Chained Crypt (Open)

Birds chirped in the trees as the sun hid behind the clouds right in the morning. A thick fog coveted the area above the graveyard. Graves lined up in loosely placed rows with roads leading up the area full of crypts. One crypt in particular was chained up by rusted chains, wrapped around multiple times and ends with a lock. No one bothered to open it ever since the founder of the academy ordered to never open it up. Eventually it was forgotten and left in peace.

Until today that is.

Suddenly, a flash of light illuminated through the cracks of the crypt in a purple light. Once the light faded away, all was silent. The birds flew away from the graveyard as an eerie presence descended upon the crypt. A moment passed, then another, and another. Then something slammed into the door with weak force. The sounds repeated, getting louder and harder as time went by. The chains rattled after each hit, some starting to come off after years of erosion weakened the bonds. What seemed like what was trying to smash its way out, the slamming stopped. It was silent again.

A loud crash echoed the graveyard as the door smashed down the chains, carrying a body with it. The body was a repulsive thing. Partly decomposed, eaten away by rodents and the sort. The horrifying thing about it was skin was growing back on what left was bone. The rotten corpse shuffled up, but fell as it didn’t have enough muscle mass to properly hold itself up. Lifting its head, it cried a demonic yell, filling the graveyard of demented noise.

It was early in the morning, but the time of day was never a subject that Tem had to concern herself with often since she didn’t have the same sleep pattern as humans did. She was off patrol, therefore she was using her casual appearance. She was looking more forward to her days off than she ever had previously since the amount of difficult cases grew with each day. She wasn’t a detective and puzzles were never her strong suit.

Anyway, she was looking to clear off her mind or whatever her equivalent was. Her wanderings eventually led to the graveyard, which wasn’t an uncommon place for her to visit. Often times if she wanted an escape from humans the graveyard tended to be void of people. Tem scoffed at the idea of honouring the dead in such a fashion, the dead were dead. She’d complain of humans being too engaged with the past that they often forget their present, but then she’d be seen as a hypocrite for still letting her past haunt her, though it wasn’t that intrusive on her life.

Her train of thought quickly crumbled as did the doors to some tomb in the near distance. She couldn’t quite make out what was happening from where she was, so she converted herself into sand form and let the wind carry her particles so that she could get closer quicker. She reformed a couple feet away from the tomb and watched the hideous looking creature stumble out of his grave. She inspect the creature with her eyes and smirked while it shouted. She’d seen creature like this one in the past, but couldn’t quite put her finger on where it might have been.

Unless it displayed an ability to control the element it was no threat to Tem. She wondered how the villagers might react to the being and debated if she should kill it where it stood. It was far too intriguing to her to sterilize it before she saw what it could do. “Well, it’s able to make noise, but does it speak?” she questioned herself aloud as she continued to watch the being, waiting for its next move.

The decaying corpse eventually stopped screaming and lay silently as flesh grew on its remaining tendons. After a few minutes, the abomination was able to get up on its knees. Hair grew down its scalp and limbs started to look humane. The sound of bones readjusting themselves inside the body could be heard, some poking out and snapping back in place. Standing up, the corpse held its head down as the final pieces of flesh covered any signs of blemishes and cuts. By then, the corpse resembled a human man with deathly pale skin and clothes that wore away long ago. He stood there in place while heavily breathing.

Lifting his head toward the sky, he breathed in a breath of fresh air the first time in a long time. With his eyes hidden in his hair, he stared into the cloudy sky with awe. A wide smile slowly formed on his face as memories filled in his newly reformed head. He began to laugh giddily to himself as he examined his body. With a few spins around his body, his laugh increased in volume until he laid his eyes upon the woman standing nearby. Chuckling uncontrollably, he walked over to her with his arms swinging about while his steps had a little bounce in them.

Clearing his throat, he asked, “Excuse me madam, but I believe I have no knowledge of today’s date, what year is it?” He tilted his head with the same smile on his face as he waited for an answer.

Tem watched in genuine interest as the man began to regrow his limbs and skin until eventually he was human once again. She could honestly say she’d never seen anything like it before. Given his later overabundance of joy, Tem really doubted that he was a true threat to anyone. Which she was half disappointed about. Then again, after waking up from a prolonged slumber, attacking innocents probably wouldn’t be the first on her agenda either.

