If You Read This...

Was Crazy

"Theo what are you talking about?" Nia whispered back to me.

"I know you don't believe me. I know you think I'm crazy. But what if it worked? What if we brought Rory back? It won't work if his body is underground! Don't you want to at least try? Don't we owe him that?" I explained.

"I don't know. Maybe. But what are we supposed to do? It's too late," she pointed to Ivy, who was sill giving her speech in front of the coffin.

"He's not underground yet."

"We'll need Ivy's help."

"No!" I said, a bit too loud. I didn't expect her to go with this, there was no way in hell I could get Ivy on board. "She'll never agree to it," I hushed my voice.

"We can't just leave her in the open on this! Look at her, she's trying not to sob!"

She was right. You could see the water welling up in Ivy's eyes from a mile away.

"Okay. But we need to hurry, they'll burry him soon."

She nodded, "so how do we stop them?"

"I," My brain burned as I thought about any and all the possible options. "I don't know."

Nia sighed.

When Ivy sat back down, Nia whispered something to her. I couldn't hear them, as I was too far away. But looking at Ivy's face, I inferred that she was telling her about Rory's ghost and our plan that didn't actually have a plan for, only a desired outcome.

I looked around, trying to find any way we could get the casket.

"Theo!" Ivy whisper-yelled. Nia leaned back so Ivy could talk to me. I gave her a look to tell her she had my attention.

"First of all, you're crazy."

I looked around to make sure no one was listening to us, Including Ki, who was sitting on the bench behind us.

"Second, this is a terrible idea." I frowned.

"And third," she sighed, "I owe you one." My face lit up like Christmas lights unexpectedly fueled with hope, as I let out a huge chuckle of relief. Ivy snapped and pointed to the pasture, who was now making eye contact with me.

I cleared my throat and faked a miserable expression.

When the service carried on, I looked back at Nia and as softly as my voice would allow, whispered, "we need to go. Now."

"We need to distract them," she agreed.

I turned behind me and looked Ki right in the eyes, "I can't watch him be buried." I mumbled,  forcing my eyes to tear up. He raised his eyebrows, then checked to make sure it was safe to talk without them hearing us.

"What are you saying?" He whispered.

"I have to go." I eyed Nia. She gave me a nod to indicate that she knew what I was doing.

I took a deep breath. Though it wasn't socially acceptable to leave for the restroom in the middle of a funeral, I didn't have another choice and to be fair, nothing I'd done in the past few weeks was socially acceptable.

Without saying anything, I jumped off the bench and ran down the isle, trying to make as much noise with my feet as I could.

"Theo!" Both Ivy and Nia called after me. I heard everyone's head turn in sync, but I kept running.

I searched the halls for a place to hide, like a raving predator searching for it's pray.

There was a janitors closet not far from me, but it seemed too obvious. There where also plenty of smaller rooms, but after pulling on the handles of a few, I discovered they where all locked.

"You go left, I'll go right!" I heard Ki shout to someone. They where running towards me. I darted towards the left, hoping Nia was the other one "looking" for me. I leaned up against a huge, wooden cross.

My heart raced as foot steps approached me.

I jumped when I saw Nia's face.

"He's not over here!" She yelled.

"Come on, we gotta go," she whispered. She led me down the hall, where Ivy was running towards us.

"Here," she pulled a cigarette lighter out of her pocket.

"What?" Nia asked. 

"Are you crazy?" I demanded, grabbing the lighter.

"I'm sorry, was it my idea to steal a dead body?"

"I'm lost," Nia mumbled.

"Ivy, we could kill someone!" I pointed out.

"Well do you have a better idea?!"

"Any idea is better than tha-"

"Guys!" Nia raises her voice, but still talked quietly, "What are we doing?"

I shook my head reluctantly as Ivy stated, "We're going to start a fire."