The Prettiest Girl in the Grave

by Kristopher Triana

Despair was something you worked to power through, not celebrated, and life was too short to be this focused on death.

“‘Some girls are fearful, others are brave. One girl’s a princess, the next one, a slave. But all girls are equal, when they’re down in this cave, until just one is left standing—The Prettiest Girl in the Grave.’”

What they chose to do here they would carry with them forever, together or apart.

Looking down on them from above, the skeletons of all the girls who’d lost the game watched the champion dance with her tall, handsome sweetheart. She was their better. She was their idol. Holly, Queen of the Dead.

“Congratulations,” she said. “You’re The Prettiest Girl in the Grave.”

“The daughter of our former beauty queen has become the new Prettiest Girl in the Grave!”