100 Words a Day 976

The heavy rains had turned the barrow clearing marshy. This was the most dangerous time for the surrounding villages and they lit extra fires and posted extra men to the watch on these nights. If the mounds became too muddy, the ghoul occupants of the tombs could claw their way up through the soft earth. The men and women buried in the field were criminals guilty of diabolic transgressions. Animated by some sinister power, they were imbued with an unending desire for human flesh. Only the sacred dirt of the field could contain them, when not weakened by dark rains.