The man approached Tem, which was the inevitable given she’d been spying on him for the last little while. Oddly enough, his first question to her was what year it was. “Not the first question I’d ask after being raised from the dead, but if you insist on an answer, its two thousand thirteen I believe” she spoke as her tone became weaker and weaker as she had to actually think deeply on the question. Years went by so fast for her and their numbers weren’t very significant to her anyway, it wasn’t like she got the question often either. The question wasn’t as simple as she had thought to sum up.

She leaned against a nearby tall gravestone and analyzed the man better now that he was closer. Her lips scrunched together as she continued her inquisitive glare. “You’ve been out of it for a while then I’m guessing. Humans can’t rise from the dead either, that much I know, so what does that make you if you don’t mind me asking?” she questioned since she didn’t want to just assume he was human since that bothered her so much when people did that to her.

When the woman spoke the year, the man’s grin grew even wider. His calculations, his preparations, his result, correct. “Good… actually that’s very good, yes, very good.” The man said to himself. “Forgive my rudeness, I forgotten to introduce myself. Ahem, my name is Lockwood Drummond, former teacher, master necromancer, newly resurrected lich at your service.” He knelt gracefully before noticing he wasn’t wearing his signature top hat. Sucking his tongue in disproval, with a snap of his fingers he said, “Hat please!”

Not long after, skeletons burst out of the ground with torsos coming out first. Remnants of clothes still hang about them as they clanked inside the crypt Lockwood was in. They walked while making small clanking sounds from their exposed and magically reanimated bones. Soon, one came back out with a dusty, chewed on top hat with cobwebs hanging off from the side. With glee, the lich took his hat of the skeleton’s bony hands and gently placed it on his head, brushing of any cobwebs that got on his hair.

“Good, now bring out my dusty, dusty boxes outside please,” Lockwood commanded. The skeleton joined the others as they entered the crypt. “Also, you can say I’m very ‘human’ but where’s the fun in being ‘human’ when I can be something very… well, fresh from the ground?” The lich laughed at his own choice of words.

Tem snorted at Drummond’s personal comment of him being rude. She shook her head and quickly replied “Tem Demostrate, of Albion’s police force. I must say you’re probably the most polite re-animated corpse I’ve encountered yet.” Her eyes detracted to the man’s skeleton workers every so often. She was quick to remember her days as a cultic god as she watched the skeletal minions carried out tasks for him. She could only feel envy since she wished to relive those days. Due to various reasons she probably couldn’t get away with it again.

Tem pushed herself off the tombstone and stood without its support. She felt the way the way the lich had answered her question displayed a similar distaste in being identified as human as she had. In which case she felt a bit more comfortable with his presence. “Ah, good, I don’t necessarily care for my human form. I’m sure you won’t mind if I change out of it. Besides it’s the least I can do since you showed you’re transformation” she stated as though she owed him a favor.

Tem’s detailed humanoid features were quickly engulfed by sand until her entire body was enveloped by sand. Her overall height grew a couple inches and the thickness of her arms and legs increased two-fold. Her enormous featureless sand made body towered over the man as the jade stones that acted as her eyes in the form emerged from the solid mass of her torso. “Ah, much better, less compact” she commented as she finished her transformation. “Humans usually aren’t able to handle this form, but I feel you might be of stable enough mind.”

The grand golem angled its body so that the man was directly in her line of vision, though tried not to crowd him respectively. His reaction to her true form would be the final test of Tem’s overall opinion of the man, though so far being quite impressed even with their very brief encounter so far.

“Well I’ve been a walking corpse for only just a few minutes my dear, a polite, undead man who favors the joy of moral standards,” Lockwood said with a merry tone. He glanced back at his crypt where the skeletons unloaded the first box. “Careful! I don’t want anything broken!” Skeletons can be quite clumsy sometimes. When turning back to Ms. Demostrate, he found himself facing a wall of sand blocking his view. Drummond took a few steps back to find out he was looking at a giant construct of sand that appeared to be staring right at him, yet not quite entirely.

