STORY STARTER
Submitted by Petit-Mythe
Your protagonist finds themself in a graveyard where each stone has the deceased’s last words inscribed on it. One gravestone catches their eye...
Run, Miriam Grace
Miriam sulked around the cemetery. Her friends, ever the rebels, were running around the cemetery, making a mess of the tombstones, laughing about the dead.
“Look at her last words,” Jenna laughed, her dyed hair flung back as she giggled, “‘if you jump, I’ll jump.’ And then here’s her husband’s ’Emily, wait for me.’” She read farther on the grave, “They both died by jumping in jellyfish infested waters.”
“That shit depressing,” Eduardo took a sip of the wine bottle they were able to steal from his mom’s wine cellar. He turned to pass the bottle to Miriam but she was walking away. “Miriam! Where you going?”
“I’m going to leave,” she sighed, “this doesn’t feel right.”
“You promised you wouldn’t be like that.” Eduardo groaned. “God, it’s our last night as kids, live a little.”
Miriam clung to her loose jacket, for some reasons, the air felt colder. “You never said we would be terrorizing the dead. I never signed up for this!”
Footsteps rustled the grass as Max came towards the other three. His forehead drenched in sweat. “Josh and London found the ‘seer’ graves. Come on.”
Jenna grabbed her friend’s hand. “Just come see the grave then we can go home and drink to our heart’s content.” She looked up at Miriam, “For me?”
She looked down at the girl, “Fine. One more grave.”
“Let’s go!” Jenna grabbed Eduardo’s hand as well and ran over to where their friends are.
“Are you sure that this is the place?” Eduardo asked.
“Well, it’s locked up and you can’t see through.” London leaned on the fence, playing with her hair. “Lima’s grave is definitely behind this fence.”
The seer in questions was Euphoria Lima, a woman who lived during the witch trials. She was the only seer they burned alive. The seer grave was different then every other grave. They said it changed forever, depending on who was looking at it. She would still she the future even after she died.
“So how are we going to get in?” Jenna asked, still holding Miriam’s hand. “Well can’t exactly jump over.”
Behind Josh was a duffle bag. “I had a plan: break in.”
“You can’t do that!” Miriam exclaimed. “There’s a reason it’s locked.”
“Miriam,” Eduardo glared at her, “shut up. Max,” he turned to the boy, “you have the stuff to open up the gate?”
“Yeah about that,” Josh pushed London out of the way, “I already opened it. We already went in and we have a few questions.”
“How about we go look in and then we will answer them at home?” Jenna asked. “I’m sort of agreeing with Miriam, I didn’t think we were going to destroy property.”
“Of course you’re going to agree with your girlfriend,” Eduardo took a long sig of the wine, “well come on, let’s get going so you two can go make out or something.”
Jenna dropped Miriam’s hand in response. He know how her parent thought of queer people, about what would happen if they even though she was gay.
Slowly, the six walked into the sight. It was very different than the other graves. Instead of the head stone being on the ground, it was standing up, and faced away from the entrance.
“Ready?” Jenna whispered.
“Ready.” Miriam said.
Now, she had no idea what she was going to read. Maybe a little message about how she needed to study more, maybe that she’ll go to college for eight years instead of four. She had no idea what was going to happen, she just didn’t expect-
“‘Run, Miriam Grace, run and don’t look back.’”
She couldn’t believe what she was reading, what she saw. She looked over to Jenna, her mouth moved, mouthing the words she was reading. ‘You are going to die.’
“You fucking bastard,” Eduardo slammed the bottle against Josh’s shoulder. “You were the one who told the nuns that I was the one who dropped the water balloons during Father John’s sermon.”
“It’s not like you didn’t tell Father John that I was jerking off in the church bathroom!” Josh slapped him. “I had to say the Hail Mary forty times.”
“Guys,” Jenna said, “you guys should calm down.”
“Shut the hell up, Jenna.” London got in the girls face. “You told the nuns where me and Max would sneak off and then lied about it!” She pushed the girl into the headstone, her head hitting the solid rock.
“And Miriam,” Max turned to where the girl was, but she was no where to be found.
She heeded a warning, unlike Jenna.