[ IP ] Small Night Sounds

`` Helluva night, Louis,'' Skel-Mel said, adjusting the halberd rested over his shoulder as he leaned against the high stone fence. 
 
 `` Ayup,'' Louis said, and spat on the ground, holding his reaper axe in the same way as his reliving, skeletal companion and fellow Night Reaper, leaned against the same stone fence. `` Lovin' this breeze, an' the calm night air, I am.'' 
 
 Skel-Mel nodded his skull head, his glasses over empty eye sockets rattling just a little. `` Nothin' like a gud reapin' near past midnight, I reckon,'' agreed the reliving that used to be a he, before the barn fire took his flesh and first life. `` You think'ol Tom be stayin' dead, this time, Louis, my good friend?'' 
 
 Louis resettled himself on the wall, looking up to and through the dark slurry clouds, to the pale moon that always announced a stalking hour -- when things stirred that had no business a-stirring. 
 
 `` Ayup,'' Louis replied. `` Got'em good, this time. Head done cut clean off.'' 
 
 `` We oughtta buries it somewhere,'' Skel-Mel seconded. `` Tha head. Wit sum salt, an' such. Well aways from tha body. Reckon that'll fix'ol Walking Tom's wagon, this time.'' 
 
 `` Ayup,'' Louis said. `` Reckon it will.''
