July 16, 2025

Rest in Peace
by David Corisis

Click here to listen to this story on the Kaidankai Podcast.


“Ahh!! GAAH!!”
I jolted awake in a frantic scramble for air. Darkness held me in its grasp. Frigid cold drilled its icy fingers into my bones. I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face. Everything was silent. I knew I was breathing, but the darkness was so thick I couldn’t even hear my own gasps for air. The back of my head flared with pain. I could still feel the rock that had hit me.
My fists and feet flung outward. I was allowed only inches before they struck wooden walls. Dull thuds responded to my strikes. It didn’t take a genius to know I was underground.
I couldn’t believe it at first. My breath came out in rising huffs before my anger exploded.
“You bastards!!! YOU DAMN BASTARDS!!!!”
Spittle flew from my mouth with the curses. My lips were dry, cracking as I screamed below ground. I desperately needed water. They felt like they’d stretched over my teeth.
The coffin’s lid rang against my elbow. I didn’t care about the pain; they weren’t going to get away with this. Specks of dirt fell through the lid’s seam with every jolt. The soil was still loose: good news for me. Every strike was more earth moved.
“You buried me?! YOU GODDAMN BACKSTABBING SNAKES!! NOBODY DOES THIS TO DIAMONDBACK!! NOBODY!!” I loosed a rageful bellow into the surrounding earth. “LET ME OUT!!!”
There was nothing coming from above. No sounds, no movement. Not even the hoof falls of my trusty horse. The worms and bugs didn’t even want to recognize me. 
I pressed my hands to either side of the coffin. I had to when I felt like it was closing in around me. It was cheap, I could tell that much. It wouldn’t be able to take much of a beating, especially with the weight of all that dirt on top.
My breath was weak, squeezed from my ribs by the tomb. How long had I been out? When did they get me? There wasn’t an unlimited amount of air at my disposal. I was already feeling lightheaded.
I needed a tool. Something. Anything to help break the coffin. 
My knees immediately struck the lid when I bent my legs. I had less room in here than a kid in a whore’s belly.
“I’ll get them… I’ll get them for this!!”
My shoulders ached when I stretched my arms along my body. They at least had the decency to leave my revolver, likely so I could end this imprisonment on my own terms. The next thing I noticed was the emptiness on my right hip.
The bag of gold dust and nuggets was gone. One of the biggest hauls of my life and it had been stolen while they tossed me into this early grave.
“YOU BASTAAAARDS!!!!”
My anger was turning the coffin into an oven. Even the cold dirt couldn’t deny me my rage.
“I showed you that vein!!! I trusted you!!! We had a deal!!!”
My knuckles cracked when I punched the lid. “WE HAD A DEAL!!!”
I started pushing with my arms and legs. The coffin strained around me, groaning at its joints. Dirt had begun streaming in above my head. It was soft and fresh, still moist from being thrown on top of me. It washed over my face but I coughed it out and kept thrashing.
I was getting out of here.
Dirt fell in my eyes. I blinked, ignoring the discomfort. Anger was my painkiller. I’m sure I would hurt later, but there would be time for that after I put a bullet between each of their eyes.
The coffin complained from my forces. I was making headway. 
I felt it jolt. The right wall bulged outward before snapping from the top. I could tell they’d nailed the lid shut. Several of the spikes had already pierced my fingers in the darkness like rusty rattlers. My breath came out like a bull’s as I fumed.
“I’ll get you sonsabitches for this!!! You hear me?! YOU HEAR ME?! YOU AIN’T GETTING AWAY FROM OL’ DIAMONDBACK!!! I’LL SLIT YOUR THROATS WHILE YOU SLEEP!!”
There was no way to know how deep I was buried. It could have been a foot of dirt on top of me, it could have been six. If they were smart, they would have made it ten.
My hand split against the lid.
“Go behind my back?! Don’t even have the decency to put me down first?!”
Freshly dug soil toppled around my neck. The gaps were widening. The lid had more give every time.
“If you so much as touched my horse, I’ll skin you alive before I hang you!!”
I resorted to clawing at the edges of the splintering coffin. My nails gouged at the wood, shrieking in the darkness. It could have been blood running down my face, it could have been mud. All I knew was every scrape and every punch was one step closer to my vengeance. 
My sore hands fumbled my revolver in the darkness. Pressing it against the wood, I gritted my teeth and pulled the trigger.
Silence.
My rage boiled. “GRRRAAAAHHHH!!!”
I was going to wake the dead at this rate. They left my gun to end the torment and took out all the bullets.
“You’re all dead!!! DEAD!!!”
My boot. I had to get to my boot. I couldn’t lift my legs any higher than a few inches, but I could partially roll over and bend my legs toward me. 
“Nnngh!!!”
I felt like my shoulder was going to dislocate itself from my straining. Finally I felt the edge of the leather around my ankles. My fingers wiggled inside my boot to dig into a built-in pouch: my secret bullet stash. There were only six, but that was plenty.
Fumbling them into my revolver went by in an unseen blur. Several curses flew from my mouth when I dropped some and had to search in the darkness.
I pressed the barrel against the top of the coffin where I knew the most damage had been done.
All six rounds went off but only heard the first before my hearing gave out. I couldn’t even be certain I had heard any gunshot as I flew into a desperate frenzy for escape. The bullets gently thumped! around me, embedding themselves into the earth. Time below ground seemed to blur together. The concussive blasts made the wound in my head throb.
My fingers managed to hook into a gaping bullet hole. From there it was easy to start ripping the cheap wood apart when I tore off a hand-sized chunk.
Dirt poured over me when my arm broke through. It tasted of rot and rainwater. Grit ground between my teeth when I spat the mouthfuls out, screaming into the gushing darkness. Even the earth wanted me to stay down.
