Gabrielle ‘Gabs’ Mitchel’s eyelids flutter, and the whites of her eyes glow, as her body twitches deep in the psychosis of her dreams, or maybe this time her nightmares. Tiny beads of sweat cling to her forehead, as her fists strikeout, falling with soft thumps against the mattress. The air conditioning unit cycles back on with a gentle hum. Soothing. Gabrielle whimpers, it’s a sad and woeful sound; the clock reads 2:17.
The sky is cloudless dark and without a star; only the moon hangs above. The light drifts down in shades of blue and the air around her shimmers, and a mist snakes along what can only be a graveyard. Gabrielle watches from another place, as her body walks further down the path, and deeper into the nightmare.
“I’m dreaming.”
A man approaches the “other” her, but she’s unafraid; she walks to him, her dark hair glowing violet in the peculiar moonlight, and standing against him she seems tiny. He offers his hand, and she takes it. He leads her amongst the tombstones to a pine box by an open grave, and next to it, a brass bell affixed to a slim metal rod. Gabrielle watches mouth drawn shut, wide-eyed, and hands clenched, as the man lifts the “other” her off the ground and rests her in the casket. She screams with all her might from somewhere above, as the man lowers the coffin; his arms move in a slow, graceful motion, and tic tic tic the casket disappears.
Gabrielle, still screaming, notices two other men have materialized out of the shadows and shovels in hand they begin piling loads of dirt onto the grave.
“Wake up! Wake Up! Oh God WAKE UP!”
The tall man turns and smiles a jack-o-lantern smile; his eyes are bright burning coals set in the face of changing clay. His finger moves to his lips “Shhh. You’ll wake the dead.”
The jingling of bells fills the air around her, and she can feel herself falling. Falling into the darkness, and in a moment she will hit bottom and then.
The clock reads 7:00 and Gabrielle’s hand falls with a thump on the snooze button; she recoils as if slapped afraid to fall back to sleep with the nightmare still fresh and lingering in her mind. She sits up feeling the dampness around her and shifts under the blanket. She pushes her hand against the cold wetness and brings it to her nose. She expects the scent of urine and gags, but there is no urine, so she smells again taking a deeper whiff and relaxes, and then gags again in spite of herself.
Gabrielle hops out of bed and wasting no time strips her nightgown off discarding it on the floor, as she walks towards her bathroom. She glances in the mirror admiring her good looks; her hazel eyes are staring back at her and then drifting down to her navel ring. She smiles. The nightmare is fading the way all dreams do, and by the time the hot water rushes down against her skin, all but the ringing bells are forgotten.
The rest of the day is a blur of selfies, text messages, and Facebook statuses. When Sydney messages her at quarter to ten, she’s ready to leave the monotony of the day behind, and head off with her friend and meet the guys at the cemetery. The cemetery has always been their place; it sits high on top of the largest hill in town; it’s the first place she got drunk and where she shared her first real kiss, but thinking of it now makes her stomach knot, and she can hear the ding-a-ding-ding-ding of the bells. She shivers.
Sydney honks her horn at 10:15 and Gabrielle hurries to meet her. She notices Sydney is wearing the red skirt, it’s her favorite she likes how it makes her butt look and so does her boyfriend, Colin. Before pulling away from the house, Sydney turns on the interior light and checks her make up in the vanity mirror.
“How do I look?”
“You look beautiful. Maybe a little slutty.” Gabrielle laughs at her joke and watches Sydney’s green eyes light up.
“Oh you little bitch,” Sydney throws her head back, and her natural red hair falls around her shoulders as she laughs with Gabrielle.
When they arrive at the cemetery and step out into the muggy summer night the humidity wraps around them like a blanket; Gabrielle thinks and not for the first time that coming here may be a mistake. The moonlight streams down from the heavens and lights a path. The very same way she’s walked a hundred times or more, and still, she takes her time moving amongst the tombstones, her feet carrying her forward while her mind urges her to retreat, to turn back now before it’s too late.
Ding-a-ding-ding-ding. The bells are echoing across her mind, but up ahead she can hear laughter and the familiar voices of her friends.
She relaxes.
“Gabs.”
Joel rushes to her side and grabs her around the waist lifting her with a flourish, and kisses her on the nose, as her feet regain the cemetery floor. Gabrielle smiles and brings her lips to his; the embrace only lasts a moment, but it succeeds in driving out the remaining memory of last night’s nightmare, and even the bells fall silent.
