Present day: I could hear my Mom screaming hysterically down the phone saying "No! Melody's gone!" repeatedly as if saying it over and over made it disappear. I could hear anguished sobs and mutters of disbelief even from upstairs. My dad was screaming different questions each more desperate than the last. I could hear my Mom saying "Noone knows Karl! They keep saying it looks like she climbed out but she can't! She can't! She's dead! She died! She died!" I tried to stifle the shouts, the protestations, the denial, and the She's died! out of my head but I couldn't. How could I? Noone has ever been faced with something like this. It's even worse than Melody's death itself and that nearly destroyed us all.

Then: Two years ago Melody was found dead on the side of the road ironically next to the same cemetery she would be buried in. She'd been hit by a car coming back from her nightshift at the grocery store. Her last ever message was to my Mom saying she was on her way home at 12.13 am, thirteen minutes after she finished work. Moments later she was dead. The woman who lived across the road and the only witness heard the screeching of tyres, a loud bang and a thud at 12.15am. She ran out onto the street to see it completely empty and my sister a crumpled heap on the sodden grass. Her eyes were lifeless and staring, blood tickling from her ears, her phone laying a few meters away showing Mom's reply Be safe, love you still on the screen and a notification to say that it had been read. The last thing Melody ever saw on this earth until the car mounted on the kerb, onto the pavement and caused a fatal head injury that took her life at the age of nineteen. Melody was literally only around the corner from home. Had she been a couple of minutes earlier or later she would've missed that fated car and been home safe. This nightmare wouldn't be happening. We saw Melody in the funeral home after the investigation. She looked peaceful as if she was sleeping. The driver was never found and the only closure we had was knowing Melody didn't suffer. But it wasn't justice. And it didn't bring Melody back. The guilt for my parents was overwhelming. The constant "what if" became so unbearable my Mom ended up going into a psychiatric hospital for a few months leaving me and my Dad to stumble in a haze of grief and uncertainty.

Present day: The police officers told us that the ground-keeper found Melody's grave disturbed when he went to work in the morning. He could see where the soil had sunken in the middle of the plot and the coffins lid had been opened. He could see finger marks on the decaying wood and could see hand and foot prints all over the soil around the grave. Someone had dug their way out. The coffin was still intact but rotting after two years underground, the interior damp and green with mildew. The ground- keeper couldn't rationalize what he was seeing. He called the police who were just as confused and horrified as he was. The one question noone wanted to ask was blatant in all of our appalled faces.

Where was Melody?

Then: Melody had just finished her shift and couldn't wait to get home. It was only her and Rhea on nights and they barely got any customers except a few drunk people getting a snack or someome doing a late dash to get milk or something urgent that couldn't wait. Rhea knew Melody liked to walk rather than drive but offered her a ride anyway after work but as usual Melody politely declined. Melody finished cashing up, did a brief clean up and locked up by 12.05am ready to begin the ten minute walk home. She texted her Mom to say she was on her way home as she passed the local cemetery. She knew her parents worried even though she was an adult and this was a safe area! Then Melody heard the loud screech of engine and tyres. Melody had time to turn and see a car speeding out of control down the road before it suddenly mounted the pavement and ploughed into her. Melody didnt even have time to react: she was killed instantly.

Now: The police had found a damaged car in a barn of someone called Harvey which was registered to him, he was an ex of Rhea one of Melody' best friends and had worked with her at the grocery store. The car was tested for DNA and a scant bit of blood found below the headlamp matched to Melody. Harvey killed Melody. He had handed himself in and gave up the car's location. Harvey was arrested for first degree murder and tampering with evidence. Only he has to be fit to stand trial. Because Harvey is convinced he saw the corpse of my sister outside his house which led to his confession. He told the police officers she was pointing a decomposed finger at the barn the car was hidden in.

Turns out he was right. It was my dead sister's body. Rhea had dug my sister up and used her as a tactic to get Harvey to confess to the murder. She had horrifyingly propped Melody up and made her look animated as if she was alive. She had staged the whole thing. She wanted the guilt of what they had done to be finally over. The nightmares to stop. She wanted Harvey to take the fall. Rhea finally cracked and admitted she was apart of the murder too when she was found trying to put Melody's body back in her grave.

Turns out Melody was sleeping with Harvey behind Rhea's back and threatened to tell her the truth. Harvey finally told Rhea and both concocted a plan to get rid of her. Only the guilt drove Rhea to madness and she took Harvey down with her. Both are too mentally unfit to stand trial. They think Melody is going to dig herself out of her grave and come after them. They are in the same mental hospital my own mother was in.

Later: I heard the same screams again. The shouting and crying. My Mom moaning in despair on the floor. Dad was looking at me with defeat. "Melody's gone again."