Chapter11: Shadow Cemetery

Outside the gates

Grace stood frozen stiff before a wrought iron gate with a spider webbed shaped pattern. In the center, a lock resembling an eerie wolf's face had been chained to them. The only thing that seeped into her mind was how to get in. The silhouettes from above had grown darker signaling the coming of midnight approaching. There had been no wind blowing, yet the bushes and tree branches shook repeatedly as if there had been something climbing on them. She had also thought about how the head chief back in the caverns had let her go instead of burning her. Maybe, just maybe not everyone in the land of the dead is loyal to the evil witch. But there was still something to watch out for in this world.

"How do I get in here?" Grace put her left hoof on the Iron Gate to push. So far, it made a loud creak but didn't open.

"You won't be getting in here that easily!" the lock had spoken eerily making Grace almost jump out of her hide. With its eyes glowing red and its fangs drooling, Grace shivered like a leaf in the wind.

"B…but…I have to…to get in. I just have to," Grace stuttered as she spoke still shivering.

"State your business first outsider, and I shall let you through," the lock growled venomously as it slithered like a snake with the chain attached to it. Small amounts of fearful sweat poured down her head as Grace saw it lean down her position, which made her cower lower. She had to think of something fast before the lock lost its patience.

"Well you see my friends…are…are under the spell of the witch who rules your world and I was told that I needed to pass through here in order to talk to her about removing it…and sending us back to our world," Grace hoped that would be convincing enough, then again what else would she do to describe her quest?

"Proceed," the chains slipped off to allow an entrance. The gates opened slowly with a low creak. Inside there were statues of all shapes and sizes of different people and animals with writings at the bottom. Taking a deep breath, Grace walked in slowly already feeling uncomfortable with the evil presence around her.

"Unpleasant dreams," those were the last words from the lock as the gates closed in behind her with a loud click. Grace whirled around with a startled jump seeing that there is no way to turn back.

Inside

Many of the tombstones seemed to be home to many supernatural forces lurking about; especially the one marble statue of a rider on top of a steed pointing his sword in the air above. He must have been a general from a war fought long ago. Grace walked down a sloping hill set with more marble statues of more frightening images such as the ones of wolves. Despite their frozen appearance, their faces had appeared to have their dreaded evil eyes upon her every move. The dead trees from around the tombstones were gnarled and contorted. But the most frightening thing of all was the sound of something moaning from somewhere afar in the distance. She turned left and right but saw nothing coming at her. But that didn't mean something wasn't after her. She hoped that she didn't disturb anyone's resting grounds by mistake. The incident from the Indian Burial Ground seemed to have taught her a good lesson about that.

"Huh, I wonder what's in there," Grace saw what looked similar to a small house a few feet from where she stood. What she didn't know was that it was actually a crypt with the possibility of a rotting corpse inside. Peering through a small window, the place inside had been infested with cobwebs and tiny harmless spiders crawling and dangling down. In the center, she saw lying on a stone table, a skeleton covered in raggedy torn clothes. The sight of it made her flinch and step back from the window. Better to leave that soul in peace than creep inside to find out more. Some things are better left alone for many good explainable reasons.

Grace walked down another hill and took another twisting path down another slope gazing at a couple more gravestones of the deceased. The frightening marble statues had given her more chills running down her spine. But the most peculiar thing that caught her eyes was an opened tomb on the ground! Grace peeked inside and saw nothing; not even a rotting corpse. Her body shriveled with fear as she stepped back still gazing at the opened tomb. Then, something else grabbed her from behind, by the bell from around her neck. Grace let out a piercing shriek when she came face to face with an ugly, grotesque melting face of a walking corpse in a tattered calico death shroud. It moaned with its foul breath and moved its fingers toward her face giving it a pinch.

"Ouch, stop that!" Grace gave the walking corpse a head butt in the chest sending it flying into another tombstone breaking to pieces. "Humph, see how you like that!" she said scornfully. Unfortunately the body may have been gone, but its limbs were now crawling toward her. Picking up the pace, Grace sped out of the area before the limbs had the chance to strangle her. But now something else grabbed her hind legs causing her to fall flat on the hallowed ground. She looked back in terror to gaze at two skeletal hands around her ankles from underneath a tombstone labeled Dead Eye George. Her fear had increased when a couple more walking corpses sprouted from their graves and were now crawling toward her. She was now too scared to fight back against the oncoming dead decayed moaning corpses with their bony hands reaching toward her face. All she could do was struggle with the bony grasps clutching her hind legs feeling the dead touch her tearful face.

