Grave Rock: Cemetery Stones

Its A Bookstore

All the yellow tape and gathered people painted the scene with a horrid tone. Death hung so thick in the air you could almost taste it. We must have missed the show because now it was all tears and confusion across the crowd. They had pulled something bloody from the wreckage of the book store. From the outside, it was just as it had always been.

Burnt out neon sign proclaiming 'Its A Bookstore' in bold cursive. The large windows were decorated to look like fake rooms. A table and some chairs with a stack of books ready to read. Behind that were massive bookshelves that blocked the gruesome horror inside.

We were not allowed in. Tye and I could barely get past the gathered people. Benji powered through and was already yelling at the cops near the front entrance. There was gossip that they pulled several bodies out under bloody sheets but we would learn it was only Missy who perished.

Lenore and Roger, my coworkers, had arrived on time that morning. They couldn't get a hold of Missy who normally opened the store. They both called but no one answered so they decided to use the back entrance. I knew as well as they did that the backdoor couldn't lock. It had a massive bolt on it but it was just for show. Missy meant to replace it but that was months ago.

Lenore turned on the lights and Roger went right to the cafe. He heard her screams from the back and ran to see what she had found. Missy had been torn to pieces and put on display. Lenore couldn't really tell us the full story but Roger did. He told us everything as if to purge himself from it all. It was deeply disturbing.

Her head was left on the desk, eyes and tongue missing. Limbs decorated the main lobby pointing to the center piece. What once was a place to display local art now showed the insides of the human body. Ripped out and scavenged about like animals had their fill of our friend and left the rest to rot.

Benji vomited at the story and almost struck Roger for telling us. As Tye went to calm him down I asked if there was anything else. As if I knew that wasn't the end of it. Roger continued. He described the sudden cold that filled the room. A powerful and icy frost that burnt his cheeks and nose.

I could swear I even saw my breath in that moment. As if the creature or thing responsible for all this was near. Outside the nearby pub, Roger told me about the blood. In the blood it looked like handprints. At first just a single pair from the front desk to the art display.

From the mess of left over intestines and organs burst forth dozens of foot and hand prints. The way Roger put it, one thing entered the room but more than one thing left it. All the fear and panic was pouring from his eyes and I could see that he was trying his best to forget what he had seen.

Just when things couldn't get any worse, the cops wanted to question Benji, Tye, and me. By now it was clear our small group of friends was being targeted but by who? The police questioned us separately. I noticed three men in jade colored suits. They were at the bookstore and then at the police station. One for each of us. I was nervous that maybe it had been one of my friends. Did I really know them?

We had stopped talking for some time. I had lived what felt like an entire lifetime since high school. Tye and Benji had been in contact for a while. Missy only returned to town when her grandmother passed. Benji when his brother died. It was like we were all back in the right place at the wrong time.

Eden and Zoe fell apart once we all started talking. Renee hadn't spoken to anyone other than Zoe before I moved back to town. If I had lived a whole lifetime in turn so did they. They had new stories, new passions, new secrets. The police reminded me of this. How well did I know any of them?

Since I came back I had really only spent time with that circle of friends. No one from the city really reached out to me. The ones that did slowly faded off into their own lives. I answered all the questions asked by the weathered police officer and eventually they let me go. The man in the suit did not speak the entire time. Benji was waiting outside for me.

They took the longest time questioning Tye and it made me nervous. Well after the sun had set they released him. We later learned it was because he told them about the graveyard. The dare all those years ago. Benji asked why and Tye told us the truth. Even if they didn't believe him, they had the right to know.

We would learn that Bolton lived in Cherry Grove now. Marcia and Denny were married but Denny had passed a few years after we graduated. The cops fact checked what Tye said and gave him a bit of information. Bolton worked construction and they did work here in Glenwood.

Benji bet it was Bolton. Both Tye and myself thought otherwise. If Roger was telling the truth, it may be more than one person behind it all. Either living or dead, it was possible the thing behind it was not alone. Anger filling the air around him, Benji was sick of the ghost talk.

He didn't want to hear about the stones, the spirits, or the prank. To him it was just Bolton finally snapping. When Tye tried to reason with him and work out why Bolton would do such a thing it only made things worse. There was too much raw emotion in that moment. We had lost another friend.

Renee, Zoe, Eden, and now Missy. They were all gone and we had no solid reason why. After leaving the police station and having a drink at the Ember Tavern, Tye and I left Benji. Lenore and her friend Jordan had joined us at one point to drink in memory of Missy. The three were still drinking when we left. Outside it was crisp and smelled a bit like burnt oak.

Tye offered a place to stay and I almost declined. We sat there in his car for a moment in a soft silence. I looked at him and he was hurting. As much as he tried to hide it, Tye was distressed. I told him I would stay if he wanted me too. He looked at me with fragmented tears in his eyes.

We both cried. In that car, together and alone we let out the powerfully painful emotion we felt for losing another friend. Both of us shared stories of all the ones we lost. The memories we had held onto in the back of our minds not knowing they would come when we needed.

All the good times and even the bad ones. Tye and I spent the night talking about all the times way back when and those moments we left unshared. The seconds of life spent getting ready for a dance or a date. The minutes picking a movie or choosing an ice cream. All those hours and days that would seem so unimportant but became the most memorable. Talking with Tye unlocked all the distant moments I had buried away.

The sun would start to rise and we had our fill of the past. Tye once again offered me a place to sleep and I accepted. Just as we made it to the door he stopped. He looked at me with those mesmerizing eyes and told me he had always believed me.

It took me a second to catch it but he repeated himself. Terence had always believed me. I stood speechless but Tye filled the morning air with his truth. He wasn't sure he believed in ghosts or whatever but he believed me. Tye was willing to believe that what I had seen that night was real.

He couldn't explain it but he believed me all those years ago. Tye smiled and confessed that he could be just as crazy as me but he didn't care. Ever since I had come back to town I had been on his mind. He wanted me to know he believed me and that he cared. Tye wasn't going to lose me. 'Not again', he said.

We spent the morning together and I wish I could spend more time in that moment. Tell Tye how I felt about him. Tell him about my dreams. It wasn't the right time. I knew that maybe my emotions were tied up in the loss of people I knew and cared about. Soon the day would fade and bring with it a night to truly haunt me.