The sky above Blackwood Cemetery was completely swallowed by heavy, pitch-black clouds.
Thick white fog rolled over the ground like a slow, heavy ocean, burying the grey stone tombstones, the wooden crosses, and the dirt pathways in total, unbroken white. It was so dark outside the small wooden cabin that a person holding their hand in front of their face wouldn't be able to see their own fingers.
Nothing made a sound.
The crickets in the grass had gone completely silent. The birds in the ironwood trees had vanished. There was no wind rustling through the leaves, no rain falling from the clouds, and no echo of distant animal calls. The air felt heavy, frozen, and completely dead, as if the entire world had held its breath in sheer terror.
Then, it arrived.
There was no gradual warning. There was no sound of footsteps approaching from a distance. One split second the clearing in front of the cabin was completely empty, and the very next second—STOP.
It appeared right in the middle of the dark cemetery, as if a moving video had been abruptly paused by an invisible hand.
A split second after its sudden stop, a violent, roaring whirlwind burst out from around its body!
BOOM!
The delayed shockwave of wind slammed into the ironwood trees, tearing leaves off branches and swirling the heavy, white fog into wild, spinning tornadoes across the graveyard.
Floating six feet off the ground, hanging in the empty air as if an invisible rope was wrapped tightly around its broken neck, was a horrific, towering ghost.
Its feet dangled limply beneath it, swaying back and forth like a pendulum. It wore a torn, filthy white dress that was heavily soaked in dark, dried blood around the chest and stomach. Its hair was pitch-black, endless, and thick, falling from its head like heavy ropes and dragging across the damp dirt below, so long that the ends stretched out into the dark fog where no one could see where it finished.
Its arms and legs were unnaturally long, bent at strange, painful angles with three bony joints on each limb.
This was the Rank 4 Dread Class ghost, the grief-driven spirit of the slain mother from Oakridge Town.
A raspy, echoing voice erupted from its dark, hair-covered face, vibrating through the cold air.
"My... my child...? Mommy is here... Where is my baby...? Child...? Call to mommy..."
The mother spirit hovered in place, its lanky body trembling violently. It could feel the deep, ancient ghost energy resting inside the dark soil of Blackwood Cemetery. The energy was so thick, so rich, and so heavy that it seeped into her ghostly dress, making her dark power swell bigger and bigger with every passing second.
She wanted all of it. She wanted every single drop of dark energy resting beneath these graves.
Inside her broken, grieving mind, endless questions screamed without an answer. Why had this happened to her? Why had someone taken her sweet, innocent baby away from her? Why did her child have to die in pain?
It wasn't fair. None of it was fair!
She wanted everyone to suffer the exact same way she suffered. She wanted the whole world to feel the agonizing, burning pain in her chest. She wanted to hear every mother, every father, and every child in every town scream in pure, hopeless despair!
To accomplish her goal, she needed power. And here, in Blackwood Cemetery, sat all the ancient, dark energy she could ever need. Nothing in this world was going to stop her from taking it. Nothing was going to stand in her way. She was going to absorb it all, burn the cities to ash, and find her-
CREAK.
The ghost froze.
In the middle of the pitch-black, fog-covered graveyard, the heavy metal door of the small wooden cabin opened slowly.
A narrow beam of faint, cozy yellow light spilled out from inside the cabin, cutting a thin line through the heavy darkness and illuminating the damp grass of the porch steps.
The mother spirit slowly turned her head.
With a sickening, wet CRACK, her neck snapped completely around, twisting her head totally upside down so her dark, hair-covered face stared at the warm yellow light spilling from the open door.
She felt a presence inside that small wooden room.
It was a small life force. A young life force. A child.
A terrible, twisted smile ripped open beneath her long black hair, revealing rows of sharp, broken black teeth dripping with dark slime.
"A child..." the mother spirit rasped, her lanky, three-jointed arms reaching out toward the light, her bony fingers clawing at the empty air. "Yes... my child... come to mommy... bring her child to death... we will go to the dark together... forever..."
