Victor stood in the doorway, staring down at Lucas in utter shock. He had been fully expecting Lucas to tell him that rumors of Sparky's return were making their way around town. The news that others had tried the experiment was a situation Victor hadn't even imagined being possible. He could feel his heart thumping wildly in his chest as he processed what Lucas had just revealed to him, feeling both terrified and relieved at the same time. On one hand, Victor was glad that his secret wasn't out to the public, but on the other, he was petrified by the ghastly problem that he now faced.
"How...how did they manage to do that?"
"I have no idea, but I know they used your notes," Lucas sighed, lowering his head in shame.
Victor's eyes widened and he dashed to his room. Lucas followed with a guilty expression painted on his face. Victor yanked his bedside drawer open to find his notebook missing.
"I'm really sorry Victor."
They were silent for a few moments as Victor tried to think up a solution. He knew that there was no way they could keep three corpses hidden for a long period of time, but how they would get rid of them was an issue that Victor didn't have the answer to. Would they have to kill them to put them back to rest? Just the thought made Victor shudder.
"Um...Can you stay here for a moment?" Victor asked before hurriedly walking over to his father who was still sat at the table.
"Is there a problem Victor?" his father questioned.
"Yes," Victor replied shaking, "and I have no idea how to fix it."
Victor told his father everything Lucas had explained to him just moments before. He watched his father's face fall from concerned to deeply troubled.
"This certainly does seem to be quite a horrid situation," he muttered.
"What do we do?"
"The most important thing is that they are kept secret. We can decide on what to do next after we have a better understanding of the situation." His father stood up and went to retrieve his coat hanging by the door.
"Lucas, we need you to tell us everything you know. Do you know where the revived people are?"
"Yes," Lucas replied. "They are in the graveyard. That's really all I know about them, unfortunately. I wasn't there for the actual experiment. I was hoping that their plan wouldn't work, but later this evening they visited me and boasted about their success. I came here immediately after that."
"If they're in the graveyard that means they're hidden," his father stated donning his hat. He walked over to Victoria, gently grasped her hands, and told her that they needed to leave for a while and that he would explain everything when they returned. She nodded, telling him to be careful, his tone of voice enough for her to understand the severity of the situation.
Soon they were out the door and headed to the graveyard. Victor hoped no one noticed them, seeing as everyone always remained suspicious towards the Van Dorts. This time, unfortunately, they were right to be suspicious. The night played in their favor, however. The town had all retired for the night and thus the streets remained empty, allowing them to exit the town without issue.
Towering trees soon engulfed them as they entered the forest. They walked deep into the graveyard, anxiously looking around for any signs of the experiment that took place. After walking through the many deteriorating gravestones for a while, his father spotted something amongst a cluster of thick trees and brought it to the boy's attention. After pausing and concentrating on the place his father had pointed at, Victor noticed the faint sound of people speaking.
Without hesitating, his father started to make his way towards the voices. Victor and Lucas followed shyly behind. He wasn't sure if he was prepared to see the bodies of decayed humans. How Sparky looked didn't matter to him since he was his best friend. However, an unknown human corpse was something entirely different.
As they neared, Victor started to make out what they were saying.
"We can't do much without the Elder," the voice of a man said.
"Well, I say we walk right into town. The living are the ones that brought us here in the first place!" a different, older sounding voice exclaimed.
"Oh, you know how that's going to turn out."
Victor started to cough as the smell of death hit him. He felt his eyes begin to water and blinked a few times to clear the tears away. When he opened them, the corpses of three men came into view.
They appeared to be all sat on their respective headstones. They all had blue-gray faces. One corpse with a humpback and a large nose wore an orange suit, while another was lanky and had lost the flesh on all his limbs, leaving only the bones behind. The other corpse was a small man who was missing both eyes and had just a few teeth remaining. The dead all turned when they heard the three of them approach.
"Pardon our interruption." his father started. "I was unsettled to hear about our people disturbing those down under, so I came to see if I could be of some assistance."
The corpse in the orange suit slowly stood up, staring at his father.
"My rotting eyes must be failing me. Is that you Victor?" the corpse said.
His father locked eyes with the dead man and smiled.
"My goodness! Mayhew!" he exclaimed, going over to give him a friendly handshake.
"Does this happen to be that living fellow who visited a while back?" the lanky one asked.
"He's the one. He even has a young one now," said Mayhew glancing over at Victor. "Has it really been that long? It doesn't feel like you were stumbling through the Land of the Dead that long ago."
"Time does seem to go by much faster downstairs," the lanky corpse commented.
Victor watched in silent amazement at his father conversing with the dead. He noted the broad smile on his face and the way he had lit up with joy the moment he came to be in their presence. Seeing his father be so companionable with others was a sight he had never seen before.
Any apprehension Victor had melted away and he found it being replaced with a feeling of belonging.
