Chapter Four: The Last of the Spirits
The figure that Merlyn saw was dressed all in black. The figure was slim but muscular with a bearded face, and stood over Merlyn, draping him in the figure's shadow.
"Are you the ghost of Christmas Future?" Merlyn asked.
The spirit nodded its head.
"Please speak to me." Merlyn requested. "What will happen to Conner Kent?"
The spirit pointed several feet away where the Kent family was. Lois was standing there solemnly as she comforted Chris, and Chloe stood there as well with tears streaming down her face. As they walked off, Clark stayed, holding the little crutch Conner had used, clutching it tight, and a tear of his own falling down his face. He then set it near the tombstone and sprinkled some dirt on the grave as Merlyn understood what had happened.
"Oh no, dear heaven let it not be." Merlyn said as he felt for his poor clerk. "Spirit, I didn't mean for this to happen. Tell me these events can still be changed."
Suddenly, he heard two men laughing. One had dark brown hair and very young and moderately muscular while the other had black hair, a rather plain face and middle-aged.
"I've never seen a funeral like this before." The man with dark brown hair said.
"Yeah." His friend said. "No mourners. No friends to bid him farewell."
"Oh well." The first man said. "Let's rest a minute before we fill it in. He's not going anywhere."
They walked off as Merlyn and the spirit approached the grave.
"Whose lonely grave is this?" Merlyn asked nervously as the spirit pointed down, and Merlyn read on the tombstone his own name, "Malcolm Merlyn."
"Why yours, Malcolm." The spirit said with a wicked grin. "The richest man in the cemetery!"
The spirit pushed Merlyn in as he grabbed a tree root for dear life as the spirit only laughed. When Merlyn looked down, the coffin opened, and red hot fire was spilling out of it.
"Oh no!" Merlyn called out. "No!"
Merlyn suddenly lost his grip on the root and fell into the coffin while the spirit laughed, and Merlyn screamed, "I'll change! I'LL CHANGE...!"
Then, all was darkness.
Well that was short sweet, and terrifying.