Here lies Sai da Silva.
Born 23/08/1995.
Died 30/12/2021.
First of their name; Solicitor, Artist – Friend.
Sai grimaced as they finished reading the headstone; They hated this place in general, the endless rows of illegible tombstones fading into the distance, but more than that; Sai hated this spot specifically, an open grave marked with their name.
They looked around at the rest of the row, it wasn’t just their ready and waiting grave which made them uncomfortable, but the other plots around it.
Five more open graves each marked with the name of a dear and living friend.
Objectively Sai knew that dates on the graves didn’t mean that they would die today. They knew objectively that the date of “death” changed every day ticking up until it didn’t.
Honestly, when you really thought about it, it was essentially just an extraordinarily morbid calendar.
Sai looked again at the row of six open graves, each ready and waiting for their would-be occupant’s demise, and beyond them the real graves. The headstones those whose dates were static, plots filled and covered- Strangers and friends long gone.
It was a strange place, the endless rows of graves trailing off into the distance - real people who had died on the street? Or an illusion to obfuscate how many people had died trapped here. The handful of names they recognised indicated that those who followed were less a trick of the street, and Sai had long ago settled on the uncomfortable belief that the graves instead marked the endless ranks of the unknown. Perhaps that was better, than if it had been a twisted illusion.
They took a moment to visit the closed graves they recognised, the five names they never got to say goodbye to. They spoke aloud as they stood before the headstones, addressing one grave in particular as was their habit.
Not that there was anyone in that particular plot, no bones turning to dust and mud beneath the coarse grey soil. No, not her. Sai smiled as they remembered how insistent she had been about her remains: “Burn me” she had said, “Burn me and scatter my ashes to the ocean- Let me adventure forever”. And she had been. Cremated and ritualistically passed into the glowing embrace of the street’s saltwater portal. Adventuring in a world unknown – but still Sai thought the tombstone was as good a place as any to talk to her.
“Well Mahi. I’m back again. Quite a bit to update you on this time actually! To start with, I put a brush through my new painting when the new building appeared on the street! Quite a dramatic building too; a castle or a keep? Whichever it is, it’s the biggest building I have seen since I arrived here.”
Sai paused as an old memory resurfaced, interrupting the flow of their thoughts.
“Honestly, it reminds me of the stories you used to tell me. – Though I never could find that church. More importantly though, there was a person who arrived, well-hmm…. Person might be the wrong word? He’s a giant spider, quite a friendly one too and, err... Well, he can do magic. And I don’t mean card tricks or the like, but actual factual magic with glowing runes and lights and the lot! Apparently, he scared the hell out of Al and Biz when he thought they were necromancers. Apparently, the poor guy thought that they were using electricity to raise the dead or something!”
Sai shook their head as they realised how mad it all sounded, even for the street, magic spider was a stretch further than Sai was used too.
“Maybe it’ll make sense later, when Red has ‘mapped the possibilities’ and all.”
A familiar grin broke through Sai’s dour expression as they imagined what the endearingly neurodivergent physicist would be doing.
“Most likely she is up to her navel in craft paper and red string by this point! Assuming she hasn’t torn another hole through to the void! – drat, I should tell you about that too really, but I’m afraid it’ll have to wait. Sorry Mahi, much as I love our chats, I’m not just here for you today.”
They lowered their voice and conspiratorially whispered to the empty tomb.
“I’m actually here to find the grave of our new neighbour, Jack, the spider’s grave; Strangely enough I see no new site here dug out for him though which is odd, is it not?”
An unpleasant thought occurred to them, and Sai stopped their monologue, waved farewell to the graves, and began to stride off between the unreadable monuments. As they walked, their eyes scanned the tombstones, each name carved out in deep illegible text, shifted, and spun by the strangeness of the graveyard.
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They knew where to go, to find the dreadful row of open graves no one had been able to read. They’d first noticed the enigma shortly after Mahi’s death, and the dreadful thought had stuck with them ever since. Whose graves were they.
The unnerving graves weren’t too hard to get to, after all the graveyard itself was unlike the street. Its layout, illogical, but consistent in its weirdness, and so simple that Sai knew the route by heart, despite how infrequently they had taken it.
First the mausoleum, a strange pyramid reminiscent building of smooth white stone sat just to the right of the entrance, tall spear wielding guards of black stone guarding the entrance and the six rows of sarcophagus within.