“What took you ladies so long? I guess I should be happy you made it here in one piece with Sydney driving.” Joel runs his hand through his sandy hair pushing it off his forehead and exposing his bright blue eyes.
“Shut up Joel. There isn’t anything wrong with my driving; you happen to drive like my grandmother,” Sydney laughs and so does everyone else.
Colin comes up behind them with his shaved head shining under the fluorescent glow; his hand stroking an impressive beard “Want a beer?” He grabs two from the cooler, and Sydney’s eyes rest on his strong arms.
“I’ll take one,” Joel says and grabs both one for himself and one for Gabrielle.
Gabrielle takes the beer in her hand and turns it over allowing the condensation to run first down the can and then back up. Little droplets of icy water streak down her slender legs, as she places the unopened beverage between her feet. Joel squats down next to her and ignoring the heat of the evening drapes his arm across her shoulders. She can feel his breath on her nape, as he leans closer kissing her below the ear and tasting the salty skin beneath. The kiss sends a wave of warmth running from his lips to her navel, and then further below.
“Hey is everything okay babe?”
She looks into his eyes and for a moment sees the burning coals of the tall man, the nightmare man, glaring back; before she can stop herself, a soft mewling sound escapes her throat. Joel recoils, and his smile vanishes. The beer trembles in his hand and then his lips, as more of the liquid runs down his chin, then down his throat.
“I’m fine babe. Just thinking of this dream I had last night.”
“Do you want to talk about?”
“Not now. I’ll just upset myself; I think it’s better forgotten.”
They can hear Brian’s old Mustang, as it roars across the deserted road and comes screeching into the parking lot. The sound of rock music thunders across the hallowed ground, and even though the music is quite loud, they still hear Brian arguing with Stacey about something; with those two there’s always a reason to fight. The Mustang’s engine cuts off, and the music stops, as Colin approaches from behind.
“Hey man, want another beer,” Colin holds out a fresh one. “Five bucks says he brings that dumbass Bluetooth speaker.”
“That’s a sucker bet. He takes that fucking thing with him everywhere.”
“Stacey told me she caught him sleeping with it,” Sydney said.
The four of them laugh.
“I can hear you, sons of bitches,” Brian said
Brian emerges from the darkness first; he’s a massive hulk of a man with dreams of playing college ball before moving onto the professional level. Stacey follows, the smell of vodka mixing with her perfume, she’s already drunk, and her smile holds little joy. He grabs a seat next to Gabrielle and pulls Stacey down onto his lap. His fingers fumble with the speaker’s strap dangling from his shoulder, and then he searches his phone for music.
“Hey man, toss me one of those beers.”
“Here take mine, I don’t feel like drinking tonight,” Gabrielle said reaching down between her feet to retrieve her un-opened beer.
“Thanks, Gabs you’re a real peach. You got yourself a helluva good girl here Joel.” He couldn’t help himself from taking a long look at her smooth legs, as she reaches down for the can. When she hands him the beer, he makes no effort to hide his gaze, and his eyes rest on her breasts.
“Eyes up here buddy boy,” she laughs without amusement.
“Don’t be a pig Brian,” Stacy said.
“She’s the one who got her tits hanging out. What’s wrong with me admiring them?”
Stacey slaps Brian across his face, and even in the moonlight, the red imprint is visible. He smiles back at her, and then rips her top bra and all, down off her chest. Her breasts lay naked for a moment, and eyes swimming with tears; she covers herself with an arm. After humiliating his girlfriend, he goes back to find some music to play and settles on something heavy and dark. He cranks it up louder, and the tunes drift out across the darkened cemetery.
Gabrielle feels weak and sick. She doesn’t dislike Brian, and sometimes he can be a pretty decent person, but other times, he’s a genuine asshole. She was thinking of how satisfying it would be to knock that particular shit-eating grin off his face when Joel whispers something in her ear. Unable to make it out, though, the music blasting from that damn speaker is too loud.
“Dude, turn that down a bit; I can’t even hear myself think,” Joel said
“Yeah, show a little respect for the dead,” Sydney said.
“You’ll wake the dead,” Colin said.
“All right calm down, a bunch of fucking killjoys the lot of ya.”
