The Undertaker's Cabinet Read online

  Bobby watched in horror as Jacobs lifted his shirt to reveal his torso. Although he appeared emaciated, nothing could have prepared Bobby for the skeletal frame which the clothes had kept concealed. Jacobs took a pipe from the cabinet and fastened it to the pump to which both Esther and Tom were attached. He looked up at Bobby and smiled. "I am quite used to the intoxicating effects of the chemicals now, unlike your brother and girlfriend." He pushed the end of the tube into his belly-button and closed his eyes. Bobby could do nothing but watch.

  A moment later he pulled the tube out and opened his eyes again. Yellow fluid bubbled out of the end where a dark and crusty residue had been left. "Liberating!" he declared and walked towards Bobby. "Now where do you think this is going?"

  In about ten seconds Bobby knew he was going to find out exactly where it was going. He felt his stomach churn. "Just wait a mom..."

  "STOP!"

  It was a simple command but the power in the tone was enough to stop Jacobs in his tracks. There was no mistaking the voice; it was Tom's and he was still alive. For a moment Bobby saw a flash of surprise pass across Jacobs' face. He started to turn and at that moment Bobby took his chance. His body was better equipped than both Esther's and Tom's in fighting off the effects of whatever Jacobs had literally up his sleeve but he was still sluggish.

  Instead of the intended punch to Jacobs' head, he managed just a shove. Nevertheless, the shock of one of his mannequins talking and the force of the blow knocked Jacobs reeling into the cabinet. Bobby watched as the pump wobbled and the pipes flexed against the impact. He had no idea what would happen if he managed to remove the pipes from their bodies but it had to be better than what was happening now. He just had to get to it without Jacobs knocking him out again.

  Instead of coming straight back with his own attack. Jacobs looked directly at Tom; his eyes bulged in their sockets. "How? How is this possible?"

  "STOP!" Tom bellowed again. His voice sent Jacobs reeling backward again and this time he grabbed one of the pipes to steady himself. It was immediately ripped away from Tom's neck with a terrible hissing sound. Fluid sprayed in an upward arc and covered them both.

  Tom issued a roar such as Bobby had never been heard before and ripped the other pipes from his body. A mixture of embalming fluid and blood sprayed into the air and painted the walls. Bobby took a leaden step toward his brother but paused when he saw the look on his face. Without turning Tom yelled. "Leave him to me."

  Jacobs had managed to regain some of his creepy composure and raised himself to his full height. He took a stiletto knife from his pocket and smiled. "You first." He pointed the knife at Tom and then pointed it at Bobby. "And then I'm coming for you."

  He tossed the knife into the air and caught it above Tom's head, and in one motion drove it into the top of Tom's skull with a shriek. The blade bounced off and shattered in his hand. He looked from the knife to Tom and his smile vanished.

  "This cannot be! There is not enough blood in your body to sustain..." Bobby watched transfixed as Jacobs tore at his palm with his teeth and opened a wound; a thick yellow substance oozed from it. He grabbed Tom's head with his other hand and thrust the wound into his face.

  A moment later Jacobs stepped back screaming and holding his hand. The yellow fluid ran freely from the wound and coated his hand; it was minus two fingers.

  Bobby staggered forward and grabbed the copper piping which had fallen from his brother's body. He knew exactly where to stick them. Tom had already taken hold of Jacobs and forced him to his knees. Jacobs looked at them both in turn but instead of fear in his eyes, there was only laughter. He smiled his sick smile once again. "You have not the stomach to do this. You are not a Moreton."

  Bobby took a step forward and rammed one of the pipes into Jacobs' mouth. The other he held onto. "Now, where do you think this is going?"

  Jacobs' body quivered on the floor for a moment before it was still. The vile yellow fluid dripped steadily from his eyes and nose. Esther sat on the altar where a few minutes earlier Bobby had waited to be embalmed. She would never be the same again but at least she was still alive. He would get them all to the hospital as soon as he'd got Tom up again.

  Tom had collapsed to the floor almost as soon as Jacobs had stopped screaming. Whatever life was left in him was leaving pretty quickly and the pores on his skin weeped embalming fluid in a steady condensate.

