Creative Writing (Class Submissions)

A College Professor, A Graveyard, And A Waffle

"Abby."

"Adam."

"Dude. Get up."

"I'm a girl now. Don't tell me what to do. Feminism and stuff."

"Get up. I made waffles."

Abby rolled reluctantly out of bed, her unkempt red hair frizzing out erratically. Leftover makeup stained her tear-soaked face and she took a quick second to wipe what she could away before turning to face her big brother. "I don't want waffles. Listen, I shouldn't be here. I have to teach a Seminar class tomorrow, and I'm sure mom didn't plan on me showing up to her burial service when she killed herself to distance herself from me. So if you'll excuse me, I've got to get ready. Have fun with your stupid requiem."

"Abby-"

"Shut up!" She replied, grabbing him by the shirt collar and shoving him out of the room and into the carpeted hallway, its pale blue walls lined with family photos and faded dirt stains from the "mud-ball fights" she and Adam would get in as kids. 

Now the fights were real, and no one was there to break them up.

~

I'll spare you the details.

That morning, Adam Gage Ortiz bled out on the floor of his mom's old home. His body was found just before his mom's burial service, as visitors arrived to find his body impaled on a metal chair.

In the frenzied attempt to save Adam's life, the waffles were forgotten or ignored, and the house burned to the ground by 11:44 that morning.

Abby Saul Ortiz's class didn't have a teacher the next day.

Or anytime after that.

In fact, she was never found.

Only I know the tragedy that befell her.

~

Abby scrambled in a panicked daze through the overgrown graveyard, the ageing stone markers crumbling at the slightest touch. This end of the graveyard had been left unattended and desolate for decades. 

This was where she belonged, not in the World she found normal.

She deserved a lonely death, with no one to remember her.

"Abby. Or should I say... Avery?"

Abby froze, sniffling. "Who are you?"

"My name is Richard, king of Hades. I think it best you come with me."

Abby's vision turned a shadowy crimson as a thick mist arose from the gravestones around her, swallowing her in its suffocating arms. "You'll like it where we're going, trust me."

"Stop-"

"Now."

She slammed to the ground.

Blood rushed from her eyes, and everything went black.

Abby Saul Ortiz is the Queen of Hell.