Dead Love: Eaten Alive at Magnolia Cemetery

You know me, I spend a lot of time around cemeteries, but this time I was nearly eaten alive. Yes, mysterious no-see-ums haunt Magnolia Cemetery, which cemetery superintendent Beverly Donald calls “the best kept secret in Charleston.” No doubt, with these vicious and voracious little guardians, chances are visitors won’t stay long and will not recommend a picnic there—unless one has a hankering to be the main course.

It’s a beautiful site though—once a rice plantation and now final resting place of military heroes, planters, politicians, bootleggers, and whorehouse madams. But this city of the silent comes with a bloody price tag. I ended up in urgent care because the place really did get under my skin.

—Erin Orison, DEAD LOVE/the Daily Slice