The Pennyworth Gravestone

Dark, cramped… can’t breath, one percent, HELP ME I can’t get out. I am going to die today and nobody will care, nobody at all. I have loved no one and no one has loved me, and the last thing I do before I die is stare at that stone one more time and let myself drift off.

***

A graveyard can mean many different things to many different people, it can mean a place to visit long dead loved ones, a central hub for haunting and paranormal creatures but it means something very different to me.

One day around the middle of our summer vacation, I and my friend Robert went out to eat as a celebration due to Robert having his first kiss the day prior. After eating at a local fast food place, we decided to burn some time walking and talking around the cemetery. It seemed like a good idea at the time because it was a silent place where we could get away from people and talk in privacy. We arrived at the front gate, bars far along in the rusting process with a sign saying ‘Blackwater Cemetery’ hanging on a few pieces of rope tied to two pillars carrying what seemed to be one eyed angles. We started walking around and began commenting on the graves in front of us, most of which had flowers, photos and even some notes written to the deceased. One was written by what seemed to be a 5 year old girl and she even made a drawing of her and her late mother together, it was cute. Rob took me around the yard several times explaining every single detail and he looked so happy talking about I didn’t have the heart to stop him. Out of all of our rounds around the cemetery there was always one part we would subconsciously avoid. It was around the very back walled off by a short rusted fence which we could easily jump over, we couldn’t see what was on the other side of it since there was a wall just behind it.

Out of nowhere Robert get’s the bright idea to hop the fence and see what was on the other side, me being the good friend agreed to the idea since I wanted Robert to have the best day possible.

The fence was already coming down it didn’t take us much effort to jump it. I knew it was a bad idea from the start had I just said something this could have been avoided. To our surprise there was barely anything on the other side, just a lone grave overlooking a bronze pot of infected green water and a rusted old shed. There was something soothing about staring at the water almost like it made your fears just drain away. I must’ve not gotten enough sleep the night before because after staring at the water I began to make our a face moving left to right. The grave was fairly old with noticeable cracks around the edges and weather damage. All the grave had on it was ‘Rest in peace, Owen Pennyworth, May your soul live on forever’. I wanted to dig into this when I got home, everything about this place was intriguing so I took a picture of the gravestone and saved it to my gallery. This was when I started regretting coming to this yard in the first place.

Robert went around the enclosed space and found something behind the shed, it was a rectangular hole with what seemed to be something glistening and shining inside. I stared for a bit but I couldn’t make out what it was.

*A loud sound of metal hitting bone*

I couldn’t see, I couldn’t think and for a second, I couldn’t breath. I woke up just a few seconds later, my head ringing and bleeding. I am laying down in the hole looking up at Robert. I tried to move, my entire body is covered in dirt and I can’t move a muscle. Robert is still shovelling more dirt in. I keep my eyes nearly closed to the point where he couldn’t notice I was alive. I wanted to scream, I wanted to try and kick off the dirt. I never thought my life would end like this, watching my best friend burying me alive, he took my wallet and credit care yet he left my phone still in my hand. A few minutes passed and I was nearly completely buried. All he had left was my head and this was when I made an attempt at moving. I mustered up all my strength but the only thing I could do was move my hands closer to my face. It was over, I could feel Robert plunging the shovel into the dirt above me and walking away. I felt pure anger, why would he do this to me, never mind I already knew so that question didn’t need asking, I should have seen this coming sooner, how did he find out.

I finally accept my fate.

***

END
Written by Missing AID