The average person would have either ran and screamed in terror or take a picture and send it to everybody hash tagged “#sweetjesusasandmonsterapperedinfrontofme.” However, the lich didn’t react to the sudden appearance; he doesn’t know how to react. One part of him wanted to squeal in delight and run around in circles. The other wanted to examine the being, remembering reading up on such creatures during his stay in the Sahara. He went with the third part.

“A Golem? What a surprise! A sentient one at that! How marvelous! Your kind is incredibly rare to come across, even rarer to find one that happens to know how to speak.” Lockwood tilted his head to the right this time. “Expected me to be shocked? Have sudden astonishment? Whimper in fear? Ha! I’ve seen things much more bigly and intimidating than yourself.” A slight memory in the lands of the Scots reminded him of the one beast that made one of the scariest cries he ever heard that made the tress shook “Moooooo!” He escaped out from that memory before it could’ve continued.

Tem wasn’t sure whether to feel flattered or insulted that the undead man wasn’t too intimidated by her. Either way, she at least found someone whom she can wander around in her natural form with. Thankfully her original hunch was correct. “Learning how to speak and create sound was a daunting task, I remember that much. Vocal cords are difficult to recreate, but once I got the pattern down it was pretty easy to implement.

Tem felt she was beginning to skid on unwanted territory when Drummond began to refer to her as more of a thing than a living being, saying things as she was rare. It irked her to believe that he might have some sort of experimental procedures in mind for her, which she didn’t like. She’d have no problem speaking with him, but as soon as tests become a topic of conversation she would more than likely refuse.

Tem had to agree with the lich teacher, she’d hardly seen any of her brethren and even when she had they were very brief encounters. “Yeah, most don’t tend to crawl out of their place of protecting, I suppose I’d be one of the few that have abandoned their positions” she spoke, her unexpressive face/torso lacking any sign of emotion, as it should.

Her jade stones peered over to the skeletons once more to observe them work. Her tree trunk-like arm stroked her non-existent chin, showing how accustomed she was to a human body. “So, do those minions of yours have independent thought or can they only do as you command them to?” she asked, her curiosity being very prevalent in her tone.

Lockwood turned his head to his skeletal minions as they labored inside the crypt. “Them? Well, even though they’re relying on magic to be animated, they have some simple thought processes. For example, let’s say I told them to get me a drink. A small cup of a drink. One of them will give a drink, understand? Now on what drink they gave me depend on them. They choose on what to give me to drink unless I tell them to. If I want water, I ask for water. If I ask for some scotch, they’ll get me some scotch. Of course there were some accidents when I ask for a drink they brought human blood. Quite a mess I say.” The lich put one of his fingers on his chin.

“Of course, I can command them to do what I wish and so desire, but… then there’s this little act I learned to do.” One of the skeletons said with a sketchy, static voice that was coming out from the crypt. It mimics Drummond’s movements as they both walked. “Quite handy to say at least. I can also see and hear from this skeleton and all the others as well if I dare wish it.” The skeleton went back to work after that display. A half concealed look of surprise appeared on the lich’s face. “Why I say, this might be one of the few times I explained my necromancy arts! What a rarity! Enough about that then I say! Too many secrets about my art to share! Many!” exclaimed Lockwood. He was getting pretty excited from the talk. Yet he was still grinning like a mad man, expecting her to press on for information.

Tem was partly surprised by the man’s reaction to her inquiries. It seemed like he shared the same eagerness to discuss his powers as she did her own, which she saw as a good quality. She wasn’t sure why some people were so secretive in regard to their powers, it seemed pointless to her. The towering behemoth watched the skeleton that Lockwood had possessed to speak for him. It was an interesting ability with much to answer for.

“So they do have a small amount of sentience then. Does the way the skeleton’s think relate to their thought patterns from when they were alive? For that matter, do the people you resurrect remember anything from their past life or are they just slaves to your will lacking anything outside of basic thinking?” the golem questioned as its gem stone eyes redirected at the undead instructor.

