Page 11 of Dig Your Grave

Anubis was a bad guy.

“Yes, I’m nobody,” I whispered, my heart sinking.The realization of my place in this twisted hierarchy was a bitter pill to swallow.“So, tell me, why me?”

“The higher you are, the lower your mate,” he continued, his words a reflection of the warped values that governed this secret society.The implication was clear.In their eyes, I was the lowest of the low, suitable only for this humiliating ordeal.

I sucked in a breath, trying not to cry.

“The lower my casket.That’s what you are called.”He laughed.“For you, it makes sense, a basket case even.”

My throat got too tight.Tears fell from my eyes.

“My casket, where I bury my bone.The only place after tonight.I’ll be damned if I get a cold one even if she is poorer than dirt.Inelegant.Uneducated.”

“I get better grades than you,” I choked out through my sobs.

“Grades mean nothing in the real world.Everything they taught you in school was to keep you dumb.And all those books you read, everything you do, keeps you complacent.You’ve been uneducated your whole life.All you could ever aspire to is to work for the rest of your days.Make a baby to grow up to be another worker.Get a degree and change the world?You won’t amount to anything, just like the rest of them.By design.Hell, the student loans on this place will cripple you financially.”

“I won the lottery.”

“But you still have them, right?Loans to live and eat.Cause mommy is gone with Redd Rocket,” he said, a mocking tone.

This was the bad guy I remembered.“How do you know about him?”

“What don’t I know, Suede.What kind of fucking name is that?”

“Don’t you know?You seem to know everything.”

“Yeah, your mom is a new age junkie.From now on, when you are with me, you’ll be called Nubia.”

“Some Egyptian shit like you?”

“All of us skulls have a code name.You’re my casket.I get to name you.My name just so happens to be my government name.See, Nubia.I can’t escape this.I can’t leave this school or my path in life.Unless I go float in the river, like your friend.And you are on that path with me now.”

“Why me?”I asked again.

“I didn’t choose you.But I did mark you, in case.In case you stayed pure.”

“My arm?It was you who did that to me?”

“Yes, Nubia.”

My tears were red hot now.I couldn’t believe it.It was a bridge too far.“Don’t call me that.”

“It’s your name now, Nubia.”

“What does it even mean?”

“It means gold, and you’re my golden pussy.My fucking ticket to the top.Fucking you, a virgin, down here in this cold grave.I’m in.It’s supposed to be a challenge.”

“I’m a challenge?”

“No.You’re not.I could lie, tell you I am in love, and steal your sweet cherry by snapping my fingers.I would rather it be that way, but this is supposed to be hard for you.Just like God punished women in the Garden of Eden.This is supposed to hurt you, physically and emotionally.Toughen you up for the road ahead.And me, I can’t have someone who wants me.I have to take.Taking is my job, taking anything I want.Rule the goddamn world.It starts here, taking someone who would never have me.Someone not even worthy.Someone who hates me.That’s why it was me who roughed you up and assaulted you in that alley.I cut your arm.I’m the man from your nightmares.”

“Man, you had to have been only just seventeen.”

“You forget, I was a shoo-in for Edenvane.Preparations were made early.My initiation started early.”

“You did that to me?”

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