“Please, God, please. Please don’t let me die. I don’t want to die. Please!” Margo cried as tears ruined her brown mascara.

A few seconds passed before she struggled to say, “if you spare my life, if you do this one thing for me, I promise I will never ask you for anything else.”

How could she be so foolish? Why didn’t she listen to her Mom? Why must she always be so stubborn?

Tears continued to flow down her sunken cheeks.

What would my mother say? How would she cope? What about Dad? What would he do?

No! I will not die. No! Do you hear me, God? I will not die!

Are those running footsteps? she questioned. She strained her ears to hear.  Yes, those were footsteps, and they are running, but why are they so far away now?

Blood now stained Margo’s white t-shirt red, and she could feel something wet at the bottom of her blue jeans.   Blood? No, it’s too far down, so it must be something from a garbage bag.

Yes, she was garbage because why else would she be lying in a large, green, rusting garbage bin?  

I would have crawled out of the parking lot if I were still lying where I had fallen, but I’m not there anymore. Still, at least a few garbage bags were in the bin to help cushion my discarded body. However, that would mean the workers recently picked up the trash. So, there is no danger of being crushed alive in the garbage truck, thank God. Maybe someone will come by to dump their garbage, but who would? I don’t even know who dumps garbage in here.

It’s okay, God. It’s okay. I get it. I get it. It’s my time, and when it’s your time, you just have to accept it. Please take care of my mom, though, because she will take it hard. I can see her now.

“My baby, not my baby,” she would say, wailing, “treated like garbage? No! Oh God, take me now.”

Don’t listen to her, though, God, because she is my mom and deserves the best, and I love her. So please, don’t listen to her.

Margo’s eyes were getting heavier by the second, and although she could not move, pain radiated through her body. Now, the pain was slowly easing.

The light, the light. I can see the light. Thank God.

When Margo opened her eyes again, simi darkness filled her vision, and beeping sounds registered in her ears. However, within seconds, she was gone again.

Margo came through again, and this time, sunlight was to the right of her, and the beeping sounds were still there. Her eyes moved around her, and she realized she was inside a room before being gone again. In the form of dreams, her recent past invaded her unconscious mind.

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way,” her mother said, sitting in Margo’s apartment’s living room, “but I think you should keep an eye on your sister and especially her boyfriend.”

“What do you mean?” Margo asked.

“Your sister is jealous of you. I think that after your father, you know,” her mother said.

“You mean cheated on you?” Margo asked, frowning.

“Yes, and although your dad did not only pay the court-ordered child support but also give her mom an additional cheque every two months, I think she thinks your dad gave you more than her.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Margo replied, laughing.

“Just be careful with her and her boyfriend,” her mother said.

“Okay, Mom, why do you think so?”

“It’s just a feeling I get every time I see her around you.”

Although Margo always knew of her sister, who was three years younger than her and Margo was now twenty-five, it was only within the last year that her sister reached out to her. She also met her sister’s boyfriend, who she was dating for six months.

Then, her sister asked if she could help with rent money because she was just laid off but was looking for another job. Margo agreed to help, but only if she would repay her, and she agreed. So Margo loaned her five hundred dollars.  

About a month later, another text arrived, expressing the joy of finding another job, but her boyfriend was at work and couldn’t leave to pick her up. Would she pick her up from downtown Cavetown, their country’s capital, because she had no money for Uber?  

Margo was unfamiliar with the area, but her sister had no money for Uber, and the interview area was a little scratchy, according to her sister.

So, with help from the car’s GPS, Margo made her way to a small cul-de-sac underground parking area. Then, as she was about to turn around, her sister ran up to the driver’s side and asked her to help her put a small table she just found in the trunk.

Margo agreed and stepped out of the white car, and as she straightened up, her sister’s boyfriend rose from behind her car and shot her at least three times.   

Then, her mind went blank.

The third time Margo came through, she felt someone’s hand in hers, and she tried to squeeze it, but her fingers twitched instead. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a familiar broad smile.

“Mommy,” she hoarsely but quietly whispered.

After that day, she spent a week more at the general hospital and stayed at her parents’ home as she recovered because her mom would have it no other way.  

Margo found out that someone who was looking through the window at work saw her body being dumped and called the cops.

Arrests occurred, and the boyfriend confessed his guilt, but her sister pleaded not guilty, claiming it was all her boyfriend’s idea for money. She was out on bail and texted Margo with, “I’m sorry, Sis, he was abusive to me, and he forced me to set you up.”

Nevertheless, Margo recalled, “Let’s see if he’ll love me more when you’re gone,” just before her sister kicked her in the side as she lay with bullets in her body on the concreted parking lot just before her sister and her boyfriend dragged and dumped her into the garbage bin.

Margo did not reply to the text. Instead, she took the Bible she asked her mother for off the side table and opened it.

The End