The Tombstone

Tombstone

Steph stared at the dead girl for what seemed like a very long time, wondering what this little girl was like, what she had been through, what her last thoughts were, and more. More until she was interrupted again by him. "Stephanie? Steph? Hey!" He yelled as he shook her a bit. She snapped out of it quickly as his touch approached her. She spun around to face him, standing there speechless for a few moments.
"W-w-what are we doing? Why are we here?" She asked in a very shaken voice. She had a feeling why they were there, but she didn't want to speak it. Didn't want to know, but at the same time did.
"We have to get rid of her. We can't have a body lying around the house. That's disgusting, and gross and just creepy," he spoke as he moved for objects in the back; two shovels.
What does he mean we?! There is no we! It's him! He killed her! Not me! Not me!

"Now, I'll carry her, while you carry the shovels. Follow me, and DO NOT run," he directed her as he began to pick the motionless body up and headed towards the main gates. Steph walked behind him quickly, not wanting to upset him. She dragged the shovels behind herself as they passed the large squeaky gates and walked along the gravel pathway through the cemetery. And if Steph thought the cemetery was creepy during the day, it was even creepier at night. The fog seemed to drop back down as they walked some more, and the wind made funny sounds as it travelled in between the graves. The only other sounds that remained on that chilly night were the gates, the wind, and there rocky footsteps as they walked some more.
"Where are w-we going?" Stephanie whispered in a scared voice, loud enough for him to hear as they walked on and on.
"You'll see. We're getting closer," he spoke back over his shoulder before he turned back around. Steph was amazed at how little he gasped for air, considering he was carrying a girl that seemed to weigh no more than ninety pounds. He made it seem effortless.
No wonder I wasn't much of a fight.

And slowly but surely, he began to slow his speed a bit as they came closer to their destination. He veered off the pathway a bit, and began to walking to the left, more in the grass. They passed by stones and tombs that read names Steph had never heard of. Names that belonged to people at one point, but had passed for what seemed like long ago. And suddenly, like it came out of pure memory, Steph remembered herself being here before, walking on this pathway, walking on this grass leading to a grave that had been placed in that cemetery recently. A year recently. Remembering the day she came to visit one certain tombstone. A tombstone that belonged to a young girl who was taken away too soon; just like this girl now. As they walked more and more, the grave came into clear view, and the name engraved onto the stone was the exact one Steph remembered. "Alright, we're here," he spoke as he placed the deceased girl onto the ground close by. But Steph only stood there, the shovels dangling sillily by her sides as she read the already known carved name:

Cindy Louise Miller

"Alright, now pass me one of those shovels, we gotta start digging," he spoke in a way as if he had done this before, like he knew the routine. But Steph only stood there for a moment, trying to let all of it sink in, if it could. She went off into a daze, letting her thoughts overpower her body, making herself paralyzed.
He's.....he's burying girls here? The girls? Is it just this girl? Or has there been others? There has to to be at least another girl here, that's what he was doing the first time when I was unconscious in the back of the van. He must have been burying that girl I saw. He buries them....here? Here? At little Cindy Miller's grave?
And then, a switch went off in her head, a light switched on with a snap, and pieces began to form together, like a puzzle. Pieces fit in, pieces everyone in town were baffled by. Pieces that all fit together if they really thought about it. It all made sense. It made the most sense, the simplest sense. It was right there, under everyone's noses, and nobody ever thought of it; because it made no sense. It seemed to make no sense. Surely, everyone would think, that was crazy, and that no one was crazy enough to do that. But there was someone crazy enough. A man that stood five feet away from Stephanie that had been holding her captive. Hostage.
The police had reported that bloodhounds had sniffed out the missing girls scents. That many dogs had been brought out on the searches, and they had all led the officers back to one spot. For every girl they searched for, the dogs had smelled an item of each girls clothing. And they went on to search, cover as much ground as they could. The police hoped, that the dogs could lead them to where the girls had been held hostage; or, maybe to where their bodies may be. Where their abductor dumped their remains. Somewhere in the woods perhaps, which is why they searched there the most. But the places they should have been searching was a place no one would ever search; because it was considered 'disrespectful'. It would be crazy. If they did begin searching there—in the cemetery—everyone would think they were nuts, because surely no one would ever bury a body in there, not unless there was a headstone and a funeral. Not unless it was a documented death.
But surely enough, the dogs would take them on a frantic search as they tried to track down the missing girls. The families hoping to find their girls alive, and for the police, at the least they hoped to find a body; their remains, or at least to pick up the girls scents. And one by one, the girls scents all lead back to one spot; almost like it was wrapped up in a neat little bow. All the missing girls were found in one spot, a happy ending, but their scents did not lead back to a live human. Instead, they all lead back to the ground, in one particular area: Cindy Miller's grave. And the reason for that: because the missing girls were all buried around the seven year old's grave. Her tombstone.