But now she heard another different type of moan come from all of them. Opening one eye, she witnessed a strange figure in a black cloak raise its arms high in the air with the crack of lightening hurtling down its position. The zombies ceased what they were doing to Grace and walked toward the cloaked figure. Even the skeleton hands released her ankles and sank back into the dirt. She watched confusingly as the zombies kneeled down and bowed before the floating figure. The figure waved its arms around and pointed to each and every one of the tombstones. The zombies turned and went back to bury themselves in their resting places. Well at least that was over, for now.

"Thanks, but who are you?" Grace asked the floating figure. The cloak it wore covered its face making hard for her to make out what it was apparently. After the zombies had crept back, the figure flew toward Grace rapidly.

"I am the guardian of the graveyard. I roam each tombstone keeping an eye out for intruders such as YOU! The zombies you have encountered are the souls of newcomers who have fallen victim to whatever supernatural danger they witnessed at the time of their death. Here, some are transported to rest in their tombs unless wandering living souls were to stand before their graves. What is it you seek?" The figure spoke in a rumbling ferocious voice making Grace tremble.

"I only wish…to see…C…Callie," Grace stammered as the figure moved in closer to her.

"The witch who rules our world with tyranny; that cannot be done," the guardian replied with a low chuckle. "You do not possess the courage to stand before her minions. They are as stealth and cunning as she is."

"I don't care how evil she is!" Grace hollered at the guardian angrily. "I'm going to that mansion of hers to have a talk!" Still floating in midair, the guardian listened as she continued to shout. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get through!" The guardian let out a low growl like a vicious wolf in search of its prey. Grace's anger was soon replaced by fear when its faceless hood was close to her face breathing an icy atmosphere down on her. Its eyes glowed red. "Um…please?"

"NO, YOU SHALL NOT PASS BY ME!!" the figure moved in making Grace back up against a large tombstone and threw its skeletal hands around her neck. Grace could barely breathe as the grip tightened her vocal cords with her lungs screaming for air. She felt it all happening so fast with her legs kicking uselessly on the ground; the world was spinning wildly.

"EEEEEE!!" the guardian let out a high pitched scream as something light engulfed the two. At this moment, the creature released its grasps from the dairy cow's neck. Grace choked and slumped to the ground holding her neck to catch a few breaths. She was quite bewildered that the guardian released her like that, but was puzzled about what it was that made him squeal like that. After she recovered from the lack of air, she noticed that the light crystal was glowing in a strange way. She also noticed that the creature was covering itself as if it were afraid of the light. That's it; that's what made the creature stop hurting her. Now it was time to use it to get on out of here.

"Now let me pass!" she demanded holding up the light crystal. The guardian unable to fight back against the light could do no further harm and vanished in a puff of smoke. "Humph, serves him right for attacking me!"

In a churchyard

Grace continued to fight her way through the graveyard encountering a few more shadow creatures that lurked from behind the tombstones. Chief Thunder Cloud was right; the light crystal protected Grace from the powers of the shadow beasts. Even the statues that came to life were weakened by its glow. The young heifer took another twisting path down a hill until a she spotted what appeared to be some kind of stone building standing in an open field. Curiosity ran through her mind. Should she or shouldn't she go in there to have a look? According to the map, there was no other gate to exit out of besides the entrance from which she first entered. Perhaps the stone building might hold some answers inside.

"I just hope there are no more of those things to run away from," she muttered as she stood before the entrance of the building. She was now getting a little tired of running from everything she encountered. On top of the pillars, there stood a few stone gargoyles. From the looks of them all, their evil eyes seemed to be watching her every move. "Don't you dare come near me; I got a light here and I'm not afraid to use it!" she held the glowing crystal up hoping that the gargoyles wouldn't come near her at anytime. Although Grace did not like the idea of what would happen inside, she proceeded through the entrance unaware of a pair of red eyes staring at her from behind the building.

