No Rest for the Weary

It was late October and the Saturday night air contained a bitter chill as the Grand Haven Rams high school football team defeated the Cedarburg Wolves in quadruple overtime. The cloud cover was heavy and the sky dark, but the spirits of the Rams' fans were glowing bright. The same could not be said for the Cedarburg faithful.

After the final buzzer sounded, fifteen hundred spectators began clearing the stadium. Trey and Paige milled around in the stands, as did many Grand Haven seniors, before heading down to the parking lot.

As they walked out the front gate, Trey surveyed all the bright taillights. "Looks like it might be a while before we get out of here," he said.

"Well, it doesn't make much sense to sit and just let your car idle. I mean, we'll be lucky if she gets us back home without dying, anyhow," Paige said with a smile.

"Hey now," Trey replied. "She hasn't let me down yet."

Paige scanned the traffic. Various cars and trucks were painted with "Go Rams," or "Cedarburg Wolves are on the prowl," or other signs of support for the local rivals. Loud music, mostly rock and country, came blaring out of vehicles, creating a virtual symphony appropriate for a northern Michigan football game.

Paige felt a tap on her shoulder and jumped. Trey laughed. "You must really be deep in thought," he said while pointing beyond the stadium. "If we drive around, I think there's a back way out of here. These other guys haven't moved in over half an hour now, and they probably won't for a while yet. Let's just use that back way and see where it takes us."

Paige glanced back at him. "You're sure we can get out that way? I don't see anyone else taking it."

"Of course I am. Once we get out, we just need to make sure we head west. That'll take us to the shore and then we can figure out where to go from there.'

Paige nodded her head. "Alright, sounds good to me."

The dark road was lined with magnificent, ancient trees. Empty branches seemed to scrape the sky as Trey's hand-me-down car bumped along.

"Maybe we should have waited," Paige said. "Instead of taking this ridiculous back way that no one else seems to have even driven for years."

"Nonsense," Trey replied. "This will be just fine."

On cue, headlights grew dim and the radio cut out. Dimness gave way to complete absence of light as the car started to coast sans power. Trey steered the vehicle until it came to a complete stop. "Seriously?" he questioned to the air above him.

Trey looked back down at the steering column and tried to turn the ignition half a dozen times, to no avail. Paige turned toward her sullen boyfriend. "Well, let's just call Peter and Moose and see if those guys can come and give us jump or something," she suggested.

Trey took his cell phone out of his pocket and started dialing a number. He stopped mid-dial. "No service," he said. "Of course."

Paige tried her phone, but also failed in her attempt to make a call. She put her phone away in her purse and looked out the windshield. "What now?" she asked. Trey unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the driver's side door.

"We walk."

The young adults were thirty minutes into their walk down the desolate road when Trey stopped suddenly in his tracks and pointed towards a light in the distance. "What do you suppose that is?"

Paige surveyed the horizon for any sort of clue, any way to discern if it was a house or a bonfire or perhaps something else. She shrugged her slender shoulders. "Not sure, but maybe they might be able to give us some help."

"Well, that is the first driveway we've seen since my car," Trey observed. "I think it's worth checking out."

Upon getting closer to the "driveway," the couple were taken aback to discover it was actually rather narrow. Branches created a virtual canopy above and the ground was marked with tracks seemingly created by skinny tires.

Paige looked at Trey. "Are we sure about this?"

"What other option do we have? I mean, we haven't seen anything, save for that light. We need to see about this."

"Well, if you're sure..." Paige said, grabbing his hand tight. Trey pulled gently, leading her up the path.

After ten minutes, Paige and Trey came upon a clearing on the right. They stopped and surveyed the scene. There were two mounds of dirt. Trey took a step towards it, but Paige resisted like an anchor. He let go of her hand and moved closer. Paige tentatively followed him at a safe distance.

"What the heck," Trey uttered to himself. He turned around. "It's just a couple of holes in the ground," he said. Paige came forward to examine the situation herself.

"Those aren't just holes," Paige explained. "Those are graves. Didn't you see the tombstones?"

Trey walked up to the markers. "Huh. Apparently Jane and Thomas Farrell died over a hundred years ago." He looked back at the graves. "But where are the caskets?"

Paige held up a shovel. "Probably grave-robbed."

"For real? What kind of person does something like that?"

"I don't know. Let's just get the hell out of here," Paige said. "This creeps me out." She started heading back to the tree-enclosed path. Trey hurried to catch her.

"Okay," he said, "we'll find another way to get home."

They headed towards the road, but five minutes brought another clearing, one they didn't remember from the trip up the path. Paige grabbed Trey upon seeing two more violated graves. Against better judgment, the couple crept up to the tombstones. Trey's jaw dropped as Paige read aloud "Jane and Thomas Farrell."

Trey and Paige immediately turned and began running back towards the street. After ten minutes, they came across another clearing with two more empty graves taunting them. The teenagers began running faster.

"Where the hell is that road?" Paige's voice crumpled under the weight of fear. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Trey's face became increasingly pale, but adrenaline kept his body moving.

As they continued running, one more clearing appeared on the left and the sight of a man pacing back and forth compelled Trey and Paige to stop. "Hey," Trey blurted. "We need help."

"Actually," the man said, "we do, too." A woman came out of the forest and stood beside him. She grabbed his hand and studied the teenagers curiously.

"No, you don't understand," Trey continued. "Our car broke down and there's a grave robber..."

"The grave robber is our problem, too!" the woman exclaimed, while glancing over at the man beside her. "Well," she continued, "was our problem."

"You mean you've found him or something," Paige asked, hope rising in her voice.

"Not quite. We're Jane and Thomas Farrell. Our bodies were stolen and we've been wandering until we could find two replacements. But now you're here and we've finally found two new bodies," the Thomas Farrell said, the last words Paige and Trey would ever hear.