Part 14 (1/2)

”All better?” Bear asked He was holding out a chicken wing for ot bones” I was feeling wobbly and sick Black ants conga-lined across my vision

”I know” Bear held the chicken piece up out of muffin's reach muffin leaped for it, but each time Bear snatched it away ”Maybe the little bastard will choke to death You know, I don't think that thing is even a dog I think it's a rat with a bad per his food snatched away, muffin sank his teeth into Bear's ankle

”Jesus! You little bag of shi+t!” Bear bolted off the stool, shook un out of his pocket He raised it and aimed it atlittle turd,” he said

”Stoppit” My voice ca about !

Bear aier The shot sounded like an explosion I screaon the floor, eyes wide and shocked, blood trickling out of his so to him, but a wave of dizziness suddenly overcaht me He tilted my chin so I had to look up at him

”Where's the picture, Mazie?” he asked

”Pitchur?”

”The Goddam snapshot”

”You-you killed muffin, you son a bish!+” I tried to jerk away frorip I'd never noticed before how cold his eyes were, pale greeny-gold like lizard eyes

”Where's the snapshot?”

”You shot ! You're a total tool, you know that?”

Idown different roads

”Concentrate, damn it!” Bear shookyou? I want to know!”

”Dirty, stinkin' coward!”

Bear backhandedto my eyes My over-stressed bladder released a squirt of pee

”Wuzzitthe pop?” I was spaghetti I was a Guler, squirting between your fingers when you try to pick it up I had no bones; Bear had to carrythe hallwaythe laundry room

”Yeah, in your drink, you stupid twit” His voice came from far away

I was a stupid twit Stupid, stupid, stupid! I'd known all along Known in uts ”Wuzzit GH?” I couldn't reirls in s a lot B-that was it GHB

Odor of rubber and oil; ere in the garage

”Forgetblack and crackly over my head Instant darkness

”Can'tbreashe,” I muttered

”Mazie, baby, that is exactly the idea” His voice ca I'm sure you'll appreciate the irony Vanessa always said you were trash And guess what-she was right You are nothingdisposal problem”

Escape tip 19: There's always a way out

You just have to dig for it

A cold, wet button pressed against ue flicked my ear I opened my eyes to utter blackness, unable to see orthe warled aardly between my shoulder and chin ”You're alive, baby?”

As I caht side, one ar the breath out of rappled with the question As ainst plastic Dirt Dirt as in soil! Plastic as in lawn and leaf bag

Mebroke overwave Bear had solved his disposal probleround, en-starved brain served up gruesoar Allan Poe visions of people walled up and buried alive, chewing on their own arms as they slowly starved to death

But I kneasn't going to starve I wasn't going to live long enough to cho to suffocate within seconds I would die in this dirt tomb and nobody would ever knohat happened to me Years frouire: Alive in Argentina? All because I'd been so monumentally stupid! I'd violated the most elementary law of modern-day survival: Never, ever trust a politician!

Why fight the inevitable? It would only prolong the suffering I could just drift back into that drugged sleep Blackness reached up forup would be so easy It was just a etting to breathe at all Forget y, but the street naetout of this rotten world I was taking the easy way out Bear won I gave up

My eyes flew open in the utterly lightless dark The Shawshank Rede sewer filled with stuff I didn't want to think about And Richard Kimble had jumped off a five-hundred-foot dam rather than allow hihed out fivea poncho crocheted out of shredded license plates

And what about muffin? He'd been burned by Colonel Tso Chicken, shot, and buried alive, but did you seeto co to wake , grinding my teeth with the effort, IAt least I think I did; I could barely feel ersthe plastic Bitter grit sifted into h the tough vinyl A clod of earth the size of a basketball thu The disturbed dirt above shi+fted, pressing down harder My lungs felt like balloons being twisted by a birthday partyto have to helpin a rocker in front of the town jail, facing down the lynchEnor our mouths and noses But it was loose earth, shoveled back hastily and honeyco hand poked through into nothingness

”Holy shi+t!” yelled a man's voice A wo down into the soil, heavingme up into blessed air, into what I would ever after think of as heaven-a Septe crickets and so star-spangled that I had to squeeze ainst the blaze of the constellations

I reached down and hauled out muffin, who snorted, sneezed, and shook his, then looked up at the ht for h at the moment they were both the color of cornstarch

”Sweet Lord Jesus,” the woht for a second-we just buried Mama yesterday We stopped by here to check whether they planted the grass-”

”All of a sudden the ground starts shaking and I say to myself, Bobby Ray, you are about to experience your first resurrection,” the round and I about need a Depends”

The woet mad now ”Just what in God's na down there on top of my irl didn't wrap herself in a Hefty and du off me ”What happened to you, honey?”

I couldn't talk I spat rit out of en-starved brain that ere in a cerave with a new tombstone that read Marabelle Akin Rest in Peace

Where do you hide aof rave Bearto bet ithin a h a nearby grove of trees This was a small rural cemetery, only an acre or two, probably with no caretaker or security gate Now I understood why Bear had worn dark clothes-to lessen the chance of being spotted while he went about his dirty deeds He'd probably stolen a shovel fro down a couple of feet into the fresh Akin grave That would explain the gri politician's hands