Page 107 of Crybaby

“Take a photo for his dad,” I say to Rev. I hate myself. But everyone is entitled to a viewing.

Rev searches his pockets and comes up empty. He stares at me with his hands open, and we look back at the truck.

Fucking left the phone in the car with Mrs. Doubtfire. I throw the shotgun back at Rev and race over to the truck. Granny is shaking like a madwoman. Poor love, she’s had a really shit time. I reach through the broken windshield, scraping my skin along the cut glass, and reach for the cell off the dash.

Immediately, I toss it in the dirt and stomp on it until it shatters.

Rev is talking to Carson, but I can’t see what’s going on. There’s an argument, of course, but Carson suddenly falls to his knees and hangs his head.

“Just fucking shoot me!” he yells, arms out wide.

Rev is torn, and his teeth are mashed together, but tears build in his eyes.

I storm over, and this is it. It’s time to show me where his loyalties lie. Honestly, he’s done enough, and if he wants to spare Carson’s life, then I will think about it. I understand in the span of a couple of days, he’s just found out who his father and brother are.

So I wait… I give him a choice and will accept whatever that is.

And the choice he makes warms my dead heart.

“Get in,” Rev orders, pointing toward the fresh grave Buckets rests in. There’s barely enough room, but it’s possible if he lies on top.

Carson pales when he realizes Rev isn’t playing. Family or not, he’s going to…bury his brother alive.

I feel sick, but at the same time, I hate him with everything in my body. I think about Foss, Buckets, and Blake. How Carson was the puppet master. They could’ve killed me that night, and instead, he would be burying me.

I can’t let this happen to another soul.

I just can’t.

“No!” Carson screams, the fight in him never dying, and if I didn’t hate his fucking face, I would admire his tenacity.

“He said get in!” I scream, shoving his large back with two hands, using as much force as I can. He hardly moves a muscle and turns to look at me.

“You asked why, darling…well, the answer is…why the fuck not?” he says, smirking, showing me his true colors.

Everyone wants answers to their questions, and most feel comforted when told the truth, but not me. He did this just because? Just because I was there? Just because I rejected him? Just because he could?

This suddenly makes everything so much worse. If there was a legit reason, I could attempt to process it. But there isn’t.

He did it because he wanted to…and that’s it. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. No epiphany other than Carson Beckett deserves to die.

I don’t even have time to think before a whack rocks me to the core. One minute, Carson is standing, and the next, he’s slumped onto the ground, thanks to the shovel Rev’s holding—the shovel he just smacked across Carson’s head.

“Do you want to say a few words?”

My mouth is hanging open because this was not the ending I expected.

Rev has chosen…and he chose me.

“Don’t look so surprised, baby. It’s always you.”

I don’t know what to say, so I stand on tippy-toes and press my mouth against Rev’s, our kisses entwined in a blood-soaked union.

With one final kiss, Rev pulls away and uses his boot to kick Carson into the grave. He rolls onto Buckets’s body, and I stand transfixed as Rev commences covering both boys with dirt.

It’s over.

We did it.

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