Goblin Bites: Scary Stories 11

It all began the night after the hanging of Tex Orley. He'd been tried and sentenced for robbing the Gold Valley bank a week prior, and shooting the bank teller in the back in cold blood. Up until the moment of his execution, however, Tex Orley loudly and vehemently proclaimed his innocence. When the judge asked for his final words, Orley vowed that he would wreak his revenge on the citizens of Gold Valley for this injustice, even if that meant returning from the grave.

The townspeople were very shaken by Orley's vow. Rumors began to crop up that Tex really was innocent, and the sheriff and judge of Gold Valley hadn't properly done their due dilligence in the investigation. Sheriff Lucas on the other hand was adamant that Orley was guilty beyond a doubt, a sentiment heavily shared by Judge Slade. Old Widow Orley, Tex's mother, was unsurprisingly the biggest advocate for her son's innocence, and warned Sheriff Lucas and Judge Slade to reverse their ruling or the entire town would suffer. Her pleas went unheard, however... and that's when the curse of Tex Orley took root.

Not ten minutes after Tex Orley was laid to rest in the old town cemetery, one of the grave-diggers got bitten by a rattlesnake. Within that same hour, the sheriff's favorite horse broke its leg and had to be put down, and the judge's wife caught a terrible fever. Everyone immediately began saying it was Tex Orley, doling out his vengeance as he had promised with his dying breath. Judge Slade and Sheriff Lucas were admittedly perplexed by the strange events, but neither of them believed in curses. They chalked it up to just a run of rotten luck, and let the matter be for the time being.

When more strange happenings began cropping up all over town - a fire in the local livery stable, the sheriff's young son falling in the local mine and breaking his arm, an earthquake leveling the Gold Valley bank, etc. - it was always blamed on Tex Orley's curse. Several townspeople claimed that after disaster would strike, they saw an apparition of Tex Orley leaving the scene. After dealing with the frightened, angry townspeople for almost a month, and fearing that they would turn on them soon, Sheriff Lucas and Judge Slade paid a visit to the parish minister, Pastor McClain. To put the matter to bed once and for all, Pastor McClain suggested that he, Sheriff Lucas and Judge Slade ride out to the cemetery and visit Tex Orley's grave. Their goal was to prove to the citizens of Gold Valley that dead men cannot return from the grave, and that curses do not exist.

When they arrived at the cemetery that night, Old Widow Orley met them at the gates. She was still dressed in her mourning clothes and veil, but her lips were curled in a smile beneath it. "Good evenin', Sheriff," she greeted cordially, "Jedge; Pastor McClain. I've been waitin' fer ya. Have ya come to pay yer respects, an' clear my boy's good name?"

Sheriff Lucas was a hard man, quick to temper and was rapidly losing patience with everything to do with Tex Orley. "Your boy was a scoundrel," he growled, "nothin' but a thief an' a coward! Get on outta here now, a'fore I throw ya in a cell fer the night!"

Old Widow Orley bowed her head cordially, "Thar's no cause for that now, Sheriff. I was jest on my way. Say 'hello' to Theodore for me, fellas. He's mighty anxious to talk to ya."

A cold, Autumn breeze blew silently over the graveyard when the three men walked through the rusty wrought-iron gates. The moon was fat and silvery-white in the sky above, but partially hidden behind a veil of clouds. Pastor McClain led the way, holding an oil lamp high to light their path to Tex Orley's grave. The three men walked in silence, one out of respect for the passed souls around them, and the other two simply too nervous to utter a sound (not that they would ever admit it). When they reached the plot, the soil of which looked still fresh, Pastor McClain let out a heavy sigh. "As you can see, Gentlemen," he said, "Mr. Orley's bones remain where they were laid, completely undisturbed. There's not so much as a footprint in the soil around it, meaning nobody's dug him up to scare the townsfolk neither... although, I personally cain't imagine why anyone would ever do such a thing anyway."

Pastor McClain removed his hat and said a quick prayer over Tex Orley's grave, then handed his lantern off to the other two and started making his way to the exit. "Whatever peace the two of ya need to make with Mr. Orley," he said, "I suggest ya do it now. I'll wait for ya at the gate."

As soon as Pastor McClain was out of earshot, Sheriff Lucas scoffed. "Make peace with the rottin' bones of a no-good bandit? An' a lousy one at that?! I don't think so!"

Judge Slade pulled his coat tighter against the wind, trying to hide a shiver, "It ain't right to talk ill of the dead, Lucas... even if they was a scalawag in life. C'mon, let's get the hell outta here; Sarah's makin' a roast for dinner, an' I don't wanna be late."

