Trapped in a Coffin at Their Wedding

When my ex-wife, Clara Quinton, holds a wedding ceremony with her first love, they put me in a coffin. Sha says this is a new immersive experience at the cultural village and asks me to play along with a staged scene where the ex-husband crashes the wedding. The guests gather around the coffin and cheer. The host grins and calls out, "Bury the ex, and may the newlyweds live happily ever after!" Her first love, Kevin Irwin, is dressed in a suit. His eyes glisten with tears. "Clara, is this really okay? After all, Sam has been with you for seven years," Kevin says. Clara gently fixes his hair and says in a soft voice, "Back then, he was the one who forced you to leave the country. Because of that, you got into an accident that nearly ruined your career. "Today, we're only making him lie in there for a little while." Before they close the coffin lid, I desperately grab onto the edge and scream, "Clara, Max is inside the coffin too!" Everything outside falls silent for a moment. Then, Clara lets out a cold laugh and says, "I can't believe you'd make up something so ridiculous. Max went to Southville with your friend, Noah. "There is a ventilation hose in the coffin. The camera is rolling too. So, stop pretending!" The dirt slowly covers the coffin. From inside the coffin, I hear her coldly order, "Let him out when he admits he was wrong and apologizes." Chapter 1 As the dirt piled onto the coffin lid, I realized that my lungs weren't the first thing to suffer from being buried alive. It was my ears. I could still hear everything outside clearly. I could hear the guests cheering and laughing, the host hyping up the crowd, the livestream gift notifications, and Clara Quinton's impatient voice. "Sam, give it up. Just admit that you're wrong, and I'll have them dig you out." Kevin Irwin sighed. "Clara, forget it. I don't want Sam to hate me." Clara's tone immediately softened. "What right does he have to hate you? "If it weren't for him, you never would have gone abroad alone. You never would have gotten into that accident on the way to the airport and nearly crippled your right hand." I curled up inside the coffin and frantically felt around me. Then, I heard a faint breathing sound from below. I followed the sound and finally felt a loose wooden panel. "Max?" I called out. Nobody answered, but the faint breathing was still there. My son, Max Trout, was five years old. That morning, the court had awarded me custody of Max. I bought Max a new pair of sneakers and planned to have one last talk with Clara before the wedding. I wanted to tell her that I wasn't the one who forced Kevin to go abroad back then. Kevin had taken three million dollars from Clara's mother, Ruby Olson, and signed an agreement to end their engagement. I also wanted to tell her that Max didn't want to go home with her. If she insisted on a divorce, I would take Max to Southville, and I wouldn't make a scene or bother her again. But as it turned out, she didn't give me a chance to speak to her. Instead, she put me in a coffin. I also hadn't expected someone to hide Max in a secret compartment beneath the coffin. He was supposed to be waiting for me in the lounge. The air inside the coffin was running out. I felt around the inside of the coffin and found a hidden latch. As I was about to press it, a tiny white light suddenly lit up at the bottom of the coffin. The light cast onto the coffin wall slowly took the shape of an old woman dressed in black. It was the spiritual medium. Three days ago, when I came to find Clara at the cultural village, I had stopped to help her by the roadside. She gave me a red string bracelet and said, "Young man, do not touch the mahogany coffin. "The coffin doesn't care about weddings. It only recognizes the person who seals it. Whoever seals a living person inside and buries them becomes the one who owes the debt." At the time, I thought she was just some eccentric old woman talking nonsense. Now, the red string had snapped around my wrist. It looked like a dried streak of blood. The medium looked up at me. "Don't press it. The latch is connected to the wooden spikes beneath the coffin. "You can get out, but the spikes will pierce the child in the secret compartment." My hand froze. Clara was still counting down outside. "Three." "Two." "One." She was waiting for me to give in and admit to something I hadn't done. She wanted to turn my confession into a headline for her wedding with Kevin. The sound of footsteps gradually approached. Kevin's voice came through the coffin lid, so softly that only I could hear him. "Sam, I was the one who had Max brought here. "He saw me talking to the owner of the cultural village about the ventilation