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The ritual is simple. Effective. Ninety years have passed since the last haunting. 

The corpse should enter the churchyard on a wooden cart. A priest blesses the soil. A hymn must be sung, lulling the spirit into a deep sleep as the body is lowered into the earth. I saw it as a kindness, a gentle practice.

I was wrong. The cart moves with agitating jolts. The soil is thrown haphazardly, blinding my eyes and stifling my mouth. It forms a heavy weight that pushes me down, further, until the music quietens and worms writhe between my fingers. 

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“The Churchyard Ritual” by Sarah Townsend and the artwork titled The Churchyard Ritual by Jessica Mu appeared in Issue 43 of Berkeley Fiction Review.

Sarah Townsend is an emerging writer from Manchester, England. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Oxford and her journalistic writing has been published by the Cherwell newspaper.

Jessica Xuong Mu is currently a junior transfer student majoring in molecular and cell biology, with an emphasis in neurobiology. She is extremely interested in dying, death, and emotions of grief. She also loves BTS.