by Sheena Lopez
Red Dirt
“Quick, get the shovel!” he said, trying to be discreet. Time was running out before the bright red and blue lights appeared in the distance.
The trees were so thick with fog that only the tension of the night could cut through it like a knife. Derek and Chase had no idea what they were getting themselves into, but they did know that the clock was ticking in their minds.
Trying to wipe the sweat from his forehead, Chase couldn’t see two feet in front of him. In the haste of everything he had forgotten his glasses at home. “How much more do we need to dig?” he said, his breath growing louder and louder in the stillness of the night.
“Just keep digging, and try not to be so loud. You don’t know who could be living around here. We aren’t that far away from the road,” Derek said.
“We aren’t going to make it, Derek. Time is running out. I can’t survive in prison. I’ll end up in the dirt too.”
The only light they had was from their cellphones. They both begged their mom for a cell phone senior year so they could plan out ways to escape their boring bedrooms without being caught. They never had much like the other kids in school, but they always found a way to make use of what they had.
“Look, my phone won’t make it much longer and I really think we should hurry. If only she would’ve just loved me we wouldn’t be in this mess anyway.”
Derek dug deeper and deeper until he could feel the skin ripping from the crease of his thumb. “She should’ve loved me,” he said, ignoring the stinging pain shooting up his arm.
“Chase, why did she make such a big deal about me not being able to take her to prom? All this time we were together and she just tosses me away like an old rag because I couldn’t dress up with her,” he said, digging more and more.
“She did love you, okay? It is hard enough to be around a woman as is much less to understand why they do the things they do.”
“Well, now no one can have her. She can dance her cute little face into the dirt. Doesn’t she know how good she had it? I gave her everything. Well everything I could,” he said, “but she just discarded me. Well never again.”
“Dude, I can’t do this. I’ve got to get out of here. I can’t believe you have me out here doing this with you. I’m going to go to prison. You know we are going to get caught eventually. I’ll never get to have a girlfriend like you did,” Chase said, “and I sure won’t get a chance to dig her grave either.”
Derek spun around and stood there like one of the trees surrounding them. He stared at Chase so long that his eyes could give out more light than the weak cellphones from just the whites of his eyes.
“Are you bailing on me?”
“No, Derek. I just think we took this too far.”
“You’re one of them. I knew it. You think you are too good. You think I didn’t know about you kissing her?”
“Wha-“
Derek leaped at Chase and swung the shovel at his head, chopping it clean off. He stepped back to view his masterpiece. Rubbing blood through his fingers, he smiled at the red dirt beneath.
“Looks like you’ll have your girlfriend after all.”
He tossed both of their bodies into their pit of fate.
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Thank you for reading my short story collection. If you enjoyed it, won’t you please take a moment to leave me a review at your favorite retailer? Thanks!
Sheena Lopez
About the Author:
Sheena is an Army veteran with two wonderful children, working on her BFA in Creative Writing for Entertainment at Full Sail University. When she isn’t playing referee for her spirited children, she focuses on learning about the art of writing. IN her free time she enters mystery and romance writing contests in the hopes of being published one day. She enjoys reading various genres as well as reading numerous children's books weekly with her daughter.
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