The forest from my nightmare wasn't just a product of my wild imagination.
I've been there before.
Not for the purpose of digging out a grave, but just to enjoy the dewy silence floating between the dense trees.
Tom allowed the supposition that Santana would get rid of Gabrielle's body in the forest after killing her, but he didn't understand why I was so convinced it was the only place where we should find them. He was afraid we would lose precious time searching in the wrong place. I couldn't explain why I was so sure of it and asked him just to trust me on that.
He was surprised to find out I was right when we spotted Santana's car hidden in the bushes near the mentioned forest. In the distance we heard cries for help. My heart leaped with joy when I realised it was Gabrielle. She was alive, but in great danger.
Tom and I dashed forward, into the thorny maze of the dark woods, leaving behind us the dimming light of the evening.
Except for Gabrielle's scared, faint cry, there was another, unsettling noise that cut through the stoic quietude of the tall trees. It resembled the scream of a crow, but it couldn't be produced by a bird or an animal. It forced upon us a primal fear, never experienced before. It was a human being, but inherently different and more dangerous than us.
Our eyes got accustomed to the darkness and it looked like we caught their trace.
At some point, Tom motioned me to stop and to keep quiet. I couldn't see his lips moving, but I knew he tried to tell me someone was there.
I could only hear the beating of my heart and the rustling of the leaves above us. The forest dark tricked me into seeing things that weren't there.
Unexpectedly, Tom fell with his face forward on the ground. I wanted to help him to get up, but the policeman was dragged away by a force I couldn't distinguish in the dark. I ran after him, trying to grab his hands, shouting his name, but he soon disappeared behind the trees, leaving me alone with the unexplainable terror.
It wasn't safe to keep shouting. I didn't know how many perpetrators there were, and I was alone. No one knew we were there. No one would come to our rescue.
I tried to concentrate on the silence, imagining I was in my graveyard. I pictured how the peace and serenity of that place flowed through my veins and occupied my senses. It wasn't the same kind of sensation, but it helped me to calm down and keep a straight focus on my surroundings.
Clearing my mind from superstitions and fear I was finally able to perceive the constant odd movement around me. It was almost imperceptible, but whenever I stood perfectly still holding in my breath, I saw the trees slightly changing their position to the left or to the right. If I hadn't noticed that I would've run in circles, which would lead to me getting lost.
I reached a moonlit open space. There were no trees or bushes, just a large grassy circle. In the middle of that circle was a dark pit. I got curious and came closer to see what it was. The pit was empty. It didn't look like a trap for animals, more like a freshly dug out grave. Like the one in my nightmare. When I turned around to walk away from it, I saw her. She creeped up on me noiselessly, like a cat, holding a shovel in her hands. She didn't give me any chance to duck down or run away. The blow was so sudden and hard I tumbled down into the pit. I fell hard on my back, pushing all the air out of my lungs.
As I stared with open eyes into the sky, trying to regain my breath, I saw the terrified face of my beloved Gabrielle. Santana held her by her hair, forcing her over the edge. My angel started to cry when she saw me on the bottom of the pit. I wasn't able to produce a single sound or a word of comfort to let her know I was fine. Santana pulled her briskly away, holding her in a headlock with a knife close to her face.
"You two really got me into a lot of trouble! This little bitch turned out to be stronger than I expected! You can't imagine how long I tried to poison her. Every day a little bit. I must confess, sometimes it drove me to despair. I had to contain myself from strangling her in her sleep. But it had to look all natural. Just like with her mother. And then there was you, sexton! You are something else, aren't you? If you just gave me the necklace, I would've left you two alone, but no, you wanted war!"
"Please, don't hurt her. Let us go. We will leave this place; you'll never hear of us again. We won't tell anyone," I was able to breathe again and I used that opportunity to beg Santana to spare Gabrielle's life.
"Oh, I'm sorry, sexton. It's too late for that now. All the shit you've stirred up in the past few days leave me no other choice than to get rid of both of you. But this time I'll take care you won't get out of your graves. Buried dead or alive, I don't care. No one would even think of looking for you here."
She hit Gabrielle and tried to push her off into the pit, but my girl fought back. Santana threatened that she would cut her face in pieces. I tried to get up, but I must have hit my head in the fall. Everything was spinning around.
Then I heard a shot.
Gabrielle screamed.
I looked up and saw Santana balancing on the edge. She looked astonished at the dark stain expanding itself quickly on her chest. She swayed back and forth and eventually tumbled down into the pit, falling on top of me.
Santana was still alive. I felt her nauseating strawberry breath in my neck. She brought her face closer to my ear and whispered:
"Don't you dare to fuck me when I'm dead, sexton!"
She gasped for air. I felt two violent shocks going through her body, before all her muscles relaxed and weighed down on me as an unwelcome burden. I pushed her off me and called for Gabrielle. No answer came. I called again, with my voice breaking off in a sob at the end.
"We're fine, Nicolas. The girl has an ugly cut on her arm, but she won't die from it," Tom groaned from above.
"Tom! You're alive!" I exclaimed.
"Barely, that bitch got me badly. Now, let's get you out of there and drive to the hospital."
The way back through the dark forest exhausted us completely. Tom contacted his station and asked for an ambulance.
We got a lot of visitors as we were recovering in the hospital, mostly nosy people who were curious to hear about Gabrielle's miraculous return from the dead.
I was reluctant to talk to those people, though. The remembrance of their eagerness to bury me alive and lynch me without a trail was whipped into my memory. Gabrielle on the other hand, didn't seem to get tired of telling the same story repeatedly.
Shortly after our discharge from hospital we got married. We received her father's blessings, although he wasn't all too happy with the prospect of being my father-in-law. At first, I thought Gabrielle was exaggerating when she told me her father didn't really care about her, but after getting to know him I realised she hadn't lied.
His daughter's comeback didn't stir any particular emotions in him. He was in mourning after the death of his wife, but not for long. Soon, the spell she had over him waned and he got back to his normal life. I even heard he found a new young lover, younger than Santana.
My life is Gabrielle now. We are two happy idiots, who can't get enough of each other. She moved in with me. Now, we both run the cemetery. I removed the tombstone from her grave and made a flowerbed of tailflowers in that place.
At night, we walk around the graveyard, enjoying the silence, whispering sweet stupidities in each other's ears. Then we return home to our bedroom.
I open the lid of the coffin I made, big enough for us both, I take her in my arms and get inside. I make love to her until she falls asleep and wait for the purple haze to cover us before I close the lid and fall asleep beside my love.