Cemetery Of The Dead (ePub)

The waning crescent moon cast an eerie pale glow over the desolate cemetery, its feeble light only serving to exaggerate the jagged shadows thrown by the crooked tombstones jutting from the earth like gnashing teeth. A whisper of foreboding seemed to hang in the still night air, punctuated only by the distant murmur of a nearby creek carrying on a ceaseless, whispered conversation with restless spirits.

It was into this ominous setting that three teenage boys - Kevin Bradley, Lamont Harper, and Dale Erickson - ventured with a sense of trepidation yet undeniable excitement. Members of a secret society known only as the R.I.P. Club, they had come to explore the shadowy mysteries and untold tales that lay sleeping among the grave markers on this night. The wrought iron gates closed behind them with a mournful creak, their individual shadows blending into the murky darkness as they pressed onward.

Kevin's heart pounded with a heady mix of exhilaration and primal fear as he glanced sidelong at his companions. "Whose turn is it tonight?" he murmured, barely above a whisper so as not to disturb the slumbering dead. Dale responded with a sharp elbow to Kevin's ribs - a silent reminder of the pact they had made long ago by the light of the full moon to take turns sharing stories in the hallowed ground of the cemetery.

But as they approached a solitary figure perched atop a crumbling grave marker, the hairs on the back of Kevin's neck stood on end and his voice trailed off into stunned silence. The slight boy, appearing to be around their age yet with eyes that were twin dark pools of emptiness, regarded them with an unsettling, challenging stare - as if daring them to once again raise the dead on this night.

From that night forward, a dreadful chain of events was set in motion as the boys became unwitting pawns in the restless spirit's quest for vengeance...