The Death Chair: Science Fiction

They went back two weeks after the death flag had flown high above the body. Her mother's chair still sat there, unscathed, and the neatly scoured bones were stacked on top of it. Seeing it gave her the chills. It was supposed to be this way sometimes, or it had been in days of antiquity, when they had first moved out here, but in time out of mind what they had found was insect-riddled corpses, bodies chewed by coyotes, bodies shrunken by the heat. Some even said that it wasn't a fitting way to treat their dead, despite the ritual's inculcation in their most holy rules. "What is that?" Edgar whispered, edging closer to her. "It's a death-eater," she said quietly, almost whispering herself. After the days she spent happily lost in the first archives of the colony, the time teaching the kinder, and the--


Inspiration: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dandom/8512414543/in/photostream/
Story potential: High.
Notes: And what does the death-eater provide in return? And why did they leave? And why are they back? And and and.... Also, that is one gloriously creepy photo.