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Alice keeps on talking. “I’d been sleeping with the café owner, you know? So, when Alyssa was fucked over by Cash, I knew just what it felt like to be scorned. When she attempted to end her life rather than be without him—I knew he had to pay. I also knew I couldn’t teach Cash a lesson without teaching the asshole who fucked me over one, too. But if I killed his wife, he’d have probably thanked me. He hated the bitch, but he wouldn’t leave her. The café, though? He loves that sack of shit place.” She laughs, sounding like the lunatic she is. “Turns out having people poisoned by a disgruntled employee at a coffee house is enough to really give sales a kick in the nuts. I doubt he’ll ever recover, cheating pig.”
My mind is spinning, reeling—because there is a young, innocent boy in prison for a murder he did not commit. Just another victim of Alice’s.
How many people has she killed. I already know of two—how many more can there be?
How many more will there be after me?
She drops the tarp and stands back to catch her breath, hands on her hips as she looks out over the abandoned land that will become my eternal resting place. Grief and panic war at the thought, but I’m helpless. I can’t even speak, my tongue so heavy in my mouth. The only thing I can do is think—my mind is sharp as a tac.
“You know, you’re my hardest yet,” she admits softly. “I actually kind of like you, and that’s saying something because I’m really not a people person. But you’re nice. Genuinely nice. A little stupid, but nice.” She shrugs. “So, I am sorry for this. But it must be done. Cash’s crimes can’t go without response. He needs to learn that he can’t mess around with hearts like that.”
With those words, she rounds to the side of my body and pushes me away from her. I fall into a hole. A legitholein the ground.
A grave.
My grave.
I begin to sob. It’s quiet and pleading, but there’s no mistaking the desperation and fear. “P-pl-ease.”
“One sec. I’ll be right back.” I hear the crinkle of the tarp as Alice disappears, and take that time to study the hole I’m in. It’s not deep. Once covered there might be a foot of dirt over my body, maybe two at most.
Oh my God—over my body…
A foot of dirt over my body.
In a grave.
I’m going to be in a grave.
Iamin a grave.
Maybe I’ll be able to dig my way out.
Alice turns and a tiny scream knifes from my lungs as the body of the woman thuds next to me—facing me. Her eyes are open wide and unseeing. I wish I knew her name. I can’t call her Karen, the disrespect for who this woman was—for the family she’s leaving behind—is too much to call her anything buthername.
I force my eyes away from the woman, struggling to keep the sick in the pit of my belly so I don’t choke to death on it. I’d rather choke to death on dirt.
The thought is sobering, because the reality is I probably will.
“Pl-ease.” I choke out again. I think my bottom lip wobbles. A quiver. A muscle twitch that makes me hopeful whatever she gave me is wearing off, if only a little.
I concentrate on my fingertips.There’s a twitch.
I don’t have enough awareness or control to really move my body. Everything still feels sluggish and muddy, like I’m swimming through seaweed that’s tugging my body under murky water.
My heart, though, is like a fish out of water. Gasping. Thrashing.Dying slowly.
I don’t want to die.
I’m not ready to stop living. I have dreams. Hopes. I want to make my dad a grandfather, because he loves kids—and fishing. He’d love to take his grandchild fishing…
I want a family, babies. I want them with Cash.
Cash.
My heart weeps. The echo of his deep voice rumbling, “Where’s my goodnight kiss, Kitten,”almost stops my heart right there. The pain is so sharp, so acute and focused, it’s as though I’ve been stabbed. For a moment, I think maybe I have been. Like the woman in the shallow grave beside me.
“Well, this is it.” Alice lets her hands fall with a sharp slap against her thighs. “I’m going to tell you how this is going to go down, okay?”
