At the far northern edge of Greenlawn Cemetery, stood a man dressed in a black hooded robe. At his feet lay a headstone overturned and broken into several pieces leaving the now open grave unmarked. A slice of moonlight shown down into the open cavern revealing a coffin of the finest making. Inside the enclosed box was the woman he had came for.
Removing the robes hood from his head the man looked up towards the sky and shivered. He could feel the spirits coming near to witness his doing. Most of them would see his mission as blaspheme, but a few would see it as only a curiosity. Neither outlook bothered him. No one alive or dead could stop him from doing what he wished and their opinions on the matter were nothing to him.
The only thing that mattered was the woman in the coffin below him. She was the only thing in the world he cared for. Once she could have been his, but death had claimed her first.
It had taken him ten years to find the right book with the right spell to claim her back. He had left his life and everyone around him as soon as the first shovel of dirt hit her coffin. And now ten years and a few months later he was back standing before her once again.
With one long intake of breath the man clambered down into the dug up earth to hunch over her box. The hairs on his neck bristled from a spirit passing by too close. Yet he paid it no mind. Intently he removed the dagger at his side and placed it onto the coffins lid. Next he took out a worn book from a hidden pocket inside the robe. Careful not to damage the fragile thing he slowly turned the tattered pages until his dark eyes found the right one. In a deep hollowed voice he began to speak aloud the words written in silver-leafed letters.
As his words traveled along the wind and the dagger buried itself into the box the lid crunched and spilt beneath the moonlight. The inside was lined in the palest shade of blue, her favorite color. And laying deathly still in what would have been her wedding dress was his Stephanie.
His Stephanie.
Those two words haunted him. Yet they had driven him to this point. And finally she would be his. No one could change that fact now. Her father had passed only a few short months after her, her mother a year later, her brother had his own life somewhere overseas., and that man whom she had married at her parents request had long since moved on with one of his many whores. In the end it was only him that still remembered her. It was only him that still loved and wanted her.
With shadows falling and swirling around her tomb he waited. Soon he would see her smile again.
Soon!
The sound of bones cracking filled the silent sky and a cloud of pure light flowed down into the open grave like a welcomed visitor. For what seemed like hours the man stood waiting till the light subsided . Once it finally faded away into nothing a slim hand reached out in its place.
Leaning down he grabbed it with one of his own and gently pulled his love out from her resting place. Cradling her in his arms he left the open grave behind them.
Once he thought enough distance was put between them and the hole he stopped walking and sat down onto a bench. Looking down at the tiny woman in his arms tears began to form in his eyes.
"Don't cry", the words were spoken as her small hand touched against his face.
"I can not help it", was his reply.
"Why?"
"Because I never thought I would see you again Stephanie."
"Oh, but you did. And I always knew you would find me."
She said the words with a sly grin on her face. And that look alone let him know she knew more than she should.
"How?" It was a simple question.
"Because my love I have been with you this whole time. Everywhere you went I went with you. Every time you thought you felt me I was there. I couldn't bring myself to leave you even in death. But I knew you would find a way in the end.'
Love filled her words and with them his heart. The woman he had fought so hard to reclaim was his again and not even death could take her away now.
With one last look at the cemetery the undertaker stood up and carried his woman away whispering in her ear all the things he had longed to say.