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Emotion 365: The Cemetery Dismayed, the Shack Sullen

Masoleums, half-erect under craggy trees, lean into hillsides in the cemetery Dismayed. People walk slowly from stone to stone looking at dates and names trying to find connection with the past. Gloom hangs over Dismayed. Mist falls from heavy clouds. Wolves howl at a shrouded moon. Colonies of bats hang in the trees and rise as one when startled. Colonies of rats burrow under the mausoleums and birth litters of pups. They scurry from stone to stone. Owls hoot. Cats yowl. The caretaker of Dismayed leaves bowls of food and refills water. Many monstrous creatures make Dismayed their home.

"They say the caretaker imagines monsters and they come to life the next day," says Miss Doe Friend.

"And it is so," confirms Miss Emeline.

The caretaker’s Sullen shack sits at the edge of the Cemetary Dismayed. Inside the caretaker ruminates in between tasks. They pull weeds from beside stones and sweep around the mausoleums. The listen to the directives of rats, bats, and cats. Visitors to Dismayed come to Sullen to ask for the locations of certain gravestones. Some ask to be buried here.

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