The coffin was coming apart. I had broken through. If I kept my arms just right, I could keep myself from getting pinned beneath the dirt. It was lucky I had woken up before it had a chance to settle, or I might never have been able to move the lid.
“Nnggaahhh!!! I’M COMING FOR YOU, YOU BASTARDS!!”
My voice screamed through a mouth full of soil. I had managed to wriggle both arms out of the hole, pulling myself up through the dirt.
I was deep. Even with my arms straight up, pulling my torso out of the coffin, my fingers couldn’t feel open air. It was a dance to keep the dirt moving around my body, exchanging my place with it in the coffin for the sake of mobility. The jagged edges on the lid pulled at my clothes as if the box wanted me to stay.
By the time I was sitting up, the dirt was crushing my ribs like a giant fist. I couldn’t breathe. My arms had little leverage to pull my entire weight. I had to use my mouth to help claw my way up as if I were a worm.
My voice came out in dirt-gargling hisses. I could feel it grating in the back of my sinuses. “I’ll kill you where you sleep!! You and any whores you bought with my gold!!!”
The earth moved easily around my hands. They had broken through to the surface, grasping at empty air. It was cold out, but not nearly as cold as that cursed coffin.
It was becoming easier now. I clawed at the surface and kicked myself from the coffin. Every inch was a blessing delivering me like a demon from hell. The dirt started doming, lifted by my head and back. In a last-ditch effort to keep me prisoner, the coffin lid snagged my boot from below.
“GRRAAAHHHHH!!!”
My scream burst from the earth as I coughed. I inhaled like a newborn. The fresh air tasted better than any cigarette. 
I grabbed at anything for a solid hold. The area around my grave was still firm and unforgiving. When my hips came above ground, I knew I had made it.
Dirt rolled off my back and I crawled onto my hands and knees. A sinkhole was left in my wake from dirt entering my would-be resting place.
I had made it. Rage burned in my chest like a furnace. I was exhausted and aching. My head throbbed from where they had struck me. But I couldn’t stop now.
They had to pay.
The earth swayed beneath my legs when I rose. Dirt fell off my shoulders in curtains as I breathed deeply.
“Where are you?!” I bellowed. “WHERE ARE YOU?! I’M COMING FOR YOU, YOU SONSABIT–”
I paused, taking in my surroundings.
It was night. Last I could remember, it was noon without a cloud in the sky. I held my hand up to block the moon’s glow; even its silvery presence hurt after the darkness below. 
“Wait…”
Why could I see the moon through my hand?
I brought my arm down, my eyes drifting over its thin form before catching sight of the rest of my body.
Bones… Just bones… I stood for a moment in contemplation, staring at my own skeleton. Realization made me stumble backward like a drunk.
“Oh… Right…”
My clothes hung off me in a tattered cover. There was no skin to block my skeleton from the moon. I thought I could hear the wind whistling through my ribs. My body sounded like a dull wind chime when I moved. Clenching my hands open and closed, I stared at them with rising melancholy. My fingers were scratched and worn down. Some were completely broken in half. My entire right foot was gone, abandoned back in the coffin after the lid snagged my boot.
I rubbed the back of my skull. The hole was still there and as painful as ever.
“How long has it been this time…”
My surroundings drew my attention. There were more headstones every time I emerged. The town was still in the distance, glowing at the base of a hill. It was always larger than I remembered. Although now I was left wondering how they managed to light it up so well at night. Never seen lanterns so bright and steady.
My jaw slacked with a sigh. My gold was long gone, same with those double-crossing snakes who took it. Maybe they’re even buried in this same cemetery. I never get around to looking.
“I always forget…”
I clenched my hands in frustration, angry again at my inability to stay dead. 
“Damn hard to forgive and forget…”
My body swayed in the breeze, uneasy on my aching bones. It was getting hard to stay upright and I was feeling tired as my anger ebbed. 
Joints creaked when I stumbled back. A headstone provided support. My headstone. Always there… Always sturdy. I lowered to the ground. The smoothed rock was firm against my spine, solid and unmoving. My most trusted companion.
I rolled my head to the side, having forgotten what it said. The inscription was faded but not illegible.
“1847, huh… Wonder what year it is now…”
The other headstones could have given me a clue, but it wasn’t worth the effort. My hand scooped some of the loose dirt from my grave. Based on the shovel nearby, they must have reburied me only a day or two ago.
This vengeance won’t let me sleep.
I leaned back and lifted my empty sockets toward the sky. A bright moon hung there, weightless as always.
“At least you never change. No matter how many times I claw myself out…”
The world was slipping away. It never failed once everything came rushing back. Slumping against my own headstone, I could feel that eternal sleep taking over. My vision darkened and my bones settled.
“Guess I’ll just wait here… Someone will put me back…”
I stared at the shovel stuck in the ground at the foot of my grave as the world faded.
“Someone always does…”

                                                                    💀💀💀


David Corisis is a born-and-raised Idahoan and graduate of Gonzaga University. He lives the exciting life of a programmer by day and aspiring writer by night. When not sharing a keyboard with his cat, David enjoys running, brewing mead, playing Magic the Gathering, camping, and worrying about the ever-marching hand of time stealing everything he holds dear. His favorite books include At the Mountains of Madness, and Flatland. He couldn’t be happier taking on the world and its challenges with his eternally inspirational wife at his side. To find out more, you can visit www.dcorisis.com.