Writing Prompt

How to hide a body? That’s usually the question murderers ask themselves although I haven’t so much as harmed a single hair on someone’s head. No, I need to hide the body of my recently deceased grandmother. You may wonder why I can’t just bury her well it’s illegal, ever since ‘they’ came it was made mandatory to donate all the deceased to scientific research on understanding the human body. I’ve tried to hide other relatives although they are either found and taken away or found before I even had a chance to try and save them, ‘they’ and drag away their limp bodies into their metallic, ash black transporter. To you all it my seem like we are all selfish not wanting to donate our bodies to science but what they do to your body shouldn’t ever happen, whether your alive or dead. I pace up and down the cramped hallway, the floorboards creaking beneath me, where am I to hide a body? I know they will be here within the hour so I hurriedly grab the music crate in which my grandma was residing and ,struggling, drag the box through and out the back door towards the withered pine tree which stands in the corner of the fenced garden. Swiftly, I jog over to the heap of wood ,in which my family calls a shed, and search for the eroding, bronze shovel. On spotting it I swim through the debris and grab hold of it saving it from the collapsing mess above. As soon as I can, I begin to dig a large ditch just under the tree and ,once it is a reasonable size, throw a large pile of pile needles into the ditch in an attempt to mask the smell. Anxiously, I open the music crate to see my grandma-still- limply laying in the cramped face her usual happy demeanour reduced to a cold pale nothingness. I brace my self before handling the body and placing it in the ditch I had dug. I decided to remove the evidence so I jumped over the frail fence-bringing the shovel and crate with me- before walking over to the edge of the cliff where below the waves were viciously attacking the rocks. I threw both items off the edge and watched as they were engulfed in the storm below. As fast as my legs could carry me I ran back to the ditch I had dug and began scooping all the mud back into the hole and stomped it down with my feet. Why did I throw the shovel away before I had finished? My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the echo of the door knocker and the ring of my clock alerting me that it had reached 12 o’clock.My heart bounded as I twisted the door knob...

Hopefully I had done enough...

I’m not gonna let you cold-hearted monsters cut her open and pick apart her insides. Aunt G didn’t even sign up to be an organ donor. She wanted certain things to be kept to herself- literally and metaphorically.

As she died yesterday, the twinkle dimming in her green eyes, she reminded me of what I have to do. What I’ve done for all my family members that have passed since the new law. Grandpa Jon, Granny Ruth, and even little cousin Zara, who overdosed on her mom’s stash. All magically disappeared before the mortuary vans could pick them up. All buried in my backyard. In my greenhouse, to be precise.

You might be thinking that we’re selfish for not wanting to donate our corpses for scientific and medical advancements. Trust me, it’s better off this way. There are just certain things that us humans need to keep a secret from you. Oh, you still think you’re a human?

I have to go. The sun is rising.

This is journal entry #572, and I have some things to share. It’s been a few months ever since scientists and the government made it mandatory for when we die, to give our bodies up to them. I’ve never thought this day in age would come, giving our bodies, our corpses, up to science. I guess it’s illegal now to bury people, but I don’t care what’s right and wrong when it comes down my family. I tried to bury my other deceased relatives but they found them, I didn’t do enough for them, but I have to for my sister. Why do they need them anyways? Are they going to test chemicals on them, poisons, weapons, or something else that I’m too afraid to say? I’ve heard that they don’t just take corpses, they also take people who are not dead as well, only to kill them in ways that are unimaginable. Do they cut them open, slit their skin, shoot them with guns? What do they do to those poor souls?

Today they announced that they will be coming into our homes to search the premises to bring in corpses, and maybe us, down to where they bring the corpses, into their own very morgue, and bringing us to where we will die if we aren’t already dead. I just know that I can’t let them get my sister, I won’t allow them to test on her corpse while I’m still alive. They check everywhere for corpses and bodies: the ocean, dumpsters, underground, people’s homes, and basically everywhere they can get into; I just need to find one place they won’t be able to search, but where would that be? I can’t hide it where others have tried, so that limits my options. I have to also find a place where they can’t get into, so my options deplete again.

I just need to find the perfect place to hide her so she doesn’t get found by the hands of the government and scientists. The only question is, where to hide the body?

Two weeks ago today my grandmother passed away. She wasn’t an organ donor, she was a faithful Christian woman who never went a day without a little gold cross dangling from her neck.