She lowered her floating body, her back humping forward like a giant, starving spider, her long black hair dragging across the grass as she drifted slowly toward the cabin porch.
Step by step, she floated closer to the warm yellow light.
Ten feet away. Eight feet away. Six feet away.
She raised her long, three-jointed hand, preparing to crush the wooden cabin door and drag the small child inside out into the dark-
THUMP.
The mother spirit stopped dead in her tracks.
A sudden, sharp chill, colder than the grave, heavier than a falling mountain—struck her entire ghostly core.
She felt something staring at her.
It wasn't a human looking through a window. It wasn't an Exorcist holding a weapon. It was a vast, crushing gaze coming from somewhere high above.
The mother spirit snapped her upside-down head toward the sky, floating rapidly upward, retreating twenty feet into the dark air above the trees, away from the small cabin.
She looked up into the heavy black rain clouds hanging over the graveyard.
There, floating high up in the heavens, six massive, cosmic eyes made of pure, void-black darkness rimmed with faint pale light were staring directly down at her.
They didn't look angry. They didn't look heroic. They stared at her with complete, cold, absolute indifference, like an ancient leviathan looking down at a tiny, insignificant bug floating in the ocean.
A sudden, furious rage exploded inside the mother spirit's grieving heart.
She hated it. She hated being stared at!
How dare they stare at her?! How dare anyone look down on her like she was nothing?! She was a grieving mother! Her baby had been stolen from her! Her life had been ruined!
"HOW DARE YOU!" the mother spirit shrieked at the giant sky eyes, her raspy voice tearing through the quiet night like shattering glass. "HOW DARE YOU LOOK AT ME! HOW DARE YOU-"
...mama...?
The mother spirit’s ear-splitting shriek stopped instantly.
Her upside-down head twitched violently in mid-air. Her long black hair parted slightly, revealing two glowing red eyes wide with total shock.
The tiny, faint sound hadn't come from the sky. It had come from right beside the open cabin door.
...mama...?
It spoke again. A small, raspy, gurgling sound, the small voice of a crying infant.
The mother spirit didn't care about the six giant eyes in the sky anymore. She didn't care about absorbing ancient dark energy from the soil. She didn't care about burning the human cities to ash.
She turned her body, flying downward as fast as her floating form could move, crashing back down through the heavy white fog until she stopped ten meters away from the cabin porch steps.
Her glowing red eyes stared intently at the open cabin doorway.
Could it be...? No... it was impossible, wasn't it? Her baby had been burned to ash in Oakridge Town. Her baby was gone. It couldn't be here... could it?
Slowly, silently, something floated out from the pitch-black doorway of the cabin, stepping out onto the warm yellow light of the porch.
It was a spirit. A small, tiny ghost.
It was the horrifying baby spirit that B's subconscious had devoured the night before—a grotesque monster with a giant, hairless head, hollow eye sockets dripping black blood, a skeletal chest, a swollen fat belly, and a filthy cloth diaper. It looked hideous, terrifying, and utterly repulsive to any human who laid eyes on it.
But the mother spirit didn't see a monster.
She didn't see the hollow eye sockets dripping blood. She didn't see the swollen, gross belly or the pale grey skin.
To her eyes, the eyes of a mother who had lost everything, she only saw one single thing in the entire universe.
Her child. Her sweet, innocent baby.
"Mama!" the small baby ghost cried out softly.
It dropped onto its hands and knees on the wooden porch, crawling forward just like a tiny infant learning to move across a living room floor.
Buzz...
The moment the baby spirit moved toward her, a faint, soft golden light began to glow from deep inside its small, skeletal chest.
The baby spirit reached the edge of the wooden porch steps. It stopped crawling. It placed its tiny, pale baby hands on the wooden edge, pushing its small body up. It wobbled slightly, balancing its weight on its tiny two baby legs.
It raised its small, chubby arms out toward the floating mother spirit, reaching for her with all its tiny might.