All his life people had avoided their family and treated them differently. The people in town were so hostile and supercilious that Victor had never felt truly connected or accepted. What he was feeling now was the complete opposite of that. The people of the Land of the Dead were so full of life. They smiled and laughed. They were an absolute contrast to the living. Finally, Victor understood the stories he was told growing up. He could see why his father was more akin to the dead than the living.
After the four shared their joyous greetings, they started to discuss the problem at hand.
"So Vic, how did you guys manage to merge the dead and the living back together again?" asked the small corpse with the missing eyes.
"Well…" his father started, staring down at him. "Victor is going to have to explain that."
Victor stared at them nervously.
"It started when my dog Sparky died…"
He went on to explain everything that had transpired since Sparky's death. They remained silent during his explanation, their eyes (and lack of) attentively focused on him. When he finished, the three deceased exchanged looks with each other.
"To clarify, we were brought back to life?" questioned the lanky corpse.
Victor parted his lips to answer but shut them again when he examined the three.
Despite the lack of eyes, flesh, and muscles, the men were functioning completely normal without any difficulty. It was impossible. Sparky had been brought back to life shortly after his death. Besides a few necessary stitches and patches, all the parts of his body needed to operate remained. These men looked as though they had been dead for at least a decade.
He inspected their surroundings a bit more, squinting his eyes to see through the darkness.
Hiding in the twigs and the brush of the graveyard, Victor could make out various metallic objects surrounding the graves of the three men. He inched closer, nearly knocking over one of the many thin rods he discovered protruding from the graves. His shoes slightly sunk into the ground from the wet soil. The boys had managed to create an impressive setup. Whether their experiment turned out properly was a different matter.
"I'm not sure if you're alive or not," Victor admitted. "From what I understand, it shouldn't have been possible to bring you all back to life. What did you experience before and after you woke up?"
"Well," Mayhew said. "I remember being in the Lounge having a drink. Next thing I know it's dark and wet. I do recall feeling my heart stutter and beat, but it stopped again after a few seconds."
"Did you all feel your hearts beating?"
"I did. It was only one or two beats though," the lanky corpse replied.
Victor turned to the small corpse still seated on his gravestone.
"And what about you? Mr…?"
"Pardon us. We never properly introduced ourselves. I'm Mayhew, the lanky one over there is Arthur, and that's George," Mayhew chimed in. He turned to George. "Did you feel your heart do anything?"
"No, I misplaced mine years ago," George stated, shrugging his shoulders.
Victor thought for a moment and came to the conclusion that the three were not alive. Based on what they had told him, his best guess was that they had been brought back to life, but only for a very short while. The reason they were still here likely had more to do with the workings of the Land of the Dead, something he still didn't have much of an understanding of.
Victor was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the sound of twigs snapping.
"Lucas! Why did you bring the Van Dorts here?" a voice sharply whispered. Victor looked behind him to see Toshiaki glaring at Lucas. Behind him were Bob and Nassor.
His father glanced at Lucas and him.
"Are these the boys who did this?"
They both nodded.
"Hmm," his father said, strolling over to the newcomers. "What exactly were you planning on doing with these people after you brought them here?"
The three stared up nervously, intimidated by his height and apparent undisturbed reaction towards the situation. His father narrowed his eyes at them.
"It was just an experiment," Bob sputtered.
His father sighed and responded, "You have caused quite a bit of trouble for these three. They should be returned back to the afterlife."
"No!" Toshiaki exclaimed. "We brought them back to life! Victor brought back his dog and got to keep him…We should be able to keep ours too."
"Bringing one's dog back to life is not the same as taking people you don't know from their graves."
Toshiaki and Nassor exchanged a look of bewilderment with each other. They seemed unsure of how to rebuttal the claim.
"W-we will tell the entire town about how Victor brought Sparky back to life if you try to take them from us!" Toshiaki finally asserted, glancing at the other two boys for support who in return nodded their heads in agreement
"Do you want the town to also know that you took people from their graveyard and conducted an experiment on them?" his father countered.
The boys went silent.
"Irresponsible children," George grumbled. "Meddling with the dead."
Bob, Nassor, and Toshiaki looked over to George. Their eyes widened in surprise.
"They can speak?" Nassor whispered to Bob and Toshiaki.
"I did not think they would have any sort of intelligence…" Toshiaki muttered back.
As the three spoke amongst themselves, Victor turned to his father.
"I don't think the men are alive. When the dead came to the Land of the Living last time, how did they get back?"
"Elder Gutknecht. He is the only one that I am aware of that could send them back…"
His father turned toward Mayhew.
"Mayhew! Say the word 'hopscotch."
Mayhew appeared puzzled but obliged.
"Hopscotch."
They were silent for a few seconds, only hearing the sounds of the boys whispering and the wind howling through the trees.
"Well that didn't work," his father mumbled.
"What should we do then? I have no idea how to send them back if they are already dead."
A worried glance passed between the two of them.
"Neither do I."
I'll try to post the next chapter before another three years have passed. There are only five more chapters (at most) and a little epilogue left. There are probably some errors in this chapter because I haven't written anything fictional in over three years so sorry about that. My writing still has plenty of improving to do.