Please God.

She closed her eyes and pretended she was in bed. She thought of the saying ‘giving up the ghost’. That was what she wanted to do. Give up her ghost. It must be soon. She felt light-headed. Something buzzed past her ear. Underground flies? She thought of Shoana’s pendant. Had the Egyptian queens worn similar pendants when they were placed in their death tombs? If that was even what they were called. She should’ve asked Shoana. That’s it, she needed to try and think of other things.

Other things would not come to her mind. Maybe she should hold her breath for as long as she could, then pass into oblivion. 

Oblivion. What was that?

A nothingness. Deep breaths.

Please God.

She took a long deep breath and held it. At least it got rid of the smell. Something went into her nose. She blew hard through her nostrils but really didn’t care if whatever it was took up residence. So much for holding her breath. Numbness and cold. Whimpering. She needed to move body parts. She felt something solid near her left shoulder and moved her hand to feel it. She scratched in the soil with her fingers stinging from the blood and the dirt. It was a stick. A thought. A weapon. She could kill herself. 

<°)))><

A light passed over Christopher and Wally and then returned and stayed on them. They looked up. Someone—Christopher couldn’t make out who—was walking towards them on the pathway with a flashlight.

“What are you blokes up to?”

They’d more urgent things to do than be hospitable.

“Please help us. We believe someone is buried here,” Wally said.

“What?”

The beam of the light went down to where they were digging. They saw the person now in the moonlight. It was a police officer.

The officer stared at them. “Why do you say that?”

Wally returned to digging. 

“Please, sir. Just believe us. We need to keep digging. We saw it happen.” Christopher said.

“Okay, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I’ve got a shovel in the boot.” He turned and sprinted down the path.

“That’s a godsend, Wal. Not sure if we were going to get to the body in time.”

Christopher heard the officer returning and stood up. 

“Let me get in there, boys.”

The officer had the right gear for the job. His work boot pressed down on the shoulder of the shovel and removed a large pile of dirt. He repeated the exercise and then again and again.

“Glad you came,” Wally said. “What you’re piling on that shovel is quite a number of handfuls.”

The officer nodded and kept digging. “Just hope you’re not having me on,” he said with a puff.

Thud.

<°)))><

Ruby heard it too. Was it a large door closing in heaven? God must have forgiven her. She waited for his presence, but she couldn’t understand why she still felt the presence of evil.

Her thought waves came in bursts. In between the pauses in her shaking. The stick idea was a dud. She had pressed it hard against her chest hoping it to penetrate through to her heart. But the stick had decayed over time and had lost its strength—it just crumbled.

Where was God?

Thud.

There it was again. 

Screech.

Someone scratching something.

Creak. Creak.

A rush of air.

“Hello, hello. Anyone in there? You’re safe now.” Someone yelled.

A voice. She spluttered.

“Please be still. We can hear you. Still need to get some dirt off you.”

Did something touch her leg? A big worm?

“. . . yep, need you down at the estuary park. Now.”

She was being lifted. Aliens? She’d read about people being abducted by aliens.

She spluttered again. Coughed.

She squashed up her eyes. Opened and closed them. Her eye lids flicking away bits of dirt. Her eyes were adapting quicker to the moonlight than to the darkness she’d come from. She saw their form against the moonlight. Humans. Thank you, God.

Clug, clug.

Was that a train? She looked in the direction of the sound. There were bits of dirt on her eyelashes but she could see someone wheeling a bed, a gurney. Her senses were returning but she felt faint. The arms holding her sensed this and supported her. Darkness again but this time it was pleasant. 

Pleasant darkness? She hadn’t known there was such a thing.

<°)))><

The high priestess had lost something, and the last thing she wanted was to leave a clue. So they glided through the mangroves with the boat’s lights off. Would she hear the earth screaming? No. Enough time had passed. The oxygen would be well exhausted. The god had been appeased.

Her partner steered the boat towards an opening in the mangrove swamp.

“Stop, love. Is that a police vehicle parked over there?”