Fallen Stones (34 page)

Far off in the distance from where the tractor sat idling Jason saw the shape of a man in a business suit, standing near the back of the property up on a slight rise similar to the one where he had found the grave markers. He was certain even from this distance it was that lawyer, H. Mason Armstrong; his rotund shape unmistakable. Jason suddenly became furious at the sight of the man. He had suspected the lawyer was going to be trouble from the very beginning. Armstrong had no right to be roaming around their property yet there he was, just as Jason had feared might happen.

Oddly, the lawyer didn't wave to him or acknowledge him in any way; he only stood, stock still, staring at Jason as if in some strange trance-like state. "Well. I suppose now I'll have to go over there, and set this guy straight about a few things," Jason said to himself. "I was hoping to avoid any such confrontation with the guy, but I guess he has left me little choice. Pushy damned lawyers. It looks like it's time for a 'come to Jesus' meeting, my fat little friend."

Not wanting the lawyer to see the cargo he carried in the back of the trailer, Jason got down from the tractor and strode purposefully toward the site where the lawyer stood. "Armstrong!” Jason shouted and he walked. "What the hell are you doing here? I didn't ask you to come out here!" The closer he got to the man the angrier he became. Not paying attention to where he was walking, Jason stumbled over a hole in the field and fell face first. Luckily as the ground came flying up to meet him, he was able to twist and roll to deflect most of the impact. The result was he didn't receive any serious injury, just a bit of embarrassment and perhaps a bruised ego. He imagined the lawyer chuckling to himself over his clumsiness. This only served to further fuel his rage.

As Jason slowly got back to his feet, he looked over to the place where the lawyer had stood and was surprised to see he was no longer there. "What the hell!" he said. "Where did he go?" Jason could see a large expanse of the field to the left of the lawyer as well as a substantial distance before it ended at the adjoining woodlands. He doubted that Armstrong, with his unhealthy bulk, could have possibly run or even walked fast enough to reach either the house or the woods so quickly; so where had the man gone?

With the lawyer now apparently out of the picture, Jason turned and walked back to the tractor, making a mental note of the location of the place where the lawyer had been. He started the engine and continued along the property for a few hundred yards until he came to the spot where he had seen Armstrong standing. This appeared to be as good a spot as any for getting rid of the stones. It was not visible from the house since its view was blocked by one of the outbuildings.

Jason walked over to the place where he had seen the lawyer standing, a bit more slowly this time being careful not to fall and risk further potential injury or embarrassment. His temper had begun to subside and he was once again able to think more clearly. Fortunately, he had changed from his office clothing into work clothing before the security team had arrived. He would have been hard-pressed to explain to Stephanie how he had gotten field dirt and grass stains on his good pants. When he reached the place where Armstrong had stood, he was surprised to not find a single trace the man had ever been there. No grass was trampled or disturbed in any way. Jason thought, surly a man of Armstrong's weight and size would have had to make shoe impressions in the dew-moist morning grass, yet not a single blade of grass was disturbed. He had no idea how such a thing could possibly be. And where had the man gone?

Looking about the area for any trace of the attorney, Jason saw something dark reflecting in the morning sunlight. As he approached, he discovered two objects. He could tell immediately by their shapes they were more gravestones. Both of the markers had fallen down and were lying on their backs in the moist soil. "Damn!" Jason said aloud in frustration. "Not another graveyard!" For the second time that day he was reminded of the name "Fallen Stones".

He then realized he had not actually found another graveyard but had only found two additional grave markers. These two appeared to be alone out in this isolated area of the yard, far removed from what one might think of as the official family burial location. This seemed almost as if to indicate a purposeful shunning of the inhabitants of these graves; like someone had deliberately segregated them from the others. He recalled hearing stories of how many years ago suicide victims were often buried away from church cemeteries so that would not be permitted to lie in hallowed ground. Perhaps this was the case for these people buried below this soil.

