Who's Next?

ONE HOUR AGO

He awoke abruptly to the sound of owls hooting in the background and the soft moonlight shining down on him. Grunting, he blinked his eyes - once, twice... And found himself lying at the bottom of a deep hole. 

He was momentarily shocked - how and why was he here? He vividly recalled daring his classmates to come to the old graveyard that was situated behind the school at night, the one that was supposedly haunted by the ghosts of nameless spirits. Even the graveyard shift - Old Man Hubbs - who was pretty close with the teachers at school told them: "Never, ever go into the graveyard alone at night. You never know if you accidentally fell into a ditch or a hole! It would take us the next morning to reach ya - and by then you'd be freezing to death!"

So, of course they would do what was not supposed to be done - they would sneak into the graveyard at night and take turns entering the graveyard alone. They had to light a candle at the very end of the graveyard and come back, and whoever didn't do so would be called a chicken and had to treat the whole class to pizza the very next day. He volunteered as the first to enter and went marching into the graveyard, not an ounce of fear flickering in his eyes. He was determined to finish as the quickest and bravest one. 

He recalls walking up to the edge of the graveyard and lighting one of the candles that was left on the tombstone. Walking away quickly, he felt the push of hands on his back - then nothing. Did someone push him into one of the dug holes? Or was it just his imagination playing a trick on him? He shook his head, freeing himself of the dreaded feeling that washed over him, and started screaming at the top of his lungs for help. 

"Help! Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me? I'm stuck here!" he screamed again and again, panicking with each and every single shout. Old Man Hubbs was right, they shouldn't have wandered into the graveyard at night. He felt the warm trickle of blood down his face - he must've cut himself on a rock when he fell down here. It made him dizzy as it dripped onto the warm soil beneath his feet, staining it with spots of dark red. He bit on his lip to prevent himself from passing out - and tasted the metallic copper blood on his tongue. Would he really freeze to death alone in this graveyard? 

At that moment, he heard shuffling on top of him. Someone must've heard his cries for help, and was coming to help him! He screamed again: 

"I'M HERE! PLEASE HELP ME, I'M STUCK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS HOLE!" 

A while later, he saw a dark figure looming over him.  "Thank god you heard me, I would've died of cold down there..." breathing a sigh of relief, he held out his hand to the figure - and froze in his spot. He could feel dirt falling down his hand. "Hey! What are you do -" he was cut off as more dirt fell down the hole. At that moment, he broke out in cold sweat as he realized he was being buried alive. 

"HEY STOP IT! IT'S NOT FUNNY!" he started to panic as the dirt filled the gaps around his legs and was slowly reaching his waist. "IS IT PETER? IT'S NOT FUNNY I CAN'T BREATHE!" he shouted again, this time his voice full of panic and fear, but he heard no response. Who would do this to him? He wasn't the nicest person in class, but he didn't have many enemies either - at least none that would despise him to the point that they would want to kill him by burying him alive. 

"HEY -" the dirt was reaching his chest and shoulders. At this point, he couldn't even use the dirt as a platform to jump out as it was stuck firmly in the dirt. Yet, the figure continued to shovel dirt into the hole. He squinted his eyes to try to make out the face of the figure out of all the dirt that was raining down on him but to no avail. Soon, only his head was above the dirt, and he found it difficult to even try to look up. 

"Who are you ...? Why are you doing this to me ...?" He said weakly, burdened by the dirt that was slowly crushing him. The figure stopped for a while, before shifting to let the moonlight reveal its identity. His eyes widened as he recognized his own face smirking back at himself. "Who are -" were the last words he said before the dirt covered up his body entirely, not even being able to scream back at the figure who looked like him. The figure patted the dirt one last time with the shovel and dropped it, picking up the candle that had been left on the ground before strutting away. The graveyard fell silent once again, as though nothing had happened at all. 

IN THE PRESENT

"Hey Bill, why did it take you so long? We thought you got lost in there! And what's with the clothes, you looked like you'd just fell in a dirt hole and climbed out!" cackled Peter as Bill came out of the graveyard. The boys patted Bill on the back, congratulating him for coming out of the graveyard in one piece. 

"See, didn't I tell you? It was a piece of cake! The clothes are cuz I accidentally tripped over a tombstone and I had to bury it properly again. I was lucky there was just a shovel laying around there! Must've been Old Man Hubbs - he's a bit bonkers sometimes." says Bill. He shifts uncomfortably from one leg to the other and cleared his voice. No one noticed the abnormal glint in his eye as he said: 

"Now... who's going next?" 

Author's Note

I haven't written anything in like 3 years I guess so I'm a bit rusty. If anyone is reading this I hope I can get constructive comments and whether you enjoyed the story or not! I hope you do!