Issue Three

out and rubbed the dirt and dry mud off
the smooth surface, revealing the
names underneath. James Tonkin and
Cassie Meyers lay here, resting beneath
the six feet of dirt and soil. Wearily he
unfolded the spade, and began to set to
work, thrusting it into the loose, dry soil
before placing his weight onto the blade,
driving down and scooping up chunks of
dirt before throwing them into a pile onto
the side. Perspiration gathered on his
forehead and the biceps of his arms
bulged as he worked, determined to get
this done before the light came over the
horizon. He soon found himself knee
deep in earth, sinking deeper into the
core of the ground below him. Jumping
out, he landed onto the top soil, before
pulling his sweat soaked shirt over his
head and throwing it to the ground. It
stuck to his skin, wet and slick, but once
he was free, he glanced back at the hole
and prepared himself for another crack
at this digging, fixing his hair back into a
tight bun before doing so.
A scuttling noise caught his attention
and he whipped around, eyes wide and
searching the stones around him,
squinting into shadows, catching a
glimpse of an oversized, wet looking
cockroach as it squeezed it’s glistening
body between the cracks of a
tomb. The man shuddered, taking a
deep breath and then leaping into the
hole he’d dug, working continuously
now, unable to stop himself. It felt like
forever, and the sun began to creep
over the horizon, the bright orb slowly
rising up and shattering the darkness
with vivid rays of orange, pink and
red. The warbling of magpies resonated
through the air, and the screeching of
birds filled the trees. He had to work
faster.
It wasn’t long before he heard the
thump of the shovel hitting wood, and he
threw the spade over the edge of the
hole, it hit the mound of dirt with a dull
plunk. On his hands and knees, he
worked furiously to remove soil with his
fingers, dirt spilled out of his cupped
hands and slid through the cracks of his
digits. Eventually the lid of a coffin was
exposed, and the man frowned, this
confirmed they were buried
together. Gradually he pried the wood
off the top, the brittle timber cracking
and splintering in his hands, shards of
needle fine embers slicing into his skin
and burying deep into the flesh of his
palms. The sun was higher now,
exposing the contents within the coffin.
There they were, two skeletons with
transparent, tissue paper skin clinging to
the faces and limbs in some places,
ivory coloured bones poked out beneath
the decayed flesh. Embalming had
preserved these two lovers relatively
well. Their spines were curled slightly,
as though they had been buried
embracing each other, and the bones of
their limbs were intertwined, you could
not move one without causing the other
skeleton to fall into a mass of
bones. Their grinning skulls faced each
other, the hollows of their orbital holes
locked onto each other’s gaze. The
smaller skeleton had a single gold band
around its index finger, and a thin chain
sat snugly inside of the ribcage of the
larger skeleton, intertwined around the
vertebras of its neck.
The man sat there, simply admiring the
scene before him for a moment. Before
reaching into the depths of his back
pocket and sliding out his smart
CASSIE MEYER’s RING