Love's Grave: A Final Sacrifice

trikes the d

hrough six feet of earth, through the wood

above my own g

aking the headstones gleam in the harsh, artificial ligh

holding the camera. Or,

alking to me. She' s talking to the thousands of people watching her live stream. H

. We' re doing this for ever

ys my name like

hovel into the mud again. He grunts with the effort, his face a mask of r

. "For five years, Liam has had nightmares. He wakes up screaming, seeing Daniel'

to him. I' m tethered h

I can see the comments scrol

ullies: GE

: Finally, ju

This is insane! I

catter his ashes. It' s the

it. We have to set Liam free." She looks over at hi

r to Ava and pulls her into a hug, burying his face in her h

his voice thick with fake emotion

who bullied. He was the one who stole. The scholarship he claims I took from him? He ne

t a whisper on the wind, a co

it grows. My mother' s carefully tended patch of grass is a ruin. I remem

for this, Ava," I try to sa

its something hard. A

am pants, a triumpha

. It' s plain pine. Simple. All my parents could afford after the legal fees from the

they haul the coffin out of the earth. It

on the lid. "This is it. The moment of truth. We' re g

seam of the lid. The wood groans and splinters.

Ava. Even Liam, for all his

e comment

isT

M

re... s

ic claw marks tear through the wood, splinters jutting out ever

the only thing i

ted from the damp by a plastic sleeve,

dia

yes are fixed on the claw marks, a horrified understandin

to the coffin. She hesitates, her f

he girl I fell in love with in high school, the one who used to steal my hoodies and

ere, somewhere, buried u

asks, his voice sharp

diary. She knows my handwriting. She knows t

pull her back into his narrative. "He was a monster, Ava. Remember

om the diary. Her hand, shaking, finally cl

oice is a hollow echo of its earlier c

t herself. The certainty in her eyes is gone, replace

s a