Nightmare in a Graveyard

23:10 hours

“What on earth is wrong with you?” Lindsay sat up in her bed glaring at the girl lying next to her.

“Come on, Lindsay! Its Halloween. We never do anything fun. Just this once. Please?”

“Reed, it’s freezing outside. Besides, if braces sees us, you know quite well that she’s going to report us to Ms. Winter.”

Braces was an irritable seventeen-year-old who was put in charge of watching the orphanage kids for the day, since Ms. Winter had gone to look after her sick mother.

Reed sniffed and turned over. Lindsay sighed. “Sometimes I really can’t tell if you’re two or twelve.”

She pulled the covers over her head and shut her eyes. A few minutes later, Reed began to sniffle. Lindsay groaned.

“Seriously? You’re going to do this today?” The sniffling became a low wail.

 “Oh for God’s sake, shut up!”.

The wailing immediately ceased and Lindsay felt terrible. Reed had had a case of measles recently and had to be shut up in the “alone room” for a few weeks. She had missed the monthly ice-cream treat and her birthday celebration ( which Lindsay honestly didn't find that exciting, considering the fact the “celebration” was droning an off-key happy birthday followed by the distribution of a few disgusting, half-molten candies. They did the same exact thing. Every. Single. Year.) She felt kind of sorry for the girl.

“You know what Reed? Let’s go.” Lindsay got out of bed and began to pile on some clothes. Reed sat up, wiping her eyes and beaming.

“Really?”

“Yep. Unless I change my mind, so hurry”

24:30 hours

The girls were now crouched behind an old, crumbling headstone. “Okay Reed, we're gonna stay here until sunrise. Just like you asked. Then we’re going straight back to our dorm before anyone even sees that we were gone.” She paused, wrinkling her nose at the creepy array of weirdly shaped stones “Ugh. I don’t know where you get ideas like these.”

Reed’s eyes twinkled with glee. “I read it in a book that I borrowed from Jemma. It was about two boys who decided to spend a night in the graveyard. In the end, one of them died.”

Suddenly, her face darkened and she fixed her darting green eyes on Lindsay. “Do you really think that ghosts are real, Lin?”

Lindsay so badly wanted to say yes and tell her about that one time when she saw a big ugly monster living under Ms. Winter’s bed, ready to gobble up any mean kids, but she knew that if Reed started wailing again, they would be certainly discovered.

“Nonsense. When people die, they just become dirt. Like the Bible says.” The answer seemed to satisfy Reed and she settled down a bit.

2:30 hours

“Did you hear that Lindsay?”

“Hear what?”

Lindsay was getting tired now. Her nerves were beginning fray. There seemed to be a stench rising from the wet mud; the smell of rotting leaves and death. It was awful, really. Why had she agreed to this stupid idea in the first place?

Reed tugged at Lindsay's sleeve again.

“It sounded like someone was crying. They were calling for me. Telling me that they missed me”

“Ha ha. Very funny. What next? Are you going to tell me that you saw a woman in a white dress behind me?”

“I’m not lying Lin!” She pouted and huddled close next to Lindsay.

“Get off me Reed! This was you’re idea. You’re going to have to sit through this.” Then she added, just in case, “And don’t you dare start crying now. You’re such a little baby.”

“Am not! Why are you always so mean anyway?”

“Me? You’re twelve years old and still believe in ghosts! Anyone would be annoyed!”

“I’m not a baby, Lindsay. I’m not. I’m not. I’M NOT!”

“Okay shut up! If you’re so brave then, go touch that stone.” Lindsay pointed at a rectangular headstone that was about thirty feet away.

“That one?” Reed shuddered. “It’s too- It’s too far”

Lindsay smirked. “That’s what I thought.”

Her eyes now brimming with tears, Reed got up and brushed the dirt off her slacks. With pretense bravery, she walked towards the headstone.

4:45 hours

Two minutes had passed.

Five minutes had passed.

Ten minutes had passed.

“Okay Reed, I get it. You’re not a baby. You can come back now.”

Silence.

“Reed it’s not funny! Get back now.”

Silence again.

Perhaps she had fallen down or something? Lindsay made her way towards the headstone. It was so dark that she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. She stumbled over tree roots and pebbles several times. Maybe Reed did fall. Maybe she got hurt. Oh no. This was her fault. She should have never let Reed go there alone.

“Reed I am so sorry. Please come back”

 Lindsay reached the headstone now, but Reed was nowhere to be seen.

“Reed! Reed! Are you lost? Say something. Please”

Lindsay was afraid now. Maybe someone had kidnapped her. Maybe she’d run away. What was she going to tell Ms. Winter? What had she done?

Suddenly, she saw something. It was a body. She ran towards it and leaned over it. It was lying face down.

“Reed? Is that you?”

It wasn’t Reed. Reed wasn’t so tall. Reed didn’t have such long fingers. Reed didn’t have such tangled hair. Reed wasn’t wearing a red and white dress…

The dress was not red and white. It was just white.

The body turned over and sat up. Its eyes were white and hollow. It had no teeth.

Lindsay screamed and ran. She ran and she ran until she tripped over a root and hit her head on the edge of a gravestone. Her vision went blurry and something warm and wet began to trickle down her temple. The last thing she saw before she passed out was a set of blurry letters.

"R.I.P"

“Reed Winston”

“1989-2001”

8:30 hours

Lindsay blinked her eyes open. There were bright lights everywhere and there was beeping and yelling and crashing. She heard a voice. It seemed so distant.

“Fifteen-year-old female, Lindsay Greene. Mentally unstable. Found with a laceration to her forehead and a broken ankle”

“What happened Jim?”

“Another one of her delusional episodes. She escaped the Psych hospital across the street and made her way to the graveyard. She was lying there for a few hours before the maintenance guy found her. God knows how she got herself hurt”

“Poor thing”

Lindsay stirred. “Reed… where is…” A little woman in a white coat leaned over her and smiled.

“Hi Lindsay, I’m doctor Williams and I’m going to be taking care of you okay?”

“What? No. No! Get off! I need to find Reed!” Lindsay shoved the doctor away and tried to get up.

“Honey you need to calm down. You’re safe here.”

“No!” Lindsay screamed. “You killed Reed! Where is she!”

She felt a pinch in her right arm and suddenly felt sleepy. So very sleepy.

“I’m sorry Reed.”