July (19 page)

Suddenly I was jolted as if being lifted by unseen hands. Was this some weird effect of whatever stupefying drug I’d been given? The jolting continued until I heard a scraping noise
and was pushed forward. My head shifted a little and that’s when my nose touched something soft and very close to me. That’s when the full horror of my position was revealed.

I was sealed up in something. A box of some sort.
I was trapped inside a coffin, being loaded into a hearse!

I tried to scream, but was unable to control my mouth. Nothing happened. I tried to struggle, but I still couldn’t move. With another sudden jolt, the vehicle I’d been loaded into started to move. I remembered the burial list on the wall of the undertakers. There had been one name on it.

My name!

Again, I tried to scream but it was no use.

The box vibrated as the hearse began to drive. Was I being driven to a
cemetery?

On and on, the drive continued. I was
petrified
—hopelessly numb. I kept trying to move my fingers and my toes.

I suddenly became very aware of my
breathing
. How much air was in this coffin?

Even in my drowsy state, I understood that it wouldn’t matter how much air was trapped inside here with me. Within a very short time, six feet underground, I would be dead.

I had failed to survive my sixteenth birthday.

The sounds of the car engine stopped and I could hear voices outside, muffled by the padding in the coffin. I wanted to scream and yell and shout, and bang the walls around me, but my hands and mouth still wouldn’t work.

Great-aunt Millicent’s haunting words,
explaining
how she knew my dad was dead, seeped into my mind.

‘Because anyone who starts to investigate the Ormond Singularity … winds up in a casket …’

Through the tangled, gluey muddle in my mind, my panic grew out of control. I visualised
everything
that was happening to me. With a sickening jerk, I felt myself being dragged across the ground then lowered. Slowly, slowly the coffin shuddered … until I hit the bottom of a grave.

Thud
.

The first shovelful of dirt hit the coffin lid on top of me.

Thud
.

The second. This can’t be happening!

Thud
.

The third. And then the dirt started falling faster, heavier …

Thud, thud, thud
…