Steph remained standing there, completely zoned out. Her eyes later wandered off of Cindy's headstone, but then wandered onto the ground surrounding the grave. The ground seemed still and silent, like nobody had disturbed it since Cindy. But that was a lie. Somebody had disturbed it, while he was burying other girls around. Large areas of grass and mud laid around her grave, making it a great place to bury more bodies, in a psychopath's mind. The headstones that were near were separated and spread out, making there plenty of wide open space. Stephanie's eyes wandered onto different spots, imagining other girls being buried around there.
Madison Henry.
Kelly Fisher.
Samantha Barry.
And others, others that I'm not quite sure of, since I'm one of the girls trapped and locked away from the world. I can't see the news, so I don't know how many other girls have been snatched. I know for sure the girl I saw awhile ago when I was semi-conscious in the back of the van, and now this girl. It seemed before the pattern was every three months a new girl disappeared, and that Samantha girl was taken in December. I was in March, making me the fourth girl. Meaning the girl I saw in the van the first time would have been the fifth? And this girl now is the sixth? Right?

"STEPH!" A man's shouting caused her to be thrown off her thoughts, causing her to return back to reality, her scary reality. She looked up at him with terror in her eyes as she could see now he had dug a hole about the length of his waist now. She stared in disbelief, not thinking it had been that long that she had been lost in her overwhelming thoughts. "I need your help. Help me put her in here," he talked through gasps and breaths as he began to climb out of the hole.
Kick him in the face. Do it Steph! Do it now! You can kick him and he will fall back and you can run! Run away from this place! Run away and get away! You can do it! But only if you do it now! DO IT NOW!
But that voice seemed the distinguish quickly as she didn't give in like she usually did. That voice inside didn't seem as loud now, didn't seem as important. It sounded drowned out now, like it was only nonsense talking. Or at least that's what Steph made it out to be.

She stood there still again, looking down upon the girl that had seemed to just have recently passed. Forced to pass in the hands of a monster. He now stood beside her looking down as well, peering more like. "It's not good to look at them for too long," he spoke up to her, almost like he knew what she was thinking. What was going through her head. "Not healthy. It screws you up. Messes you up. I try not to look right at them after. I just go ahead and get the job done. Try to cover it up. If I sit there and stare for too long, it gets to me. I haunts me, like it should," he spoke almost deeply, seeming like he was trying to become closer to Steph, and for a bit, in Steph's mind, it was actually working. "I don't know why I'm like this Stephanie. I really don't. I try not to be. I don't like being this guy. But it is me, and I'm stuck with it. That's why I try to be nice to you, I do try, but sometimes I snap, and I snap hard."
Maybe he isn't such a bad guy. Maybe he is a real person. Not a monster. Maybe he really does try to be good. Maybe I shouldn't be too hard on him. Maybe I should give him a chan.... OH MY GOD WHAT AM I SAYING?! Snap out of it Stephanie! Snap out of it right now! He's trying to brainwash you! Brainwash you into thinking he is a good person, a decent person. HE IS NOT! So stop it! Don't fall into his ruse! Don't! Let! Him! Win! Don't let him get to you!
They stood there still, peering down upon the other girl. The girl no longer breathing. And after Steph didn't speak back to him, he tried to get through to her again. Tried to say something else, something to get her to listen, and to compel. "Steph, if you help me do this, I promise I won't ever ask you to do this again. I promise you will never have to do anything like this or even close to this again. It will be a one time thing. I promise," he looked over towards her, but her face still remained stuck on the other.
I don't want to help him. I don't want to help him bury someone who was a human being. A human being who didn't want this. Who didn't deserve this. Who wanted to live. Who wanted to live and love her life. Who wanted to share it with her family and friends. I should know what that feels like. I do know what that feels like. Because that's all I want to do right now. Live and share and love my life with my family and friends. I want that for me. And I want that for this girl. This poor girl who will never get that again. Who is gone from this earth. Who is gone from this place.
She was someone, and now she is no one.

"Steph? If you help me, I will let you out of your room. I will let you out when I'm around. You can be around the house, and not stuck in that room. You can help me with preparing meals and cleaning. You can watch tv. You can listen to the radio." And after she took in what he had to say, she took the deal, and slowly began to bend down towards the girl, tears streaming down her cheeks.