  "I won't let you go this time. I won't."

  Tom opened his mouth to speak and inside Bobby could see nothing but a void. All the living organic part of his mouth had gone. Instead was a yellow and glossy marble. His body was changing bit by bit.

  "Take her now!" Tom spoke loudly as if he had little control over his voice box.

  "I'm not leaving you. Not again." He started to sob. "I should be there, not you. He wanted me."

  "He wanted anyone. Take her.... Doctor."

  Bobby turned and looked at Esther. She was holding her head in her hands and trembling. She needed to go quickly; she was going into shock.

  "We'll go together. The three of us." Bobby put his hand under his brother and tried to lift him. Tom wasn't a big man but it was impossible to move him an inch. "Can you move? Help me?"

  "This wasn't my first time drinking embalming fluid you know?" His speech had slowed down to a crawl.

  "What?" Bobby replied.

  "Had it before when you were out. Tastes like shit but it's got a kick." He winked but it took an age for his eyelid to close.

  "Just shut up and... Tom?" Tom's eyelid hadn't re-opened.

  "No!" Bobby cried and collapsed at the side of his brother.

  "Take...her...now," a voice whispered into his ear.

  Bobby got to his feet and looked down at his brother. He'd lost him twice and now he was on the verge of losing someone else. Someone who had no cause to get caught up in this nightmare. He walked as quickly as he could over to Esther and put his arm around her shoulder. "I need to get you out of here. I need you to help me, okay?"

  He felt a faint nod and as he lifted her she braced her legs under the weight. He got as far as the churchyard before his legs started to give way. Without fuel, the pyre was starting to die back and the air was a little less harsh. He propped them both up against the church wall and took a lungful of air. It wasn't as bad as it had been earlier but it wasn't good old Littleoak air by any means.

  "Just a bit further." He said it to himself as much as Esther but she nodded again and Bobby thought he heard a grunt. They reached the gate and just as they were about to pass through Bobby picked up a sledgehammer which had been left.

  "One last job before I leave this place forever."

  Once they were into the square the air changed dramatically giving him a burst of energy and life. "I'm just putting you down for a moment. I need to do something." He lowered Esther gently to the paved square and made sure she was sitting up. She looked at him with a mixture of fear and pain and it broke his heart all over again. "I promise, two minutes."

  He turned away quickly. He didn't want to be dissuaded from this one last job as Littleoak's undertaker. Crabbe looked at him with his simple expression; God he hated this statue. He heaved the sledge above his head and dropped it directly on top of Crabbe's stone skull. He wielded it again and again until there was nothing left save for a pile of rubble. And then he dropped to his knees and ground the rubble with his hands until blood coated everything. "What have you got to say about that, you ugly bastard?"

  He looked over his shoulder at Esther. She had already managed to stand and was staggering toward him. He looked down at the bloody gravel. And pounded his fists into it one last time. Except beneath his hands was not the lacerating spikes of stone but soft earth. Freshly dug earth.

  He pushed his fingers into the soil and grabbed handful after handful. Without rain or footfall the earth was like fine sand and easy to shift and within a a few minutes he'd excavated a pit one foot deep. His hands searched and probed the soil until he found what he was lo
oking for. He recognised a grave when he saw one and the three skulls beside each other confirmed it.

  "Who?" Esther said from over his shoulder.

  "I don't know," Bobby replied, "but this might tell us." He lifted a small wooden box from the grave and bashed the lock with a loose rock. Inside was a thin volume and written in gold script on the front was, "The Diary of Benjamin Porter. 1855."

  He opened the book and read the first line aloud, "I am Benjamin Porter and I murdered Jerome Moreton. I am Jerome Moreton."

  Bobby stood up and put his arm around Esther. "The shop, the house, everything, I want it gone."

  Esther's body shivered violently against him.

  "Do you have any Jameson's at your place?" He helped her to start moving again.

  "No but they do." She raised her arm and pointed at the off license. "And I'll take two."

  The End

  Many thanks to Kath Middleton

  You can read more about the author here: The Macabre Collection