Scratching, Scratching…
What’s that sound?
It was a cold, dreary late October day. The sleet was assailing them horizontally, making their umbrellas useless as they worked their way towards what she was told was the fresh burial site of her husband’s coworker, John. Suddenly Donna stopped dead in her tracks. “What’s that noise, she asked?” while she grabbed her husband’s arm for security.
“It’s probably just some squirrels playing in the trees. Let’s hurry this up so we can get warm and dry,” replied Jim.
“That’s no squirrel, Jim. Besides, it’s coming from that fresh gravesite,” she said while pointing to an open gravesite still waiting for its occupant to arrive.
“You’re crazy, Donna. Come with me,” he said as he took her arm and led her to the grave. “I’ll prove to you that your mind is just playing tricks on you.”
He led her to the edge of the site. They were both surprised to find a wooden coffin occupying the grave. “That’s weird. Why wasn’t this coffin buried when they put it in the grave?” he asked.
Just then the noise Donna heard earlier startled her. This time there was no denying its source. It was coming from the coffin. Scratching, scratching. A desperate, scarifying sound that curdled the blood flowing through her veins.
Jim came to place his arm around Donna. Not to give comfort but to throw her into the grave. He then calmly walked over to the tractor beside the grave and proceeded to bury his wife alive with the still living person in the coffin. The same person he witnessed his wife cheating with just days ago. Never cheat with a gravedigger’s wife. It can have grave consequences.
©2024 Joe Merkle
Thank you for reading.