Inside the building

At first Grace was scared, but managed to pull through once she stood before another gate. With no lock or sign posted, she pushed them open, its rusted hinges creaked. The hallways flickered from the torches hung on the catacomb walls. There were tiny cobwebs with tiny spiders crawling about the place, which made Grace shiver due to her horrific encounter with the giant mother spider and her horrible ugly children. But if there were really anymore of those giant spiders, the webs would have been much larger than the ones sticking on the walls. The crackling of the torches had been the only single sound present in the stone hallways. It may have been an hour since Grace entered this place and it was now turning out to be a never ending maze.

"Hmm, maybe this is the way…NO!" Grace broke off when she came across yet another dead end. Grace looked around to find that she was alone in this frightening maze surrounded by catacomb walls. Despite the torches lighting the hallways, Grace began to feel the shadows moving in on her and worst of all, no one even knew where she was; not that they would even bother to help her out of here. But if someone did find her, then it may also mean the end of her life. The only things present in this area were zombies, stone statues and shadow creatures. Not only did Grace feel scared, but she felt herself ready to blow up like dynamite.

"I HATE THIS PLACE!!" she exploded in frustration, kicking a couple of cracked vases into the walls. All that was left of them were tiny chipped pieces. Grace slumped down against the walls in despair. How would she ever find herself out of this maze and be able to help her friends? Looks like she might as well wait for one of those supernatural beasts to find and suck out her life essence or whatever kind of evil they would do to her.

But just when the whole situation seemed forlorn, the sounds of humming could be heard from somewhere in the catacombs; humming as in a sort of melodic kind of way. If anyone else besides Grace heard it, they might have fallen under its harmonic tune. But Grace was more concerned about where it may be coming than she was about being enchanted by the humming. Although she was indeed tone deaf, she was filled with too much frustration and fear to think about what she thought of its tune. It sounded as if it were coming from a group of men somewhere within the catacomb walls. Grace pressed her head against them to listen for some more. She didn't notice a loose brick sticking halfway out until she placed her right hoof toward it. Surprisingly, the wall slid open like a lid, revealing a flight of stairs upward. The humming grew louder in this direction.

"I wonder who could be making that strange sound," breathed Grace as she climbed up the stairs. At the top of the steps there was another torch lit hallway, yet this time there were no turns left or right, just straight ahead. "At least I'm not pacing around in circles anymore." Grace moved straight listening as the humming grew more and more close to her floppy ears. There were some dried up old bones that littered parts of the floor along with a few squeaks possibly coming from mice or rats within the catacomb walls. Grace winced upon looking at them. There had better not be any more of those supernatural beasts lurking in the shadows. Now she knew why this place was called Shadow Cemetery.

It had been half an hour at the least before Grace came upon another stairway leading up. If her predictions were correct, then that must be where the singing came from; only one way to find out. Placing both her hooves on the stone ceiling, it slid open allowing yet another entrance into some unknown place. Grace could hear the humming very clearly this time. Climbing out of the hole, she gazed in wonder and enchantment at the place. There was a chandelier hanging above with each candle lit up. The windows were mixed with the brightest colors adding a glow of warmth to the stone walls. She wasn't alone in this place; she noticed a few strange figures wearing black cloaks standing around a table draped in red cloth. They must have been the ones humming that haunting tune. She watched as one of them poured a green liquid into each gold goblet in front of the figures. Picking them up, they raised the goblets in the air as a toast and drank the liquid down their throats in a sort of unpleasant slurp.

Grace was unsure of how to react to them. Should she even try to ask them for directions? What if they didn't like how she had managed to enter their place without permission, let alone disturb their tradition of some sorts? All she could do was walk toward the group slowly without making a sound. What was that green stuff they had been drinking? Knowing that she was never going to find a way out of here without even trying to ask, she cleared her throat in a mild manner.

"Um excuse me but…" the figures ceased singing and turned to where she stood.

"Aw, a visitor; have you come to join our group for a sip of some of this delightful zombie juice?" the hooded figure who had poured the green liquid in the first place asked humbly. Grace felt her stomach turn into a twisted knot after learning about what that stuff was. The hooded figure held aloft a golden bowl of zombie juice. Grace declined from joining, to talk about how she would be heading to Callie's mansion instead. The figures were really a group of monks who were expecting more visitors who entered the monastery (as what this place was) to join their cult in practicing a number of ceremonies in honor of the guardian of the graveyard. Grace never told them about her encounter with him, in fear of what they might think. But she did explain how she was unable to find her way out of the maze.

"Follow us through the catacomb walls. We know the way out and would be glad to help you." Grace followed the monks as they opened another passage in the walls.