Features: First Look at the Ghouls Sourcebook

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Lee waved her hand at him, shushing him without even bothering to look behind her. Gunny shook his head and lit another cigarette, careful to keep the ember hidden from where she was looking in deference to this latest bit of stupidity. A long, cold night spent in a cemetery with a reporter. Sounds like the start of a horror movie… or a really bad porno.

He signed, fingered the holster of his gun. One of the new groundskeepers working here had noticed that the ground was sometimes uneven and had actually dug up some of the graves before anyone had thought to stop him. He probably would have gotten in much more trouble if his hunch hadn’t paid off – but it had. Some of the coffins were empty, the bodies stolen and gone without a trace.

Thus far the media hadn’t figured it out, probably paying as little attention to this problem as the problem actually deserved. As far as Gunny was concerned the dead certainly didn’t care and the living, well, what did it really matter to the living? But he could see the media playing this out, making it out to be more than it was, could imagine the public outcry.

“Think of the children.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Gunny himself had spoken to the groundskeepers, spoken to the others of his profession. Nothing out of the ordinary to note as far as the older lot were concerned, but this new guy kept saying that the earth was soft sometimes and hard others, as though it had been hollowed out somewhere. He had no explanation for this, or for anything else, really. Neither did any of the others, but their shifty eyes hinted at something.

“Do you see anything?”

“No.”

“Goddammit.” Lee sighed, stood and sat down on a headstone, scowled at the thermos in her hand. “We’ve been out here for hours. My coffee is getting cold.”

“You should have drank it when we got it,” Gunny growled, looking at his watch as his latest cigarette crumpled into ash. “Five hours ago.”

“There’s something going on here, I know it.”

“Uh-huh.”

She looked so damn hopeful when she said it. That was the most frustrating thing. They went to another vantage point, one of the ones that he had recommended based on his military experience. He didn’t expect they’d see anything. Another half hour proved his suspicions correct.

“My knees are getting cramped.”

“What?”

“I’m saying I should have brought a lawn chair.” Gunny yawned, sat back and leaned the back of his head against another gravestone, looked up at the sky. At least it isn’t raining. “And more coffee.” She looked at him, about to say something, when he heard it.

He was off and running before he even had a chance to figure out what it was. He cursed himself, losing his cigarette somewhere, drawing his gun and flicking the safety off as Lee trailed after him, getting further and further away. Told her not to wear those goddamn heels.

Sensing whatever it was, he dove, rolled came up with his gun point at… nothing. Not a goddamn thing. Lee finally caught up, panting, asking him what he’d been chasing between great gaping breaths. Gunny shrugged, stood up slowly as the adrenaline faded. A cat jumped up on a tombstone, watched them with typical feline superiority as he holstered the gun.

“I think I found your perp.”

“Oh, ha ha. Very funny.”

She walked forward, took the cat into her arms while he looked around. He reached over in passing, scratched the back of the cat’s ears and got scratched in turn for his troubles.

“I don’t think anything is going to happen tonight,” Gunny muttered. The cat scratch bled a little, so he licked the wound the pressed it against his shirt. “Feels dead.”

“A thousand people out of work,” Lee answered, cat in hand, “And you decide to try your comedy act here?”

“What?”

“C’mon, let’s go grab some more coffee,” Lee said, shaking her head, dismissing whatever it was he’d said. “Is it your turn to buy or mine?”

“Mine, I think.” Gunny sighed, followed her back to his car. He hated it when she wasted his time like this but if he didn’t at least humor her he’d never hear the end of it.