The Eyeless Widow

A Story by Leo

In a small town plagued by a series of mysterious deaths, one young man must confront the chilling truth behind the legend of the Eyeless Widow, a vengeful ghost haunting the local cemetery.

The bodies piled up in the Greenyard cemetery every day. First there was the body of the security guard who was found on duty, then the bodies of the two young couples who were somehow found in the cemetery late at night. And although it's never been explained why these people ended up dead, many had their own theories.

For one, many believed it was the work of an invisible serial killer, lurking in the corners of the night, looking for his next victims. Another theory was that it was the work of violent gangs, out to rob their victims, only to kill them when they knew the victims knew them.

There were many theories, and while some made sense, others didn't. But one theory stood out, a theory... that few believed, a theory so dark that those who believed it were often labelled "childish" and "freaks".

"It's true! I'm telling you!"

"It's not true!"

"Why don't you believe me, Claude?"

"Because you're Phoebe, my little sister! I know not to trust a word that comes out of your mouth."

"But... you don't know that! You will die if you don't listen to me, Claude!"

"Hang on, Phoebe, let me get this straight - you're saying there's a strange woman in the cemetery every night who sits and cries and waits for people to come near her, just to drag their spirits into... hell?"

"No! You've got it wrong! It's like this: a widow sits on the grave of her murdered husband.

She is crying and her cries echo through the cemetery.

Her eyes have been wiped clean by her own tears, so she doesn't have any, but she's still crying.

She wipes her tears from her husband's blood-soaked shirt.

If you approach her, she'll seem harmless at first, but then... she'll turn her head! She'll look at you with a grim face, her eyes gouged out, and she'll try to take your spirit with her into the grave! Before you know it, you'll be one of the few corpses discovered in the cemetery.

Claude rolled his eyes, "So why is this 'ghost' doing this anyway?"

"Well, she's trying to take revenge for the death of her husband. Rumour has it that her husband was the owner of the Thai restaurant who was killed in 2015,"

"Great! So, another urban legend? Yeah, I'll stick with the job offer,"

"Oh, come on! You're seriously going to work there?"

"See you later, Phoebs!" Claude said as he walked out the front door.

Claude soon found himself in the graveyard. With a torch to his left and a walkie-talkie to his right, he greeted the man who was already sitting on the desk.

"Good luck, you're our seventh man this year," the man said to Claude as he got up from his seat.

"Seventh man?"

"Yes. We've lost so many workers."

"What do you think is the cause?"

"I don't know man, I don't work the night shift, so I don't care. All I know is that I talked to Franklin on my way home and the next day I found his body next to a grave".

The two paused for a moment before the man decided to leave. "See you tomorrow - at least I hope so. And if you hear a woman crying, don't bother investigating, we've already tried to get rid of her."

"Who's 'her'?" Claude asked. But before he could ask, the man had left. Claude soon got to work. From wandering around the creepy and dark cemetery to making sure that no one entered through the gate.

The job was boring and nothing interesting happened. Until... the screams began. The screams rang in his ears, and although he felt like investigating, he thought it was just a prank. The night went on, and the screams never seemed to stop. Then, as dawn approached, the screams stopped and were replaced by the sound of footsteps.

Slowly, the footsteps seemed to be making their way towards the gate. Claude went outside to see who it was. He looked and saw a frail figure with dark clothing covering his body. It had the build of an old person and its face was covered by dark clothing.

"Excuse me,?" Claude called to it, but the figure kept walking. He looked at the gate; somehow it had been opened. He shouted at the figure again, but it kept walking, eventually leaving the gate.

Claude went back to his seat. He's just about to fall asleep when he hears a frightening noise from outside. "Help me, please!" The boy's voice cries. Claude takes his torch and goes out into the darkness. He calmly walks towards the sound and sees the boy lying on the brown leafy bushes.

"Please help me, I'm dying!"

"What happened to you?"

"I - I don't know, we - we were walking and we saw this old lady all alone. We approached her to see what was -what was wrong, but -but she went mad, and -and..."

"And what?"

"... And - and she - she - she - she tried..." But the boy's words never came out. The boy soon died, and Claude had to report the three bodies there.

He was still not sure what had happened, but he knew that Phoebe would be looking him in the face and nagging him about the murders.

"I told you!"

"You didn't tell me anything, Phoebe."

"Then how do you explain what happened to those boys?"

"They were obviously murdered, probably by that figure I saw coming out of the cemetery gate,"

"Oh my God, Claude! How can you be so blind! I mean, can't you see that this is all the work of the eyeless widow?"

"The eyeless what?"

"Please, Claude! Just listen to me and don't go there anymore."

"I'm not going to take advice from a 13-year-old who can barely control herself when she's in front of shirtless boys."

"Fine! But don't expect me to bury you with the money Dad left us."

The investigation into the boy's death would lead nowhere, and Claude would find himself back at the cemetery, alone again. Just like the day before, Claude walked through the cemetery, making sure there was no strange activity, even checking the gate.

And just like before, the night was quiet and peaceful until... the screams began. But Claude was not going to let the screams go on for the next 7 hours.

With his torch and the warm jersey he was wearing, he made his way to the dark cemetery outside. Slowly he made his way to where the screams were coming from.

He saw the figure sitting in a grave, its whole body covered in dark clothes. The only thing that was not black was the red shirt that lay on his lap.

With his heart pounding, Claude approached the weeping figure and stood beside it.

"Mam... Are you OK?" He asked the figure, but it didn't answer.

Claude touched the figure's shoulder, this time feeling something strange. It felt like he was touching a bone.

In an eerie and ominous way, the figure turned its head. Claude's heart skipped a beat. He looked into its face and saw that it had no eyes.

"The legend is... real?" Claude thought to himself. But before Claude could react, the creature let out a bloodcurdling scream that made his ears bleed.

It dragged him with its sharp claws, sucking his soul from his body and dragging him towards the grave. And just like before, what remained was a body, a body that would be discovered the next day.

© 2024 Leo

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Reviews

Marie

A very scary story, well inked. I was hoping for a twist at the end in that Claude would discover who the lady was and why she was howling all night long, every night of the week, but sadly, it didn't happen and poor Claude didn't live to tell the tale or heal the broken spirit of the old dear. Excellently penned! I enjoyed reading! Thank you for sharing, Leo.
Ps/Hope you will consider a follow-up on this story, dear writer. It is well worth developing...