Her name was Ginger, as long as i could remember she had short, black hair and the bluest eyes i had ever seen. She made chocolate chip cookies and the best cornbread i’ve ever tasted. Once an elementary teacher, she helped raise me while my parents were off working. In her care i learned to read and write before many other kids in my pre-k classroom. I had toys and books to read, a bike to ride, and a nan who would pour me a glass of lemonade when the september sun got too hot.

She never wanted to go along with the new laws regarding bodies. she wanted to be free as the wind. Her ashes to be spread over her picket fence, in her rose garden, kept by the bedside next to her husband. This was never her original plan, she had a casket picked out since the 90’s, but slowly and slowly, cemeteries became crowded and nobody wanted to make room for more people, so the ban on burial began. She wanted to lie next to her mom and sisters, but she died years too late for that to be a possibility.

I like to remember her in the springtime. Sitting in the sun, under the milky blue sky, reading another novel from the library. Iced tea in hand, the smell of fresh cut grass, lawnmowers humming, birds chirping. The all clear signal that the dark days are over for this year.

As my mind wanders to her memory, what i am really doing sinks in. I had done the grunt work, finding a casket at an abandoned mortuary, picking the spot, attempting to craft a headstone. I had done a lot of the hard work as well, being in a medical profession, her body was nearly too easy to sneak out, I had to look her in the face as i attempted to embalm and sew her mouth shut. Kissing her pearls left to me in the estate goodbye.

Now it’s just me and the hole. I never understood how deep 6 feet was until i had to stand in a hole of that size. I never understood how heavy it would truly be to lower her into this shabby grave. She would have never wanted this. it almost feels disgraceful. she was a lawful woman. I will be charged with a felony if anyone finds out.

I lower her casket first, then place her with grace into it. I climb back out after closing the lid and i start shoveling again. this time saying goodbye to nan.

I hope this is what she wanted.

As i finish my shoveling, I see flashlights darting between bushes, how did anyone find me out here? I load my vehicle and begin to leave.

I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t want her to be given to science. They don’t need her body. All they’re gonna do is open her up and look inside her and well whatever else. I can’t let them do that to her. I need to hide her body and leave her to rest in peace. That’s the whole thing with dead people right. To leave them to rest in peace. RIP. HELLO??? Well I’m gonna bury her so no one is gonna touch her. NO ONE!! U here me? No one is gonna touch my sister. Ok now all I gotta do is bury her. Somewhere where no one is going to find her. Hmm... I GOT IT!!!

All my little sister wanted when she died was to be buried with my grandma at the old Grove Lutheran cemetery. April was the best little sister I could of asked for. She was kind, sweet, loyal and all around the best 16 year old there ever was. We knew she was out at a party she asked me to drive her and I said no just because I didn’t want to. So when I got the call at 1am I was worried. It was April’s friend Heather. She told me there had been an accident and I need to call my parents and get to the hospital. When we got there she was still alive and conscious. The doctor said that she only had a few hours left that, she wasn’t in pain and that she wanted to see us. I went to her room well my mom and dad asked the doctor more questions. When I walked in April smiled at me and said “ I know I’m going to die soon so could you do something for me.” I shook my head yes. She then said “ I know that when we die we have to donate our bodies to science but I would really love it if you could get me a spot at the old grove Lutheran cemetery, it would mean a lot to me.” I then told her I would try my best to get her there. It would be a lot of paperwork and hearings but I was ready to do that for my little sister. Just as I was thinking that April called out to me snapping me out of my thoughts. “You know it wasn’t your fault sis. I know you think it is just because you didn’t drive me and it’s not. I never should have gotten in that car with Ted. I know he’s trouble. I just wanted to go home and he lives just around the block from us and I didn’t know he had been drinking. I’m so so sorry.” “ No don’t do that this is not your fault I promise.” At that I started crying and so did April. She held out her arms for a hug so I cuddled up with her in her hospital bed and held her. My mom and dad came in some time later. Me and April had fell asleep. Then at 4:30 I was woke up to the one of the Machines that was attached to my sister making a god awful noise. That’s when my little sister passed away. From that moment on I had been trying to get her that spot beside my gramma. It took a lot of hard work but I did it. Thank you all for coming. April would have loved that you were all here for her. I then turned around to face my sisters grave and whispered “you were the best sister no friend I could of asked for. I will always love you.”