School Reunion. Final Part.

“Maria. Amy-Sue’s dead!”
As Katie shouted, everyone in the school gym freaked out. They all started yelling at each other, and ran for the exits. I spied the Irvell Bitch standing up, dusting herself off, and go running off towards her husband. Growling, I pulled out my pistol, which I’d hideden in the inside of my jacket, and set off in pursuit after Char. But something held me back. I turned. Katie had grabbed me by my arm, and was staring wide eyed at my pistol.
“What’s that?” She shrieked.
“A pistol,” I answered. Like, duh.
“What are you going to with it?” By this time, Shirley had joined us.
“I’m going to kill the Irvell Bitch!”
“What!?”
I nodded. “Yeah, see, the whole time, I didn’t want to just totally embarrass her. I wanted her dead.So I used your idea Shirl, to my own advantage. I set up an extremely heavy bucket, so when it falls from a great height, it’ll kill you. Just like poor Amy-Sue. But I reckon the Irvell Bitch knew what I was up too. She somehow managed to convince Amy-Sue to push her out of the way at the last minute, so she wouldn’t die. But Amy-Sue would.” I brandished the gun at my friends. “I brought this along. I had a sneaky feeling the prank would go wrong. So I brought this along, so I can make sure she still dies!”
I looked at Katie and Shirley. They had both gone pale, and looked as though they wanted to throw up.
“I want no part in this,” Katie said.
“No, neither do I,” Shirley agreed. “I was all up for embarrassing Char in front of everyone. But I didn’t want to see her dead.” They both left.
“Whores!!!” I screamed after them. “Chickens!!!”

***

As Amy-Sue pushed me, I fell to the floor with a bump. I turned I time to see the bucket land on poor Amy-Sue’s head with a sickening crack. Then she lay, dead still.
Everyone stopped clapping, and stood, shocked. Katie went over to examine Amy-Sue and announced that she was dead. That was when everyone snapped out of it, and went running for the doors. I stood shakily, and headed for Chris.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” I screamed at my husband. “Chris please!” I followed him to the door.
We made our way for the car park, and ran towards Chris’s car. That was when I heard my name being shouted out. I turned. It was Katie and Shirley. Seeing them made me angry. I stared at them and suddenly they were both alight on fire. As they burned, they shouted at me:
“Char! Get out of here! Maria wants to kill you!” Katie told me.
“She thinks it’s your fault Amy-Sue’s dead!” Shirley continued. “She wants to kill you!”
And then Chris pushed me over. “Char! I think they’re trying to help!” He went over to my old enemies and helped them get rid of the fire that was burning the pair of them. I gathered my thoughts. And then joined them.
“We are so sorry, Char,” Katie sobbed. “We wanted to embarrass you at the reunion. Hell, we wanted to do it at the prom years ago. But we never thought Maria would want to kill you!”
“We can help you escape,” Shirley said.
I glared at them. “How do I know it’s not another joke?”
“Char please! Look, I’m sorry. It was my idea to drop the bucket on your head. But Maria had used a really heavy bucket, so it would kill you, as it fell from the ceiling. That’s why Amy-Sue’s dead. She pushed you out of the way at the last minute, and the bucket fell on her instead.”
“And now Maria thinks it’s got something to do with you,” Katie continued. “She’s on her way with a gun to kill you. But we can help you escape!”

***

We all piled into Shirley’s Corsa. Shirley and I in the front. Char and her husband in the back. Shirley started the ignition, and started off towards the exit. Then I screamed as Maria loomed out of the darkness. She roared as she saw us, ran towards us, and jumped on the bonnet of the car. Shirley swerved sharply, so Maria fell back off. Then she stopped the car so we could all see what had happened to Maria.
I caught sight of Char, and she looked really weird. She was sat still without moving, and staring at Maria without blinking. Then suddenly, Maria screamed, and she was on fire, much like Shirley and I were a few moments before. I was too shocked to move. And all four of us sat in the car and watched Maria as she slowly burned to death.
After about ten minutes, we all got out of the car, and wandered towards Maria’s charred corpse. Smoke was still rising out of it, and it stunk.
“It’s my fault!” Char screamed. “It’s my fault Amy-Sue’s dead!”
“No it’s not,” Chris, Char’s husband soothed. “Not was just Maria being a bitch.”
“But don’t you see! I turned up to te school reunion, even though I didn’t want to! If I hadn’t had done, then the bucket wouldn’t had fallen, and Amy-Sue would still be alive!” Char started to cry, with Chris hugging her. Eventually she calmed down and stopped crying. Then I looked on with horrified fascination as she lifted up her hand and stared wide eyed at it. And Shirley, Chris and I watched Char as, like Maria, she slowly burned to death…

It was one week after the funereal. I was meeting Shirley at the graveyard, but I was already there. There were two graves I wanted to visit. Amy-Sue Elling and Char Sning. Both graves were adorned with bunches of lowers and ornaments of angels. Plus Char’s grave had a little Tigger cuddly toy as well.
“Hey.”
Shirley had joined me. She was carrying two bunches of roses, one for Amy-Sue’s grave, and one for Char’s grave. She popped them on each grave, and then looked at the grave next to Char’s.
“Maria Allen,” Shirley said with disgust, kicking at the dry dead leaves surrounding the grave. “I didn’t bring anything for her.”
“No. Neither did I,” I said. I looked at the empty grave. No flowers or ornaments like the other two. “Isn’t it a shame that that grave’s empty?”
“Just a bit,” Shirley answered sarcastically. “Doesn’t look as though as her husband’s been visiting either.”
“He was having an affair,” I told my friend. “And he ran off with the ‘other woman’ when Maria died.”
Shirley smaned. “I know it’s not funny…” She said.
I smiled, and looked back at the graves. “Rest in peace, Amy-Sue and Char.”
“Rest in peace, Amy-Sue and Char,” Shirley repeated.