Page 12 of Fatally Yours

The entire way there, not once did Mandy’s bawling cease.

If I had a beating heart to break, it would be shattering in my chest. The sounds of her cries reminded me of the day August died, and images of him burying that knife in my gut flashed in my vision.

We brought him back only for him to kill me.

That was poetic, wasn’t it? Something he could write a song about, right?

Where was he, anyway? Would he come back for me?

Or would he leave me to rot in the ground as the maggots nibbled at my flesh?

Even if I couldn’t feel pain, a fate like that would be worse than hell, watching as filthy insects devoured my rotting corpse.

I was still wrapped in the sheet, crumpled in the back of Wes’ van.

There was no light coming through the windows.

The others were silent. The only thing I heard was Mandy attempting to muffle her cries.

Occasionally, one would slip through, and she would suck in a shuttering breath, and once again, she would attempt to stifle them.

The monotony and repetition of her distress were worse than torture.

This has to be hell.

There was no way that this is not hell.

After a long drive, they took a sharp turn, and the tires sounded like they were rolling over dirt and stones.

There were faint pops and snaps as the pebbles and sticks were crushed under the weight of four living bodies and a single dead one.

Wherever they were, the distance from where we lived was vast, and it was possibly more remote than our small town ever dreamed of being.

The idea that I would be left out here by myself made me want to scream.

The vehicle came to a halt, and all four doors slammed almost in succession.

I could hear footsteps even through the oppression of the linen and being in the back like a piece of garbage.

They were speaking, probably about where they would ditch me.

I knew at least Scott, Wes, and Mandy didn’t think I was trash, but I sure felt like it.

The trunk of the van squealed open. I could imagine them peering down at me, the moon full behind their heads, all of them sharing the same feeling of dread.

August was dead, and now I was too. It was a wicked coincidence, wasn’t it?

If only they knew who snuffed me out, then their sanity would really snap.

“No one comes here,” Scott said, his voice empty. “They won’t find her.” Mandy continued to sob, and I imagined her dark makeup running down her cheeks and staining her skin with coal-colored streaks.

“But they’ll know she’s missing!” she cried.

“Her parents, her family, her job. She doesn’t miss work that often.

At least before August died…” That was true.

Before he was ripped away from me, I never missed work unless I was on my deathbed.

But since then, I lost that vigor. And my coworkers understood. They expected it .

People would look for me, but how soon, I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like I called my parents all the time. In hindsight and suffering with regrets, I realized I should’ve talked to them more. Now, I wouldn’t have that opportunity. My only companions would be worms. And August did this to me.

“Yeah. Missing. Vanished. Gone. They won’t know she’s dead,” Devin said. They’ll think she just ran off because she was upset about August or something.”

“But they’ll interview us…” Mandy whimpered. There was the sound of feet scraping across the dirt, and I prayed he wasn’t putting his hands on her. If he did, I would crawl out of the grave and strangle him myself, even if it took an eternity.

“Yeah, they will. And you’ll fucking lie to them, okay?

” His voice was harsh. She cried harder, and more feet slid across the dirt.

Wes was separating them; I was sure of it.

I just had that feeling that Devin was being just as rotten as he truly was at his core.

As putrid as I would be physically. In a few days, my flesh would begin to liquefy and melt into my cavities until my body bloated and popped and watered the ground with my dissolved insides.

“Dude, stop. Jesus fucking Christ, just stop,” Wes said. Someone was lifting me, probably him, and the clattering of metal together indicated that another was grabbing something. I knew what it was, but didn’t want to acknowledge it.

A fucking shovel.

They were going to bury me and cover my senseless murder. Even though I was tortured being with Devin, this punishment was far too brutal. God, Satan, August—someone really wanted to inflict this torment on me.

There was a crunching sound, like the spade of it sinking into the dirt.

A moment later, I could hear them piling soil on the ground.

Each time the metal scraped against a stone, I felt the urge to press my teeth together.

Just like before, my body was cadaver-like.

No, I was a cadaver. Not something akin to one, an actual corpse.

Fear would’ve been filling my chest right now if it could.

The anticipation was swirling in my stomach, or maybe that was just the gases of rot filling my core.

I wondered when I was going to pop, how long it would take, and what orifices my insides would dribble out from first. If I were breathing right now, I would be having a panic attack.

The only sound was that damn shovel and their heavy breaths, as I assumed they were switching off to dig.

Someone nudged me, and a short, shocked cry rang through the air.

Presumably, it was Scott. The sheet slipped down my face ever so slightly, revealing the grave my friends were digging to put me in.

This is hell.

