Why Won’t You Join Us? by Andrew Rozek
I yawned, eyes trained on the dark road in front of me, illuminated only by the brights of my car. My eyes felt heavy, fatigue begging to draw them closed, but I still had business to tend to before I could get home and shut off for the day. Luckily, my stop was just ahead. Turning on my blinker, I pulled my car to the side of the road. Taking the key out of the ignition, my brights went dark, and I was left with just the light of the moon to guide me into the Leon Hill Cemetery. My daily visit to the cemetery after work had recently become a tradition of mine. Call me morbid or even obsessed, but there’s someone I like to visit on the regular here. Unfortunately, however, I was forced to work overtime today, so tonight’s visit felt hardly as enjoyable as it could have been, what with the lethargy plaguing my limbs. Truly, as much as I just wanted to get home, as much as I tried to tear myself away from the small detour I took on my way into town to get here, I couldn’t force myself to skip tonight’s visit. With aching legs and tired eyes, I climbed the hill that gave the cemetery its name, somewhat fascinated by tonight’s full moon. I had only been making these visits for the past three weeks or so, making this the first night where I had the glory of a full moon to guide me up the steep incline that shielded the graves from the road’s view. If only it could always stay this way; it’s much easier to see where I’m going in the dark when there’s this much moonlight. And while there was a lot of moonlight shining upon the grass, I didn’t expect to find so many other lights within the cemetery at this time of night. I stood at the top of the hill, my knees locking as I stared down at the graves below. Not only were there pale, white lights arranged perfectly in a circle, those lights made up human figures. These weren’t just lights, they were people. People holding hands and dancing around the graves, singing some horrid, otherworldly song that only now just registered in my brain. Instinct told me I should have been scared. I should have turned and ran a long time ago. But I knew, deep down, my body wasn’t tense with fear. It was tense with excitement. Getting lower to the ground, I started to inch my way down the hill slowly, aiming to end up behind a tree fairly close to the pale shadows of people. I didn’t wanna give myself away too quickly, if ever; there was no saying how they’d react to me walking in on their activities, and while I was excited to observe all of them, there was only one person I was truly looking for.
I was nearly to the tree now, and the closer I got to the figures, the more alien their song became. I thought it was just the distance while I was at the peak of the hill, but even now, I’m still unable to make out any of the words. The language they sang sounded inhuman, and that’s not to mention the awful harmonies they were creating. It’s not that they were bad singers; it’s clear that the awful harmony was intentional, and for a fleeting moment, I regretted my decision of getting any closer. But now that I was safely behind the cover of the tree, I had no reason to turn back. Just barely peaking my head around the tree’s thick trunk, I scanned the faces of those dancing within the circle. Most of them were older, I could tell, but what didn’t discriminate by age is the sunkenness of everyone’s eyes, the drooping of their cheeks, the frowns visible on their lips despite their ceremony or game of sorts. To best describe it, they all looked dead; I mean, we were in a cemetery after all. My eyes combed every face in the circle, desperately looking for the person I so badly wanted to see. He was never the easiest to pick out of a crowd, and it’s not like I can just waltz out there and ask where he could be. There’s no guarantee of what these people are, and as much as I assume that they’re ghosts from this cemetery, I don’t wanna take any chances. Searching, observing, my eyes keep scanning every last face. An old man, a pregnant woman, more elderly couples, a little boy, they keep spinning and singing that wretched song that’s really getting on my nerves now, making irritation course through my veins. I mean, I was so close. I had been coming here for the past three weeks, researching all sorts of rituals, performing them after work every single night, and now that ghosts had risen and gathered here, I was this close to seeing him again. And yet, I couldn’t find him. I sat down quietly with my back against the tree trunk, closing my eyes and rubbing my temples as I thought of what to do next. I couldn’t help the thoughts telling me to run before my eardrums started bleeding from the awful song behind me. I shoved my fingers into my ears, praying it’d block the horrid sound out long enough for me to formulate some course of action. Unfortunately, such a feat didn’t just muffle their singing. It completely stopped it altogether. My body froze and my heart began beating out of my chest as the song and shuffling of feet stopped behind me. My breath caught in my throat, begging to choke me, and I couldn’t even muster a scream as the ghost of a young girl peaked her head around the tree trunk. “Hello, mister! What are you doing, hiding here behind this tree?” she asked me innocently, subverting my expectations. Still, I was in no position to respond. All I could do was slowly drag myself away and into the moonlight for the rest of the ghosts to see. I could hear the chorus of voices, mumbling in surprise and interest. My eyes darted around, trying to take in all of the lifeless faces. They all stared at me, some with their mouths hung open, some smiling in excitement, some looking insatiably hungry. I tried to get up on my feet, but fell back over myself as another ghost came up to me, this one an old man. “Why, you must be Tanner Lyndon!” he spoke my name as if we were supposed to be familiar with one another. “We’ve taken notice of the rituals you’ve been performing at Evan’s grave, haven’t we?” Everyone’s voices rose, responding in agreement. “Is…is he here?” I was able to choke out, my voice shaky.