Jason also continued to speculate about the lawyer. What had Armstrong been doing hanging around his property, not to mention that particular area? It would really put a kink in his plan to keep the existence of the graves secret if Armstrong knew about them. There was always the risk he might say something to Stephanie. Maybe the lawyer would try to extort money from Jason in order to keep his secret. Jason decided sometime soon he would have to speak to the lawyer in private and make sure he had no choice but to forget anything he knew about the headstones. He would likely have to bring up attorney-client privilege and maybe threaten to file a complaint with the bar association or some similar professional ethics board if necessary.

Whatever the outcome, the lawyer was at least gone for the moment. Jason decided he might as well get rid of these stones along with the others all at the same time. He knelt down to read the inscription on the first marker and was shocked to read the name which although well-worn was still legible. The caption read: "Dwight Charles Livingston July 23, 1890 – December 19, 1922.  Devoted Husband, Loving Father, Tragically Taken In The Prime Of Life”

“Dwight Livingston?” Jason said aloud. “That was the name Armstrong used for Stephanie's great grandfather when he showed us that wedding portrait.” He recalled how Livingston had been the man who built the original farmhouse for his family and how much he so strongly resembled Jason. Then Jason thought of Livingston's wife, the one who look like Stephanie. Her name had been Margaret or Mildred or something like that.

“Marie!” Jason shouted in recollection. Then he knelt down to study the inscription on the other tombstone sensing it had to be Marie's but not being even close to prepared for what he would find carved on it. He read it aloud, “Marie Louise O'Hara Livingston June 6, 1892 – December 19, 1922... May Her Wretched Soul Rot…In The Bowels Of Hell...For Eternity” He stared dumfounded as an icy chill ran down the middle of his back. Suddenly the cool morning seemed unseasonably cold as if a sudden breeze had arisen, though Jason was oblivious to its effect.  

Chapter 21

 

Recovering somewhat from the strange sensation, Jason noticed that both Dwight and Marie Livingston died in the same year 1922. "Now wait a second!"  He said realizing for the first time that not only had they both died in the same year, but on the exact same day. "Whoa, hold your horses!" he blurted out suddenly remembering yet another piece to the strange puzzle.

Without hesitation, he walked over to the cart, pulled back the tarp and re-read the inscriptions on the two boys' headstones. One said "Matthew James Livingston, June 12, 1916 - December 19, 1922". And the other said Charles Edward Livingston July 2, 1918 - December 19 1922". Then he read the identical chilling message on each stone, "Taken From Us Too Soon, By The Hand Of Evil."

Not only had both boys died on the same day, but the parents had died as well. An entire family wiped out in one tragic event. But then he realized that assumption couldn't have been correct. Even if both parents and two children had somehow died in some horrible catastrophe, the whole family could not have been killed. A brother or sister of the boys must have survived in order to carry on the family lineage.  He recalled Stephanie mentioning she had a grandmother named Sarah. Perhaps the surviving child had been a girl. Otherwise Stephanie never would have been born. Still, the entire situation was quite disturbing. "Four dead on the same day." He said aloud, "And what's with these strange messages?"

He was now unconsciously thinking and speaking aloud. "The boys' stones talked about their being 'taken by the hand of evil' and Marie's stone accused her of being wicked enough for her to 'rot in Hell for eternity'. And Dwight's said he too was 'tragically taken in the prime of life'. What could all this mean? What in the world could have happened to them?" Jason suddenly comprehended there was a real mystery existing within Stephanie's family, the knowledge of which might bring great distress to his wife not to mention would cast a dark pall over the joy she now felt from receiving the inheritance.

Jason also understood he was definitely going to have to talk to Armstrong about keeping his big fat lawyer mouth shut. He was first going to have the man disclose everything he knew about the family history. Then he was going to swear him to secrecy. But before that, he was going to have to make sure these stones were all destroyed and buried and would never be seen again. He walked about ten feet to the left of the place where he found the
Livingston parents' stones; not wanting to inadvertently disturb any possible resting place and grabbing a pointed shovel began to dig a hole.
 

