Grave Rock: Cemetery Stones

Dear Eden

Tye had brought me donuts and coffee that following morning. He remembered my favorite kind of donut in high school. I didn't have the heart to tell him I no longer enjoyed the flavor of apple and cinnamon. One too many apple pie shots in college ruined the whole experience for me.

I ate them and before I knew it we were on the way to grab Missy. My dream the night before was just a replaying of that distant memory. The dare we accepted and the moment I began to doubt my friendships. It was still full of static but every day that ticked away slowly filled in the missing pieces.

Missy was quiet. I was unsure if she was afraid to say anything in front of Tye or if she was truly afraid. She looked unrested and said little until we reached the woods. As we walked she started retelling the story of what happened when they stole the rocks. It was all Renee and Zoe being drunkenly reckless. Missy should have stopped them.

Tye asked if she believed in ghosts. There was a powerful silence that said more than her words did. As she explained, she was more unsure than ever before. A part of her wanted to believe but it would mean she let her friends die. She felt guilty for letting them steal the gravestones. I remember her saying one of the stones had already been stolen.

The night they went drinking in the graveyard, Renee brought up the stones and Zoe pointed out there was supposed to be ten. They all decided to take one. Renee kept saying she would etch her husband's name in it. Missy wasn't as drunk as the others but she still stole one.

I tried to comfort her but I heard the itty bitty footsteps approaching. The haunting childlike entities slowly crept closer to watch us arrive. Tye told her that he too believed it could be something otherworldly. We were dealing with the deaths of our friends. Our minds were trying to grasp at anything to explain what happened. Guilt was normal but she should not hold onto that feeling.

Renee and Zoe stole the rocks on their own. Missy could have tried to stop them but Tye reminded us how strong willed they both were. No one could have stopped them. If they had not taken them that night, who knows if they wouldn't have taken them another day.

Tye was right. The diminutive eyes watching seemed to pull back. I could actually hear the cicadas singing and wind moving about the trees. It was a cacophony of noise that painted the scene an unnerving color. We reached the forgotten cemetery and walked around to the place where the stones rested. Missy screamed. I noticed it too.

Only four stones remained. Two more had been taken. Missy began to panic but Tye and I reassured her. Tye suspected someone else knew about the stones and knew about us. Maybe the very same people who had dared us all those years ago. Before we could untangle all the possibilities, we put back the stones Missy and Zoe had taken.

On the return trip to town we discussed all the different theories we could imagine. Was it one of the seniors from way back when? Marcia, Denny, or Bolton? Had one of them been taking the stones and killing us? I imagined each of them stalking Renee and Zoe. Getting close because they were old schoolmates.

I still toyed with the idea of angry spirits. Just as I went to talk about my dreams and what I felt we got the news. When we pulled up to pick up Benji, he was in a flurry of emotions. Anger and sorrow all spewing from him in unclear fragments. After he calmed down we found out the horrible truth.

Eden had been found murdered. What was left of her was found just outside her work. It sounded like Benji had said she was crushed. He didn't have much details but we soon found out everything from the news and the letter left behind. The last words Eden would ever express found on a piece of paper under one of the gravestones.

Her parents had let us read it to help try and figure out what happened. The way Eden died could not be explained away by animals or some random attack. It was as if a heavy boulder had fallen from the sky and evaporated into dust. What was left of Eden was but a mess of skin and bone.

In her letter Eden explained what happened between her and Zoe. After Zoe had stolen the gravestone she had changed. She was distant and didn't sleep in their bed anymore. Renee had also been spending more time at their place. Zoe had said she saw something at night but Eden felt like it was excuses for something else.

They decided to break things off to sort of reset things. In her own words she suspected Renee and Zoe had a thing. Missy denied it but mistrust had begun to blossom between me and Missy. I didn't know what to think. It was clear things between them had soured. Benji began to doubt all of it rather than admit something strange was happening.

He didn't want to read the letter. Eden said she had gone the day after the funeral to grab a stone. We must have missed her but as she had put it, Eden had gone alone and with no intention of coming home. She wanted to see if what Zoe said was true. Zoe had never believed in spirits before. Eden had to know if it was real or just an elaborate distraction.

It sounded like she meant to grab the stone and face whatever Zoe saw. When nothing happened she felt both relief and anger. Then the feelings crept in. She too felt like she was being watched. Like something had followed her home and refused to let her sleep. Every night just as she would drift into her dreams an aggressive and raspy voice would tell her to wake up. She described it as 'the voice of the undead'.

She wrote the letter and decided to leave it in case anything happened. Eden felt it would do no good to return the stone. Sometimes atonement is too little too late. I could feel her guilt like a serpent wrapping around my shoulders. Was the thing that watched me one of the spirits from the graveyard? Was it something else?

Missy was deeply upset and did not want to spend the night alone. We all stayed at Tye's but I don't think any of us really slept. Benji left around midnight but I remember the next day would be even more grim than the last. I wish I had told Missy to close the shop for a day. I know that it was already too late. Her fate had been etched like the yellow markings on the stolen stones.