike the other students, would rather be in his dorm doing a virtual tour. Besides, what does archaeology matter to his studies? What was more insufferable is that Elisa was the know-it-all bully in their grade, though Arthur seemed to be alone in thinking that she was annoying.

His eyes were buried in the book for the class and he failed to hear the next question asked by the professor until his name was called. "Mr. Flores," said Professor Ramirez who cleared his throat. Arthur looked up and that nauseating sensation as though he forgot to bring an assignment the day it was due. His heart sank when he wrestled his mind to produce any recollection of what was asked, but alas nothing surfaced. "Uhm- I'm sorry what was the question again?" Arthur says while the aggravating teachers pet Elisa rolled her eyes. "Libations were offerings made to the dead before the burial, Dr. Ramirez," she stated confidently. "Very good, yet again Miss Holt. Some of us may do good to participate and perhaps Miss Holt can serve as an example of what I expect in class." Professor Ramirez casted a disappointed gaze to Arthur. Elisa had shook her head in snobby confidence as though she was better than everyone, especially Arthur. "Now, I want all of you to get into pairs and observe the excavated site below and please do not touch the artifacts, nor get too close to the edge, record your findings and we'll share them." the professor clapped his hands together and the students began pairing off.

Heeding the subtle singling out in regards to his participation in group discussion, Arthur put his textbook into his bag and pushed his rounded glasses up the bridge of his nose. He paired with another guy named David and made half-hearted attempts to socialize with his peers. "Damn Art, Dr. Ramirez tore you a new one. He's been on you all week." David teased, his muscled jock appearance exuded an abrasive personality. He was one to ask dumb questions on purpose in class and stunted the classroom learning with uproars of laughter. "Let's just get this assignment out of the way, I know you'll find some way to make a fool of yourself." Arthur went towards the display items of wine jugs and aged writing flattened out under plexiglass. "Ouch, my poor ego," David feigned being in pain by clasping his hand to his shirt and going towards the edge where the tomb was. "It's crazy isn't it? To be such an important person and then just end up in the ground like the rest of us. I wonder why there's so many other coffins though. Not exactly the most exciting party to go to." David leaned over more, observing the site. "Actually, there were times that the king would order his servants to be buried with him to serve in the afterlife..." Arthur began to dubiously explain but was unsettled by David climbing over the guard rail. "Jesus! Are you an idiot you can't go down there it's like a ten foot drop," he exclaimed and that's when David chuckled.

"The other shit up there is boring, let's look at the good stuff or you can be a pussy." David hopped off the railing and hit the ground, stumbling and patting himself as if to check he was still alive. Arthur looked back at his classmates that were clearly paying him no mind. The professor was speaking with Elisa, who was talking the professor's ear off about how devoted of a student she was. Arthur knew the coast was clear, yet part of him wished they would've gotten caught. He took a deep breath in and went over the railing, muttering to himself as he began to climb down. David steadied Arthur when he landed by holding his waist and then patting his shoulder. "This is what we should be doing, not looking at broken pottery." David poked around and began swiping his hand over the dusty stone encased coffin in the center of the site.

While not exactly thrilled, Arthur did take this opportunity to at least take advantage of it and fulfill his curiosity. He was mesmerized by the aged stone shelving holding simple coffins of people long ago. All the artifacts neatly placed in the earth, preserving a moment in time. "What do you think they were like? You know these people in the coffins." David began to say from the other side of the tomb site. There was a brief silence and a heavy sigh following. "Probably intense. Too focused on religion and power to care about anything else." Arthur bemoaned at David's questioning. As if the meat-for-brains jock actually cared about any of this and-

Crack.

"Woah! This one still has hair on its head and teeth. Wicked." David sounded alarm bells in Arthur's mind. He rushed over quickly to David and tried pulling the other's hands off of the mummified corpse. "You'll get us both in trouble idiot!" Arthur yelled in a hushed whisper, trying his best to pry David's hands off of it while also battling with a gag coming on from the smell of old human remains. "C'mon, lighten up Art. Just having a bit of fun," the jock laughed and then in a moment of tug a war between them, the shelving collapsed causing the coffin to tumble over and knocked the pair to the ground.

An ensemble of vases, gems, and wood clamored against the dirt covered ground. The smell of dusty bones and leathery skin filled their noses. Arthur coughed and waved his hand in front of his face from all the dust. He opened his eyes to find that the corpse was laying atop his body, with its open mouth sunk into his forearm. David dusted himself off and noticed the scene, "You're not a prude after all, Art. When's the engagement?" David bullied and got to his feet, picking up the corpse off of the horrified Arthur to prop it up into a standing position.

Arthur was worse for wear with his eyes widened as he looked down at his arm that had teeth marks buried into the skin. The angry red splotch made him sick to his stomach, as well as David dancing around with the corpse while humming the tune to Romance de Amor. "You're sick," he said while getting to his feet. "What the hell? Dr. Ramirez!" Elisa Holt had spotted the two down in the excavation site. David was entirely carefree as he danced around. Arthur was staring up at the snitch accepting what was to come. What could be worse than this?

In the time after Elisa yelling out for the professor and other classmates snapping photos of David pretending to make out with the corpse; Arthur had grown pale and dizzy. His eyes staring at the bite in his forearm again. He started to stumble back and bumped into the rotted shelves along the walls of the burial site. A libation vase tumbled over and the thick, wet sludge inside poured over his head. The class all exclaimed in disgust while Arthur gagged. This was a terrible day and seeing all of his class above him made it extremely humiliating. It seemed there was something worse than having a corpse fall on top of him. He couldn't believe that David had convinced him to go down into the excavation site. Of course, he would be punching himself later at the decision to climb down—the shame was almost punishment enough.

The students had gasped again when the libation vase on the rickety old shelf had begun to roll. The shelf became unsteady too. It was rocking back and forth on the decaying supports that held it up. Arthur slowly looked up, watching how the vase was going to inevitably fall off. He thought to himself, "*God, is it too late to start praying?*" Unfortunately, his wishful thinking towards a God that wasn't listening failed him. The shelf gave out and in instant the emptied vase had come flying down and shattered on top of Arthur's head. The clay pieces clattering to the ground. 

This moment had caught David's attention. Though he could be a jerk, he wasn't a complete asshole. He rushed over to Arthur and got onto his knees, making a disgusted expression from the smell. "Jesus, man. Are you okay? You look like you're going to pass out." David had grabbed Arthur's shoulder, shaking him. "Uh, Dr. Ramirez. I think you need to call an ambulance. This kid is in rough shape!" He called out to the professor above, the students who were snapping photos had suddenly stopped. It wasn't funny anymore, considering that one of their classmates could be seriously injured. Elisa Holt, however, had crossed her arms looking at the two young men. "Maybe next time you should read the sign! You two are going to be in so much trouble when the dean hears about..." Her voice was cut off by an explosion of dust that covered both Art and David. Arthur was losing consciousness, and yet he saw something in the midst of the chaos.

Before he passed out, a ghastly face appeared in front of him and whispered, "Tasty, got anymore?" It said in the hushed tone. In the dust cloud, a bright red liquid had splattered across the space that was visible. Arthur collapsed after that.