I want to push myself to my feet and run. Get as far away from Cecily as possible. But with all of the drugs in my system, I know I won’t make it far. And who knows what weapon she might have with her. She wouldn’t let me get away.
The scrape of the shovel on the dirt is a grating rhythm.Crfft shhh crfft shhh crfft.And my heart is beating so hard I might pass out.
No, hold on. Stay with it.I have to escape. I will not die here.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Cecily says in a commanding tone. “Enough,” she says louder, when Marta doesn’t stop.
I open my eyes a sliver, and through my eyelashes I can see Marta with the shovel. She wipes her eyes with her sleeve, smearing tears and dirt on her cheeks. Cecily snatches the shovel from her, and as Marta turns away, our eyes meet for a split second. I squeeze my eyes shut again and hold my breath, praying she won’t tell Cecily.
I’m about to open my eyes again when I feel cold metal against my neck. My heart flutters rapidly.
“Get up,” Cecily says. “I know you’re awake.”
I struggle to my feet, careful not to lean into the blade of the knife. I glance over at Marta, but she looks away, arms folded over her chest.
“Get in. Let’s go,” Cecily says, but I know there’s no way I’ll get out of there alive. I freeze, feet planted to the ground. “Move!” Cecily shouts, forcing the knife into my back until it nearly breaks the skin.
I take one step toward the ditch, and another, breathing hard, heart thrashing in my ears. The rain is coming down harder now, beating on the ground. And I’m freezing, my clothes soaked through and dripping, every muscle sore and shivering. When we reach the grave, someone shoves me hard, and I fall forward. My head collides with the side of the ditch, pain shooting through my skull.
“Marta! Help. You have to help me!” I scream, struggling to turn around. Above me, Cecily stands with an awful smirk. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a gun.No!
I claw at the walls of the grave, panic shooting through me as my hands slip in the mud, nails scratching at dirt, bending painfully. But there’s nowhere to go and it’s too steep to climb out. The gun is pointed right at my chest.
“I’m so sorry, Maya. I really am.” Her hands are shaking as her finger closes slowly on the trigger, and in the final seconds, I squeeze my eyes shut. An image of Dani appears behind my eyelids: she’s running toward me, laughing, arms spread wide. All I want is to hold her one more time. To have one more hour with her.
There’s a loud metallicbang.I try to hold on to that image ofDani, but it’s fading. Everything is fading, slipping away like melting snow.
I hold my breath, wait for the pain to sting my chest, the blood to fill my lungs. I wait, and wait, but nothing happens.
I inhale. The air entering my lungs is cold. I feel no pain. Maybe this is what it feels like to be shot. Painless, numb, time stretching in those last moments before death.
When I finally open my eyes, I see Marta standing overhead holding the shovel. Cecily is crumpled in a heap at her feet, blood dripping from her head, her torso hanging over the edge of the grave. The bang hadn’t been a gunshot; it had been Marta’s shovel colliding with Cecily’s skull.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Maya
August 2023
The sound of cartoons frommy childhood on the television.The Jetsons.A familiar laugh. Dani.
I slowly blink my eyes open. I’m back in Brooklyn, lying in bed with an ice pack on my forehead. It’s dark, save for the flicker of the television, a strip of light creeping through the crack in the curtains.
Sensing I’m awake, Nate sits on the mattress next to me and smooths my hair. “How ya doing, Bruiser?”
A laugh escapes me, sending a sharp pain up the base of my neck. “Oh god.” Bringing my hand to my head, I wince. There’s a lump where I must have hit my head on the side of the ditch. My ankle throbs with a sharp pain, and when I try to move my foot, I realize it’s in a cast.
Nate laughs and kisses me gently on the cheek. I vaguely remember being driven to the hospital, the hazy sequence of events that led me here. God, it feels good to be home.
Seeing us together, Dani stands up from the armchair and crawls into bed on the other side of me. She kisses my arm before looking at me with a worried expression.
After we sit like this for a minute, Nate sits up. “Big news.”
“What happened?” I ask.
Nate grabs the remote and switches the TV from cartoons to a news channel. I prop myself up onto my elbow for a better view.
It’s footage of Cecily from around town, nights out at galas and functions.