Sheriff Lucas reluctantly agreed, and began following the judge out of the small cemetery. As they walked, a strange blanket of fog suddenly settled in around them. It was so thick, they could hardly see two feet in front of them. They had been walking for what seemed like an unusually long time, longer than it should have taken to leave the graveyard. Without warning, Judge Slade stopped in his tracks. Sheriff Lucas stumbled into his broad backside, swore, then scowled at his companion crossly, "What's the matter with ya?! Why'd ya stop?!" Judge Slade gave no verbal reply, but slowly raised his lantern higher and turned the dial, bightening the flame within it. The thin beam of light it cast shone on the grave of Tex Orley.

"That... That cain't be right," Sheriff Lucas sputtered, angry and confused, "We were walkin' in a straight line, in the other direction! How the hell did we wind up back here?!"

Judge Slade, usuall more calm and level-headed than his compatriot, swallowed nervously. "This fog's purty dense," he reasoned, "It's possible we walked in a circle, without knowin' we was." He hunted around quickly for a moment, then scooped up a handful of gravel from an empty, freshly-dug grave site. "I'll mark the path this time," he declared, "An' make sure we don't accidentally backtrack again."

The two men set off again, away from the supposed robber's resting place. Judge Slade was again in the lead, dropping pebbles every few feet to mark their path through the thick fog. The pebbles were filled with a kind of mica, making them sparkle a little in the light of their lantern, so that they were easily spotted along the cemetery's main dirt path. The duo walked slowly and carefully, making sure that they were constantly moving in a straight line. Even with the sparkling little pebbles keeping them on a direct path, before long they stumbled across Tex Orley's grave once again.

"I jest plain don't understand it," Judge Slade harrumphed, dabbing his brow with a handkerchief, "We never made any turns, or veered off the path or nothin'! Somethin' ain't right here. It's like... It's like we're trapped!"

A rough, malicious laugh echoed all around them suddenly. The two men instinctually stood back to back and drew their pistols, their eyes wide and searching all around for the source of the laughter. "Who's there?!" Sheriff Lucas demanded, "This is the sheriff!! Show yerself now!!"

Both men then yelped and spun around at an ear-splitting "crack" that shook the ground. A grey, dirt-covered hand had breached through the loose soil covering Tex Orley's grave, and was currently clawing its way toward them. Judge Slade took off running through the fog on instinct, while Sheriff Lucas began firing madly at the hand. Judge Slade didn't stop running, flinching at the gunshots he could hear behind him, fueled as he was by pure adrenaline and fear. A scream made him pause in his tracks and look over his shoulder, just in time to see a figure shuffling slowly toward him. It was difficult to see through the fog, but the man stumbling forth appeared to be covered in dirt, and his head sat at a strange, unnatural angle upon his shoulders. The judge turned his back smartly to the figure once more and pressed on, finally making it to the gates of the cemetery. He ran right by Pastor McClain, not slowing down until he reached his front door.

The next morning, Sheriff Lucas was found dead by the cemetery gates. A look of horror was frozen on his face, and his neck was broken. Strangest of all, his sidearm was in his hand, and the chamber was totally empty. Pastor McCain hurried to Judge Slade's home, looking for answers as to what happened that night. To his astonishment, he found Mrs. Slade standing on her front porch dressed all in black, weeping mournfully as the Gold Valley Mortuary Company carried a shrouded body out of the house. Pastor McClain asked the distraught woman what had happened, and her response shook him to his core.

"H-He was awful upset when he came home last night," she'd choked through her tears, "A-All pale and out of breath, too. I asked him what was wrong, b-but he wouldn't say. He went right to bed, without even havin' a bite of supper... a-an' wh-when I looked in on him this mornin'... h-he was dead!" She broke down sobbing, requiring the doctor to lead her back inside and feed her a draught of Morphia. He explained to the minister that the judge had a massive heart attack shortly after he'd returned home. His boots and coat were apparently still on him when he was found in bed, along with a handful of gravel in his coat pocket.

The strange events happening around Gold Valley became less and less frequent after that unusual night. Every now and again, Tex Orley was still seen looming around after a horse threw a shoe or when a fight at the local saloon suddenly turned lethal. Those that claimed to see him though said that the supposed bank robber seemed more at peace than before. Until her dying day, his mother was seen delivering fresh flowers to his grave every week, a tradition she insisted be continued by her niece, Daisy, upon her death bed. The first time Daisy carried out her aunt's final wishes, she paused at the scene that met her. On top of Tex's grave was the last, withered boquet his mother had left, being grasped by a skeletal hand through the earth. Beside the grave was a pile of other decaying bundles of flowers, and a small trowel stuck into the ground. Tied around the handle of the trowel was a small, hand-written note: "Make sure to bury him deep. Theodore likes to wander about quite a bit. All my love, Ma Orley."