The Family Business
May. 20th, 2011 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorksidefikerTitle: The Family Business
Fandom: Original
Table/Prompt: Table 5/10. Family
Rating: PG
Word Count: 404
Summary: Xanthe Gaerwn, Gravekeeper.
I was five years old when I’d decided that I wanted to join Dad in the family business. He’d taken me, Hayward, and Kai with him, and Vicar O’Connel to deal with some cult trying to raise a god or a demon or something. Dad had let me hold his shovel. Kai nearly got sacrificed, but otherwise it was great fun. Nothing like the sound of a shovel hitting the skull of a phenomenally stupid man. Dad hadn’t wanted to bring me along, but Mummy had been visiting her family, and he hadn’t wanted to leave me alone.
My brother never had any desire to be Graveyard Keepers. Hayward’s a dentist now, and Kai’s a lawyer. No respect for tradition, Dad says. We Gaerwns have been standing guard over the Graveyard since before memory. We interred the first resident, and everyone since. I’ve seen the mound at the center of the Graveyard. It’s actually kind of lovely in the moonlight.
My ancestors have speculated about the origin of the Graveyard. Personally, I think it’s a kind of Archetype made manifest. Most people never notice that it’s so much bigger inside the boundaries than the outside. It’s full of crypts and graves and trees that have shadows that are far too dark. It’s also full of ghosts and zombies and cultists trying to raise things that should not be. My family’s job has been to get the zombies reburied and keep the cultists from doing unspeakable things and sacrificing virgins (or whatever they can get their hands on, for that matter). We also keep the place neat. I’m rather good at that.
Dad’s not too keen on the idea. He’s as Archetypical as the Graveyard’ old and crusty and creepy, just like his father, and his father before him. I keep telling him that I’ve got years to become old and crusty. He keeps hoping my brothers will see the light and come home. That’ll happen the day Satan ice skates to work. Haywood and Kai never had the stomach for the work. Kai’s afraid of dead things, and after Haywood got a look at the thing in the duck pond, he couldn’t bear to pass the iron gates. Dad’s just going to have to man up and deal.
I’m Xanthe Gaerwn, groundskeeper and guardian.
Fandom: Original
Table/Prompt: Table 5/10. Family
Rating: PG
Word Count: 404
Summary: Xanthe Gaerwn, Gravekeeper.
I was five years old when I’d decided that I wanted to join Dad in the family business. He’d taken me, Hayward, and Kai with him, and Vicar O’Connel to deal with some cult trying to raise a god or a demon or something. Dad had let me hold his shovel. Kai nearly got sacrificed, but otherwise it was great fun. Nothing like the sound of a shovel hitting the skull of a phenomenally stupid man. Dad hadn’t wanted to bring me along, but Mummy had been visiting her family, and he hadn’t wanted to leave me alone.
My brother never had any desire to be Graveyard Keepers. Hayward’s a dentist now, and Kai’s a lawyer. No respect for tradition, Dad says. We Gaerwns have been standing guard over the Graveyard since before memory. We interred the first resident, and everyone since. I’ve seen the mound at the center of the Graveyard. It’s actually kind of lovely in the moonlight.
My ancestors have speculated about the origin of the Graveyard. Personally, I think it’s a kind of Archetype made manifest. Most people never notice that it’s so much bigger inside the boundaries than the outside. It’s full of crypts and graves and trees that have shadows that are far too dark. It’s also full of ghosts and zombies and cultists trying to raise things that should not be. My family’s job has been to get the zombies reburied and keep the cultists from doing unspeakable things and sacrificing virgins (or whatever they can get their hands on, for that matter). We also keep the place neat. I’m rather good at that.
Dad’s not too keen on the idea. He’s as Archetypical as the Graveyard’ old and crusty and creepy, just like his father, and his father before him. I keep telling him that I’ve got years to become old and crusty. He keeps hoping my brothers will see the light and come home. That’ll happen the day Satan ice skates to work. Haywood and Kai never had the stomach for the work. Kai’s afraid of dead things, and after Haywood got a look at the thing in the duck pond, he couldn’t bear to pass the iron gates. Dad’s just going to have to man up and deal.
I’m Xanthe Gaerwn, groundskeeper and guardian.