The son of a mortician, Gleiter grew up in the funeral home, roaming the solemn hallways catching glimpses of grieving families. The boy had seen more dead bodies by the age of five than most people do in their lifetime. The cold, pale corpses never bothered him very much. At first he simply thought of them as sleeping until his father, Henrick, explained to him the concept of death. Although he was unable to completely grasp the idea at such a young age, Gleiter was happy helping his father in basement of the building that served as the morgue. Usually on the days of funerals, Gleiter would spend time with his mother, Katrina, who kept the boy busy out of respect for those who had lost loved ones. The mortuary doubled as their house, Gleiter's room was on the second floor and services were held on the first. Tensions began to mount between the adults when Katrina became pregnant. Gleiter was looking forward to having a little brother or sister to play with, yet his father wasn't nearly as excited. The news that his wife was expecting came as an unwelcomed surprise. Their budget was already strained and with the eventual need of his wife to take time off to care for the infant, they would be lucky to keep the business afloat. However, they coped and worked through the problems, both monetary and those involving their marriage. Gleiter took on more responsibilities of his own. He looked after his mother, prepared some of the bodies when Henrick was unable, and even ran errands for a couple of the nearby shops.
As the months dragged by, it became obvious that there was more than one baby on the way. Katrina's stomach was massive, two times the size it was when Gleiter was inside her, his father said. Twins! Gleiter was ecstatic, but Henrick had a difficult time hiding his despair. Financial problems were soon pushed to the back of his mind. His wife's health started to decline and he feared the strain of giving birth would be too much for her. On the night of the delivery, her body was simply too weak to last. The twins, however, were healthy and survived when Katrina perished. Gleiter was devastated, his mother was gone, yet Henrick suffered a great deal more. Since they owned the only funeral parlor in the city, Gleiter was forced to help his father prepare the woman's body for the ceremony. After years of performing the same procedure, he finally experienced the grief that he had always avoided. Watching with a stiff look on his face at the ceremony, Gleiter listened to usual speech of the churchman as he tried to keep his brothers quiet. Axel and Arlo, his mother had decided the names before her death; she had been certain they would be male.
In the years that followed, Gleiter put most of his effort into looking after his two brothers and the family business. Since the funeral, Henrick abandoned most of his work, spending his days in the city's tavern instead. It was difficult to juggle so many tasks at once, keeping the funeral home running, tending to the boys, and scraping together enough money to keep them alive. When he had a breath of free time, he worked to achieve his true passion, flying. To Gleiter, the human body was the perfect machine, except it possessed an egregious error. The inability to take flight was what Gleiter aspired to fix. By tinkering and building contraptions, he hoped to create a device that could enable a person to fly and stay airborne. Ever since he could remember, his dreams had been full of soaring through the air without the slightest concern on his mind. Yet there wasn't much time now to put such thoughts to use. After years of neglect, Henrick finally returned home and began to support his family. Although bitter at first, Gleiter eventually welcomed back his father. The twins, though, were not as forgiving. Deciding to give them time to adjust, Henrick devoted his effort to the funeral home, allowing his eldest son much needed time to himself. Gleiter relished in this opportunity, he would finally be able to finish some of his experiments. Of course even with so much free time, this was still difficult for him. He had so many ideas that it was hard to focus on one without jumping to the next.
Still, Axel and Arlo helped him with whatever he attempted, always sticking nearby with encouraging words and necessary tools. They even began to share interest in their brother's dream. Gleiter shared his books and thoughts with them. They returned his enthusiasm two fold and grew eager to help create an apparatus that would give them wings. Although he worked harder than ever, Gleiter kept his greatest success hidden from the boys. He revealed the completed device on their seventh birthday. It required both of their participation to take flight and resembled something like a modern day hang glider with pedals. The boys were overjoyed at the unveiling of the gift and begged Gleiter to take them out to try it. He quickly gave in to their pleas and took them along to an open field on the outskirts of the city. Axel wore his favorite hat for the occasion and Arlo brought along his blue and white stuffed rabbit like always. Thanks to the wheels he installed, it wasn't hard to maneuver the machine to the allotted area. With the help of the twins, Gleiter pushed it to the top of the highest hill around. After checking one last time to make sure everything was secure, Gleiter helped Arlo in first and then Axel, strapping them into the safety device. There was a slight cliff several feet ahead, just high enough so they could stay off the ground. He gave them a push as the boys began to pedal furiously, the wings of the contraption flapping as it gathering momentum and speed.