He was surprised at the soft, almost sand-like quality of the soil. This surely was fertile farmland. He was accustomed to the primarily clay soil of his townhouse development. He had heard somewhere that sometimes when builders plan subdivisions they scrape off all the prime topsoil until they get to the virtually worthless clay base level below. Then they come back and spread a measly foot or less of low-grade topsoil after all the houses have been constructed and then quickly hydro seed the lawns to make the properties look green and lush, when in reality they are sitting on infertile mounds of clay with a light veneer of topsoil. The developer then sells of the remaining tonnage of good topsoil for a substantial profit.

This was not the case with their land however. The soil was dark, rich, and his spade cut through it, like a knife through butter. Within a few minutes he had a substantial hole dug, a hole more than adequate to bury the remains of the soon to be crushed headstones. "Remains?" he thought for a moment, then felt the return of the chill he had felt earlier.

Not wanting to take time to dwell on his discomfort, Jason put on a pair of safety glasses then walked over to the cart and retrieved two of the tombstones whose names could not be identified. He placed them on the ground and suspended between Dwight and Marie's fallen stones. Next he grabbed the sledge hammer from the back of the cart and raising it high above his head, prepared to bring it down on the stones.

For a moment, he seemed to freeze in place, the sledgehammer hanging motionless in the air above him. The entire hesitation lasted no more than a second or two, but in that brief period, Jason had a horrifying vision, which seemed to go on for an incredibly long time. The daydream started with Jason seeing himself completing the swing of the hammer and the small and fragile tombstone breaking into a thousand pieces as the sledgehammer fell to the ground.

Then the sky began to darken and the wind whipped into a frenzy of blowing dirt, grass and other such debris. Jason stood terrified among the flying maelstrom, his arms hanging limply down at his sides, helpless to do anything. Then the ground at his feet started to move and undulate, as to his horror, he saw bony fleshless fingers working their way up from beneath the earth below.

Soon two sets of skeletal hands were reaching up from the ground and had grabbed Jason by the ankles. He still was unable to move or resist as the bony claws gripped him ever tighter. He looked down and saw the tops of two skulls rising from the shifting soil, both almost hairless save for a few remaining patches of flesh and white thinned follicles, which blew wildly in the torrential wind. Soon both skulls were out of the ground and looking up at Jason through eyeless sockets, yet he knew they were still somehow seeing him.

Dirt fell like sand from the tops of the skeletal heads as they rose further. Jason could now see their mouths and jaws, which were rapidly opening, and closing like sets of chattering teeth, but there was nothing comical about those mouths. They had seemed to be hungry for something or someone and Jason was certain he was the subject of their cannibalistic desires.

Worms crawled from the hollow eye sockets and at one point Jason saw a long slithering snake try to work its way past the snapping jaws. Razor sharp teeth severed the snake's head and a sickening green goop poured from its decapitated body, which fell back inside the skeleton's mouth. Then Jason saw the two heads once again slowly begin to sink back down into the earth and felt an even stronger tugging on his ankles.

He looked at his feet and saw they were beginning to follow the sinking skulls down into the soft earth. He realized he was being pulled into the ground by the impossibly reanimated undead remains of Dwight and Marie Livingston. Soon he would be joining them deep in the cold earth where he would spend eternity among the rotting corpses.

The sledgehammer came down with a crash easily shattering the gravestones into several smaller pieces. Jason stopped for a moment looking around and then down at his feet certain something bad was about to happen. He could not recall the waking nightmare he had just experienced, but by the cold sensation he felt flowing throughout his body and the way the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, he knew something must be wrong. Jason looked all around him as if anticipating something to happen but nothing did. The sun continued to shine, the air was still and he could hear birds chirping in the nearby trees. So, he reluctantly and with a degree of caution continued with his work.

He repeated the smashing process for the remainder of the stones, including those of the two boys. Then he leaned both Dwight and Marie's tombstones on the accumulated pile of broken markers and proceeded to break them up beyond recognition as well. When they were all shattered to bits, he shoveled the broken pieces into the large hole he had dug. The he covered them with soil, refilling the hole.