Bury Me - Tara Sivec Page 0,81
hole from the storm raging outside, I can’t help but smile.
Watching her splash and struggle as the water continued to rise above her head was entertaining. Listening to her gurgled screams for help when the water poured into her mouth as she sank was music to my ears.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? OH MY GOD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”
Tanner’s voice fills the room as he rushes to the edge of the hole and looks down at Ravenna, floating lifelessly in the water that has begun to recede.
“NO! NO, RAVENNA! MY BABY, OH NO!”
I watch as he sobs for the daughter he loved more than me, pushing myself up from the floor to stand next to him.
His head whips around, and his misery suddenly turns to fury.
“I should have killed you when you were born!” he screams, spittle flying from the corners of his mouth. “You’re a monster! You’re the devil! I WON’T LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS!”
“Tanner came back to the prison early,” I tell Mavra, pushing aside the memory of what happened that night in the basement. “My plan was to hide the body so they’d never know. It would have worked, too, if he hadn’t forgotten his wallet at home. He left my mother at the restaurant and hurried home to grab it. He saw the basement door open and came down to investigate.”
Mavra nods, continuing where I left off.
“And that explains the flashback you had when you came out of hiding, overhearing Tanner and Ike fighting about filling in the hole,” she announces with a smile, pleased with herself that she’s able to put it all together. “Tanner threatened to kill you, and you ran out of the basement and hid until you could come up with another plan.”
I nod. “It might have worked if Ike hadn’t seen me in the hallway. When I showed up at the prison two weeks earlier, Tanner put him in charge of keeping an eye on me. He didn’t know what I’d done to Ravenna, but he knew something was up. When I ran out the front door, he yelled down to Tanner and told him I was running away. Tanner chased me into the woods and hit me over the head with a rock. He thought he’d killed me and it was all over.”
Mavra crosses her arms and cocks her head to the side. “But Nolan was in the woods and carried you back to the prison. When you woke up confused and missing memories, Tanner decided to pretend you were Ravenna. Without even knowing your plan, he put it into action, telling your mother that Tatiana tried to hurt Ravenna and then ran away. He figured if they just kept telling you that you were Ravenna, you’d be too confused to question it, but your mother knew something wasn’t right.”
She pauses for a moment, looking at me in confusion. “But what ever happened to Ike? No one saw him again after that night?”
“Tanner liked to think I was the monster in the family, but he had his own evil lurking inside of him,” I tell her with a sigh. “After he hit me over the head, he turned to go back to the prison and found Ike watching him. He couldn’t let anyone know what had happened, so he killed him. He took the rock that was still in his hand, covered in my blood and he bashed Ike’s head in.”
Mavra shakes her head in awe and lets out a deep sigh.
“Why do you still keep the newspaper article about that last night hanging on the fridge?” she asks.
“Are you kidding me?” I reply with a laugh. “I’m quite proud of that article. Do you have any idea how hard it was to come up with a believable story so quickly?”
She shakes her head and rolls her eyes good-naturedly.
“I really have no idea how you did it. Not only did you have to hide the dead body of your twin sister at the bottom of the hole, you also had to explain the dead body on the floor filled with nail holes and gushing blood.”
I take a moment to go back in time and remember that night. I wasn’t scared or remorseful; I was just happy that I could finally breathe. I always knew I’d made the right decision that night, even if I had a moment of hesitation. I knew when Nolan woke up and learned the truth, he would never understand and never be able to accept