James Ward Kirk Fiction presents
Grave Robbers
Grab your lamp and your shovel, for tonight we seek the riches of the dead, the stuff they took along, but for which they really no longer have need. The work is heavy and sweat drip-drips on ancient wood, twinge of fear, is a caretaker around? Or do the rotten corpses beneath us twist and turn, annoyed at least at us disturbing their peace.
Is it our imagination or did that skull really grin at us? No matter, its teeth are gold, rings and money interred make for a profitable night, which is by no means over yet and plenty of graves to desecrate. Hurry now, the midnight hour is nigh and though we fear no ghost or dancing skeleton, the witching time can bring forth our deepest fears and make them real.
Clock strikes twelve and suddenly the Necropolis seems larger than life. Mausoleums shudder with morbid expectation and fresh graves shiver with deadly anticipation, not for us to enter, or dig, but to leave behind our earthly shells and join the ever swelling ranks of those that ceased to exist. With more than ordinary haste we march along the rows of stones, each darker and more threatening than the last, until at last our way is barred. The gates of dark iron might well be the gates of Hell, like fingers of bone stretching up, ready to grab our very souls.
They say the dead lie still, that they care not for their riches, that they cannot hurt the living. Never had there been such fright and now we lie still, finally at rest on an ancient tomb, our eyes stare up, seeing only the coins that come in pairs…
Mike Jansen, Amsterdam, 2013
Table of Contents
POETRY
Brian Rosenberger – The Musician; Red Confetti; A Prayer to the Saint of Broken Dreams;
White; Cemetery Graffiti in Three Parts
Davis S. Pointer – Her Final Disappearance; Rock of Ages; Soil Technician
David Frazier – Back To Work; Dirty Hands; Hellish Acts; Pissed Off; Wealthy Dead; Greatest Grave Robbers
James S. Dorr – The Resurrection Man
Bruce L. Priddy – The Gallows in Perdition; No Rest in Arkham Graves
A.B. Stephens – Grave Robber’s Chant
Matthew Wilson – The Keeper
Robert E. Petras – Identity Theft
Cathy Bryant – No One, Not One
Phoebe. O. M. – Untitled
The Bard of Blasphemy; NECROVERSE
Richard King Perkins II – Scratching the Surface
Christopher Hivner – The Owners of the Bones
Patricia Anabel – Vampire Heart
FLASH FICTION
Ron Koppelberger – Blood and Roses
provided to C. J. Edwards anonymously – Grave Digger’s Survival Guide
Brianna Stoddard – Disturbed
Allen Griffin – The Death of Silence; Total Worship
Matthew Wilson – Buried Beast
Timothy Frasier – A King’s Plunder
Mike Berger – Big Surprise
Lee Clark Zumpe – Respect for the Dead
Tim Tobin – A Toy Shovel for Faith
Christopher Hivner – The Ims of Hawthorne County
Mike Jansen – A Bitch Called Payback
Patricia Anabel – Witch’s Grave
SHORT STORIES
James Ward Kirk – Synesthete
James S. Dorr – THE SIDEWALK
Matthew Wilson – Headless
Marija Elektra Rodriguez – Sotterraneo
Murphy Edwards – Ace of Spades
Greg McWhorter – Glint of Evil
Chantal Noordeloos – Angel’s Grave
Neil Leckman – My Hands
Mike Jansen – The Arrangement
A.D. Moore – Just Desserts
P. Keith Boran – Some People
Jonathan D. Nichols – Ghoul
Michael Shimek – Reclaiming Property
E.N. De Choudens – The Sacred Earth
Brian Barnett – The Return of a Legend
Rick McQuiston – YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU
Chantal Noordeloos – …fit for a King
Randall Rohn – Unanswered Prayers
Donald White – Temple of the Life Givers
Tony Wilson – The Collector
Jaime Johnesee – Old Man Death
Sean T Page – The Marsh People
Paul Levas – Richie’s Night Out At the Hills Cemetery
Timothy Frasier – Necrofreaks