Everything continued according to plan. The machine took off; they had gathered enough speed and soared through the air for a few blissful seconds. Yet, as they continued to pedal, their yells of joy turned to cries of fear. Gleiter watched in horror as one of the main bars supporting the wing structure snapped. The wings caved in and with nothing helping to keep the contraption aloft it began to plummet at a sickening rate. The take off point hadn't been incredibly high, but enough to cause a terrible crash. Gleiter rushed forth, yet couldn't make it before his brothers collided with the ground in a twisted mess of metal, wire, gears, and leather. Seconds later, the pale inventor fell to his knees before his failed experiment and hopefully the battered, yet alive twins. He tore back one of the snapped wings, revealing the mangled and bloodstained bodies of Axel and Arlo. The lightweight bars that Gleiter had thought would increase the amount of airtime were now piercing through the boys. One had broken off at the base and the impact caused it to stab into Arlo's side, the rest of it hidden in his stomach. Axel had met a similar fate, although several of the thinner shafts had punctured him in various locations. Gleiter couldn't tell how deep, but by the excess of blood guessed it was fatal. As Gleiter struggled with whether or not to take the debris out of their bodies, they were slowly fading. Their faces seem to pale a little more with each passing second as more blood drained from their bodies.
Gleiter returned to the mortuary carrying the twins wrapped in what leather he could salvage. He carried them into the basement, hoping to avoid Henrick. The man, unfortunately, was down in the morgue preparing a body. The instant Henrick set eyes on his boys; he ran to Gleiter and tore their bodies from his grasp. He set them on an empty operating table and pulled away the stained leather. Although he had hoped there was a chance of survival, it became apparent that his sons had long since died before Gleiter brought them home. He turned his eldest son, taking him by the arms.
"What happened?!" He yelled, shaking him fiercely.
"I... It was an accident, father..."The boy stammered, avoiding his father's hard stare as tears began to pour from his face once again.
"My wife and now my sons? What do I have left?" Henrick mumbled, releasing his hold from Gleiter. He turned away, all vigor lost. On the anniversary of his wife's passing, he had lost both Axel and Arlo.
Henrick was unable to see that he still had one son remaining. The man abandoned the mortuary, leaving Gleiter to deal with the bodies of his brothers. He walked to the edge of the cold table, staring through the tears welled in his eyes at the mangled corpses. It would be impossible to prepare them; Gleiter couldn't bring himself to go through the same experience as he had with his mother. Even worse, their blood was on his hands, there would be no funeral services. His only option was to cremate. He couldn't stand the thought of his brothers rotting away in some grave. Despite his inherited occupation, Gleiter can't stand to see or smell decomposition. Choosing two of the best vases, he poured the ashes in and sealed each container shut tight. He then gathered the remnants of the accident, the broken hardware of the machine and their bloodstained possessions, storing everything away in a box.
With things cleaned and taken care of, Gleiter found that he had nothing to keep him busy or to ward away the guilt from his mind. The teenager's suffering was great and utterly without condolence. Since his departure, Henrick had yet to come back and Gleiter had no urge to go find the man. Forgiveness was an unreachable aspiration, Gleiter couldn't achieve it himself, and there was no possibility that Henrick would soon forget the disaster. In the days that followed, he kept to the work of the funeral home, his ideas and half-built contraptions completely deserted. After one of them causing the death of Arlo and Axel, Gleiter couldn't bring himself to think about any of it, not the machines or his dream of flying.
For close to a year things continued in this way, when he wasn't preparing bodies, he remained locked within the basement of the funeral parlor. Judging by the way he acted after the death of Katrina, Gleiter figured that his father had drank himself to death and he left it at that. It wasn't until a year later that things finally improved for the broken mortician. On the eve of the twins' birthday, Gleiter finally brought himself to his work table, still as cluttered as he had left it. He found the blueprints of their birthday present, scouring the pages to look where he had gone wrong in the design.
"All your calculations were right." A familiar voice called from behind.
"Nothing should have gone wrong." Another said.
"We don't blame you, brother."
"Never."
Whirling around in his seat, Gleiter gaped in both astonishment and disbelief at the sight before his eyes. There stood his brothers, Arlo with a wide smile on his pale face and Axel calmer yet equally happy. They wore the same clothes as they had on the same day one year ago, though free from any stains or tears. The only things missing where Arlo's stuffed rabbit and Axel's hat. Stumbling out of his chair, Gleiter wrapped his arms around the two boys. They were warm, real and in the flesh, not a figment of his imagination. He hugged them close, too shocked for words. As they pulled out of the embrace, Gleiter quickly threw a glance toward the shelf where their urns sat. Sure enough they were still there, unmoved.
"How?...You're both dead." Gleiter stammered, his mouth still hanging open.
"Yes, but we came back." Axel stated, a smug smile appearing.
"Because we missed you so much!" Arlo added, grinning from ear to ear.
Gleiter accepted his brothers back unquestioningly. He didn't want to consider that maybe he had lost his mind and the twins were a creation of his own madness. No, the only fact he cared to think about was that he had them back in his life. They were all he needed and with their encouragement, he could finally return to his work and recover his true passion. Gleiter still maintains the family business and makes enough money to live on, despite the gossip about the shut-in mortician that often floats around the small town. Now twenty-four years of age, he cares not that he can hardly name one person in town. Gleiter couldn't be happier with his work and inventions, so long as he his internally youthful brothers around.
Graveyard Ruffie
Abysmal
