Come on, Addie. You have to do this.
I take a deep breath and roll her over. Her body is still very limp, like a rag doll. I heard dead bodies eventually get stiff, but it hasn’t happened to her yet. I roll her two more times until she’s at the edge of the grave we dug. It’s the perfect size. So I roll her right in.
The body plummets into the grave with a loud thud. As she falls, something comes out of the sheets. I have to climb back into the grave to see what it is, and I’m horrified when I realize that it’s Mrs. Bennett’s purse.
We never left it in the trunk after all.
I don’t get it. Nathaniel said her purse was left behind in the trunk, but obviously it wasn’t. Was he mistaken? Or was he lying to me?
I need to find him. I can’t do this by myself anymore.
I drop the purse back into the grave. I don’t want to do anything else without finding Nathaniel, but I can’t leave the hole like this. I can’t leave here with an open grave with a dead body inside, especially if there’s a chance I might not be able to find my way back here.
So I climb back out of the grave. I grab the shovel and shift as much dirt as I can back into the hole. I cover the dead body with a healthy layer of dirt—more than enough to keep out animals, but it still seems possible somebody might come across it. I mean, if anybody were wandering around this place where pumpkins come to die.
The leaves have recently fallen off the trees, and there are piles of them everywhere. Instead of bothering with the dirt, I use my shovel to scoop as many leaves as I can back into the hole. I keep going until it’s completely full.
There. From a foot away, the grave is now completely invisible.
With that taken care of, I wander back out of the pumpkin patch, following the landmark of the sign for the entrance. I am certain we turned left when we came into the patch, so that means to get back, I should turn right. Right?
Man, I wish I were better at math.
I stumble along the path, which is filled with rocks and slippery leaves. There’s a clearing that we walked through, but I’m not certain I’m going the right way. It’s entirely possible I’m heading deeper in the woods. After a few minutes, my sneakers are a soggy, muddy mess. “Nathaniel?” I call out again.
No answer. For God’s sake, where is he?
After walking for about twenty minutes, there’s still no sign of him. I haven’t found him wandering around, I haven’t found his dead body being feasted on by squirrels—he’s nowhere. I’m starting to panic, but then I look down and see something familiar embedded in the dirt:
Tire tracks.
His car was here. He was here. He made it back to the car, then he took off and left. But why would he do that? He must’ve had a reason, but I can’t even begin to imagine what it was. But at least now I can find my way back.
I follow the tire tracks for another mile. It’s now three in the morning, and when I reach the main road again, it’s completely deserted. There isn’t even another car that I could try to hitch a ride with. Not that I want to do that. When they discover Mrs. Bennett is missing, it won’t be good if somebody reports having seen me out here at three in the morning. That would be extremely incriminating.
I pull my phone out of my pocket. At least I have a signal again. Of course, what am I supposed to do about it? I can’t exactly Uber home from here. And I definitely can’t call my mother and explain to her that I’m out in the middle of nowhere and I need a ride home. I’m supposed to already be home, asleep in bed.
I open up Snapflash and send a message to Nathaniel:
Where are you? I need to get home.
I stare at the screen, waiting for him to reply and explain to me why he left me out in the middle of nowhere. But there’s no response. Whatever he did and for whatever reason he did it, he’s not answering. And I don’t have his cell number.
That means there’s literally only one person in the whole world who I can call right now.
Hudson.
We already share one terrible secret. What’s one more?
I hesitate, trying to decide if I should wake him up at three in the morning. I hate to do it to him, but it is Friday night. He can sleep in tomorrow.
I really, really hope he does not have do not disturb on his phone.
I select his name from my contacts. He is still listed as one of my favorites, even though I haven’t called him in almost a year. I wonder if I’m still on his list. Maybe he blocked me altogether. Maybe I’m calling him for nothing.
Sure enough, the phone rings and rings and rings, but no answer.