Through the entrance and past the statues they travelled, to the hidden alcove at the end. Down the twisted stairs at the back and through the iron wrought doorway and out into the second hidden graveyard.
Sai looked up as they exited into the nearly identical graveyard, as above the graves stretched out into the far distance, each roughhewn stone covered in illegible text beneath the murky blue-red sky.
The endless graves somehow more sinister, more alien than the ones above.
And chief amongst the sinister, four headstone of black basalt and the open graves before them- each an odd, irregular, and inhuman shape.
Sai counted and re-counted desperately, the cold dread in the pit of their stomach solidifying into certainty.
There had been three last time.
They crept cautiously toward the new plot, it was large, square, and shallow. – Unfit for a human cadaver, but perhaps the perfect size for a spider. Sai shuddered and reluctantly turned their eyes to the inscription in the stone.
As Sai looked, the illegible runes beneath the spider motif span and twisted forming words Sai could read.
Here lies Jack of Spider.
Born 21/05/1801.
Died 30/12/2021.
Tenth of their name; Noble, Paladin – Hero.
That was it then, confirmation. Sai turned to the other three irregular holes – the three graves, still a mystery. But now a far more disconcerting one.
“Bollocks.” The word slipped loose and hung in the faint light of the graveyard, the endless gravestones standing in silent agreement.
Sai groaned to themselves and bent down to examine the next headstone. If Jacks’ grave had a spider, perhaps there would be a similar clue on the others?
They leaned over the adjacent pit to get a better view of the tombstone, as before the text ran like water as they tried to read it, a perplexing interlocking pattern of would-be words.
Sai shook their head, not certain what they had expected, and manoeuvred over the yawning chasm to check for a bit of iconography, image or any kind of clue hidden beneath the weirding words.
There was something there just barely visible in the dull light. Hard to view from the edge of the row. Sai took a step forward, feet just barely resting against the soft dirt of the grave edge as they leaned forwards for a better view.
Sai immediately lost their balance. Uneven footwork dislodged dirt and it began to slide out from under them, as they attempted to shift their weight and prevent a disastrous fall.
Just as they moved to do so, Sai felt a heavy hand on their shoulder and jumped sideways with a start, slipping, and falling towards the yawning maw of the adjacent grave as a second hand grabbed their collar, halting their descent..
“Whoa, don’ wanna fall in there buddy!”
Sai breathed a sigh of relief; it was just Charlie.
“Whatcha doin here Sai, you have the same idea as me?”
Sai smiled and swung their arms into a vaguely non-committal gesture as they worked their way loose of Charlie's grip, the faint clue all but forgotten.
“Assuming your idea was also to look around for a trace of Jack’s grave? Then yes, and indeedy here it is!”
A dramatic contortion revealed the spider-sized grave Sai had all-but fallen into to Charlie, who nodded and clapped their hands together.
“Well excellent! Jack of Spider eh! Very fancy! Well, see you later Sai, try be more careful, yeah?”
Clearly content with confirming the name of their new neighbour Charlie turned to leave, but Sai stopped him with an outstretched hand.
“Hold up big guy, don’t you think that maybe this raises a bit of a concern about the other three weird, shaped graves in this area?”
A blank stare greeted Sai’s frustrated gaze and Sai paused to rub their temples as the cheerful vlogger waited.
Sai gestured at the headstone marked with Jack’s name.
“Charlie, this grave… Is fundamental evidence that there is more than just us on the street. Proof that three more people are here somewhere!”
Sai gesticulated widely at the sky and then did a brief double take on the oddly shaped plots.
“People, Or non-people or whatever! Have been here the whole time. Alone. Instead of Six, we could have been nine all along. - and that’s without even considering the fact that Jack, well he can do actual factual magic! Who knows what the others can do! Is this the magic plot or the nonhuman plot? Or something else entirely? These three could be blood sucking vampires out to murder us for for all we know!”
The bubbly Scotsman’s face lit up at Sai’s words.
“That would make AMAZING content! I could do an interview with a vampire! You know how much I love that book! Come on Sai, no time to waste – let’s find us a vampire!”
As Sai reeled with the abrupt tonal shift Charlie grabbed their arm and dragged them away from the graves and out through the heavy iron gates which led to the street.
He paused and turned to Sai as he gestured at the rows of mismatched buildings laid out before the two of them.
“Right Sai, where do we start!”