The nearby cemetery lay like a corpse with only the tombstones standing tall and daunting. From far away, they resembled a group of shadowed individuals with no face. The ground was wet, and the wind was frigid. The air carried the heavy scent of dirt as a person cloaked in a dark robe and hood dragged a man through the mud with a single hand, leaving a trail behind that would disappear with the heavy rain in one or two hours.

After taking the body deeper into the cemetery, the downpour became more erratic, swaying violently with the wind. The cloaked man dropped the corpse on the ground and surveyed the desolate cemetery to make sure it was deserted.

The dead man was kicked into an empty grave without a coffin or a ceremory. With his face pointed upwards at the sky, the rain washed away the blood from his slit neck. No older than thirty, the deceased"s blonde hair stuck to the sides of his face and forehead.

With the wind picking up speed, the man"s hood fell back to display a face around the same age as the soon-to-be-buried man. As droplets dripped down his short, black hair, he continued to stare at the body for another two minutes, his eyes devoid of any emotion.

Picking up a shovel that sat nearby as if waiting for this moment, he shoveled the wet gravel and mud into the grave. With the fear of being caught, he pushed the mud continuously and without a break until it was completely filled.

He patted the mud till it was as smooth as the other graves. With the rain covering his trail, the man was certain n.o.body would ever come to know what happened here. After all, he had anonymously given the caretaker money to spend the night with his wife.

Walking towards the little house that stood next to the cemetery, he picked up a cross leaning against the wall and brought it to the fresh grave. He stuck the cross into the wet dirt.

"Farewell, Joe," the rain drowned the man"s whisper. Not bothering to remain any longer, he returned from where he came.

The man disappeared from sight, fading into the rain like a ghost, not realizing someone had witnessed the deed he had just performed. That someone sat on a nearby tree"s branch watching the body being dragged, pushed into the grave, and marked like many other bodies that had been brought into the cemetery.

It was a creature of the darkest hour who had not planned to witness the scene, but it was its job that brought it here tonight. A long, ragged-looking cloak covered its body. The sleeves covered its hands, and the hood hid its face. Finis.h.i.+ng an apple that it was eating, it tossed the core away, and the creature jumped down from the branch of the tree it was sitting on to find another person who stood at the man"s grave.

It was the reflection of the deceased man who currently lay beneath the ground. The blonde ghost stared in the direction of the man who had brought him here and left. The man appeared ignorant of what happened, yet he had found himself focused on the one who had buried and left him.

When the man"s eyes fell on the foreign creature, he stumbled backwards. Losing his balance, he fell on the ground in utter terror.

"Am I d-dead?" he asked the cloaked creature. For a few seconds, the creature did not respond or react to his question. Having never come across something like this before, he continued to stare until the creature raised its sleeve, and fingers that were dull-white in color appeared, the fingers of a skeleton.

"It is time to move," replied the creature in a soft whisper that faded with the rus.h.i.+ng wind.

"I don"t want to die yet!"

The man was indignant and unruly, refusing to leave. He had a life and a family here. He was not ready to leave.

The creature turned its neck, releasing a loud, creaking sound as if the thick branches of a tree were snapped in two.

The ghost"s behavior was nothing unusual. With the denial of their death, the refusal to move on would almost always occur. It was the same, repet.i.tive cycle that the creature had long become immune to.

"You saw yourself being buried here. You have no room for regrets. Come with me now unless you want to be dragged out from here as well." The creature had no intention of bargaining or coaxing with the ghost as it had other places to be, and its time was not something that could be squandered.

"I am not dead. I am not dead," the man repeated more to himself than to the creature.

He was desperately seeking an adequate response for his current circ.u.mstances, but the creature"s silence spoke louder than anything he could say. The ghost continued to shake his head in disbelief, yet he began to walk alongside the creepy creature. Because he had witnessed his body being buried right in front of him, the man reluctantly accepted that it was time to depart from this world and follow this creature to the next.

With his mind and mood in a complicated mess, the ghost looked for a change of topic, "Where are we going?"

Again, the man received no response.

The creature led them deeper into a forest away from the cemetery before disappearing into a thicket of trees.

The same creature later that night, in the land of Bonelake, had to collect a person who was due soon. Even though there was no one left in the streets and alleyways, the creature continued to drift like a shadow on the wall without a body.

Most of the lanterns had been blown out, and the few remaining were dim. As the shadow pa.s.sed by, a cold breeze blew, and the lingering flames extinguished one after the other, removing all traces of light except for the moon.

The hooded creature stopped in front of a house. Turning the k.n.o.b of the front door effortlessly, it stepped inside without making a sound, its long, black cloak sweeping the floor as it moved.

Reaching the room of the scheduled individual, the creature noticed a man sitting on a bed, staring at the wall.

Pulling out a pocket watch that had its material blackened from the pa.s.sage of time, the phantom-like ent.i.ty checked the time. He arrived two minutes early.

He stood there, waiting, counting the seconds as they pa.s.sed by.

Thirty seconds left.

The thirty turned to fifteen, fifteen to ten, ten to five…finally, the creature looked up to see the man take his last breath. His soul now stood next to his body.

And then, something odd happened.

The clock"s hand began moving in reverse, the time moving backward.

If the creature had a face behind the shadow of its hood, it would have frowned. It stared at the antique watch in disbelief, and its bony fingers gripped tightly onto the cold, dead metal.

This was not supposed to happen. This had never happened before.

It stared at the man"s soul that had already left the body. Standing at the foot of the bed, he stared at his own motionless corpse.

A minute pa.s.sed before a second hooded creature pa.s.sed through the room"s door, glancing first at the soul of the dead man and then at the first hooded creature.

"What did you do?"

Its voice came out in a whisper

"You broke the rule. Taking away something that was not meant to-"

"I did nothing," interrupted the first one with a hiss. He still held onto the pocket watch, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Something must have gone wrong.

"The bell was rung. You broke the rule. You will be punished now." There was a hint of delight in its words.

"I followed the clock as expected. This person, he died on his own-"

"The clock says otherwise. His clock is still running, isn"t it? Leave now before things get worse…unless you want to be caught."

The first creature turned his head towards the other creature to listen.

"If you did not break the rule, then someone must have set you up. This is why they say not to make too many enemies," the creature whispered in a s.a.d.i.s.tic slur.

This one had come to only poke fun, and there was no time. The first creature flipped its pocket watch closed, giving the dead body and soul one final stare before vanis.h.i.+ng from the house.

The creature could hear the second bell ring, and if it was this loud, every other creature nearby would know that one of them had made a grave mistake.

The rain had started to pour again, drenching the cloak of the creature as it made its way out of there before others learned what had just happened. Hours pa.s.sed as it continued to move without pause or break. Sweeping past many houses until the sun finally came up, it caught sight of another creature that approached him from the other direction.

It stepped quickly through the large gate of a mansion that was nearby, changing its entire appearance before walking towards the grand, wooden door.

When the main bell of the mansion was rung, a male servant quickly made his way towards the door, opening it to see a tall, drenched man standing at the foot of the entrance. The man had dark, black hair that stuck to his face, and his eyes were darker than any abyss that could be perceived. His wet s.h.i.+rt clung to his body.

Even though he was a male, the servant gawked for several seconds before asking, "Who are you?"

After a couple more seconds of prolonged silence and staring, the servant"s expression changed, and he inquired in a tone of surprise, "Oh, are you the new butler?"

The man who stood there at the doorstep could feel the creature in front of the mansion"s gate, lingering.

"Yes. I am the butler."