Put to Rest

Written by Matthew J. Ocasio

    Standing at the gravesite of his late wife, through sobs he begged to both God and the Devil that she would come back, and then she did.  From across the dark meadow she approached, and silhouetted by moonlight he could see her long, fine legs moving just like they used to through the decaying black lace of the dress she was buried in.

    Dumbstruck, he could only wonder if she was content with the funeral gown he had selected.  It was now in tatters and barely clung to the ashen skin it was meant to cover.  He saw through it and found that the places he used to love to kiss had withered to rot.  Above the dress, her once-full lips were shriveled around her hollow mouth, and her eyelids dipped into vacant sockets.

    She stood lifeless over her own grave and raised her dead arm, presenting the ring he had given to her years earlier.  He slid it from her finger and then did the same with his own.  He dug a hole from the dirt where she was, and buried both rings in the earth.  She vanished, and he stumbled home shaken, but with dry eyes.