meet you at the cemetery gates

-

Most people, at least you thought, knew cemeteries to be bad luck. Driving past, you were meant to hold your breath for fear of a ghost getting at you. Yeah, you believed that as a kid, but now? You couldn't be so sure. After all, here you were, with Eddie Munson, sitting in the long grass of the Hawkins Cemetery. Not a big cemetery by any means. A small burial place for a small town.
He sat next to you, hands thumbing through your paperback of a Keats poetry collection.
He cleared his throat, bending the back of the book over itself like he was prone to do with paperbacks. Yours, his, the library copies.

    "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art-" He propped himself up on his own elbow, angling to maybe catch the lamplight to illuminate the page, or maybe just for some dramatic flair.
"Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night...and watching, with eternal lids apart,"
You cringed at his pause at the stanza but laughed when he kept up with the bit.
"Like nature's patient, sleepless... Eremite?" He looked towards you, his big round eyes creasing in confusion.
"What was that again?"

You rolled your eyes, "some Christian thing."

"Hah! That's.. Weirdly fitting." He shut the paperback, part of the cover curling over from his folding. "I'm not much of a Keats fan anyways."

"No? I thought a bit of melodrama would be fitting for this.." You motioned with your hands, emphasizing. "Super cloudy horror movie-esque cemetery outing."

Eddie smiled, fully sitting up, legs crossed. "Cemetery outing? Come on I thought we came out here for a date."

"A Melo-romantic date."

"I don't even think 'Melo-romantic' is a word."

"Oh my, are you the poetry reader now?" You smiled, cocking your head. The yellowed cemetery lamps lit the half of your face turned towards Eddie- you could see his dark eyes crinkle in a smile.

"I've always been a Wilde fan myself,"

"You've only read A Picture of Dorian Gray and you know it." You laughed, and he scratched the back of his head.

"So what if I've," He lifted his hands in finger quotes, "only read Dorian Gray," He leaned forward, arms folded in his lap. "I can still like it, no?" He smiled, "Besides! You haven't listened to Diary of a Madman in full, so we're both lacking here."

"Hey! I've listened to whatever you've played in the van!"

"That's so much! Dio, Ozzy, Black Sabbath..Iron Maiden!" His eyes grew wide, his hair looked even crazier than it did before. Like he was alive.

"Aw come on I really do actually like Black Sabbath."

"Everybody with ears should like Black Sabbath." Eddie smiled. "Maybe all the ghosts and ghouls too."

"Ghosts and ghouls would totally love Black Sabbath." You chimed in. You rose to your feet, laughing and stomping against the cold grass. You cleared your throat and began to sing, not as well as Ozzy, but you tried your damndest.
"Generals gathered at their massessssss!"' You stomped your feet and clapped your hands to, almost, symbolize the guitar chuck.

"Summoning spirits there?" Eddie mused. "The ghosties gotta rise to Black Sabbath."

"Go on, then!"

Eddie laughed, "So fuckin weird," He rose to his feet, accidentally or not, knocking at your Keats collection.

"Just like witches at black masses-" Eddie joined you, grabbing your arms and swaying with you to an invisible beat.

"Evil minds that.." You started, but the words fizzled out in your memory. You gave a nervous laugh before Eddie finished for you, "Plot destruction..." Eddie laughed and pulled both of you towards the left, two pairs of legs stumbling over themselves. He unwound one of his hands from you to waggle his fingers, "Sorceror of death's construction!"