It took a single step forward.
Glow...
As its tiny foot touched the damp grass, a warm, golden circle of light erupted under its leather-booted step. The thick black ghost energy clinging to its small body began to thin out, melting away into the cool air like soft steam.
The mother spirit took a floating step closer, dropping down until her dangled feet touched the grass.
The baby spirit took another step.
Glow...
The golden light between the mother spirit and the baby ghost grew brighter and warmer, spreading across the damp dirt path. The dark, dried blood staining the mother's white dress began to fade away, replaced by clean, pure white cloth. Her bent, three-jointed limbs slowly straightened out, returning to normal, soft human arms.
Another step.
Whoosh...
The thick, greasy black aura surrounding both ghosts dissipated entirely into the night air. The cold, suffocating pressure that had frozen the graveyard vanished, replaced by a gentle, comforting warmth that smelled faintly of sweet vanilla and fresh flowers.
Another step.
As the baby spirit took another step forward, the dark, foggy cemetery around them seemed to melt away. For a brief, magical second, the cold tombstones and ironwood trees vanished, replaced by the visual memory of a warm, cozy living room filled with bright sunlight and soft carpets.
Another step.
Giggle!
A bright, clear, sweet baby giggle echoed through the quiet night air—not a raspy monster sound, but the pure, joyful laugh of a happy, healthy child playing with its favorite toy.
Another step.
A soft, emotional cry escaped the mother spirit's lips. Her long, messy black hair receded, revealing the face of a beautiful, young mother with tears of pure, overwhelming joy streaming down her warm cheeks.
Another step.
The terrifying grief of the slain mother and the dark grudge of the unwanted baby were completely gone. There were no monsters here anymore. There was no hatred, no anger, no pain, and no desire for revenge.
Another step.
A soft, golden vision illuminated the entire clearing. It showed the picture of a loving mother crouched on her knees on a soft rug, her arms spread wide open, tears of happiness in her eyes as her sweet little child learned to walk toward her for the very first time in its life.
Another step.
"Mama! Gyahaha!"
The tiny baby let out a loud, adorable laugh, taking two fast, clumsy baby steps forward, tumbling right into the mother's waiting embrace!
The mother dropped to her knees in the warm grass, pulling her sweet baby tight against her chest. She hugged her child with all the love in her soul, weeping tears of pure, boundless happiness as she leaned down and kissed her baby's soft cheek over and over again.
"My baby... my sweet baby..." the mother whispered, wrapping her warm white dress around her child, keeping it safe and warm forever.
The dark aura was completely gone. In its place, the mother and child floated together inside a bright, beautiful sphere of soft golden light, at peace at last.
High above in the dark night sky, the vast, faint outline of a pair of monstrously large jaws, so huge they spanned across the entire graveyard, appeared silently in the clouds.
The giant jaws didn't snap shut violently. They didn't bite down with force.
Slowly, gently, and with infinite softness, the massive faint jaws closed down over the glowing golden light, enveloping the mother and her child like a loving parent over both the mother and her child quietly closing the cover of a bedtime storybook that had been read with deep affection.
Snap.
The golden light vanished. The mother and child passed on, their souls completely purified, erased, and laid to eternal rest.
The heavy black rain clouds above parted slightly, letting a beam of soft silver moonlight shine down onto the quiet cabin porch.
From deep inside the cozy cabin room, sitting on the plush brown couch under her warm blanket, a small, soft sound drifted out into the peaceful night.
"heeheehee~"
It was a tiny, girlish giggle, sweet, sleepy, and full of deep, cozy satisfaction.
CREAK.
The heavy metal door of the cabin swung slowly shut until it clicked softly into the latch, locking tight against the quiet night.
The thick white fog around the tombstones melted away into the cool air. The night crickets in the grass began to chirp their gentle songs once again, and a soft, fresh breeze rustled through the ironwood leaves, leaving Blackwood Cemetery in absolute, unbroken peace.
Author's Note
EliteToeCollector
Thanks for reading!