Here is the Dark ending to the Gravedigger story. for the Bright ending refer to yesterdays post. for the whole story return to Wednesday's post. this is one of two endings.
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The night sky was dark, the moon hid behind the clouds and the stars didn’t seem to be shining tonight. Graves wasn’t concerned, he could see in the dark just as well as the light. He decided to go see his surviving family right away and took the long winding path to the Graves manor. Before he died, he heard a large house was being built for the Graves family. So whichever the generation, he would likely find them there.
Graves walked quickly to keep from losing any extra time on the journey through the forest to the Graves house outside of town. He was excited to see how everyone was doing, though they would all be new faces, they still shared his blood line and that was enough for him. The trail gave him time to think though, though seeing family would be nice, he was a little sad at the thought that he wouldn’t see his wife or children. They had died long ago from old age, a fact that didn’t bother Graves when he was working in the graveyard, but now that he was in the outside world the reality of the situation weighed heavily on him.
Then he saw it, the large house that was residence to the Graves family. As he approached a man called out to him from the porch. “whos there?” called the man. “Jonathan Graves, come to pay respects to his family” Graves called back in a raspy voice. He hadn’t talked in so long the sound of his own voice startled him. It must have startled the other man too, because he didn’t reply right away. “Jonathan Graves is dead and his family doesn’t live here. Now stop fooling around” The man called back. Graves continued to walk closer, seeing a man in his fifties sitting alone on the porch. “I am not dead. I am the cursed Gravedigger Jonathan Graves. Now tell me what happened to my family?” Graves asked. The man began to sweat as Graves approached. “I do not know. My family bought this house from the town fifty years ago. Last I head, the Graves family left Darkmoon to find a better place to live. Now please, if you truly are a ghost from the past. Haunt me no more. I’ve done nothing to you” The man pleaded with fear rising in his voice. Whatever happened wasn’t this mans fault. Graves growled and turned to leave. “Before I leave. One more question. What happened to the money? Wasn’t the town supposed to take care of anyone with the last name Graves?” The Gravedigger asked. The man thought quickly, as all of this happened before he was born so he didn’t have all the details. “As far as I know, the town stopped paying them when the town hit hard times. Darkmoon still stands, but the mayor didn’t think it was worth spending town gold on a family just to honor the dead” the man replied. Graves sighed and walked off without a word.
Darkmoon village sat quietly and peacefully, nestled next to the great graveyard hill. All was dark except for a few lanterns and house lights not put out yet. Graves entered the town, holding his shovel out like a weapon. He pulled his cloak up over his head and let his appearance slip. His living human face now slowly degraded into bone and pale corpse flesh. His eyes sunk in and began to glow a menacing yellow and his hair grew out and looked a pale green. He remained in solid form though, so he could walk and fight.
At the center of town was a large home, home of the mayor and his family, the same man or at least the son of the man who cut his family off from their income. Graves was cursed to work for eternity so unless the spell was broken he should be paid for an eternity. Since he was dead and didn’t need money, the money should go to his family. That was the deal and he was going to ensure the mayor kept his end of the bargain.
Graves walked up to the mayors manor and kicked the large doors in. The loud crash of the doors echoed through the halls. Lights were lit in a flash, the whole house awake and now on high alert. “I’ve come for the mayor! Bring me him and no one has to die!” Shouted Graves, his voice ghastly and nightmarish as he screamed into the night. Not surprisingly the mayor didn’t show up, but armed guards did. The mayor was protected, but this wasn’t a kings castle so Graves doubted he would have trouble.
Soldiers with swords charged at Graves from random doorways throughout the house. They all flooded into the large hall or entranceway. Graves swung his shovel around like a weapon. He took a swing at a guard, the guard blocked the attack and slashed with his sword. At the same time another guard stabbed Graves in the back. Jonathan had never been in a fight in his life, but his immortality would make up for the fact that he wasn’t a skilled fighter. Graves dropped the shovel and grabbed a guard by the neck and began to strangle him. The soldier gasped for air and choked as the others stabbed wildly at the intruder. Graves couldn’t feel pain and he couldn’t die, so he ignored the swords. The first guard died after being choked to death. Graves turned around to fight the others when a sword came swinging by and chopped off his head.
Everything went dark, Graves’ body disappeared as did his head as it spiraled through the air. Then a second later he reappeared transparent and ghostly. “I cannot die. Bring the mayor or you will all be buried alive!” He shouted as he floated midair, black cloak flowing and eyes glowing. He cackled madly causing the soldiers to run off. Graves needed to find the mayor before his time ran out. Staying in his ghostly form he took off flying around the house, going through walls, floors and ceilings. Then he spotted the mayor trying to escape out the backdoor with his wife.
“Stop!” Graves shouted. He swooped down and landed, instantly becoming solid again. The mayor crumpled to the ground in a panic. “Please spare me! Whatever I did, I’m sorry!” The mayor pleaded. Graves growled in disgust. “You look old enough, so I assume it was you. You stopped paying the Graves family my wages. Meanwhile I am cursed to work for eternity with nothing to show for it!” Graves shouted. The mayor slowly began to piece things together. “The curse of Jonathan Graves was just a legend and the Graves family led blessed lives, living off the towns income like fat cats” The mayor cried. “Silence worm! I am Jonathan Graves, who do you think dug all those holes in the ground and buried your dead? also I would watch how you speak of my family. I haven’t decided if I’m going to kill you yet” Graves responded. “Please, I will do anything. I will mend my ways” The mayor begged. “Gather my family back to Darkmoon. Send your men out looking for all with the last name Graves then pay them for my work. I work day and night in the graveyard. My family deserves the money. Find them and pay them or I will stomp out every trace of YOUR family” Graves replied.
The mayor didn’t like the idea of cutting into the town budget again, but it was either that or have an immortal Gravedigger threaten his entire family. “Yes fine, I will. I will undo the mistakes of my past” The mayor said. “No, you will try, but you can never undo them. My family has suffered and your greed has scattered them to the winds. There is no certainly that my bloodline has survived these last fifty years. But you will try your best. Work for me now, work hard for a year to restore my family or I will return and drag you screaming into the night. In exactly a year I will check your progress. I must go” Graves said, his anger calming. “But first, I take payment from you. I will take from you as you have taken from me” He added then reached out his skeletal hand and grabbed the mayors wife. The wife shrieked in horror and the Mayor tried to defend her. Graves knocked the Mayor back to the ground and clobbered him with a shovel. The mayor got to his feet as fast as he could and turned but was too late. He watched at the Grave digger flew off into the night, holding the mayors wife dangling by her arm, screaming as she disappeared into the distance.
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