First time tuning in? Start here. When we last spent time with our protagonist, they succeeded in making and consuming their sandwich. What a relief they must have felt! Once finished, they set out to find a lid to finish their work with the local resident. You can catch up with Part XVI here. Do they find the lid as simply as they hope?

Dealing with all these shenanigans has pushed the hour hand around quite a bit, so now I'm beginning to feel pressed for time. The lights in the employee hall, digging out the grave, and a romp through the green mist has left me completely tanked and I haven't really begun doing the things I'm supposed to do as part of my duties. With this in the front of my mind, I start cleaning things up around the plots, knolls, and tombs as I search for a replacement lid for the zombie's coffin.

If I remember correctly, I only need to sweep and dust the mausoleum--that's point number two on the checklist--and clear the flowers from the graves--that's point number three. It seems so simple, and yet I'm running behind. What a night this has already been.

I look around as I walk, taking inventory of the flowers I can see. Though the cemetery is big, there doesn't seem to be a ton of flowers to clear out. This should be pretty quick; a simple, mindless job. All I have to do is gather them up, toss the real ones in the compost, plastic in recycling, toss the fake ones and all the accessories in the trash. Easy peasy. But this leads me to wonder why this has to be done every night. Looking around, I notice of those fresh flowers, they're all looking pretty healthy. Don't most cemeteries leave fresh flowers out until they start to wither? Isn't that a thing? The checklist, however, is really fucking clear: "Do not repurpose bouquets, no matter their condition."

Ah, "repurpose." That seems pretty specific. Maybe so long as I don't take them home or set them up in the break room or something, it's alright. I can probably leave the flowers alone and just clear out the ones that need to go.

Except, they're all fresh. All of them. All of the flowers, though few I can see, seem to have been placed there earlier in the day.

Great! I turn my focus to the mausoleum where I hope to find some sort of storage. I can sweep and dust while I'm there.

The mausoleum is a great big beautiful building right in the middle of the cemetery. If the cemetery was a wheel, the gates would be the rim, the mausoleum would be center, and the roads would be the spokes. All roads lead to the mausoleum.

Well, that's not exactly true. There's a main road that carves through the middle of the cemetery from either end and makes a loop around the Mausoleum, and a number of smaller roads branching off from this main one. So while taking any of these roads will eventually get you to the mausoleum, they don't all lead here directly. Whatever. The main point is, the mausoleum is the centerpiece, and it is a sight to behold. Even at this late hour.

I walk up to the mausoleum and throw open the door, waltzing inside as if I own the place. Just a quick dusting and sweeping and scouring for a storage area and I'll be on my way, hopefully with a chipboard coffin lid in hand. The moon light pours in through the large glass dome high overhead, casting an eerie glow over the marble and cold steel of some of the fixtures. The silence is almost deafening; even the sound my steps make are dampened by it. You would think the clatter of my shoes on the marble would carry well in this place.

It doesn't.

The deeper I walk into the mausoleum, the more creeped out I get. The air outside is comfortably cool; the air inside is outright cold. I rub my hands over my arms to warm myself up. I can see my breath. It seems to get colder as I get closer to the center.

I glance from side to side, searching for some indication of a closet or storage area, but all I see are rows and rows of tombs with their sharp stainless steel façades. I am shivering violently by the time I reach the center; there's a squat structure housing an elevator right in the middle. I'm fucking freezing, but I still need to do my job and I failed to bring a coat with me because I didn't think I was going to need it.

Fuck.

Okay, I still gotta find a lid to the coffin. I'll just rush my search down below and then book it out of here once I figure out whether or not what I need is here. Not wanting to stop rubbing myself, I lean over and press the elevator button with my elbow. The button lights up for a moment, a ding sounds, and the doors yawn open, the elevator inviting me into its gaping maw. Fuck that is creepy. It's almost as if the elevator was waiting for me. I gotta keep moving though; I can't let my paranoia keep from getting my work done. With a deep breath, I step into the elevator. The doors snap shut behind me.

How ominous! The cold. The moon light. The shining steel façades of the tomb. The creepy elevator. What lies in store for our protagonist below? Only one way to find out! Read Part XVIII here!

Are you enjoying the story so far? Please consider sharing this with someone you think will enjoy it as well! After all, things tend to be much more enjoyable when you can experience them with acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and loved ones.