Corpse Groom

Chapter 3

I thank December Silentvale for helping.

As thunder crashed in the sky overhead, the married couple and Liam made their way to the tallest building in town. A stone tower with a winding staircase. Emill led Trisha as Liam trotted along ahead of them, reaching the top, Liam barked, as if announcing their arrival. The top of the tower a sort of private library as books where heaped atop one another in stacks. Bookshelves bending under the weight. There appeared to be once a glass dome roof overhead, the glass long removed and the wire frame becoming resting stops for crows. The room was dark and there didn't seem to be a soul there, living or otherwise.

"Shh, Liam." Emill whispered, not wanting the dog to cause the elder any trouble.

"Elder Gutknecht... are you there?" Emill called out, raising his voice slightly from his whispering. "Hello? ls anyone home? Hello?" He called out a little louder, the noise startling the birds as the cawed and flew through the room. This startled Liam as well, barking at the carrion birds.

Due to the commotion, the birds removed themselves from around the single lantern in the room, shedding some light as Trisha gasped, shielding her eyes from it. As the lantern swung back and forth, a skinny, old skeletal hand reached out to steady it.

As the hunched over skeleton coughed, Trisha assumed this was Elder Gutknecht. Even by the other skeletons Trisha had seen, she could tell the one before her was quite old. His skull cracked and a side jutting up. A small wispy patch of white hair clung to his chin, the last remnants of a small beard. His teeth long gone. Even by skeleton standards, he was skinny, Trisha couldn't help but wonder if he had been malnourished when he was once alive.

"There you are!" Emill beamed, confirming Trisha's suspicions as to who the skeleton was.

Adjusting his half-moon glasses, Elder Gutknecht looked down from his perch atop a bookstand. "Oh, my boy. There you are."

"l've brought my wife, Trisha." Emill introduced.

"What's that? Wife?" Gutknecht asked, scratching his skull in confusion.

"Pleasure to meet you, sir." Trisha said, raising her voice for the old man to hear her properly.

"We need to go up. To the surface. To visit the land of the living." Emill explained the purpose of their visit.

"Land of the living? Oh, my boy." Gutknecht spoke as he walked down the makeshift book stairs towards them.

"Please, Elder Gutknecht." Emill begged.

"Now, why go up there, when people are dying to get down here?" Gutknecht asked.

"Please, sir. We have some unfinished business left. We'd really appreciate it. It would mean so much. We won't stay long. Think of it as our wedding gift!" Trisha suggested happily.

"I don't know, it's just not natural." Gutknecht told them, scratching his, his bony fingers touching the broken piece of his skull.

"Please, Elder Gutknecht. Surely there must be something you can do." Emill implored him, holding the elder's hand.

"Hmm." Gutknecht hummed before patting Emill's hand. "Let me see what l can do. Where did l put that book?" He asked himself as he walked around his library.

Opening a cabinet, he moved some of the books inside before shutting it again. Going to a drawer, he opened it and crows cawed as they were freed from the furniture.

"l left it here somewhere." Gutknecht assured them, tossing books from a pile, nearly hitting Liam as he yelped and ran out of the danger zone.

"Ah, there's the one." Gutknecht stated, pulling a think red book from the shelf and blowing off the dust. Climbing back to the bookstand, Elder Gutknecht took the book and a few bottles and settled them around him. Opening the book, he flicked through the pages before he found what he was looking for. "Umm... l have it."