A Fresh Grave

"Guys, what are we doing out here?" Ryan asked. "These woods give me the creeps."

"Oh, don't be such a little bitch all the time, man," said Mike. "We're going to show you something really cool."

"What?"

"It's a surprise," Melanie answered in a ghostly voice, shining a flashlight at her own face.

"You guys know I hate surprises," Ryan whined. "It better not be a scary."

"Just walk faster," urged Mike. "Jeff and Matt are getting too far ahead. Hey, wait up guys!"

Jeff called back, "Come on, guys! We don't got all night!"

"Jackass," Mike muttered.

Eventually, Jeff and Matt stopped to let the others catch up. Ryan was out of steam.

"Dude, you need to exercise," Matt remarked.

"I... usually... don't... get this winded." Ryan was having trouble speaking between breaths.

"Yeah, you've been even wimpier than usual lately," Jeff wisecracked as he gave Ryan a little punch in the arm, causing him to wince in pain. "Hey sorry, man. Didn't mean to hurt you."

"I'm fine," said Ryan, his voice labored, "but I want to know where you're taking me or I'm going home."

"I said it's a surprise," said Melanie, grimacing into her flashlight.

"Seriously, I'm going home if you guys don't tell me."

"Fine," Mike consented, "we found a grave."

"What?! A grave?!" Ryan was both frightened and intrigued. "Like, with a person in it?"

Everyone nodded.

"Is it like... rotting?" he asked.

"No," Jeff replied, "the corpse is pretty fresh."

"Wait, why haven't you gone to the police?"

"Because we want to show you first," Melanie replied. "If we go to the police then you won't get to see it."

"Guys, just go to the police. I don't need to see it." Everyone could tell Ryan was bluffing. He really did want to see the grave.

"Seriously," said Mike, "why do you have to be such a bitch all the time?"

"Fuck you, Mike."

"Come on, guys. It's not even that much further," declared Jeff, walking away as if to make everyone follow by default, which they did. Though, Melanie had to coax Ryan to keep going every now and then.

As they came closer to the grave site, Ryan started having second thoughts.

"Guys, I'm starting to get really freaked out. Can't we just go back?"

"No way, man," Mike insisted. "We're almost there. Are you seriously going to back out now?"

Everyone shined their flashlights in Ryan's face, making him cover it with his arms.

"Alright, alright! But let's just look at it and then go to the police, okay?"

"Fine," agreed Jeff, then Mike, then Matt, and finally Melanie.

The group continued their hike and soon they came upon a deep hole in the ground with four large rocks surrounding it. A few shovels were laying on a mound of dirt.

"Holy shit!" Ryan shouted. "You guys were serious?!"

"Of course we were," Mike responded. "Why would we bring you all this way if we weren't serious about it?"

"Yeah, but... I still can't believe it." Ryan stood there for a moment as the others surrounded the open grave.

"Aren't you going to look?" asked Melanie.

Ryan got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach of the likes he had never known. He knew the others wouldn't let him go home unless he looked into that hole, but something just felt wrong -- terribly wrong.

"Come on, man. Just look for a second," Matt persuaded.

"O-okay," Ryan uttered nervously, taking small steps towards the deep, dark hole. Peering over the edge, he shined a light to the bottom. The grave was empty.

"Huh?" Before Ryan could say anything else, Matt hit him hard in the back of the head with a shovel, sending him down into the hole. The four of them proceeded to push the four rocks into the grave, binding Ryan's legs and crippling his back. He cried for help in between bloody coughs.

As shovelfuls of dirt poured down on Ryan's body, he managed one last word, "W...w-why?"

"I'm so sorry, man," said Mike in a solemn tone. "We never should have dug you up."