“This is wrong,” Mandy sniveled. “This is so fucking wrong.” I watched in horror as Devin shoved her, just like he would’ve eventually done with me if August hadn’t come back and killed me.

“Shut up. We’re not going to prison just because some psycho you’d suck off wanted to get a piece of Natasha. We’re already on thin ice with the fucking pigs,” he snapped. “Do you know how much they follow me? At my job? At my house? I feel like I’m being fucking stalked!”

“You’re an asshole!” Mandy’s voice was breaking. “No wonder Natasha wanted August back!” Scott had the shovel in his hand and was staring at them in disbelief while Wes buried his face in his hands. I never expected us to fall apart like this.

“You don’t have a cock, so you’ll be fine and dandy fantasizing about fucking psychos while we’re rotting away behind bars, taking it up the ass!

” he roared. I thought she flinched for a moment, but she was fearless and lunged towards him, looking like he would rip out his eyes with her black-painted nails.

Wes shot out and grabbed her again, and pressed her head to his chest while she sobbed.

Her cries echoed against him, and her fingers were gripping his shirt.

“Stop, Mandy, baby, please,” he said in a hushed tone.

“She doesn’t deserve this!” she screamed, throwing herself at Devin again. Her teeth were bared like a rabid animal. “You never deserved her!” Before she could attack him again, Scott let the shovel clatter to the ground and smacked her across the cheek. Once more, she retreated to Wes, blubbering.

“Not a fucking word about this, okay?” Devin grabbed her by the collar, and I heard the fabric rip ever so slightly. “Or you’ll end up like her.” The implications of that statement were vast and horrifying, and I wondered if August wasn’t the only one with homicide on his mind.

That was far, even for Devin, but the stress of the situation was getting to all of them.

Even though my throat couldn’t tighten, I swore I felt like it was.

It was like I was witnessing my life crumble before my clouded, dead eyes.

I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t scream. There was nothing I could do but helplessly watch in horror.

Scott returned to digging the grave, and after wiping sweat from his brow, he finished up the place that would be my home for eternity. If only they knew I could see and hear everything. They all stared down at the hole in the dirt. Mandy’s eyes were glazed over as she wiped away another tear.

“What the fuck happened to us?” she muttered under her breath. “I wish August never died.”

I couldn’t agree more.

After they accepted what they would do, Devin turned to me with a shiver as he realized my eyes had been uncovered.

I could only imagine the glare of death shading my face.

It was a familiar look—something I saw as August took his last breath, and when he came back to me once again on that stormy night.

You never forget the glassy stare of a corpse, even reanimated ones.

He pulled the sheet over my eyes again with his lip curled and hoisted me up.

Once again, I could still feel his warmth, and it was then that I realized precisely how cold death was.

And it would only get worse from there when I was in the ground.

Not in a cemetery, without a gravestone, left to rot and be forgotten. A missing person forever.

My mind began to race as I was dropped into the hole they had dug. A scream wanted to rip from my throat, but nothing came out, just like before. It wasn’t fair that I was still conscious. August put me here, and I wasn’t sure I could forgive him.

It was only when they began to pile soil atop my limp body that the terror really set in.

The sheet was pressed against my face, and I feared suffocation beneath it or being smothered by the dirt, but there was no breath in my lungs.

And what did you do with those who no longer breathed?

You buried them, just as my friends were doing to me. My friends were fucking burying me.

The moonlight slipping through the thin fabric slowly faded as more soil piled atop me.

Soon, there was nothing but darkness. And moments after that, I felt a strange weight on top of me.

Dirt. Worms. Insects. My body would feed the plants, the trees, and the creatures above because the hole wasn’t that deep, and I could still hear the remnants of their voices through the pressure of the earth.

“Can we at least give her a grave marker or something?” Mandy said.

“No, you dumb bitch. Someone will find her if we put a fucking cross or some shit here,” Devin said. I pictured her slumping into Wes again while her tears and snot dampened his shirt for the millionth time this evening.

“Dude, stop being so mean to her. We’re all fucking stressed out,” Wes said. His hand would be in her hair, patting her head in a poor attempt to comfort her. But on the inside, he was breaking. “But he’s right, Mandy. We can’t.”

“What about that boulder?” she pressed. After a moment of silence and the scuffing of footsteps, something scraped along the dirt, confirming they rolled whatever they found over me. It was right over my head as the pressure slightly increased on my skull from the weight.

“Are you happy now?” Devin huffed. At that moment, I swore to myself that I would kick his ass once I was done with August.

“No,” Mandy said. “My two closest friends are dead. I don’t think I’ll ever be happy again.”