One ordinary night Lizzy had entered Paul’s house, expecting nothing, when Paul ran from the study to deliver the news.

“I think I found it!” he said. He had a book on his hand, one that looked quite old.

“Really?!” she exclaimed, excited that they were going to finally continue with their mission.

“You bet, lassie! I spent weeks but I finally found something related to the researchers that took the orb.” He pointed at the book he was holding. “I’ve been reading the diary of one Mr. Winklefeather, who was the last known person to hold the orb. He experimented with it during that time, and was so sure that its power would grant him immortality. We don’t know what happened afterwards, but considering that he went crazy over that orb, I bet that he asked his family to be buried with it!”

“Buried with it? Does that mean…?”

“Exactly like you think, lassie! The orb must be at the cemetery, inside the grave of Mr. Winklefeather!”

As ecstatic as she was that they had found a clue and a possible location for the orb, the idea that they were going to be forced to desecrate a grave made Lizzy’s stomach turn. She didn’t want to resort to graverobbing to save the village, but it seemed that she had no choice.

“Where is his tomb?”

Lizzy went to the cemetery back at the village and the first thing she did was to borrow — or, as others would put it, steal — a shovel. It was a very misty night, so she needed a lantern if she didn’t want to dig up the wrong grave. She walked among the dead, silently praying that they would forgive her for what was about to be done. They would understand, it was to stop the Great Vampire Lord’s plans, the same vampire that took their parents, siblings, friends… They would have helped her too if they were still alive!

Or at least that was Lizzy told herself.

She wasn’t much of person of faith, there were times that she believed that God had abandon them, but due to her profession she couldn’t deny the existence of holy and demonic power (and now, she had to add magical elemental power to the list). She didn’t know much about the afterlife, but she surely hoped that she wouldn’t get into Hell for what she was about to do. She also hoped that no spirit would interrupt her.

As she searched for the correct grave she passed many familiar names, such as the Flores, the Smithsons and, of course, the Dabeltorns. And who else would be in the cemetery but Anna Dabeltorn (née Lebeaupin)? Lizzy stood in front of the grave of her mother for a while.

“Anna Dabeltorn, lovely mother and wife, taken far too soon by the enemy. May your spirit be free in Heaven, at last,” the epitaph read.

There were no flowers on the grave, probably because her husband was away, because Lizzy was absolutely sure that he brought flowers every time they would wilt. She was tempted to leave some but couldn’t. She took a look at the day Anna was born and the day of her death. Twenty years, that was all that Anna had lived. Lizzy was going to outlive her in a couple of years. She didn’t know how to feel about that, she didn’t even know if her job would let her truly outlive her mother or if she was cursed to die young just like her. It would be ironic, wouldn’t be? To be the living reflection of someone and die at the same age.

Perhaps she shouldn’t dwell too much on it…

Snapping back at reality, she kept looking for the tomb of Mr. Robert Winklefeather. After much time, she found the graves of the Winklefeather family, which meant that it was only a matter of time to find Robert’s grave.

And indeed she found it.

It was a simple grave, with a simple text that praised how much of a good father he was (but if what Paul said about him going crazy was true, then she doubted it was sincere).

With the grave now located, it was time to do some digging!

Lizzy used the shovel to dig a big hole, which was harder than it looked like. She was exhausted when she reached the coffin. She opened it and tried to ignore the smell of death, but couldn’t help but gag. There was nothing left of the man except a skeleton, still wearing some old suit that had been half-eaten by bugs. In his hands, just like Paul predicted, there was a shiny Elven Orb, emanating a soft indigo light, resembling a full moon.

Lizzy silently celebrated and grabbed the orb. She didn’t know if she had to leave the grave undone or not. She probably didn’t have the time to fix it, she needed to give the orb to Paul as soon as possible. She didn’t get to decide, though, considering that a pair of ur-vampyrs dropped from the sky in front of her.

“Give the orb back, girl, and nobody gets hurt!” demanded on of them.

Lizzy put the orb down and readied herself for combat.

“So that’s how it’s going to be, eh?”

Both of her enemies leaped towards her at great speed, but they stopped once she swung her sword at them. She had managed to make a shallow cut when they began to fly to gain an advantage. Lizzy knew it would be foolish to use her gun so soon to take them down, she didn’t know if she was going to be interrupted like last time, so she resorted to wait for their next move.

One of them remained in the air while the other went flew downwards to attack. Lizzy dodged the attack by stepping to her left and he fell inside the undug grave. She was about to turn around when the other ur-vampyr came down to attack her, but he suddenly stopped when he heard a scream of terror. It came from his fellow ur-vampyr, who was running away from the grave.

In a moment of confusion, everything went on a standstill, when Lizzy noticed movement coming from the grave. To her very horror, the skeleton came back to life and began moving on its own. It growled and in an instant magical energy began to emanate from the Elven Orb, shining with the light of the moon. The ground began to shake and all hell broke loose when other dead people, some of them more decomposed than others, dug themselves from their graves.

Lizzy didn’t understood what happened, but then she remembered the words of Paul. “He experimented with it during that time, and was so sure that its power would grant him immortality.”

So that was it, then, the true power of the orb, a power so strong that it could bring back the dead.

Unfortunately for Lizzy, the dead were not being amicable. Lizzy forgot about the ur-vampyr and fought the skeleton of Mr. Winklefeather, cutting his limbs so that he wouldn’t be able to walk. He wasn’t the only one to attack her, so she kept swinging her sword and cutting down bones. She did it over and over again, noticing that she wasn’t really killing the undead, she was just slowing them down.

She couldn’t afford to stop, but did when she noticed that one of the skeletons was wearing a familiar set of clothes. They were wearing a laced long-sleeved blouse with a purple skirt. Lizzy had spent enough time at the library to recognize the set, that was the skeleton of her mother. The skeleton walked up to her, growling, and Lizzy had no choice but to take her down too. She really hoped that she would forgive her…

Remembering the reason why everything was happening, she turned around to see the orb again and noticed that the ur-vampyr was picking it up.

“Hey!” She yelled, but it was too late, he was already flying away with the orb in his hand.

“Thanks for the orb!” he said back, without even turning around.

As soon as the orb left the cemetery, the power that kept the dead alive vanished. The undead shook slightly before dropping to the ground, becoming nothing but corpses again.

Lizzy was left panting and she screamed. She couldn’t believe it! It happened again! Now the vampire lord had another orb! And to make matters worse, the entirety of the cemetery was undug!

She had to run before someone else found her and asked questions.