November 30, Saturday

DUSK SETTLED over the graveyard like a purple veil, turning familiar headstones into looming shadows. My boots crunched through frost-covered grass as I made my last rounds, keys jingling in my cold fingers.

Something was different.

I stopped, scanning the cemetery. The plywood that had covered Rose's grave was gone, leaving a dark rectangular hole in the gathering gloom. A pile of fresh dirt sat beside it, waiting.

"Hello?" My voice sounded thin in the chill air. "Is someone here?"

No answer, just the whisper of dead leaves skittering across granite markers. I found myself moving closer to the open grave, drawn by the same morbid curiosity that had brought me to Irving in the first place.

The hole was deeper than I expected, its edges sharp and clean. Someone had been working here recently—the cement vault had been removed and the scattered dirt was still loose, not yet frozen by the November cold.

A twig snapped behind me.

Before I could turn, before I could even draw breath to scream, hands planted firmly between my shoulder blades and pushed.

The world tilted sickeningly. My stomach lurched as empty space rushed up to meet me. The keys flew from my grip, flashing silver in the twilight. Time seemed to stretch like taffy as I fell, giving me endless seconds to realize what was happening.

I was falling into Rose's grave.

Cold air whistled past my ears. My arms windmilled uselessly, finding nothing to grasp. The dark walls of the grave rose around me like the sides of a coffin.

Impact.

The breath exploded from my lungs as I hit the bottom, landing hard on my side. Pain shot through my hip and shoulder. Loose dirt rained down, filling my mouth with the taste of earth and decay.

"Help!" I screamed, gagging. "Somebody help me!"

My voice echoed against dirt walls that rose at least six feet above my head. Too high to climb, too smooth to grip. Already the rectangular patch of darkening sky seemed to be shrinking, as if the earth itself was closing in.

More dirt cascaded down. I pressed myself against the wall, heart thundering against my ribs. Someone was up there, shoveling earth into the grave.

They were going to bury me alive.

*****

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