A Cursed Ending

• Casey Hukins, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2014

I glanced down at my watch; the movie had let out 15 minutes early. I brushed my long hair out of my eyes. The night had been bad enough when I had realised my date hadn't bothered to show. Regardless of the pit in my stomach that made me feel as if I had no worth, I went to see the movie anyway. Now that my ride hadn't shown up I would have to walk home.
“Could this night get any worse” I grumbled to myself.
As I trudged along the path a sudden realisation made me shiver with dread. I would have to walk through the cemetery to get home just after dark. I hated having to walk through the cemetery alone as it was in the day, at night it always got more unsettling. The crispness of the air began to become transparent as the plants crackled beneath my feet. My skirt began to move with the wind. I stepped through the large, swooping metallic gates of the cemetery. They were unhinged and beginning to rust. The ivy vines were beginning to curl around the bars and becoming distorted and unorganised.
As I stepped in a felt a shiver run down the back of my neck all the way down to the bottom of my spine. My hair stood on end. I saw something move in the corner of my eye, the shadows seemed to beckon me. I tried to be a respectful as I could, not stepping on graves was something I was taught young after my father died, my mother always said something about not waking the dead. I could see the exit from the cemetery on the far side to the left. I took another step and something caught on my arm. I glanced up quickly to the exit. I wanted to run away and scream.
I looked up. A boy about my age looked back at me. His green eyes and brown hair were becoming darker with the light quickly fading.
“What are you doing here?” His voice was cold and distant.
“Sh-shortcut” I stuttered.
“Why would you wake me?” he looked aloof and gazed as if he could see right through me.
“Wake you?” I shook my head in confusion.
“You stepped on my grave, you woke me, so now you must talk to me” he looked away.
I wanted to run, I could see the exit, I could just make a run for it. I tried to run but my legs seemed frozen, by fear or something else.
“It’s getting dark” I pleaded. He smiled.
“I know” he replied. I tried to turn away.
“You woke me, now you must stay with me” he turned.
“The night?” I asked panic rising within me.
His beady eyes fixed on me; I could see the manic in them “Forever” his smile flashed white.
Something glinted in the now moonlight, something pierced my chest. I knew what had happened. I was dying. I felt all the air being sucked out of me as if I were the dust being vacuumed from the rug. Something was pulled out of me, something that warm that made me feel happy. Everything was becoming grey. I was cold and felt alone. I felt nothing.
It hurt less than I thought it would- dying.