Down to the Graveyard

    Outside, the rains have stopped and the clouds are beginning to roll away. A small cluster of stars twinkle in the night sky above, but a fog has fallen and the barely-glimpsed backyard is shrouded in a light mist of the type that rolls in from the port and fills the bayous and cemeteries...

    Buggies turn onto a short balcony that overlooks the overgrown expanse below. From behind a dark line of trees, an endless stream of spirits rise into the night sky and vanish… along with an eerie tune, sung by innumerable voices...

 
Two Views From the Rooftop...

    The buggies suddenly turn and descend a steep hill. To both sides, gnarled trees jut from the earth far below, their long, twisted branches forming clutching hands that reach towards the buggies. The trunks of the trees form scowling, knotted faces... from a branch above, the raven caws mockingly, eyes glowing red.

    Below, a black line of tall, wrought iron fence rises into view, ending in the crumbling brick columns of an arched gate. Outside, an old man stands trembling , having fled the cemetery, his rail-thin dog beside him. A lantern dangles from one hand, and he leans on a shovel from the other. The cacophony of music is rising as the buggies enter the Mansion’s graveyard.

    From dead grass, crumbling sandstone monuments emerge at odd angles from the earth. Ivy and weeds have long encroached on the graves and the entire cemetery has taken on an aged, neglected look. A thick ring of trees isolate the outside world.

    Among the monuments, a crypt has been jarred open from within and a rotund flutist is now sitting up, glowing and half-transparent, playing a haunting tune of his flute. A drummer has joined him, clicking out a beat on the discarded lid of the tomb with two bones. Nearby a harper, trumpeter and bagpiper have joined them, swaying to the beat in the chill air. Two owls hoot from a branch above as ghosts rise from beyond a nearby crypt. Three cats provide yowling accompaniment from the lid of a crypt.



    Atop a short hill, a skeletal dog howls in the night air while nearby tombstones shake and quiver, rocking in the loose soil from their struggling inhabitants below.  A medieval king and queen balance atop a teeter-totter while their spectral princess rides a swing in the background, sipping from a cup of tea.

    The buggies descend a short hill past a large tomb from which an unseen occupant is attempting to escape and move past five stone busts perches beyond a short tomb wall. Although the busts are immobile, the faces have sprung to life and glow weirdly in the darkness. They are singing...



When the crypt doors creak and the tombstones quake,
Spooks come out for a swinging wake!
Happy haunts materialize, and begin to vocalize...
Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize!

    Beyond this bizarre scene, a small table draped with a festive picnic cloth stands among the tombstones, a few flickering candles alit on it. Across from each other, a British lord and lady toast to the night, a bottle of wine waiting in a nearby ice bucket. An arm emerges from a crypt, supporting a glass of wine and joining in the toast. They join in the singing...



Now don’t close your eyes and don’t try to hide
Or a silly spook may sit by your side.
Shrouded in a daft disguise, they pretend to terrorize!
Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize...

    A rotted old wood hearse has veered off into the graveyard and lodged itself into a mud puddle from some sad, final funerary service years ago. Perched on and around the hearse are a number of phantoms, chatting and sipping tea. The unburied occupant of the hearse sits up in his spilled coffin. A nearby pot of tea hovers, pouring glowing tea into a cup and saucer. Ghostly cyclists spin past in eternal circles atop a hill around a sunken crypt...



    In the shadow of a looming hill dotted with weathered crypts, an Egyptian-styled tomb has been opened and a sarcophagus has been opened in a dirt clearing. A mummy sits up in it, stirring tea with one bandaged hand. Looming over him, an ancient bearded old man holds a hearing-horn to his ear. Although the mummy is singing to him, he is becoming frustrated as the old man is continually, loudly complaining he can’t hear him. A skittish dog sniffs the sarcophagus.



As the moon climbs high ‘ore the dead oak tree,
Spooks arise for the midnight spree
Creepy creeps with eerie eyes start to shriek and harmonize
Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize!

    The far end of the graveyard wraps around in an elevated line of crypts. At the top of a wide stone stair, two opera singers sway in the middle of an intense aria… both are clad in the Viking costumes of their stage. A nearby open crypt reveals a shimmering spirit beckoning from beyond...

When you hear the knell of a requiem bell,
Weird glows gleam where spirits dwell!
Happy haunts materialize,
And rise as spooks of every size...

    Blood-chilling laughter rings through the graveyard while several ghouls unexpectedly emerge from behind their graves and retreat.

   

On the elevated stone walk in front of several crypts stand a decapitated knight, an executioner with a blood-stained axe, and a short prisoner still bound ball and chain. The buggies file into an open crypt, past an arm trying to wall itself back inside it’s crypt with a trowel and mortar, while the raven squawks at you from above.



    The ghost host’s voice suddenly echoes in the carriage...