They all laugh, all except Gabrielle. That is what the tall man said to her right before she heard the ding-a-ling-ding-ding, bells. The phrase brings it all back to her, and she wants to scream. The horrible melting face, the bright burning embers of his eyes, and the thin finger pressing against his smooth waxy lips “Shhh. You’ll wake the dead”, as warm as the night is she can’t help shivering. Joel grabs hold of her trembling body and pulls her close.
“You wanna take a walk?”
She smiles and glances at her phone it’s 10:43 “Yeah, let’s get out of here for a bit. Hey, Syd, we’re going to split for a second if he doesn’t have me back in an hour send out the search party.” Sydney laughs and shoos her away; she turns her attention back to Colin and grinds her hips against him to the beat of the drums.
Joel splashes some beer on the yellow grass and extends his hand as he stumbles from his seat. His fingers stretch out and as Gabrielle’s hand moves to meet him; he loses his balance and falls backward landing in the grass with a soft thud. This routine is met with more laughter, and Gabrielle moves to help him to his feet. He dusts himself off and laughs along with them; he can see Gabs is laughing too and that, in and of itself, is enough to wash away any embarrassment he feels, and replace it with total satisfaction. They walk hand in hand, alone, under the moonlight.
Gabrielle looks back at her laughing friends and smiles.
The music follows them deeper into the cemetery before being drowned out by the sounds of the night. The crickets chirp playing their intricate violins, and an owl hoots, as Joel runs his hand along the tall grass sending a swarm of fireflies dancing into the sky. They stand for a moment and kiss under the twinkling lights. He wants to tell her that he loves her but the snap of a nearby branch steals his attention, and then something peculiar darts across them and races between a pair of tombstones.
“What– was that?”
“I don’t know, but it moved fast.”
Gabrielle glances down at her phone 11:23; she wants to tell him it’s time to head back to the others but the sound of a bell causes the words to catch in her throat. She can’t know if Joel hears them too; he’s still looking off into the inky darkness straining to catch a glimpse of whatever it is they saw.
“Hey what’s that, can you hear it, sounds like a bell?”
“Yeah, I hear it too, and it’s giving me the creeps. So how about we head back?”
“Give me a second babe. I’m going to take a quick look; it sounds like it’s coming from just over there.”
“Joel…” but he’s gone disappearing into the dark leaving her alone with nothing but the ringing bell, and a sense of déjà vu to keep her company.
A milky soup begins to grow around her coating the cemetery floor, rising and falling in waves against the tombstones. The fog reaches out towards her and slithers across her ankles; the ringing grows louder building to an incredible crescendo, and for a moment, she’s sure her skull will burst. The soft earth kicks up around her, as she spins meaning to run back by herself if she must, and sees Joel cutting through the gloom. Only it’s not; he’s much too tall; his legs are clicking and head swaying, as he more scuttles than walks out of the mist. Her hands clamp over her mouth stifling a scream, and tossing her phone to the ground; it reads 12:07.
Joel comes bursting out of the dark and stares into four sets of surprised eyes. His chest heaves and his hands rest on his knees, as he lurches forward.
“Where’s Gabs? Isn’t she back yet?”
“What do you mean where’s Gabs, she was with you?” Sydney grabs her phone. “Shit, it’s 12:30 when did you two run off?”
“I don’t fucking know. I can’t remember. I wasn’t keeping tabs, Jesus Syd.”
“Chill man. Gabrielle knows this place better than anyone she’s not going to get lost.” Colin rubs Joel’s back and with raised eyebrows looks to Sydney.
Brian grabs another beer and goes back to messing with his portable speaker; the damn battery is dead, and he just charged the thing.
“I have to go look for her.”
“We’ll come with.” Colin stands gesturing towards Sydney and the others.
Stacey whispers in Brian’s ear “I don’t want to go walking around in there. Let’s go, my parents won’t be home until tomorrow night,” she glances at her phone “Well later tonight, whatever, you know what I mean. Let’s go, okay.”
Brian under most circumstances is a man prone to argue, even if for no other reason than to create conflict, but this idea sounds like the kind of idea he can get into. “Sure thing babe,” he stands and pulls Stacey to her feet “Sorry folks we’re going to sit this one out.”
Colin looks to object and shrugs his shoulders instead. “Whatever man. Take it easy.” They watch as Brian and Stacey walk away and when Joel hears the Mustang fire up he turns and faces the cemetery.
“Dudes a prick.”
