Annabel's Tomb

***this is a revised version of a writing assignment in my senior english class***

Annabel’s Tomb

            Eight-year old Annabel watched her mother, enclosed in a smooth black casket, be lowered into the cold, hard ground.

            She wanted to cry, but she had been crying for the past week, ever since her mother’s death. She had no tears left. Annabel’s mother, Dienna, suffered from a rare skin condition that, if not treated soon enough, was extremely fatal. Her condition was discovered far too late, so there was absolutely nothing any doctor could do to save her. She was put on hospice, but her death was still extremely slow and excruciatingly painful.

            Annabel tried to abide by her mother’s last wishes:

            “Remember me as I was, Annabel, not as I am now,” but the images of her mother’s dead, wasted flesh, her sunken eyes, fragile body and bald scalp would not leave the little girl’s mind. She turned her head away, squeezing her eyes shut and pressing herself against her dad’s chest as the flesh-eating disease slowly disintegrated her mother.

Eight Years Later

            The memory of what happened just days after her mother’s funeral still haunts Annabel daily. Her father turned into an abusive drunk, blaming her for Dienna’s death, along with everything else wrong in his life and in the world. She constantly had to contrive new excuses for the ever-present bruises, stitches and broken bones.

            Friday nights were when her father drank the most. Annabel learned quickly to hide away in her room and be as quiet as a mouse until he passed out. That kept her out of the line of fire. Usually. The times when it didn’t resulted in numerous expensive ER visits for her “clumsiness.”

           

            When Dienna was alive, one thing that always gave Annabel solace was when her mother would take her to visit the tomb of Richard Fitzlan, the earl of Arundel, and his second wife, Eleanor. But, now that her mother was gone, Annabel got even more comfort from the sculpture on top of the tomb. It was a sculpture of Richard and Eleanor with Richard reaching over and holding his wife’s hand. It would always remind her of when she was younger, when her mother was alive, well, and deeply in love with her father. Annabel would visit the tomb every chance she got, especially after her father’s drunken rampages.

            It was the eighth year anniversary of Dienna’s death when an earthquake hit. It infuriated Annabel’s father, bringing more liquor to his lips than ever before. As soon as it was safe –earthquake wise– Annabel bolted out of the house, racing for the sanctuary of the tomb. When she arrived, she was devastated to see that the sculpture had cracked, leaving a large opening into the actual tomb. After the initial shock of her beloved sculpture and tomb being broken, Annabel became curious about what it looked like on the inside. So she peeked inside, but it was pitch black; she opened her phone and stuck her head inside. She wasn’t sure what prompted it, but she was suddenly filed with a morbid desire to descend into the tomb.

            She descended cautiously, not knowing how stable the stone stairs into the tomb were.

            Inside, she found only two coffins, one for Richard and one for Eleanor. As Annabel ran her hands along the stone coffins, brushing off some dust, she felt an odd sense of calm, one she could never before remember feeling, even when she visited the tomb with her mother. The calm escalated, making her very tired. Yawning, she lay down in between the coffins and fell fast asleep.

            Annabel opened her eyes, expecting to see her familiar white bedroom ceiling. Instead, she couldn’t see a thing; the world around her was solid black.

            “What is going on?” Annabel thought, blinking her eyes repeatedly, then rubbing them furiously. She could not remember where she was or anything that had happened that would cause her to go blind. She stood, feeling around for walls. As soon as she felt the slightly crumbling stonewalls, she remembered she was in the tomb. She breathed a huge sigh of relief.

            “I guess I have been asleep longer than I thought,” Annabel said to herself. “It’s gotten dark by now; but why aren’t there any stars?” Annabel continued to search along the walls for the break in the tomb that she had come in through.

            “Wh-what?” Annabel started to panic. “The gap isn’t here!” She frantically felt all the way around the tomb.

            As she made her way back to where she’d started, she felt something suspicious, something she knows she hadn’t seen when she had gotten into the tomb. It was grainy, a little bit damp and smelled like… cement. It was then that it dawned on Annabel what had happened. From when she’d first fallen asleep to the time she had woken up, someone had come by and re-sealed the broken tomb, unbeknownst to her presence inside.

            “I’m going to die!” Annabel thought. “I’m going to become dehydrated, starve, suffocate… and die.” Annabel leaned against the wall, trying to calm her mind and process what to do. But as she did, she thought of her father and how he would react to his only daughter disappearing, never to be found again. In the public eye, he would feign sorrow and despair. Maybe he would even squeeze out a tear or two. But when he was alone, she knew he would be thrilled. Thinking of her dad and being sealed inside the tomb, she now realized she would never, ever have to be his human punching bag again; she would never have to fall victim to his drunken rages and his endless, furious rants. That thought made Annabel smile. Ever since her father started beating her, Annabel had many times contemplated suicide as means to escape the suffering wrought by him. But the thought of her loving mother always kept her from pulling the trigger on her father’s shotgun. Although now, knowing she would never see him again, that she was not going to die by her own hand and that in death, she would be reunited with her mother, Annabel was overjoyed.

            “I will be with you soon mother, Richard, and Eleanor,” Annabel said, stroking the cold coffins. She smiled wide, thrilled with her life’s wonderful turn of events. She kissed the two coffins gently and then laid down between them, waiting for her body to die.