The Cryptkeeper

Leslie flinched as her already bleeding knuckles were struck. The others hurried to push the tools between the gates, crossing them when they were jammed to keep the gate from being forced open. Nikki and Kaitlynn would pull Leslie away from the gate, the man wailing as he reached his arm through the openings. Kait grabbed at Leslie’s hand to attempt and tend to the injury, Nikki pulling a few beatification supplies from her fanny pack. There wasn't much she carried with her, save some lipstick, mints and tweezers, but a makeup pad and a Band-Aids would serve as a makeshift bandage and adhesive.

"You okay?" Nikki wasn't her usual, cheerful self.

She lamented the situation, worried that had they entered the O'Brian's something worse could have happened. Leslie reached up, patting her shoulder in her usual, rough, manner.

"It's okay, I bet he broke a few teeth." Leslie was much taller than Nikki, easily standing a whole foot or more. "A few scrapes and bruises is less than I get working my dad's prized hogs."

But there was a solemn sit to the group as they pushed through the cemetery. Nathan, whose family were devout Catholics, drew the sign of the cross over himself as they marched. Nikki stuck close, holding his hand, while Kaitlynn walked beside Jon. Leslie, who knew the graves well, led the charge. It wasn't a secret the Occult Club sometimes came out here on trips.

Jon looked back towards the gate. The Junkie had slid down against the bars, incoherently groaning to himself. Drug addiction was a scary thing, especially knowing to them you were just another chance to score. It made him think back to his old neighborhood

It was a common sight, but the ones out here seemed, so show, worse.

"Hey Leslie?" Jon would speak up, looking head, only to catch Leslie's gaze as she looked back over her shoulder. "Weren't there similar looking guys outside the arcade?"

Leslie turned her gaze forward. "Yeah." Her voice was soft, but Leslie wasn't known to be a soft spoken woman.

"Leslie." Jon's voice was stern.

There was a long pause. The others could feel a tension radiating off of Leslie and Jon, but they couldn't be sure why. Up until now they saw the same things. They had all come to the same conclusion seeing the chopped up body.

But there was something wrong they couldn't piece together. It wasn't a justifiable assumption. If anything it was too much to process. Suddenly Kaitlynn rang, or rather her phone did. The others jumped as the young woman scrambled for her device.

"H-hello?!" She had forgotten it was on ring. Had it gone off while they were hiding from Bo... "Dad?!" There was a sense of relief, but it quickly faded. "Hey. Yeah. We're looking for you." Her face twisted into a look of confusion. "What do you mean? What, no we're on our way to Morty's." She looked to the side, as if to get and hide the voice on the other end, even though it was nigh incomprehensible to the group. "No, I understand. Okay. Love you too." She would lower her phone from her ear, this time having the sense of mind to shut it off.

Nikki looked over. "What happened?"

Shaking her head she returned her phone to her pocket. "Dad says to stay in town." She put her hand to her chest, mind drifting to the sounds she heard on her end. "Morty was yelling at them, something about the bodies."

Nikki and Jon looked to each other, before diverting their attention back to Kaitlyn. "You mean," Jon began as he nervously shifted his attention to the headstones. "These bodies?"

As if to confirm his worst fears the sounds of shots being fired through the air rang from the main house on the property. There was the kiln and the Morgue, but Mortimer's family house was also on the property and that's where the shots had emanated from.

"What are you kids doing here?!" A deep voice called out to them from the end of their path.

They jumped, thankful the grounds were somewhat lit by street lights which had been installed after the assaults last year. The cemetery was the second favorite hangout for junkies, though the ones known to come here usually slept off their highs and never caused much trouble.

"You're one of them aren't you?!" The man was known as Jonas. He was the groundskeeper here. "You are one of them!" He confronted, voice raising as he took his rake threateningly in hand.

Leslie backed up towards Jon and Kaitlyn. "Jon..." Leslie warned.

Jon had been startled, but he needed to speak up. "Wait! Uncle Jonas!"

Jonas was Jon's uncle, his mother's brother and the reason why Jon had moved here in the first place. Jonas' father was admitted to the hospital suffering from what they believe is an early onset of Alzheimer's. His mother moved here to become his in-home nurse. Jonas had called his sister, she being the eldest of them, for help. There are some that suspect Jonas may be on the way there.

The groundskeeper more and more has been dealing with bouts of insomnia and memory loss. It wasn't until his motor skills began to suffer that they began to worry. Mortimer's family had kept him on the job despite his diminishing mental and physical state, Jonas having worked at the cemetery since he was a teenager.

"I know who you are..." Jonas took a step forward, Jon pulling at Leslie's arm in warning. "One of them! I told Morty to shut the place down!" He yelled out, swinging his rake. "Get out!"

"Run!" Jon asserted, pushing Leslie to the side, the shaking grip of the older man made his aim terribly off.

The group would hurry off towards the morgue, the main house no longer an option after hearing the gunshots. They hurried up the stone steps of the old, single floor building. It was massive. Built in the early 1800s it was considered a modern marvel at the time, but it was starting to show its age. The glass windows were caked with dust from the outside, painting a sheet of dirt over the surface that made it impossible to see anything but light coming in from the outside Inside it was ice cold as the building was a freezer used to house and prepare bodies for funerals. Though the practice of embalming in the town was temporarily banned after the flooding incident. Not that it mattered to the dead. Bodies kept coming in anyway. Once they were all inside they closed the door, locking it behind them.