N is for Necropolis
I'm doing flash fiction for this year's A to Z challenge, hope you enjoy!
Necropolis. “City of the dead”. A pretty apt name, if you ask me.
I wander through the city, taking in the familiar sights and sounds. I don’t make eye contact with any of the others here; we prefer to be alone. I stop in front of one of my favourites; a great stone angel, hands held up to the sky. I’ve always wished I had something like this over my grave; a protector, a guardian. All I’ve got is a tiny stone slab, but I’m lucky to have that. Some of the people here don’t have anything to mark the places where they are buried.
I sit next to the angel. It’s up on a hill, so from here I can see the whole cemetery, and everyone in it. A woman walks in the front gate, making her way through the gravestones. She thinks she’s alone, but she’s surrounded. We’re everywhere.
Necropolis
Necropolis. “City of the dead”. A pretty apt name, if you ask me.
I wander through the city, taking in the familiar sights and sounds. I don’t make eye contact with any of the others here; we prefer to be alone. I stop in front of one of my favourites; a great stone angel, hands held up to the sky. I’ve always wished I had something like this over my grave; a protector, a guardian. All I’ve got is a tiny stone slab, but I’m lucky to have that. Some of the people here don’t have anything to mark the places where they are buried.
I sit next to the angel. It’s up on a hill, so from here I can see the whole cemetery, and everyone in it. A woman walks in the front gate, making her way through the gravestones. She thinks she’s alone, but she’s surrounded. We’re everywhere.
mystifying, no?
ReplyDeleteI get that a feeling I'm being watched whenever I get close to cemetery. They are sort of one step up from a retirement home!
ReplyDeleteI can't decide if this is incredibly beautiful or incredibly creepy ... probably both :) Great story.
ReplyDeleteTasha
Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)
Both beautiful and creepy! I love the word Necropolois. Just has a cool sound to it.
ReplyDelete--
Tim Brannan, The Other Side Blog
2015 A to Z of Vampires
http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/
This is amazing. Love it!
ReplyDeleteIt was sad more than spooky. All those spirits lingering about and stuck there.
ReplyDeleteFull of ghosts - spook!y!
ReplyDeleteI just saw the final episode of the KD "Master's Sun" and it's all about ghosts and cemeteries so I feel this one :)
ReplyDelete"Haneen/I Will Never Give you Up (430)"
I'm not sure if I'm freaked out, or comforted o.O
ReplyDeleteSophie
Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles
FB3X
Wittegen Press
With a name like that, I can't imagine that tourism is very popular there. :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you are still going strong Miss Laura. . . Well Done
ReplyDeleteOooh, creepy. Although, I always thought cemeteries were quiet places. The ghosts live elsewhere...
ReplyDeleteLiz A. from Laws of Gravity
Kinda like Santa Claus...
ReplyDeleteVery atmospheric - eerie and yet weirdly comforting like Sophie Duncan said.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. :-)
ReplyDeleteNice! I love cemeteries--so thought-provoking to read the inscriptions and wonder about all these lives past...I think these departed spirits have other more important things to do than hang around their tombstones, but it's a great story.
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