October 27th

He was never one to back out of a bet, and this was a big one. Had Matt lost, He would have had to streak through the campus in broad daylight, an act that would likely have gotten him expelled — and Matt wasn’t one to back off from a bet either. Jerry supposed his side of the deal wasn’t too bad, just weird and sort of creepy.

“I want you to dig up Benjamin Cross,” Matt had said. “See if he really has that amulet around his neck and if so, you have to give it to me.”

“It’s a stupid story,” said Jerry. “The body’s almost a hundred years old. It’s not going to have some magical amulet that grants immortality to the wearer.”

“They say he was buried alive, that he never died.”

“After a hundred years, an immortal body in a coffin would have eventually dug his way out.”

“Just dig the damn thing up and look. If there’s nothing, no big deal,” said Matt.

“Okay, if I lose, I’ll do it.”

He lost, and now he stood in the cemetery wearing his Rob Zombie t-shirt and holding a shovel, about to dig up the body of the legendary Benjamin Cross, a man who supposedly sold his soul for a magical amulet he wore around his neck that granted immortality. So long as it hung from his neck, it would burn anybody else’s hand who tried to touch it.  They buried him alive when he killed his wife and three children with an axe, and supposedly he rested in that coffin to this day, trapped and still alive.

His spade pierced the bright green grass, and when he pulled up his first shovelful of dirt, the contrast of the dark brown, near black soil looked so out of place and he knew there would be no hiding the evidence of a grave robbery. He continued digging, scoop after scoop of dirt, deeper and deeper into the earth until he hit something hard.

"Shit," he said to himself. "I can't believe it. After all these years, I'm the one to dig up Benjamin Cross's grave."

He scraped the dirt off the top of the casket, and saw that the lid to the coffin had a huge silver cross adorning the entire surface. He reached along the edges and found the gap that marked the edge of the lid. When he tried to pull it open, it wouldn't budge.

He ran his fingers along the edge of the casket and found a padlock in the center of the long edge. It was very old and rusted, and took two hits with the shovel to break it off. He knew that the lock was very likely placed there for superstitious purposes, but he convinced himself that supernatural forces were not real. He lifted the lid of the coffin and saw a skeleton inside, dressed in a black suit and tie. Around the neck of the skeleton was a thick chain and an amulet with bright red rubies shining brightly from the center of the design.

"Well I'll be damned," said Jerry. "The freaking amulet exists."

He reached for the necklace, then hesitated. If the amulet was real, what else was true? The body was a skeleton, so clearly the immortality part of the legend was false. He shrugged it off and reached for the medallion. The second he touched it, it burned his skin, but at the same time, it attracted his hand like a magnet. He couldn't let go.

The skeleton came to life and raised its head upwards. It made a sound like it was gasping for breath, and Jerry found himself suffocating. A mystic fog transferred between himself and the corpse of Benjamin Cross, and after half a minute, a man stepped out of the hole and smiled. He breathed the fresh air in heavily, and raised his arms in triumph. When he turned to look back at the grave, he saw the fresh dirt and the bright green grass.

"This will never do," he said to himself, picking up the shovel and going to work. He tossed the dirt onto an open casket with a skeleton lying inside, wearing a Rob Zombie t-shirt. 

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