hose and insisted on telling Clara. How do you think Clara will react when she finds out that she buried her own son? Will she lose it?" I pounded on the coffin lid. "Kevin!" He laughed. "Stop yelling. The livestream audio has already been turned off. Even if you both die here, no one will believe I had anything to do with it." I slammed my shoulder against the coffin wall, but it didn't budge. The medium looked at me. "When a living person enters a cursed coffin, a life must be left behind. "Do you want to save yourself, or do you want to give the child a chance to be reborn?" My breathing grew more labored. "Can Max survive?" I asked. "His body has been trapped at the bottom of the coffin too long. It's too late to save him. But if you sacrifice your life, you can save his soul." The coin in the medium's hand froze in midair. "But you will die." I bent down to shield the hidden compartment and closed my eyes. "Save my son." As the last bit of air ran out, I heard Clara sneer, "You're not going to say anything, Sam? How long are you going to keep this act up?" The coin landed between my eyebrows. It was so cold that I shivered. The medium intoned softly, "The pact is sealed. The father gives his life, and the son's soul shall find its way." When they lifted the coffin lid, the harsh glare outside made my eyes sting. Clara stood over the open coffin in her wedding gown, looking down at me. "Scared now?" I wanted to answer her, but my soul had left my body. Chapter 2 The livestream was still running, with three cameras pointed at the mahogany coffin. The livestream comments were still bashing me. [Her ex-husband is such a great actor. His face is completely pale.] [He even lied about his son being in the coffin. So disgusting!] [Ms. Quinn, make him apologize already. Don't let him disrupt the wedding.] When the coffin lid was fully opened, the livestream comments went quiet—because everyone saw me lying in the coffin with a deathly pale face. A palm-sized paper effigy of a child was curled up on my chest. Clutched in the effigy's hand was the wedding ring Clara had thrown into the coffin earlier. That was part of the host's plan to humiliate me. He said the old wedding ring had to be returned so the newlyweds could have a lasting marriage. But now, the ring seemed to have grown into the paper effigy's hand. No one could pry it loose. Kevin's expression changed, and he stepped back to hide behind Clara. "Clara, what is that?" A flicker of surprise and suspicion crossed Clara's face before she sneered. "Who put that there? How much did Sam pay you?" The director frantically waved his hands. "Ms. Quinn, no! That wasn't in the at all!" Clara bent down and grabbed my arm. "Get up! Stop pretending to be dead and scaring people." My arm fell limp at my side, and the broken red string around my wrist slipped into the bottom of the coffin. Clara was stunned for a moment. She touched my skin with her fingertip and recoiled. "Why is he so cold?" Kevin immediately panicked. "Did Sam pass out? Should we call a doctor?" Clara stared at my face and said coldly, "He can take a lot. He never complained about pain when he had to get stitches before. "If something were really wrong, he would've found a way out by himself." She raised her hand and smacked my face—once, then again. "Sam, the wedding isn't over yet. Don't ruin it for me." A staff member nearby went pale and whispered to Clara, "Ms. Quinn, I think the ventilation hose is clogged with dirt." Clara jerked her head up. "Who told you to cover it?" No one dared to speak. Kevin looked down, his fingers gripping his sleeve tightly. The doctor rushed over and kneeled beside the coffin to check on me. Less than ten seconds later, his face turned pale. "Ms. Quinn… Mr. Trout shows no vital signs." The wedding venue fell deathly silent. The guests who had been cheering around the coffin all backed away. Someone muttered, "Wasn't this supposed to be an act? If he's really dead, we were all caught on camera." "Turn off the livestream!" The director rushed toward the console, but the livestream suddenly froze. A line of blood-red text appeared on the screen. [The cursed coffin opens. The living may not leave.] All the cameras automatically turned toward the coffin, pointing at me inside it and at Clara's pale face. Clara suddenly laughed. "Nice trick." She turned to the director and fixed him with a cold stare. "Who arranged this? Sam?" The director was flustered. "Ms. Quinn, we really didn't do this!" The doctor swallowed hard. "Ms. Quinn, my preliminary assessment is that he died of suffocation. There also seems to be a hidden compartment at the bottom of the coffin." The staff pried open the wooden panel at the bottom. A little