Page 3 of Tantalized By the Cursed Statue
Oh fuck, the huge man is looking right at him. His fingers are extended, reaching out to grip him, and all Nathaniel knows is that he needs to get away. Get away as fast as humanly possible. His feet fling themselves forward, and his body follows a second later.
His sweaty fingers lose their grip on his phone, and suddenly everything goes dark.
This was a mistake, a big mistake.
He’s trying to run, but he can’t move. His backpack is caught on something. A tree branch? Or has the statue finally caught him? He cries out as his feet scrabble helplessly against the ground. Adrenaline kicks into his bloodstream, and his idiot cock spasms violently.
“Nathaniel.”
He lets out a wail. In his panic, he shrugs the backpack off. All he can think about is fleeing as fast as possible.
He trips on a headstone, eats dirt. Scrambles to his feet and almost makes it to the other side of the cemetery when a flashlight shines on his face.
He freezes like a deer in headlights.
“Nathaniel, is that you?”
A tall, twisted form emerges from the bushes. Squinting, Nathaniel tries to make out the figure behind the flashlight.
Oh, thank God.
“OMR.” Nathaniel lets out a shaky exhale. He’s never been so relieved to see another human being, even if it’s just Old Man Renalds, the creepy graveyard caretaker.
Everyone calls him OMR. He’s been around forever and lives on the edge of the cemetery grounds. He’s the kind of guy who is always just a little too eager to show off the headstones of all the people in town who’d met weird, untimely ends: falling off a ladder in the town library, bitten to death by black widows, orencased in a vat of lard. Though that last one, Nathaniel suspects OMR made up.
“Are you okay?” Old Man Renalds asks. “You look like you’ve just—”
“—seen a ghost.” Nathaniel lets out a shaky exhale, ashamed of himself. “G-guess I just spooked myself.”
“Was it the statue?”
Nathaniel frowns.
“He’s been more active lately.”
A chill runs up his spine. “What do you mean?”
“Haven’t you ever wondered about his story?” OMR comes closer, the beam of his flashlight still shining directly in Nathaniel’s face.
“His story?” Nathaniel clears his throat. “He’s just a c-creepy cemetery statue, like a headstone for the mausoleum or something.”
“Maybe.” Old Man Renalds lets out a dry laugh. “But back when I was as young as you, the old timers used to swear that he was once a flesh-and-blood human. Of course, that was before he was tricked by his own beloved. He was frozen into stone by an awful curse, transforming him into a living monument to the dead.”
Nathaniel can’t help but shudder. He doesn’t like imagining being frozen immobile for decades, watching time pass by and all his friends grow old. “Why would his own lover…trick him?”
“Before he was turned to marble, your friend had a reputation for being an extremely attentive lover: intense, brooding, and handsome. The kind of dominant figure that draws the eyes of both women and men. He sold oddities, strange and wonderful objects the likes of which had never been seen. No one knew where he came from, only that he was looking to settle down here, start a life in this town. But before toolong, he got himself entangled with one of the town beauties. He seduced the young man, courted him for an entire season.”
“Wait,him?” Nathaniel blinks at him. “He courted a guy? You’re saying the statue is gay?”
OMR shrugs. “Believe what you want. This doesn’t have to be anything more to you than a ghost story.”
“Okay, sorry I interrupted. Keep going.”
“The townspeople didn’t trust him. And back then…” OMR shrugs. “Well, anyway, it was late October, and the man was called out of town on some business. And while he was gone, the town came up with a plan. They built a stone structure on the top of the hill over there, and prepared the ground with a special binding spell. Then they sent word to him that his lover had died.”
“Oh shit,” Nathaniel whispers. “But I bet his loverhadn’tdied. It was a lie.”
OMR nods. “When he heard the news of his death, he was devastated. He rushed back to see his lover’s body one last time before he was laid to rest in the mausoleum forever, and that’s when it happened.”
