Part 3: Going Down Six Feet Under

I held my hand up in front of my face. I moved my fingers.

I couldn't see anything at all. Nothing. I couldn't detect the slightest hint of movement. The darkness surrounding me was perfectly complete.

I tried to keep my breathing under control. The faster I breathed, the more oxygen I used up, and the less time I would have to live.

That's what I'd heard about being buried alive, anyway. I didn't see why it wouldn't be true.

Not that it really mattered whether I'd have just a few minutes to live or an hour. One way or another, this was it. I tried hard to accept the fact that I was going to die soon, that my life was going to end, that I was already beginning to suffocate. But it just didn't seem like it could be real, no matter how hard it was getting to breathe the air.

I reached out and touched the rough wood only a few inches in front of my face. I could feel its raw, grainy texture. The scent of freshly-cut pine was overwhelming.

This was real.

When I was a kid I used to think that the most horrifying way to die would be to be buried alive. Worse than drowning, worse than getting killed in a car accident, worse even than being burned to death. The pain of burning would be unimaginably excruciating, I knew. But the horror wouldn't quite compare to suffocating inside a narrow, hot box beneath six feet of heavy dirt.

I even used to promise myself that I'd never get close to a coffin as long as I lived. Inviting even the remote possibility of ending up trapped inside one seemed like a stupid risk to take.

And yet somehow here I was. I'd let it happen.

I felt around for my cell phone and clicked it on. The screen's dim light glared.

The battery was now almost completely dead. I'd lost count of how many times I'd tried checking my phone for a signal. Nothing had changed; there was no service this far underground, and there wasn't ever going to be.

I clicked off the screen.

Once again I was lost in darkness.

How did I end up here? It all started two days earlier, after Morgan was raped . . .

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