#cryptrobber

Chapter 4

Steven lowers his hands. He looks around to see the wind is no longer blowing. The screaming has gone quiet and heaviness falls on his shoulders. Steven staggers to his feet, looking around. The crypts still surround him, but there are no sounds, not even the sounds of the night. His ears throb from the silence. Steven turns, his shoe hitting something. He reaches down and grabs whatever it is, hoping it's the loot and the keys. Lifting the item close, since it is so dark, and he gags when he sees a skeleton hand. Steven chucks it away from him, wiping his hands on his jeans. He can't shake the cold boney feeling of the hand in his. Something grabs his ankle and to his horror, the skeleton hand has grabbed on him. He kicks it off and runs, leaving the keys and bag behind. He rushes out from between some crypts into the rest of the cemetery, screaming. Steven finds the front gate open and rushes out, seeing the church beyond that. The lights are still on. He remembers Father Miles talking about a night mass, so he has to be in there. Steven nearly falls when he escapes the cemetery. Running up the stone steps, he hears voices inside. Steven bursts through the doors. "Father Miles, please forgive me." He skids to a stop when he sees Father Miles talking to Trisha. "Trisha?" Father Miles slowly turns to look at Steven. The priest is missing a hand, half of his skull, has a gaping hole in his side, and a crushed leg. Trisha turns as well, but her entire face is missing, has no left leg, and both arms and chest are completely crushed. Steven turns to the side and throws up. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. The sour taste in his mouth makes his eyes water. He stares at the gory sight in front of him. Steven turns when the door opens behind him and more squeamish gore walk inside. Steven screams as dead patrons of Holy Trinity Church walk past him and take their seats in the pews. Steven turns to run outside, but he freezes when a loud creaking sound reaches him. He turns to see the front of the church collapses on top of Father Miles and Trisha and those in the front three pews. His jaw drops when more of the church collapses. Now those around him are screaming as they watch family and friends are crushed to death. Steven doesn't wait any longer, and he makes his way towards the door. Before he can grab the doorknob, the church crumbles to the ground.

Chapter 3

Steven hides behind one crypt, breathing hard since he was running only a few minutes before. He peeks around the corner, his eyes darting this way and that. Nothing moves. But he knows he saw something. Steven had been inside his sixth crypt when he heard someone walking around outside. No one should be in Trinity Cemetery that late, and he locked the gate behind him. When he heard the sound, he grabbed what loot he could and quietly snuck back outside. He locked the crypt behind and looked around. He saw nothing until a shadow darted around a few crypts, headed his way. Now he is cowering behind a crypt, seeing movement out of the corner of his eye constantly. Steven hears someone sneaking up behind him and he spins around to see... nothing. He shivers and decides it's time to leave. He'll come back another night to grab more stuff. Steven makes his way towards the front of the cemetery, struggling to find the keys to the gate. He panics when he can't find the keys. He drops the bag holding his loot and pats his pockets again. "No, no, no..." "Steven, Steven, Steven." Steven looks up when he hears someone say his name in disgust. He looks up to see Father Miles standing on the other side of the locked gate. Father Miles holds up his hand and shakes the keys at him. "Stealing from the crypts, Steven. You should know better." Father Miles tosses the keys over the top of the gate, sending them into the darkness behind Steven. "I will give you a chance, Steven. Put it all back, find the key, and you can go. But if you don't, well..." Father Miles turns and strides back to Holy Trinity Church. "I have night mass to lead." Steven drops to his knees and struggles to find the keys. He yelps when his knee hits a rock. He angrily picks it up and hurls it into the dark. Steven runs his hands over the rocks, grass, and sticks until his fingers hits something metal. He grabs them and laughs when he lifts the keys in front of his face. He jumps to his feet, grabbing the bag of loot, but stops. Hearing Father Miles' words in his head, he stares down at the bag of goodies. Deciding against returning them, Steven runs over to the gate, unlocks it, and pushes his way out. He races away from the gate, telling himself he needs to get to the house and then he will be safe. He glances over his shoulder, but he only sees headstones around him. The gate has vanished. Steven slows down and looks around, seeing the crypts he has stolen from looking around him. He drops the keys and bag, covers his ears, and falls to his knees. A howling sound rushes through the Trinity Cemetery. A strong wind blows around him and he hears someone screaming in the breeze. Put it back!Put it back! Voices fill his ears and his mind, making the grown man curl into a tight ball on the ground. Steven can't move.

