The Legend of Hollis Williams

by A.J. Brown

On a cold, wet day in December, they laid Hollis Williams to rest at the back of the cemetery near an old dogwood tree that had died some years earlier. Not much of a prayer was said for the old man, but plenty of them were lifted up for his many victims, their lives cut short by his quick temper and sharp axe. In an act of either stupidity or for show, Lewis Jesup Williams, Hollis's brother, threw the axe into the grave with him, not thinking much about him returning from the dead, axe in hand and in a foul mood. They went about their days, none talking of the murders and the shape the bodies were in when they were found. In a drunken state many years later, Lewis went up to the cemetery, which no one visited any longer, cursed his flesh and blood, and urinated on the grave. Nobody knows for certain if it's true, but legend tells us that Hollis Williams vanished from the grave, his axe right along with him, and Lewis, well... Lewis was eventually found scattered about Brevard County, pieces here and there, but no head ever turned up.

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A.J. Brown, married with two children, is a southern boy with a penchant for the dark side.