Gravekeeper

Author’s Note: This chapter is a little shorter than the others, but that’s because I couldn’t figure out a way to stretch out the day without it getting boring and completely repetitious.

-=x=x=x=-

Trials, I found out, were boring as hell, especially when there was no actual court to convene in. The only court room action I’d have to see was at the end of the week and until then I was completely useless. Not that that stopped the cops from following me around of course.

A few days ago, soon after I had gotten out of the shower, my mother had had a bitch-fest about getting into trouble. She seemed more concerned with how this would reflect upon her image rather than the fact that my life had been in danger. Some mother, wasn’t she?

Since then I haven’t been allowed out of the house aside from going to school. Hell, she had even told the officers watching me that I wasn’t allowed out, not even to visit Derek. I hated her for that.

Having been with him nearly every day my life, while he was both living and dead, made it hard for me not to see him. No one understood this of course. No one ever understood the bond we had had between us.

I don’t think anyone wanted to either.

It was fine, though. Probably better this way since anyone who got too close might realize that my feelings for Derek had gone way beyond brotherly love. And then where would I be? Probably in some psych ward until I was either eighteen or ‘cured.’

Putting my backpack on I got ready to leave for school, not bothering to leave my room until it was absolutely necessary. My mother, being the wonderful bitch that she was, had even gone so far as to work from home these past few days just to make sure I didn’t sneak out. Not that that made much of a difference since she was so distracted by her work that she barely even noticed when I actually left for school.

The walk there was long and tiresome and I wondered why the hell the police didn’t just give me a ride if they were going to follow me around the whole day. Wouldn’t it be more of a deterrent if people actually knew they were with me and could actually see them? Or Maybe they were just using me as bait, just in case someone did come after me. And here I thought they were supposed to protect me, not use me.

Whatever they were doing, they weren’t doing a very good job of it. Glancing back I could see them a few blocks away, sitting in their squad car and watching me. They didn’t even bother with using an undercover cop car. No, they had to use the one that let everyone know who they were and what they were doing.

As though I don’t have enough problems as it is…

Not only would people be looking at me weirdly for my ‘normal’ graveyard behavior, but now they would be staring because I was the star witness in an attempted murder/grave robbing trial. The media might have kept my name out of the papers and everything but anyone who knew about me had probably figured it out by now. It was just another thing that set me apart from everyone else.

It didn’t really matter to me though. I had never been interested in my classmates since I had always so focused on Derek. Even after his death I wanted nothing more than to be left alone. There wasn’t even one person I talked to in any of my classes.

Not without being forced to anyway.

The only time that happened was during group projects or when the counselors tried to get me to ‘socialize.’ This forced socialization made it awkward for everyone involved. You’d think that counselors, who got degrees for this, would have figured that out by now.

They didn’t, though, and I was just hoping that they wouldn’t try it again today.

Earlier in the week they had tried to do just that, to get me to socialize. It had ended in failure and had done nothing more than piss me off. Why was it that everyone thought I was this fragile child that would break at any given moment?

Sure, I had been shot at, nearly killed, and got the shit scared out of me by Gravekeeper, but I was totally over it by now! Well, mostly anyway. I had nearly jumped out of my skin when a car backfired the other day. It wasn’t going to stop me from doing whatever I wanted though.

I couldn’t let something like this ruin my life.

I snorted at that. I wouldn’t let my ‘near death’ experience ruin my life but I still couldn’t get over my brother’s death. It was strange what priorities people assigned to things, but I suppose it was even stranger still that I had been, and still was, so fixated on Derek.

The school came into view and I scowled while realizing that I’d actually have to go in there, again. I hated school, I really did. Not only did I hate the people there but I hated all the work I had to do as well. The only reason I kept going was because Derek would have wanted me to at least finish high school.

He’d also have wanted me to go to college as well but I didn’t know if I’d be able to do that right away. My town wasn’t a college town and it was at least a few hours’ drive to the closest one, something I really didn’t want to have to do every day. I could just stay in the dorms but I really didn’t want to go without seeing Derek, something that my schedule and lack of money and transportation would force me to do.

This week was already hell for me and it’d only get worse with a longer separation. I don’t know if I could stand to be apart from him for so long just now. And then there was Gravekeeper.

Having just met him I had to admit that I was extremely interested in him. It would drive me crazy to just give that all up. I wanted to know more about him, about his species, and just what made him him.

