Happy Caturday!
Remember, it’s October, and every day is Caturday in October.
At Least The Popcorn Was Good
What’s the weirdest movie you’ve ever watched?
When the movie “Mausoleum” was released, I had just turned 18. By then, I had been going to the midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show for a couple of years, starting when I was 14 so I was easily entertained.
I was a geek who was dateless in high school, wore the wrong clothes, and loved bands that weren’t popular. I didn’t mind being an outcast. I’m painting a picture for you of the person who was going to see ” Mausoleum “
That night I bought my popcorn, took my seat, and dove right into the movie.
As it got underway, people started to get up from their seats and announce they were going to ask for their money back. Other people shouted insults at the screen.
I took advantage of the empty seats in front of me to put my feet up. I leaned back, and just when I thought the comments from the audience were over—which was fine because they weren’t even faintly amusing—the couple next to me got up.
The girl got up after her boyfriend. She set her tub of popcorn down on her empty seat, but when her boyfriend turned around to wait for her, he saw the tub.
“Hey. Grab that. I’m not walking out of here with nothing.”
I thought for sure the girl would say something back. Instead, she reached down, grabbed the popcorn, and obediently followed him up the aisle toward the doors to the lobby.
Mausoleum was a bad movie. I mean, wow, it was not great.
But it was good because it did what movies should do: it entertained me.
On that score, this not-so-great movie won me over. On the other hand, I wouldn’t pay to see it. But if it pops up on your TV one night, give it a shot.
Just Another Day At Work
Experience Writing Halloween Prompt: Fun Writing Activity: Epistolary
Case Number: 2026-0904-A
Date of Entry: October31, 2026
Facility: Leaning Birches Cemetery and Funeral Home
Licensed Embalmer: S. Longyear (Lic. #6666-E)
- Deceased Name: Ellis Hopkins
- Age: 55
- Gender: Female
- Weight / Height: 180 / 5’04”
- Date / Time of Death: 10/27/26
- Place of Death: 330 View Ridge Drive (Private Residence)
- Authorization Secured: Yes (By statutory default; next of kin estranged/unresponsive)
II. PRE-EMBALMING OBSERVATIONS & CONDITION OF REMAINS
- Time Elapsed Since Death: 4 Days
- Refrigeration Status: Stored at 36°F for 12 hours prior to procedures.
- Rigor Mortis: Absent (Fully dissipated).
- Abdominal Distension: Moderate
- Purge Before Embalming: N/A
- Discolorations: Faint dependent lividity
Lesions & Trauma:
- N/A
III. EMBALMING PROCEDURES & CHEMICAL TREATMENT
- Mouth Closure: Packed with resin and sawdust
- Eye Closure: Eyes removed and replaced with obsidian
- Arteries Injected: N/A
- Veins Drained: Fluid Formulation: N/A
- Cavity Treatment: Post evisceration, the body was packed and covered inside and out with natron—standard salt compound composed of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, and sodium sulfate. Remaining body moisture, residual blood or fluids to coagulate and evaporate over a period of about 40 days.
IV. POST-EMBALMING CONDITION & COSMETICS
- Tissue Firmness: Full dessication of all soft tissues
- Vascular Distribution: N/A
- Small incisions or worked through nose and mouth. Cheeks and lips, and forehead padded with linen and wax. Rounded contours returned to the face.
- Body was treated with standard melted tree resins, oils and balms approved by the House of Anubis
- Individual phalanges were wrapped seperately
- Limbs were wrapped individually
- Arm placement requested by family straight down at sides
- Trunk and body wrapped
- Amulet placement completed to per family’s request.
- Resins applied between major layers of wrapping
V. EMBALMER’S MARGINAL NOTES (CONFIDENTIAL)
Wrapping process was completed within 15 days. Readings from the Book of the Dead were read and the deceased’s soul was safeguarded as per our standard practice The final shroud was secured and held in place by linens provided by the family.
Face Mask fitted over face
Body placed in wooden caskets and marked with deceased name and family history.
Signed: Sunny Longyear
Time of Completion: 3:00am
Photo by A.M.
Augusta’s Midnight Stroll
For RDP Friday: TULIP
Hanging above the fireplace in my library is a picture of Augusta Alexander, the infamous nurse who died in the fire at Gravesend Sanitarium in 1901, gliding through the late-night stillness of Midlothian Cemetery.
A heavy, full moon hangs overhead, covered in part by dark, swirling clouds. Beneath her boots, the earth is littered with fractured masonry, overturned clods of soil, and pale white tulips scattered on her path.
Closest to Augusta, the petals have rotted at the edges, and their stems have twisted into unnatural knots, as if the dead and dying tulips had been tortured by her approach.
The flowers aren’t the only thing being tortured by Augusta.
Since I brought her portrait into my house, I can hear the sounds of the bones in their coffins and tombs telling each other to be quiet. “Be still, she’ll be gone soon enough,” they whisper frantically to each other.
Sometimes I can even catch the soft whisper of Augusta’s veil rippling in the night air.
But I have a terrible feeling that Augusta is still in this world and in that cemetery, and that the dead and I will never rest as long as she walks among the graves and through her picture every night.