Chapter 3
As Starr reached down to pick a brush from his nylon socks, he knew two things: they were in one of the deepest parts of the graveyard, and they were lost. Weeds and ivy had overcome several of the tombstones, and the untrimmed grass reached above Starr’s ankles. They had encountered a few more zombies, which Ninten soundly pummeled, but nothing that constituted a serious threat.
“Pippi, child, come out!” he screamed in desperation, wishing that they could find her and this could be over.
“Always did have a short tempter. ‘Coruse, I blamed it on the stress. I mean, living in a graveyard, who wouldn’t?”
“Ninten, that’s no way to treat an adult!” Starr snapped.
“Hey, it wasn’t me.”
“You mean you don’t even recognize the voice of your old pal Marty? That hurts, Tommy.”
At the mention of Marty, Starr recognized the voice. Martin Lemley, the grave keeper, and an old friend of Starr’s. There was only one problem with this situation. Marty was dead.
“Uh, Marty, you’re not here to eat our brains, are you? And where are you?”
“You watch too many horror movies,” Marty’s voice chuckled. Then, a figure emerged from behind a grave. What Starr saw was indeed a zombie, but he looked different than the others. Lemley was wearing the same outfit he was buried in: a dark brown suit, a black tie, and a brown hat with a black band, all of which looked filthy and torn. His face looked as though the skin would fall off at any given minute. But unlike all the other monsters, his smile looked sincere, the same care-free look that Marty sported when he was alive.
“You two know each other?” Ninten asked suspiciously.
“We do. Marty is an old friend of mine.”
“You look shocked, kid!” Marty released a deep horse-laugh. “‘Course, I know him. He probably knows half the people in this graveyard.”
“First, my name is Ninten! Second, if you’re not here to kill us, then maybe you can help us.”
“You got spunk, kid. It takes guts to talk to Mad Marty like
that.” Marty laughed again, as he glanced to Starr. Starr could only nod.
Before he got out of the business, “Mad Marty” was a nefarious mobster. Starr
never pressed for the details, but somehow, he was able to get out of the
business without getting killed, and made his way to the small town of
Ninten’s face softened a bit. “Have you seen a girl here? Her name’s Pippi, and she got lost in the cementary.”
Marty thought for a minute. “She have pigtails, high voice?”
“You’ve seen her! Where is she? Is she alright?” Ninten was becoming more animated, and Starr had put his hand on the boy’s shoulders, more to be prepared if he had to stop Ninten from lunging at the his friend.
“Relax, kid. She’s safe, for now!” Marty grinned, which infuriated Ninten.
“you’d better tell me where she is!” The boy began to take a step towards Marty, causing Starr to tighten his grip on the lad’s shoulders.
“Enough, you two!” the elderly priest shouted. The rare show of conviction was enough to startle Ninten and Marty into submission. Starr then sighed, and lowered his voice. “Martin, please, for the child’s sake, where is she?”
“Always a killjoy,” Marty complained. “She wandered in here one day, some zombies took her. Stuck her underground in a grave that way.”
Ninten squirmed violently in Starr’s grasp, as he now had to grab the boy’s arms to keep him from lunging at Marty. The priest let out another sigh of exasperation. He knew that these two were _not_ going to be getting along, and that was just another problem that he didn’t need at the moment. Despite working alongside a priest, Marty was hardly religious, and really hated children. Although Starr had tried to convert the former mobster and bring him into God’s grace, he had finally learned that one couldn’t save everybody, and Marty was set to live the way he did until his death.
“I bet you were the one that did it, you mobster!”
Marty simply shook his head. “Nope, wasn’t me. Had no reason to. Not like the kid owed me money or something.”
Starr cut in before Ninten could further provoke this argument. “Could you please do us a favor and lead us to her? We would ever much appreciate it.”
“Traitor!”
Starr turned to see something moving in the thick, grassy patch of weeds that surrounded a gravestone. He didn’t have a good feeling about this; Starr doubted that there were any more friendly zombies waiting to help them along their journey. True to his suspicions, the three purple ghosts that emerged from the bush looked downright menacing. Starr clutched the Bible in his jacket pocket, petrified by the eerie manner in which the ghosts’ purple outlines contrasted with the blackness of the night. They were truly in a place that befitted the denizens of Hell. He wanted to shout out something, perhaps an exorcism, that would repel the evil. But, words failed him. One of the ghosts, all three of which he just realized had arms, pointed a finger at Marty.
“You can’t go helping humans. It’s against the rules!”
“What rules?” Marty glared at the ghosts, and Starr knew that this was the prelude to a fight. Which was a true shame. Starr truly hoped that the monsters might leave their group alone, now that one of their own was traveling with them. Even if these were demons, Starr was against all the violence that he knew was necessary to achieve their goal of finding the lost girl. “I never really asked to die, and I sure as hell didn’t agree to some rules for the privilege.”
“Well, if that’s how you’re gonna be, then we’ll have to getcha’!” At that, the ghosts released a unified cackling, one of the most obnoxious sounds that Starr had ever heard. Then, all at once, they charged.
_Father, please forgive my transgressions…_ Starr silently prayed as he waited to die at the hands of those ghosts. He was ready. He had made his peace with the Lord. Besides, he might at least end up like Marty, if it was the will of God to live for a while longer. He could feel them charging closer to him, as a chill ran down his back. Starr had tried to run, tried to move, but his feet wouldn’t let him. It was as though he was rooted to the ground. He closed his eyes, preparing for the worst, and…
_BAM!_
The ghost looked like a baseball during a home run, as he flew across the field, quickly becoming a blur. Starr looked over to Ninten, to see a baseball bat in his hands, recovering from the swinging position. He was stronger than he thought. The other two ghosts stopped, and turned to Ninten. “Not bad. But don’t think that you can take us off guard.”
Before they could antagonize Ninten further, Starr heard two gunshots resonate through the air. Instinctively, he dropped to the ground. The priest abhorred firearms, believing that an item whose sole purpose was for God’s children to kill each other with should not be allowed on this Earth. The sound came from behind him, and as Starr was about to stand up, he noticed that he wasn’t the target, but the ghosts. Both were on the ground, each sporting identical holes, as they slowly faded into the evening, disappearing into the atmosphere.
Despite those ghosts being enemies, Starr quickly prayed for their souls, before checking to see if his friend Marty, and Ninten, were alright. Marty was holding a handgun, which he put back in his jacket’s pocket.
“Where did you—“
“Better if you don’t ask, okay? How about we just head off to find Pippi.”
“Good idea,” Starr agreed, as he and Ninten began to follow Marty. This had been quite an evening, and now, they were actually following his deceased friend to the girl. Maybe, just maybe, they could find her, and Starr could at least be back in the comfort of his church within an hour. The thought invigorated him, as he trailed behind Ninten towards their final destination.