Chapter 6 – Twilight

In the darkening twilight, the cemetery was quiet, and devoid of people. Devoid of live people, it should be said. A lone crow, sitting on the branch of a dead tree two stories tall, spread black, wide wings, and flew towards the sunset with only a flap or two. The sunset cast a reddish glow on the faded yellowish marble that made up the walls of the massive mausoleum. Nothing dared to challenge its might.

Until now: a distant rumble as man and machine approached it, multiple pairs of headlamps proclaiming the arrival of the living, as if the huge yellow and black transport was landing on an alien world.

The cemetery countered by absorbing much of the electric beams, reflecting only black, if anything. The mausoleum stood out in brilliant contrast.

"OK dear, the monitor code is loaded and running. Detector on?" Maddie looked up at her husband.

"Detector ON" Jack replied, and he began scanning the monitor.

Tucker and Danny were looking at the monitor too, but Sam was looking outside.

"Would you please open the door? I need…some fresh air." She asked.

Jack pushed the button without even looking up, he had memorized the dashboard and knew where all of the controls were. Danny turned around to watch Sam walking down the ramp. He followed her. Tucker stayed behind watching the monitor. Since this was his second time, he was learning how to operate the detector. He loved learning about new gizmos.

Outside, the twilight was almost gone, the stars gaining numbers as they took their place in the night sky, a dark blue that was almost black as it faded to dark purple. Only the mausoleum stood out. She wasn't afraid to walk up to it, since it was well lit from the RV headlamps.

Danny caught up to her.

"Pretty weird huh?"

"Gothic." Was her simple reply. Her lavender eyes stared in awe. There were figures carved into the roof of the mausoleum, figures in battle, figures laying down the wounded and dead, and in one place, half-clad lovers in an eternal embrace, carved sitting on a bench, lips almost touching.

Then the lights went out.

Sam put a hand on Danny's shoulder, and he put his arm around her waist pulling her close.

"It's ok Sam, I'm here."

"I'm not afraid. I just …have to get use to the darkness, my eyes haven't adapted yet. That's all." But she kept her hand on Danny's shoulder.

Inside the RV, Jack and Maddie resumed watching the monitor screen; they had shut off the lights to lure whatever may be out there. But there was nothing. Tucker was becoming bored.

Back outside, Danny and Sam walked closer to the mausoleum.

Looking up, Danny commented:

"So there are dead people in there. And my parents are trying to detect them. What a waste of money to build this detector. Anyone looking here can tell you there are dead folks here!"

Sam looked at the sky. The stars were where they belonged, in the ancient constellations. Whew! So far, so good.

"BOO!" Danny and Sam screamed, jumped a foot in the air and twirled around, grabbing each other, Sam's nails dug into Danny's arm.

"TUCKER!" They both screamed. Tucker was smiling, and now started laughing.

Sam started hitting Tucker on the back, loud thumps and slaps, but Tucker was still laughing. Danny started laughing too. That was pretty good. Then he started feeling the claw marks in his arm! Wow, Sam was pretty strong for a thin girl!

Maddie heard the screaming and shouting and peeked out the RV door.

"OK kids, back inside, we're going home."

"Empty handed, apparently." Jack said with disappointment.

They left.

-----------------------------------

That evening, Sam crawled into bed again. Another day of practice, she had tried to convince her parents to give her a break tonight since it was the last day of school, but they wanted her to conduct the service perfectly, and practice makes perfect. She was tired and drifted to sleep…

…twilight, in the dark field again. She felt pebbles and stones on bare feet, saw herself in the purple nightgown; it flowed around her as she stepped between the dead hulks that were once trees, now black. The holes in the ground at the base of the trees were glowing red. She could see now that the holes were in pairs, like red eyes, staring at her with mischief, and menace, the trees now looked like wild, unruly black hair above the glowing eyes.

She did not see any moon tonight, but the stars were there, slowly moving from the constellations, into the shape of the Star of David again, the great six-pointed Star slowly rotating above her like a planetarium display.

The mausoleum stood with all its might, but now, a figure standing at the top of the steps leading to the crypts: Danny.

He was looking at her, wearing the black and white spandex suit he wore for Halloween last year. Above him were the immortal lovers, carved in the mausoleum stone, lips forever just out of reach.

She walked towards him, and noticed his eyes were not blue, but green; his hair not black, but white, and waving in the night breeze. As she got closer, he slowly became transparent, until only his glowing green eyes could be seen in the darkness. They faded into the crypt.

Somehow this did not frighten her. She knew somehow that he was not fading into the crypt as were the dead, but that he was somehow immune to it, he was going through death, not into it.

She climbed the steps and then sat down at the top, waiting for him…