From the sides of Tem, little scorpions began to dig out from her flesh-like sand and crawl down her structure until reaching the ground. About six of them began to scuttle into the crypt, she was curious to see what it looked like on the inside of the tomb, but didn’t want to interrupt their conversation. “I prefer to create my minions from my own ‘flesh and blood’, if you will. Though their thoughts are mine as well.”

“Well… Depending on their past life, they might have some… recollections. However, they do follow me since that is their purpose for reliving.” Lockwood adjusted his head toward his crypt again, noticing the scorpions invading inside. “Careful in there! My valuables are quite fragile from age my dear.” Drummond noticed most of his crates were quite rather dirty from the years, he hoped nothing has happened inside them… yet. He reached inside his coat pocket and pulled out a pocket watch. It was in amazingly good condition for being unused for a while. It even turns out to work correctly after Lockwood tuned it.

“Hmm… Quite early, but as I said long before, to be early is not to be late. If you excuse me Ms. Demostrate, as much as I want to continue this conversation I need to make haste to my beloved academy. I’m feverishly homesick after these years. Maybe we’ll chat again when we have the time, eh?” Lockwood snapped his fingers, and after a while, a skeletal horse with a leather saddle galloped to a stop right near the lich, awaiting its rider. Lockwood wrapped one of his arms around a column of sand that appeared to be an arm. “How about it? Willing to give this rotten corpse a chat over a cup of tea, hmm?”

Tem was rather intrigued by the power the man possessed. It seemed that it was a power to possess humanity’s best purpose, being used as tools and without an interfering morality factor. After being the leader of a cult or two, she’d learned that it was one of the more annoying factors. “Ah, it’ll be fine, I’m just looking around. For such a small tomb, it is well structured and appealing to the eye” she stated as her scorpion counterparts continued to crawl around the crypt analyzing every nook and cranny.

Tem’s golem form couldn’t display much emotion due to its lack of features, which was one of the largest hindrances she would admit to, but if she could she would show a warm smirk to the resurrected man as he wrapped his arm around her’s. “By all means, I wouldn’t want to hold you back for any longer than necessary” Tem answered. She was completely sympathetic to the feeling of homesickness and wouldn’t want to stand in the way of it. “I don’t need to take in such nourishment, but whatever, sure.”

“Excellent!” Lockwood released his hold from her arm and approached his horse that was waiting patiently, tapping at the ground. “Staff please!” he commanded to no one in particular. A staff of pale white burst from the ground, which Lockwood caught in mid drop. Two skulls that appeared fused together were on the tip with a third skull above them with fiendish looking horns sticking out from its cranium. Drummond climbed on his horse’s saddle and raises his staff.


“Gentlemen, follow my lead! Today I, Lockwood of Drummond have returned!” he exclaimed passionately as he reared his horse back. Despite having no vocal chords, the horse neighed in response. From out from the trees, undead horsemen in 18th century coats and trousers rode out from their own horses. Lockwood looked back at Tem once last time and said, “We’ll try to keep ourselves civil as possible. Ta-ta!” With a snap of his horse’s reigns, the lich rode out towards the gate with his undead horsemen following with him. After a while, shrieks of terror came from the town in response of the riders making way toward the academy. The skeletons who were left behind continued to carry each box out from the crypt with some now standing on guard.

Tem watched as Lockwood rode off with his brigade, no doubt striking fear into every civilian he passed. His leave had a touch more personality than anyone she had seen in years. “Cheerio and whatnot” she bid farewell in return, though he was a bit out of range from her call. The titan than twisted around to admire the tomb with her gaze once more, forgetting completely about the reason she came to the graveyard to begin with. Her eyes within the grave still monitored the area/

“This place is about to get a lot more exciting” she thought aloud as one of her gemstone eyes peered back to where Lockwood had raced off. Tem had another upcoming shift though, so she couldn’t stick around the graveyard forever, at least her main body couldn’t. She found too much interest in the architecture of the lich’s burial ground. “Hmm, I probably won’t need those extra few inches, nobody’ll know there gone” she commented as she began to walk back to civilization. Her body was slowly morphing back to her human mode since the people were growing insane enough watching a parade of skeletal beings, she didn’t need to add a sand Golem float into the mix.