And all because this young woman dared to break the rules.
She spoke to Alissa.Broke the vow of silence that all the Aces Underground employees are sworn to uphold.
Rouge told Alissa that she had been suspended.That she would be back.
Alissa!
I bend over her, make sure her breath is still steady.It is, thank God.
But we’ve got to get out of here.
If Rouge did this to poor May for speaking out of turn, God only knows what she’ll do to us once she learns that we found this out.
I look around.The rosebush is still dug out of the earth, and we’ve made a mess of things here.
We can’t just turn around and run.Alissa isn’t even conscious.But we shouldn’t leave any evidence that we were here.
Because if Rouge has even an inkling of what we’ve discovered?
Our heads are going to be buried right next to May’s.
2
ALISSA
Metallic clinks.The sounds of soil moving around.
It’s cold.
And I’m not in my bed.I’m lying on a hard surface.Concrete.
Heavy breaths.Coming closer to me.
My heart pounds, and I flutter my eyes open.
Everything is blurry at first, but it slowly comes into focus.
A man with a spade, quickly shoveling dirt back into a small hole.
And it all comes barreling back to me.
We found that hatbox.And inside it…
Oh my God.
Did I dream that?Did I hit my head while we were digging and have some terrible, gruesome nightmare?
But I already know that’s not the case.
The image of May’s severed head is one I will carry with me to my grave.
The skin of her once-beautiful face now stretched tight over the bones of her skull.Her long dark hair matted with soil and tangled beyond recognition.Her eyes robbed of all light, slightly sunken into their sockets.Her jaw slightly unhinged, as if she too is in an eternal state of shock to have ended up buried in a hatbox in this park by the airport.
I should feel nauseated at the thought, but I just feel…sad.
I stifle a sob.Several tears silently flow down my cheeks as I sit up.
“M-Maddox?”
