Buried Alive
The day Chad finally said he’d marry me, his
“perfect” ex–girlfriend, Bethany, offed herself.
He tore up our engagement and screamed at
me, saying I should die instead.
Guess what? He got his wish.
I ended up kidnapped and shipped off to
some hellhole in Myanmar. Every day felt like
it could be my last.
Two years later, the cops rescued me. Chad
was there, all red–eyed, mumbling apologies.
I just looked away. “Got someone new,” I
said. “Buzz off.”
<
- 1.
Everybody knew how head–over–heels I was
for Chad.
I’d become his ideal woman–long, dark hair,
apron–wearing, and all that.
After five years of playing the perfect
girlfriend, he finally asked me to marry him. I
was so high on happiness that I didn’t think
twice when Bethany asked to meet up.
Bethany was his “one that got away.” She’d
come back into his life a year ago, trying to
rekindle things, but I was in the way.
That night at the hotel, she slapped a doctor’s
report on the table.
<
“Look, Sarah,” she said, “I’m sick, stage four
stomach cancer. They’re saying I’ve got
maybe three months left. Can you just give
Chad back to me? I’m gonna die soon
anyway, and then you two can still be
together.
I was totally in love with Chad. There was no
way I was giving him up, even for a minute.
I shook my head. “No, not for three months,
not for one second.”
Bethany’s eyes went all desperate and
hateful.
“Sarah, you have no idea how much he’ll
despise you after this,” she spat out.
I lit a cigarette. “He’ll love me forever…oh,
<
and by the way, we’re engaged today.”
I tossed the butt and walked out without
looking back.
That night, Bethany slashed her wrists in her
bathroom.
Her suicide note had one sentence:
Sarah, I was done with him, why couldn’t you
let me go?
There was a cigarette butt near the note, with
my lipstick mark on it.
Oh, and the stomach cancer diagnosis was
nowhere to be found.
I was in hysterics, trying to explain to Chad
<
“She has cancer, she’s dying, and she’s doing
this to get back at me for taking you!”
The cops confirmed Bethany’s medical
history, but it was too late.
I was waiting for Chad to apologize, say he’d
messed up.
Instead, he yelled at me and slapped me
across the face twice!
“You knew she didn’t have much time, and
you still pushed her to her limit! You’re just
evil. Why didn’t you die instead!?”
He blamed everything on me and blocked me
on everything.
I spent two days locked in my room, figuring
<
Then I got a text from him, on some burner
number.
He said if I went to the hotel where Bethany
killed herself and kowtowed three times in
front of the bathtub, he might forgive me.
I went without a second thought.
As soon as I walked in, someone put a rag
over my nose.
When I woke up again, I was in Myanmar.
The plane’s announcement pulled me back to the present.
The female cop next to me gave me a hug
く
The plane touched down, and I set foot back
on American soil.
My sister, Lisa, was waiting at the gate. She
threw her arms around me, jumping up and
down, crying and laughing at the same time.
My eyes stung, but I couldn’t squeeze out a
single tear.
“Sarah…”
Someone called my name.
I looked up.
Chad was standing right beside my sister.
I almost didn’t recognize him.
<
I opened my mouth, not knowing what to say.
Lisa hooked her arm through mine. “Sis, let’s
get home, Mom and Dad have called like a
million times. They’re freaking out!”
Chad drove, Lisa sat shotgun.
It had been two years, they had a whole
history I knew nothing about.
I couldn’t join the conversation, so I just
listened quietly.
Halfway, Lisa got out to go into a baby store, coming back with some kind of apron thing.
I asked her, “Did you start cooking?”
Her eyes darted around, and she didn’t
<
Chad glanced at me in the rearview mirror, a
look on his face that was like I was trying to
find out something I shouldn’t.
I felt awkward and shut my eyes, pretending
to sleep.
When we got home, after stepping over the
charcoal that my mom had put out to get rid
of bad vibes, I barely said a few words before
Lisa dragged me off to take a shower.
I told her I already showered before I got on
the plane.
She said no way, bad–luck people have to
wash all over again when they come home.
I just stared at her. She quickly apologized.
“Oh, sorry, sis, didn’t mean it like that.”
<
I shook my head. “It’s fine.”
It wasn’t her fault, I was just too fragile now.
I sank into the tub, Lisa ran her fingers over
the scars all over my body.
“Sis, does it hurt?”
I said, “It’s okay.”
She touched the chafing marks on my wrist where the chain had rubbed me raw.
Then, out of nowhere, she said, “Bethany cut herself right here, right? Sis, why do you think she did it in the tub?”
Me in the tub: …
<
“You should probably go, I’ll wash myself.” I
shut my eyes.
She said “okay” and slowly got up.
I heard her talking to Chad outside the door. “I mentioned Bethany by accident and pissed
off my sister.”
Chad paused, then, as if he didn’t hear the name at all, said, “Let her relax for a bit.”
I didn’t know why Chad was still in contact
with my family.
In Myanmar, I figured out I was the victim of
some text scam.
That text saying I needed to go to the hotel
and kowtow wasn’t from Chad at all.
But he was still so full of hate for me because
of Bethany’s death. There was no coming
back from that.
Plus, I’d been gone for two years.
I figured he’d moved on from my family and
had a new life.
I never imagined we’d see each other again.
After my shower, when I went downstairs,
Lisa was at the table wearing her new apron,
playing on her phone.
My mom was peeling shrimp and putting it in
Lisa’s mouth. Chad and my dad were on the
balcony smoking, every now and then looking
back at her.
<
When they heard me, my mom waved me over
to sit with her.
I had barely taken a bite when Lisa suddenly
asked for a Coke.
My mom frowned. “Lisa, how many times
have I told you? Pregnant women shouldn’t
drink Coke!‘
It finally hit me, the store Lisa went to was a
baby store, and that apron was a maternity
anti–radiation thing.
I was stunned.
My sister was four years younger than me,
only twenty–two.
She just graduated from college and was
<
I swallowed a bite of food, “Lisa, did you get
married? Where’s your husband?”
The air went thick. My dad sighed.
Lisa’s eyes started to water.
Chad put his drink down.
“Sarah, Lisa’s baby is mine.”