Chapter 1

A tan arm wipes the sweat off a tall man's forehead. Coffee brown eyes glance at the clear blue sky. A few crows flies past, squawking at the man working below. He grumbles as he gets back to work, digging a hole for a funeral that will take place in 4 hours. He shoves the tip of the shovel in the dirt, flipping it on top of the pile he's made. Wiping more sweat off, he looks down into the hole, picturing himself being lowered into one. Shuddering, he finishes making the hole deep enough for the casket. The man finishes just as a priest and a woman walk towards him. Their heads are close together and they are in deep conversation. He leans against the shovel, sweating and catching his breath as he watches the two. The priest notices him and smiles. "Steven, thank you for preparing Anita Smith's gravesite." "Not a problem, Father Miles," Steven says, tipping his head to the priest. He glances over at the woman standing beside him. "Hi, I'm Steven Thompson." "Nice to meet you, Steven. I'm Trisha Knowlens," Trisha says, eyeing the sweaty man. "We just hired Steven to be our new grave digger since Theodore passed a few months ago. Steven just moved here to Oklahoma from Maine two months ago." He looks at Steven, patting the dirty man's shoulder. "And Trisha here works at Peaceful Time Assisted Living home on Palm Avenue. She was working at the time dear Anita passed. Trisha has been there for 10 years and has seen a lot of the patrons leave us. Just the other day, though, she has been promoted to night manager." Steven raises a brow. "I am sorry for the passing of Anita, but also congrats on the promotion." "Thank you and also thank you," Trisha says, looking down. "I just came over to see if everything will be ready for the funeral." "The hole is dug. I just need to set up the chairs, the big picture and wreath, get the machine in place to lower her coffin into the ground, and everything will be ready," Steven says, looking around, ticking off what still needs to be done in his head. "So if you two will excuse me." He picks up the shovel and places it in his wheelbarrow. Grabbing the handles with his gloved hands, he nods to the two and heads off to put away a few things in a shack at the end of the cemetery before he tackles his other tasks. Father Miles and Trisha watch him walk away before they look at the hole. Trisha sighs and nods, the two leaving. Steven glances back to see Trisha and Father Miles leave. He leaves his wheelbarrow and heads for the crypts where the richer occupants have been buried. Steven strolls the paths around the crypts. He chews on his bottom lip as he imagines the riches buried with the dead inside. And soon those riches will be his. Steven just has to keep his head down for a few more weeks and then he can steal it all. Steven will disappear, never to be found again. Glancing at his watch, Steven curses under his breath and takes off back to where Anita will be buried. He needs to finish the tasks. Steven doesn't want to get caught not doing his job and get fired before he can get his hands on the loot. After another hour, Steven stands at the back of the funeral, leaning against a tree. He eyes the crying people there for Anita's funeral. He daydreams about pick pocketing them all. Steven half listens to Father Miles talk about what a good woman Anita was, about her life growing up, and how he loved visiting her at Peaceful Time. Father Miles talks for almost another hour about Anita praying with him or, when she felt up to it, would go to church on Sundays. Steven yawns and closes his eyes, crossing his arms across his chest. He cringes as the sounds of crying hits his ears, seeming to be louder. Father Miles finishes the funeral with a prayer. Those attending stand and walk over to the exposed coffin. They drop pink flowers of all kinds onto the coffin since pink was Anita's favorite color. Peering at everyone through half-closed eyes, Steven watches Anita's family and friends leave. Father Miles and Trisha are the last. Trisha stands by the gravesite, still clutching the pink roses she brought. "Thank you for everything, Father Miles," Trisha says, wiping away tears with a tissue. Father Miles smiles and pats her on the shoulder. "You're welcome, Trisha. See you in the hall for the funeral reception." Father Miles leaves Trisha and walks to Steven. "Once she is done saying goodbye, please cover the coffin and clean up." "Of course, Father Miles," Steven says, and he goes around the tree he was leaning on to retrieve his shovel. Father Miles leaves to join the others in the hall for the funeral reception. Steven carries his shovel over to Trisha and stands beside her, leaning against the shovel. Trisha wipes away more tears and tosses the roses with the others. She glances at Steven and smiles through her tears. "Thank you, Steven. You did a wonderful job fixing up everything for us." "My pleasure, ma'am." "Please, call me Trisha." "Alright, Trisha. The others are waiting for you in the hall. And I need to cover Anita so she can rest in peace," Steven says, placing a hand on her shoulder. Trisha nods and walks away. Steven puts his shovel down by the open grave, and cleans up around the grave first, putting away the chairs and everything else. He returns once he put away everything and tosses the dirt into the hole, covering up the flowers and the coffin. Steven wipes away the dirt from his face and looks around to see he is done. He places the shovel on his shoulder and walks away.

Roll-A-Prompt Horror Book

I took a break from typing up one of my books I hope to get published in a year or two and grabbed my Roll-A-Prompt horror book again. I love using these books and I have written reviews on them before. I grabbed a die, rolled it, and got to work. Here is what I rolled and what it means. For Characters- if you roll an odd number, you roll again and get a companion for your main character. If you roll an even number, your main character goes alone.

Characters

The number I rolled was a 1, which is odd, so I rolled again and rolled a 6. 1- Crypt Robber- Steven Thompson, 6'0", 32 years old, coffee brown eyes, buzzed head, disguises himself as a gravedigger in order to gain access to the crypts that belong to rich families. 6- Assisted Living Night Manager- Trisha Knowlens, 5'6" 30 years old, shoulder length straight black hair, navy blue eyes, has worked for 10 years at the assisted living home for 10 years before being prompted to night manager which is her dream job.

Scenario

I rolled a 5, which the scenario I have to use is a church crumbles to the ground.

Other Names

I came up with names for the church, assisted living home, and Cemetary before I started to write, too. Assisted Living Home- Peaceful Time Church- Holy Trinity Cemetary- Trinity Cemetary

Writing

Now that I have the scenario and the characters, plus the names of the places, I got to work. The next blog will be the start of the short story based on the elements above. I hope you enjoy. Also, down below will be a link for the book I took this from in case you'd like to buy yourself a copy and either write from it or gift it to a writer in your life. Enjoy!

Amazon Link