The pristine silence of the funeral chapel cracked with a violent bang that made every guest jump out of their wooden pews.

Thirteen-year-old Toby stood beside the glossy white coffin with his small knuckles clamped around the rubber grip of a heavy black sledgehammer.

Evelyn: Toby, drop that weapon this instant!

His stepmother stepped forward in her tailored black designer suit, her voice shaking with rage as she pointed an acrylic nail directly at him.

Toby: Don't touch me! You stay away from her!

Evelyn: Have you lost your mind? Someone grab him right now!

Tears cut through the dust on the young boy's flushed cheeks, but his stance never wavered on the polished marble floor.

Toby: I told you she wasn't dead, Evelyn. You wouldn't let anyone view the body, and you rushed this burial!

Evelyn: The coroner signed the papers! She suffered heart failure in her sleep! Respect your sister's memory!

Toby: Clara didn't have heart failure! You put her in this box!

Murmurs rippled across the family members seated in the front row as people began standing up in utter disbelief.

Pastor Hayes: Son, please listen to your mother. Put the tool down before someone gets hurt.

Toby: She's not my mother, Pastor Hayes! She married my dad three months before he died!

Evelyn: Call the police! Don't just stand there watching a delinquent desecrate a sanctuary!

Toby hoisted the heavy steel head high over his right shoulder, muscles straining beneath his faded denim jacket.

Toby: Call whoever you want, but you won't bury her alive!

Evelyn: GET AWAY FROM THAT CASKET!

The heavy sledgehammer crashed downward with deafening force, fracturing the white lacquer into a web of jagged cracks.

Evelyn: OH MY GOD! STOP HIM!

Toby: SHE'S STILL INSIDE!

Evelyn: PUT IT DOWN! THE POLICE ARE COMING!

Toby drew the hammer back again and slammed it straight into the splintered wood, ripping open a jagged hole into the dark interior.

A muffled, desperate gasp echoed from within the velvet lining, freezing every beating heart inside the crowded chapel.