What did he do in the graveyard at night? Besides patrol the area and interact with me, of course. What did it mean to be a Gravekeeper? Could he really not leave his graveyard or did he just choose not to?

Was he even a demon? I didn’t know what made me call him that in the first place, but it was probably the wings. That didn’t mean he actually was one though.

He certainly didn’t act like a stereotypical demon. He wasn’t evil and there were no possessions, murders, or other such things. He’ll, he even protected people he didn’t even know or care about.

Those definitely weren’t the workings of a demon. Not of any demon I’ve ever heard of at least, which really didn’t count for much now that I think about it. Its not like I ever studied demons and the only things I’ve ever heard about came from books and scared little Christian and Catholic church goers.

No, Gravekeeper was of a unique species. Which made me wonder what his actual name was if his species was called ‘gravekeepers.’ I then felt a bit guilty for having never even thought to ask him about it.

What kind of name would a gravekeeper have anyway? Maybe something exotic like Vladimir? Or maybe something ‘normal’ like John or Bob. I really hoped that his name wasn’t Bob, though. I might just die laughing if it was.

As I entered the school I noticed all the stares directed towards me, just like I knew they would be. I knew they were all wondering the same thing; just what the hell did graveyard freak get himself into this time? The ‘goths’ especially were giving me strange looks, but I ignored them all.

They were always following me around, trying to get me to talk to them. I guess they thought I was cool for being able to stay in a graveyard all night without getting freaked out. Every once in a while they tried to join me but either I or one of the workers scared them off. I didn’t want any company, especially from those who didn’t know what they were talking about.

They could talk all they wanted about death and suicide or whatever, but it was all superficial when not one of them had ever experienced a loss that truly affected them. I doubted they’d be so willing to spout off their whimsical fantasies if they did. Posers.

Scowling, I kept my head down and avoided everyone, hiding out in the back of the library until the bell rang for class. I didn’t want to go, I really didn’t, but if I skipped again then they’d just notify my parents and I’d be in even more trouble than I already was. I didn’t even want to know what they’d do to ‘up the ante’ this time and didn’t plan on finding out either.

Heading for class I slipped into my seat as the last bell rang and once again felt all of my classmate’s eyes boring into me. I hated it, all of this attention, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. Neither ignoring them nor responding to them ever worked, since some people just always wanted more. It was better if I just did whatever the hell I wanted.

Fuck all of them.

Thankfully though, the teacher soon came in and demanded everyone’s attention. It stopped the whispering, but not all of the stares. At least it wasn’t as bad as it had been before and I tried to put it out of my mind as I half-way listened to what the teacher had to say.

In my forth period class, the one right before lunch, I was counting down the minutes until I could finally escape from these people, at least for a little while. Thankfully they were showing a film, some sort of documentary about WWII, which fully distracted the other students from staring at me.

I counted myself lucky to have not been called down to the counselors so far and hoped that luck would continue to stay with me. I really never wanted to see them again and it would be awesome if that wish would come true.

I didn’t think it would though.

After a long and boring forty minutes the documentary finally ended just a few minutes before class did and the teacher, with nothing more to teach us today, let the students have control over the TV. There were only the basic channels, no cable or anything, and while flipping through them they paused momentarily over a news broadcasting station.

There on the screen were the mug shots of the two grave robbers I had helped to put in jail earlier this week. Murmuring spread throughout the room and someone in the front turned it up so everyone could hear. Shocked to see their faces I wasn’t completely listening to what was being said but I did catch part of it.

“…convicted with charges of grave robbing and attempted murder. Authorities say that these two men we released on bail earlier today…” They were released? Why the hell didn’t anyone bother to tell me?!

If they were so concerned about my safety you’d think that they’d at least take the time to tell me that the guys who tried to kill me had just been released on bail. Would they have even told me at all if I didn’t hear it myself, or would they just have pretended it never happened in order to keep me calm? Didn’t they have a legal obligation to tell me these things anyway?

I wasn’t too nervous about it considering I had police officers following me around everywhere, but they still could have told me. It’s not like I was going anywhere or anything. Though, once I thought about it, I was grateful that they hadn’t called me down to talk about it at school. I really didn’t need the appearance of the police in the building to add onto whatever rumors were already spreading about me.

The stares and whispers were, of course, back by now and I had to ignore them the best I could while waiting for the end of class. Since it was lunch I usually ended up going to the library but instead I figured I might as well go out there and talk to my watch dogs and see just what the hell was going to happen. If I was going to be put under full lock down once I got out of school I damn well wanted to know about it before hand.

