The moment I finished Friendship’s Cost, I turned my focus to my patrons’ second story, a horror. While I’ve typically used my Hunter for this genre, I didn’t want to pick him up for this tale, so I turned to ChatGPT to help me pen out an idea using a new set of characters. Sometimes, those concepts are terrible, and sometimes they possess great bones. Usually, they land somewhere in between. But the idea I found for this horror not only sparked the initial tale, it’s also given me something to leverage for even more stories, and that is exciting.
Some jobs become so routine that things which might bother someone else don’t even earn a second glance. When you’ve spent enough time surrounded by headstones and graves, the things that make visitors uneasy can become little more than another part of the day. Still, even familiar surroundings can become unsettling when something refuses to behave the way it should.
Cemeteries have their own rules and procedures. Graves are purchased, headstones are approved, and each plot has a purpose long before anyone is laid to rest. When something appears where it doesn’t belong, there should be a reasonable explanation. Unfortunately, finding that explanation doesn’t always make the situation any easier to understand.
Walter has spent enough time tending the cemetery to know when something isn’t right. After repeatedly dealing with the same unusual problem, his frustration has started to outweigh his curiosity. But when someone questions how he handled the situation, Walter may discover there’s more happening among the graves than he realized.
Excerpt of Reserved Gift
The shovel’s blade slid under the dwindling pile of earth, and the caretaker cursed as he tossed another load into the grave. With each toss, his eyes lingered on the headstone. He slammed the shovel into the ground and took a deep breath. “Who keeps digging out an empty grave?”
The man shook his head as he finished refilling the plot. He tamped the loose earth with his foot, leaving crisscrossed treads across the grave. “Who keeps digging this plot out? I’m tired of having to refill this hole.”
“Did you read the headstone?”
The caretaker’s fingers whitened around the shovel’s shaft. He turned toward the voice as sweat beaded along his brow. “Who are you? And why are you here? Public visitation has ended for the day.”
A man pulled his hood over his face as he stepped up beside the caretaker. “Before you damaged the engraving, did you read the text?”
The caretaker shook his head as he inched away from the stranger hiding within the shadows of his hood. He moistened his lips as his gaze flicked to the headstone before returning to the stranger. “Whoever dug up the grave must have taken a chisel to the blank headstone.”
The stranger laid his pale fingers on the smooth stone. “Walter, being the caretaker, I expected you to understand the timing and method for placing headstones on a plot.”
Walter stepped back and pointed the shovel’s blade at the refilled grave. “I’m aware that no one has purchased this plot. Someone carved the headstone, but whoever left it here committed a crime because they don’t own this plot.”
“An act’s legality depends on its timing.” The stranger turned to Walter and took a pair of jerky steps toward the caretaker as he jerked his thumb back at the headstone. “And you only think it’s an unpurchased plot. Again, did you read the tombstone before you defaced the work that was done?”
“Yes, I read what I damaged.” He laid the shovel on his shoulder as he shook his head and backed away. “Even if someone purchased that plot, it’s illegal to drop the headstone off without getting it approved, and that wasn’t done.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Walter said, stabbing his chest with a thumb. “For two reasons. As the cemetery’s caretaker, I would have learned of any new headstone first.”
“What’s your second reason?” the stranger asked, stepping toward the caretaker.
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