“Well, you see…because he’s joined us only recently, he’s unable to rise with us tonight, unfortunately. You seem desperate to see him again,” the old man shrugged casually. I nodded weakly. “He’s very happy that you come and visit us every night, Mr. Lyndon!” the young girl ran back up to me, a big smile on her face. “We all love visitors!” “We love it when our visitors stay awhile too, don’t we, Iris?” the older man held his hand out to the young girl, who was supposedly Iris. She grabbed it before looking back at me. “It’s true! We love visitors who wanna stay a while!” “I…” I trail off, trying to find the right words. “I just want to see Evan. I don’t want to stay for a while, I just…want to see him again.” “Don’t you wanna join us, Mr. Lyndon?” Iris’ eyes met mine, innocent and wide. “We’ve heard your rituals. Weren’t you the one who got Evan killed?” “H-huh?” I stuttered, bewilderment trying to keep the question deep in my throat. “It’s true, we have heard,” now the old man was speaking again. “You didn’t wanna drive Evan home from the bar that night, even though you had named yourself designated driver for anyone who needed it, correct? You told him you wanted to stay, and to find someone else to drive him home. And who did he find but none other than Nora, who was just as drunk as he was. I’m sure you remember what happened after that.” “Grandpa’s right, Mr. Lyndon; Evan would’ve been okay if you weren’t so selfish,” Iris’ voice went dark, and a small smile tugged at her lips. “Don’t you ever think you’d be better off dead instead of him?” Tears started spilling out of my eyes, “Those rituals were for Evan, not you! Just let me see him! I’m not playing your games, show me him now or I’m leaving!” “To see Evan, you’re gonna have to join us,” Grandpa held out his hand. “After all, was it not your wish to join us anyway?” I contemplated this for a moment, trying to find anything in my mind to tell me he was wrong. But as much as I hate to admit, he was right. Ever since I stupidly let Evan go home with Nora, there was never a moment where I didn’t blame myself, where I didn’t consider ending it all because the guilt was too much to handle every single day. The only thing keeping me going was coming here every night and performing stupid summoning rituals, hoping I could meet Evan one last time to apologize, to say goodbye. And now, these ghosts were offering to grant me two of my wishes. How could I say no? I slowly extended a shaky hand, feeling the lifeless glares digging deep into my living flesh. As my hand came closer to his, I could feel the stares grow darker, their smiles growing wider, my instinct screaming at me to get out of here before it was too late. But still, I couldn’t refuse this offer. This is all I had been wanting since the car accident. “Join us, Tanner, join us!” Iris started calling at me, her voice distorted and grating in my ears. The sound startled me. “We’re gonna have so much fun together!” As soon as Iris had spoken, my eyes darted away from Grandpa’s hand in front of me, looking down at her face. I recoiled, falling backwards as I was met with the sight of a vicious monster. Her eyes were big and pitch black, her teeth large and dripping with malice, and she was hunched over in excitement, ready to pounce on me at any moment.
A scream tore out of my throat as I dragged myself up and ran up the hill, not daring to look back. “Why are you running, Tanner!? Come back! Come back and join us!” I heard a chorus of voices rise behind me, all sounding the same as Iris’; like that of a demon. “Why won’t you join us, Tanner!? Why won’t you!?” I somehow didn’t fall as I ran down the hill, my mind only trained on the safety my car would provide me. The voices still called out after me, but I didn’t listen. I kept running, tearing open the car door and jumping inside, shoving my keys in the ignition. I slammed on the gas, tearing away from the cemetery as quickly as possible. I could hear the calling over my engine as I drove away. “Why are you running!? Why won’t you join us, Tanner!?” As the voices fade and I get closer to the safety of my home, surprisingly, all I can feel is a sense of groundedness. I know Evan would have killed me for falling for a trap like that. And I know now that he’d kill me all the same if I didn’t survive for him also.