Time passed slowly, as slowly as it always did when you really wanted to be somewhere else, and when the bell finally rang I was up and out the classroom before anyone could even think to stop me. I didn’t care if it pissed the teacher off. She could go fuck herself for all I cared, just as long as I didn’t have to see or hear about—ever.

Exiting the building I looked for the officers in their usual spot and immediately noticed that they weren’t there anymore. Glancing around I still couldn’t see them anywhere in sight and wondered just where they had went. Maybe they had been called down to the station to deal with the whole bail issue or something.

Or maybe they were just taking a break.

Either way it didn’t really matter to me since I didn’t exactly trust the police to keep me safe. If I had my way about it I’d be with Gravekeeper right now. He had protected me without fail and there certainly wasn’t anyone who could get into the basement of that old mausoleum. Not without his permission anyway.

Then I realized something else. Just what was keeping me from going there right now? The police were gone and off campus lunches were allowed, so technically there was no one available to stop me. Not only would I be able to see Derek but I could talk to Gravekeeper as well and let him know that the grave robbers were out. It’s the least I could do, and who knows, they might even be stupid enough to try and rob Mrs. Petersmith’s grave again.

And even though Gravekeeper could most definitely take care of himself it was still nice to have warning about such things, or so I thought, though I might have just been making up excuses to see him. I’m not quite sure what that said about me though and I didn’t really want to think about it either.

Glancing around again I made sure no one was watching me, which people were but it was no one I needed to be concerned about, before stealthfully I snuck away from the school. On my way back to the graveyard I used more of the less used roads in the area to better insure that I wouldn’t get caught. I was taking a risk, I knew, but the school was closer to the graveyard than my house was and if things went as planned I would be back just as soon as lunch ended.

I never ate lunch at school anyway so I wasn’t really worried about that, but I really didn’t want someone to come looking for me or for the school to contact my parents or even the police. This was just one of those things I had to do, despite the risks, and despite the dangers of getting caught.

A few minutes later I was forced to take a more heavily trafficked road because the one I was on had some construction being done on it. They were repaving the sidewalks or something and the noise from that alone was enough to drive me insane, or deaf, whichever came first. I didn’t even want to think about how loud it would have been had I had to continue to walking down it.

I almost wished that I had my mp3 player with me just so I could drown it out, but then again the noise was so loud that I might have just caused myself to go deaf with that option as well. Neither of them was very appealing, but it seemed as though I would just have to deal with it.

Just as I was thinking about this a black sedan drove by with their speakers blaring so loud that their windows were visibly shaking. It was even louder than the construction and I wondered just how the hell they could tolerate all that noise. I mean, even the street was vibrating!

I watched until they came to a stop sign and turned around the corner. Some people were just weird, I guess. I spend the next few minutes trying to block out the sound to no avail. It was just so loud, and I became eternally grateful that they weren’t doing this around my house, or the graveyard for that matter. It would piss me off to be woken up however early in the morning they started.

I really hated losing sleep.

A screeching noise caught my attention, something I was surprised to hear over the construction, and when I looked up the black sedan was coming back towards me. They were going pretty fast against the town’s speed limit and I paused to watch them with confusion as one of tinted windows rolled down. Something metal gleamed in the sunlight and I winced as it reflected right into my eyes.

What the hell was wrong with these people?

Before I was able to look back I heard noises that sounded like large nails were being shot into the cement by one of the machines. Confused, I tried to figure out just what they were and my eyes widened as I came to a sudden realization; they were gun shots. My entire world froze as my mind raced but before I could come up with anything pain exploded in my chest and I was jerked back.

My vision started to blur and for a moment it almost felt like my body was weightless. I hovered there for a single moment, which felt more like an eternity, and soon after the ground was rushing up to meet me. It met me, cold and unforgiving, and the last thing I remembered were the screech of the tires as the black sedan sped away.

-=x=x=x=-

Author’s Note: Before someone freaks out on me again, know that there is another chapter or two! (If you’ve read Dragon then you know why I’m saying this.)

-=x=x=x=-

JJay: I was afraid people might think Gravekeeper was some creepy old guy or something from the summery—I’ll have to change that. Anyway, thanks for the review!

Tall tree-san: Thank you for your enthusiastic review! There’s going to be about 2-3 more chapters—hope you enjoy them.