Ranker Graveyard Shift Novels & Stories

"You're letting a mere surrogate look at your phone?" "Yeah," He said with a nod, his voice very soft. "You can look through it whenever you want. As much as you want." "Enough!" I shook him off, my eyes cold. "How long are you rich people going to keep playing these games? When the woman you loved died, your first thought wasn't to stay loyal to her. It was to spend money on a stand-in. After you find one, you put her on a pedestal when you're happy, then throw her into the bin once you get bored."

By recruiting people the underworld had left for dead, she built the system—shadows who had once been destroyed by the mafia world. With her five most trusted pillar members—people she lifted from nothing—they were all ready to give their lives for her at any moment. The Graveyard was an anonymous network that sold silent operations. It operated in the shadows of the mafia world. It wasn’t a family. It was a system. A broker of power and debt. They handled contracts, secrets, and operations too dangerous or politically explosive for mafia families. For the last two years, The Graveyard had shaken the system in Italy.

A chill shot up my spine. Check-in successful? I was here. So who checked in for me? I looked at the headstone again. The stone was gray and fresh—too fresh. A photo was pasted on it. My employee ID photo from when I first joined. Below it, letters in red: [Zane Zander] [Placed by Jay Zander] Jay Zander. My younger brother. My biggest rival at Northpoint Corp. My head buzzed. Last night at the department dinner, Jay kept refilling my drink.

'Holiday Ohh, Holiday, and the best one of the years dozing off underneath my sheets, while I cover both my ears. But if I wait for that holiday, could it stop my fears? To go away on a summer's day, never seemed so clear.' ~ Vampier Weekend

I slowly walked towards the hospital while trying to fight off my sleepiness, I couldn't let sleepiness win especially since I was transferred to the night shift. I could already see the tall hospital building and the people in the waiting area, the ambulance at the entrance to the ER, and the families crying and taking care of the paperwork for the morgue. "Yhra, is it your shift?" the guard at the table joked at me as I approached for my time card. "Yes, it's my first day on the night shift. It's all of a sudden," I replied then he checked my bag and gestured for me to be okay.

The Power Cell coordinates were flashing. “Ryan,” I whispered to the empty air. “Initiate the decryption. We have the juice. Now, let's see what the Warden left in the grave.” As I stepped out, Kael’s iron poker clattered to the floorboards below. The sound was a rhythmic, final clack. The army of the Discarded was waiting for us at the exit, their gold eyes reflecting the neon rot. But my gaze was on the tactical slate. [DOWNGRADE PROGRAM: 83%]

I nodded in acknowledgment even though I’d never been here before. Well… not consciously. Maybe a childhood memory lurked. Maybe I’d forgotten. Maybe Valentina erased it. The gates creaked open. Inside the Garden… …was a graveyard. A labyrinth of metal trees, each one hung with shifter parts, claws, pelts, teeth, fur, like macabre decorations. Wolves. Panthers. Boar-shifters. Bear-shifters. Even rare avian talons. A museum of extinction. And beneath them, cages.

TIME: 14:00 HOURS. LOCATION: SECTOR 8 "THE RUST BELT" - E-WASTE GRAVEYARD. STATUS: SCAVENGING. The graveyard didn't hold bodies. It held memories. Ren stood atop a mountain of discarded technology—a sprawling, jagged landscape of broken circuit boards, shattered monitors, and tangled copper wire that stretched for acres under the grey, weeping sky of Sector 8. This was where the city’s dreams came to die. When a citizen in Sector 1 upgraded their neural link, the old one ended up here, crushed and forgotten.

Besides, there was no way a cremation could happen that quickly. Back then, I was in such bad shape I never questioned it. But this time, no way I was going to accept this burden or be the fool again. I grabbed the urn, popped it open, and dumped everything inside onto the floor. Dark powder scattered everywhere. The nurse let out a piercing scream. "What do you think you're doing? That's her ashes!" People nearby gasped and quickly backed away. "What the hell? Why is she dumping ashes here? Is she crazy?"

Even after everyone had paid their respects at my gravestone, I couldn’t find his figure among the crowd. As people began to disperse, only Troy and Mom remained at the gravestone. They shared one last glance before leaving. I sat idly in front of my gravestone, trying to appear strong. “Troy to choose such a nice photo. All those hours I spent editing it weren’t in vain, at least it’s serving a purpose now,” I said loudly, to no one in particular. Then my emotions suddenly burst forth like a dam breaking. The realization that I was dead and would never again sit with everyone I loved overwhelmed me, and I began to weep uncontrollably.