Chapter 16 : Graves
For a moment Beatrice worried that she might not be able to even touch the bell, but her fingers closed around it without phasing through. She decided to think about how and why once this whole affair was over.
"I guess you have to go then?" Wirt asked.
"Already?" Greg added.
"Yeah. But this is the first time we've tested the spell so I'm not really sure how."
"Why don't you just go back the way you came from?" the younger brother suggested.
"The graveyard?" Beatrice said.
"How would I explain to Sara-" the older brother started before interrupting himself. "Wait, maybe we could just…"
They waited until everyone else was asleep to sneak out and walk to the graveyard.
"That was amazing!" Greg exclaimed when Beatrice phased through the gate. "Can you do that again?"
She turned around and extended her hand so it went through the metal bars. The child was amazed at "finally seeing a real ghost" ; however his older brother was staring at the graveyard behind her while keeping his distance from the gate.
"Wirt?" Greg and Beatrice asked in unison.
"Sorry, I just- I mean, it's the first time we go back to this place since… since we almost died", the teenage boy replied.
"But we didn't die", his little brother pointed out while trying to open the now locked gate. "Nothing can stop us!"
As if to prove his point, he started climbing the stone wall to get into the graveyard.
It wasn't the same wall, but Wirt still couldn't suppress the uneasy feeling in his guts.
He grabbed his brother and offered him to climb onto his back so they could ascend that wall together nonetheless.
"Are we going to go over the other wall again?" Greg asked as he and his brother landed safely on the ground.
"Probably not", Beatrice replied, "I arrived inside the graveyard after all."
They all walked in silence for a few minutes, Wirt holding his little brother's hand so he wouldn't wander off.
"Hey look, this one has Unkie Endicott's name on it!" Greg pointed out as they walked past yet another grave.
They all stopped right there and then to look at the gravestone. It certainly wasn't recent : none of the graves in this old cemetery were.
"…This makes a lot of sense, actually", Wirt stated.
"Finding Endicott's grave here makes sense?" Beatrice said.
Wirt kept staring at the name in the stone as he explained :
"We were drowning in the river when we ended up in the Unknown. I still don't really know how we left, but when we did… I woke up still in the river. I barely had the time to grab Greg and get out of the water. Then you show up here as a ghost. And now…"
"…No", the teenage girl whispered. "That can't be right."
"Maybe we can find your grave, Beatrice" Greg suggested.
He let go of his brother's hand and dashed further into the graveyard before anyone could do or say anything.
Wirt ran after him ; Beatrice remained frozen in place for a moment. She couldn't be dead, right? And there was no way everyone she knew also was…
Or was there?
They found the little boy at the same spot Beatrice appeared in this world. Here in the stone were engraved the names of her family as well as her own.
"They all died the same year?" Greg asked, pointing at the dates.
He might not be able to read high numbers like this yet, but he could still see that the dates of death looked the same.
"I don't know", the ghost replied. "I don't remember."
"I'm sorry" Wirt said.
"It's ok", Beatrice reassured him. "I guess it does make a lot of sense after all."
Also, dead or not, she still had a job to do.
"Goodbye Wirt. Goodbye Greg."
The boys said goodbye back.
She clutched the bell tightly in her hand as she stepped forward to stand on her family's grave.
Next thing she knew, she was back at Auntie Whispers' with seemingly no transition at all.
"Did you find it?" Clover asked. "That was quick."
The girl in blue extended her hand to show the item within it.
Seemingly no time had passed in the Unknown since she left it and yet Beatrice still didn't want to waste any before going back to the mill.