Page 52 of Buried in the Woods Below

“You’re gonna be in so much trouble!”

I press my back against the door and close my eyes.

Her fists pound. Her voice shrieks. Then pleads.

Then cries.

And something in me…quiets.

A voice inside me whispers. A voice that knows I’ll get in trouble but doesn’t care. That’s in control. That says no.

I don’t know how much time passes, but eventually I return and decide it’s enough.

I unlock the door.

But when I try to open it, it won’t budge.

“Beth?”

“LET ME OUT!”

“I’m trying. It’s stuck.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not.” I yank the door harder. Nothing.

Beth screams louder, her voice hoarse and quivering.

I run downstairs and call my mom.

She gets home thirty minutes later and uses a screwdriver to jimmy the door open. Beth stumbles out of the closet, face blotchy, eyes swollen. She looks at me like I’m something inhuman. Like a monster.

She turns to my mom.

“I’m done with her.”

And storms out.

Her words strike a nerve. I’m done with her. Like I’m a piece of trash she’s discarding. Heat rises in my chest.

I want to scream: She started it.

But instead, I just fold in half and cry.

My mom kneels down, pulls me into her lap, strokes my hair, kisses my cheeks.

“It was an accident,” she whispers. “It’s not your fault. Mom will make it better.”

And I believe her because I want to.

I need to.

Chapter 26

I tear myself away from the memory of Beth and watch the girls spinning in circles on the lawn, their braided hair swinging behind them, their voices melding into an eerie, almost-too-perfect harmony as they chant their twisted nursery rhyme.

“Six little ghosts went out one night,