No one says more, as Joel leads them into the cemetery he senses that something terrible has happened, is happening, or will soon happen; he only hopes that they are not too late. Walking among the countless dead every second stretches out lingering with its ebb and flow. Sydney’s foot crunches over something that sounds like cracking glass, she pauses and bends to pick up Gabrielle’s phone.
“Oh, that’s not good.” She’s not sure if she means breaking her best friends phone or that her phone is here and not with her.
“What’s that?”
“It’s Gab’s phone.”
Joel winces at the sight of the broken phone it doesn’t matter that Sydney just broke it because what it did mean was that something made Gabrielle drop it. They search in a tight group all of them afraid of what they will or will not find and the seconds that seemed to stretch on without end, become long endless minutes. After searching for more than an hour their voices hoarse from shouting they circle back to the cemetery’s entrance. It’s 2:17.
“I think we need to call the cops or something,” Sydney said no longer able to believe that she and Gabrielle would be laughing about this tomorrow.
“And say what exactly?” Joel’s eyes stare to the ground brimming with tears as the seriousness of the moment cements itself in his mind.
“The truth what else.” Sydney mistook Joel’s words and regrets the tone she used as soon as the words leave her mouth. “I’m sorry Joel. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Hey quiet, I think I hear something.” Colin steps away from Sydney and Joel and cups his hand over his ear.
Ding-a-ding-ding-ding
The sound of a bell rings out, it sounds faint and far away, but Colin is sure he can hear it. Joel steps closer and hears it too; Sydney takes a step backward the sound of the bell echoing in her head.
“I don’t like this.”
“I heard a bell earlier,” Joel runs off into the cemetery moving towards the sound of the bell. “I’m going,” and his voice trails off as he flashes out of sight.
“What do we do now?”
“I don’t know Syd. I guess we wait and if he doesn’t come back with her soon we’ll call for help.”
Colin and Sydney wait for an hour as Joel searches the cemetery. They do not speak only stand and listen to the sound of a single brass bell. Ding-a-ding-ding-ding. It’s a sound that will creep into their beds in the late hours of the night and haunt their dreams for the rest of their lives.
The tall man looms over Gabrielle; his glowing eyes lock on hers, and he offers her his hand. She stands firm but feels the distance between them shrinks in defiance to her resolve. The tall man’s smile grows wide and crooked exposing the rotten remains of his teeth. An endless cacophony of bells continues saturating the air around her, and she goes to him with mindless obedience. “It’s my dream, my nightmare… I’m dreaming.”
She’s not.
Times slips away as she follows him, first into the mist, and then through it to a clearing that she can’t recognize. Hundreds, maybe thousands of gravestones are huddled together crowding the hillside, from some graves, waist-high metal rods rise from the earth, while others are paired with intricate towers capped with steeples. All stand sentinel with bells ringing in the night. Reaching the top of the hill, Gabrielle looks upon an empty casket and freshly dug grave. She knows her heart should be pounding, forcing adrenaline through her veins, but she feels a calmness akin to standing in the eye of a terrible storm with powerful energies swirling around her. Not even the seeing the grave marker reading Gabrielle Mitchel May 14, 2000 – August 8, 2018, Beloved Daughter can break the paralysis holding her captive.
The Tall man offers his hand again, and she meets his embrace no longer frightened, only resigned to whatever her fate may be. The world sways, and she has the sense of floating, of laying on a cloud and thinks “light as a feather and stiff as a board”. He ushers Gabrielle’s body forward to the coffin suspended above the dank earth and rests her against the soft cushions.
She whimpers.
Gabrielle takes a final glance into the star-speckled sky and the burning coals that are his eyes, and she sees all the world’s wickedness and malice dancing behind them. As the lid closes entombing her in the absolute darkness, she sobs and cries out, but there is no response forthcoming. She can hear the soft cemetery earth falling on top of her and imagines great sheets of dirt pouring in, and burying her alive.
She has a moment to think of a story she read the year before The Premature Burial by Edgar Allen Poe, and a hysterical laugh escapes her lips. Recalling the man’s fears, and how they seemed absurd to her then breaks the trance that fettered her limbs in invisible shackles. She thrashes out pounding with as much force as she can against the heavy lid. Her arms are liquid fire, and her lungs burn, as tears sting her eyes. Left alone in the quiet darkness of her final resting place; a small light glows beneath her hand and a coil of string twitches by her fingertips. She grabs hold and tugs with her fading strength.
