The Lost Girls || Bbangsaz

XIV

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This was poorly planned out from the start. None of us wanted to take part in this. Haerin laid her sister to rest a hundred years ago, and she'd done her grieving, she'd learned how to move on from it. This was just going to dig it all up again. Literally.

While Dani laid out a map of the cemetery, complete with red lines and times for the security rotations, Haerin stepped out for a few hours. She returned with a bloody stump that turned out to be a human leg. Or, as she liked to call it, an art project.

"Are you sure midnight is the best time?" I asked. "Wouldn't security increase at that time, seeing as how were so close to Halloween and people are fools?"

"You'd think." Dani shrugged. "This is when they do shift change. I don't make the rules. Lucky for us, the older graves are in the back and don't get checked as often because they generally don't have family around to complain if something isn't right."

"Haerin?" I looked over to where she'd set out her leg, having already washed it, dried it, and covered it in clear rubber sealant. She painted little black diamonds in a crisscrossing pattern up the thigh. "Do you have any thoughts on what time we should get there, since we'll mostly be taking direction from you?"

Even though Dani and I agreed to do all of the digging, because of the mental toll it would take on Haerin, we still wanted to make sure we were doing what she felt was best. My feelings toward my mom were ever complex, mostly tinged with resentment, and I still couldn't stomach the idea of opening her coffin years after she died. I couldn't imagine what it must've been like for Haerin to do this with someone she loved.

"I'd rather not make decisions on the details." Her bottom lip stuck out as she kept full concentration on the pattern she drew on the leg.
"It's bad enough that I'll have to stand guard while you dig her up and act like you're not putting your gross, undead hands into her coffin."

"Fair enough." I turned back to Dani. "Midnight is fine."

After we put the finishing touches on our plan for the night, we took a trip down to the hardware store to use my last paycheck to buy some shovels. I'd have to get another job soon if I wanted to put away a small amount of money while I stayed with Dani and Haerin for free. I had no idea how they managed to have such a nice apartment when neither worked. I made a mental to note to ask one of them later.

A newspaper rested on the edge of a trashcan, and I picked it up when I read the headline "Wild Animal Makes the Night Manager a Fourth Meal at Taco Bell." The tactlessness of it tickled my funny bone.

Apparently, Jimmy had been fined in the past for trying to purchase a jaguar to keep in his residential neighborhood. Police assumed it was an illegal big-cat deal gone bad. No longer my problem. I tossed the newspaper into the next bin.

In the hardware store, the cashier, with a look of horrified fascination in her eyes, snapped her gum as she watched us walk up and down the aisles. We grabbed a couple of shovels plus the lampshade and hot-glue gun Haerin had requested. The cashier shuddered as she handed me the change for a twenty by giving me another twenty.

I wasn't going to complain.

On the way back to the apartment, I slipped into the antique shop next to our apartment and bought Dani a fish-shaped paperweight made out of carnival glass to add to her collection as a thank-you for taking me in. I'd grab a random body part off my next kill for Haerin.