Chapter 23
THE GRAVEDIGGER
She’s calling him again. He rolls his eyes but he can’t keep ignoring her. He pulls over to answer the phone.
“Darling,” he says smoothly.
“Is it done?”
“No,” he admits.
A long silence stretches between them. Sweat breaks out across his forehead. He scans the coastline path as he waits for her to speak.
“Why the fuck not?”
She’s seething, he hears it in her voice, like every word is pushed out between her teeth. Her anger reminds him that she’s the only person he’s ever met who matches the dark part of himself. The part that he spent so long trying to hide.
“She puked up the pills and ran away while I was digging the grave.”
“And you couldn’t catch her?” she snaps.
“I did catch her but there was a struggle. I fell and got knocked out.”
She starts to laugh. “What? Are you serious? Of all the incompetent, useless—”
“Do not speak to me like that,” he warns. “Don’t fuck with me.”
She’s quiet. He remembers moments with her from the past. The way her hair fell over her face. The low-cut dresses she wore.
“Do you still have the knife I gave you?” he asks. “I have mine.”
“The penknife? Yeah, I always carry it. You know that. Why?”
He hears the metallic shush of the knife opening.
“Because we may need to use it. I have an idea.”
He remembers the day he gave her the knife like it was yesterday. It was the day they first met, and their lives became forever entwined, sitting on the dry, fragrant grass, her Nikes tapping next to him as she fingered the skinny straps of her top.
He led her down to the pig farm across the field, to get her away from the house.
When they were near the pig shed, he took out the knife and asked if she wanted some bacon.
He flipped the blade open and watched her eyes grow wide with fear, exactly as he had wanted.
But then she did something unexpected that excited him even more.
She pulled him towards her and pressed the knife against her skin, cold eyes staring up into his without flinching.
He had never met anybody like her before.
He feels a rush of excitement as he remembers. It still turns him on, even after all this time.
“Do you trust me?” he asks.
“You know I do.”
“I’m going to fix this,” he promises.
“Of course you will,” she says. “If you don’t, I’ll gut you like that little piggy you promised me. Only I’ll actually go through with it.”