boy in a blue suit was curled up inside. It was Max. Clara's face drained of color. "Max?" She staggered toward the coffin. "Why is he here?" Kevin quickly spoke up. "That's impossible. Didn't Noah pick Max up already?" Clara seemed to catch on to something and immediately turned to the doctor. "Right. That's impossible. Sam must have arranged this. He'd do anything to ruin the wedding!" As soon as she finished speaking, the paper effigy suddenly moved. Its hand clutched the wedding ring tightly. A very faint child's voice came from inside the coffin. "Mom…" Clara froze in place. Chapter 3 When the ambulance arrived, the wedding venue was in complete chaos. The paramedics placed Max and me on stretchers. The effigy was also placed in an evidence bag. But the moment it left the coffin, it crumbled into ash. The only thing left in the ashes was the wedding ring. Clara's and my initials were engraved on the ring's inner band. Now, a streak of blood marred it. A female officer sealed the ring in an evidence bag and said quietly, "There's blood on it. Send it to the lab. Clara ran after the ambulance. Kevin suddenly clutched his chest and slowly sank to the floor against the wall. "Clara, I can't breathe…" Clara stopped running. I was floating nearby and saw her turn around. She hesitated for only three seconds, deciding whether to chase after Max and me or stay with Kevin. In the end, she chose to help Kevin up. "I'll take you somewhere to rest." Kevin leaned against her shoulder, his eyes brimming with tears. "Do you think Sam and Max will blame me?" Clara said softly, "It's not your fault. Sam is the one who took things this far." She messaged me as soon as the ambulance door closed. [Sam, stop messing around. Bring Max to apologize to Kevin tomorrow morning, and I'll let this go.] I stared at the message and found it ridiculous. Apparently, even after death, I could still feel a chill. The forensic report came back fast. "The deceased, Sam Trout, exhibits signs of mechanical asphyxia." "The deceased, Max Trout, was five years old. Preliminary findings indicate that he was given a sedative before being placed inside the coffin. He subsequently died from oxygen deprivation in the confined space." The female officer who was recording the findings stared at the report, her eyes reddened. "The child was only five years old. Was that really a wedding or a murder?" When my best friend, Noah Stone, arrived, he stumbled into the morgue. The moment the white sheet was pulled back, he froze. After a long while, he walked over to Max and me, bracing his hands on the cold table. "Sam… Didn't you say you'd take Max back to Southville with me after the wedding and never get involved with Clara again?" He saw the broken red string bracelet around my wrist, and his voice turned hoarse. "What is this?" The female officer showed him the footage from the wedding. In the footage, two staff members forced me into the coffin. I grabbed Clara's sleeve and desperately pleaded, "Max is in here too! Please open the hidden compartment!" With a cold expression, Clara pulled her sleeve free from my grasp. "You look pathetic when you lie." Then, the coffin lid was closed. Dirt slowly covered the coffin. The livestream comments flooded the screen. [Using a child as your excuse? How despicable!] [Ms. Quinn, don't let him sway you.] [An ex-husband like this should be buried alive to get some sense knocked into him!] Noah's hands trembled as he watched until the end. "Where is Clara?" he asked. The female officer sighed and replied, "We contacted her, but she said it was part of a staged act. Mr. Trout and his son were just playing along. She wasn't willing to come identify the bodies." Noah called Clara on the spot. Clara answered quickly and asked, "Are Sam and Max with you?" "Come to the forensic center," Noah said in a cold voice. Clara was silent for two seconds. "So they really did run off to your place. Put Sam on the phone." Noah closed his eyes and said, "He can't. Sam and Max are both dead." There was a moment of silence on the other end. Then Clara sneered. "Noah, are you going to play along with him too? Tell Sam everyone is watching the livestream. If he keeps this act up, he'll only embarrass himself even more." "Clara! You buried your husband and son alive!" Noah shouted. Kevin's voice came from the other end of the phone. "Clara, is that Sam? Is he still mad at me?" Clara's voice turned cold. "That's enough. I'll go get him and Max when he's willing to apologize to Kevin." Then she hung up. Noah stared at the screen quietly for a very long time. His tear fell onto the back of my hand. I stood beside him. I wanted to pat him on the shoulder, but my hand passed straight through him.