Free Deathless by Scott Prussing

up.
    The reporter continued speaking. “Police are puzzled by several strange aspects to all this. Earlier, I spoke with Detective Dave Sanderson.”
    The picture reverted to a daylight shot again, and the mustachioed face of a good-looking man in his late thirties or early forties filled the screen.
    “ We have no real leads at this time,” he said. “We’re asking for the public’s help. If you know anything about this brazen, disrespectful act, please call the number on the bottom of your screen. There are no signs of any heavy equipment having been in the cemetery, so we know the perpetrators had to be here a long time to dig up so many graves by hand. This is a pretty out of the way spot, but we’re hoping someone driving by saw something unusual here last night.”
    A live shot of the reporter replaced the detective’s face. “There’s another troubling aspect about this incident that no one will talk about on camera,” the reporter said. “But I’ve been told by a member of the forensics crew that not only was there no evidence of heavy equipment, but they’ve been unable to find any sign of any digging equipment at all. ‘There aren’t even any shovel marks,’ he told me. ‘It doesn’t make any sense, but it looks like somebody dug the bodies up by hand.’”
    “ Holy crap!” Cali said, turning to Leesa. “Did you hear that?”
    Leesa’s head was spinning. What the heck was going on here? Her fingers began twirling in her hair.
    “ Shhh. I want to hear the rest of this.”
    The reporter flashed a cheerleader smile. “Now there’s a mystery wrapped up inside a puzzle,” she said. “Who or what would dig up a half-dozen dead bodies without even using a shovel? And why go to all that trouble, and then just leave the bodies lying there?”
    The picture returned to the earlier helicopter shot. “That’s all we have for now,” the reporter said as the camera zoomed in on the graveyard. Leesa leaned closer to the television. A ragged circle of dark lumps was barely visible now. They had to be the unearthed bodies. From this distance, she couldn’t tell if they were covered by anything or not.
    She shuddered. Even though the view was still too far to see clearly, she was struck by how similar the circle of bodies looked to the one she had seen in her dream. She switched off the television.
    “ Wow, that’s freakin’ crazy,” Cali said. “Do you think your vampire friends could have done it?”
    “ I keep telling you, they’re not my friends.” Leesa stood up and took a few aimless steps around the room. “But no, I doubt vampires had anything to do with it. What would they want with dead bodies? They only like live ones, filled with lots of warm blood.”
    “ Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right. I definitely need to take that Vampire Science class you’re always talking about next semester.”
    Cali looked at Leesa more closely and saw the worry etched on her face. She reached over and gently pulled Leesa’s hand from her hair. “So, how close was that to what you dreamed?”
    “ I’m not sure. It was hard to see. I wish they’d zoomed in closer, but I guess it’s not the kind of thing they’re going to show on TV.” Leesa took a deep breath. “But from what I could see, it looked way too similar.”
    “ There were a bunch of people watching from outside the cemetery,” Cali said as an idea popped into her head. “I bet someone took pictures or video with their cell.” She grabbed Leesa’s laptop from the desk. “Let’s check YouTube.”
    Cali sat back down on the edge of the bed and opened the computer on her lap. Leesa came over and sat beside her, unsure whether she wanted Cali to find anything or not.
    Cali’s fingers pecked rapidly at the keyboard, opening the YouTube home page and then typing in her search.
    “ I knew it,” she said excitedly. “Look. Someone posted a clip from the cemetery. Gotta love all those smartphones out there.”
    Leesa leaned in more