Nothing.
Gabrielle inhales the stale air, hand jerking in a desperate rhythm, and hears a single bell ring out piercing the silence.
Short Stories
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The way you describe stuff is fantastic, this having to be one of my favorite lines.
“The tall man turns and smiles a jack-o-lantern smile;”
Just perfect imagery.
All I could think while reading this story is these kids have such a different life than mine or the one I had. They drink, pull down each other tops, and chill out near cemeteries; I think this was the life I wanted when I was younger but could never have(LOL).
I think this is an awesome story, with a lot going on. So I do think you should write a little more in between so it doesn’t feel like the reader is going back and forth too much (I don’t know if that makes sense). And I think you need to throw in some more transitions. I got lost a couple of times when you were switching from Gabrielle back to her friends and the party.
But other than that I thoroughly enjoyed this!
Thank you for reading “You’ll Wake the Dead” I see that you also read and commented on “The Pond by the Pool” so my gratitude is doubled. I love that you found something about the story to enjoy and/or relate to these are words I will not soon forget.
As with any work I’ve already posted and most certainly with the work to come what appears here is what I consider to be the first draft. The story probably shouldn’t be posted yet at all. It should sit in my drawer on it’s printed paper and cool off, so that I may revisit it later and make necessary revisions, but I’m always too damn excited when I “finish” a piece that I can’t wait.
I can see how some of the transitions can be clarified to ease confusion, and I think I follow your train of thought with adding more in between. It’s always a bit of a struggle trying to determine how much information to use and what is too much or not critical to the story. I’m still working on finding that perfect balance of enough descriptions and imagery without sacrificing the pace or rhythm of the piece.
Some of it I think may also be my struggle with the formatting of the page, and because I have refused to retype entire pieces and choose instead to copy from the word processor, I lose paragraph indents and the ability to quickly add some break or symbol to represent a shift in place or characters. Thank you for the critiques I appreciate them more than you know, it gives me the feeling that the story was read and thought about even if for only a brief moment which is satisfying in its own way.
Thank you again for taking the time with my story.
I enjoyed each character in this story. They felt much like real characters, like you might have gone to school with any of them, though they weren’t you or your friends, you knew them.
I also really like the pacing of this story. At no point does it linger too long with one set of characters or with one idea. The kids constantly checking the time and us watching how the time was progressing quicker than it seemed it should was an interesting detail. I also like how the Bluetooth speaker died– hints of the paranormal all around!
I loved this moment:
“A milky soup begins to grow around her coating the cemetery floor, rising and falling in waves against the tombstones. The fog reaches out towards her and slithers across her ankles; the ringing grows louder building to an incredible crescendo, and for a moment, she’s sure her skull will burst. The soft earth kicks up around her, as she spins meaning to run back by herself if she must, and sees Joel cutting through the gloom. Only it’s not; he’s much too tall; his legs are clicking and head swaying, as he more scuttles than walks out of the mist. Her hands clamp over her mouth stifling a scream, and tossing her phone to the ground; it reads 12:07.”
You built up the suspense so well and ended in the big reveal. It was very satisfying. I know I said this on another of your posts, but this piece moves like the opening to an episode of Supernatural. You have a great talent for writing suspenseful stories!
Thank you, for reading You’ll Wake the Dead your time is appreciated, and I struggle to find the words to express my gratitude. I’m glad that you picked up on the dead speaker and its relevance to the story, it makes me laugh a bit because as I wrote that line and began revising, I asked myself numerous times if I wanted to keep that sentence. So I have to say it makes me happy, even if, you are the only person who ever notes that it had any significance.
Yes, I do believe that you mentioned while commenting on The Pond by the Pool the story having an intro to an episode of Supernatural and I don’t take any insult in that. I have never got to watch the entire series, but I do enjoy the premise of the show and would consider your comparison or association with the show a huge compliment. I enjoy horror and suspense, and while I don’t want to believe everything I ever write will be pigeon-holed as such, it is a genre that I tend to haunt.
I see you have a fresh post, about to head over and give it a read. Thanks again for reading I’m glad you enjoyed the story and the ending as well I know I enjoyed writing it.
Wow! What an incredible story. Gave me chills. I really enjoyed reading your story. I’m just glad I’m reading this in the day time. You are an excellent writer.