Dig Two

Without thinking of the consequences, I opened the box. You stared up at me, your eyes still open, staring into never-ending space. Your eyes glazed over, they haunted me, bringing back memories when they were still alive, dancing and sparkling. Vacant yet painful.

Slowly I closed the box, closing off my mind to pain, to the world. The September winds drifted through the open window, playing with the strands of your light brown hair. Sunlight flitted off your pale face, illuminating your lips, the lips I once kissed so passionately...

Your coffin stood in the empty room, lonely and desperate to be buried. Dust floated across the room and settled on your shoulders, yet tonight, the air had a clamminess to it, cold and damp. The tassels on the old patterned curtains danced in the light wind, reminding me of my promise.

I opened the coffin again and your bright blue eyes greeted me, sending a chill down my back. They reminded me how I loved you, yet despised you for dying. Dying and leaving me, the one who gave you her everything.

The box closed with a thud as I walked into the next room of the funeral home, filled with neglected stacked coffins. I only hoped to not find it there. But as I opened the coffin, made for a child, the knife still stuck in the embroidered mahogany, sticking up like a white flag of surrender to death.

The ivory handle felt cold in my hand as I grasped it, tugging until it gave way. Ropes were tied around the blade, into a loose knot. I quickly tied the ropes onto the curtain hook, making a hangman's noose at the frayed end. My hand trembled as I brought it up to my neck, soon to be choked and slit into a red, bloody smile. I clambered up onto the child's coffin, ready to push it away, but my feet and hands suddenly halted.

My mind went back to our wedding night. I promised that I would love you till I was dead. That, that day would be the first and the last time I wore white and paraded down an aisle. I chanted 'Till death do us part' in unison with you, meaning it with every single word I said, every single oath I took, every single promise I swore not to break. But I decided to break it. Death wouldn't part us.

My trembling fingers started to move again, but my endeavor was interrupted by the gravedigger walking in the room. Before he uttered a word, I looked at him, smiling a crazy grin.

"Here I come, honey," I whispered, barely audible, but loud enough for the man to hear. I kicked the coffin away and plunged the knife into my neck. I reached my hand toward the gravedigger, gripping the bloodstained rope. "Better dig two..." I said with my last breath.