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?”
He looked over toward the road. “Yes, my dear.”
He placed the boat in reverse and quietly backed into the mangrove swamp.
She looked towards the grave. It was now a pile of dirt.
“I suppose the question is: was she alive or dead when they got her out? Either way, it’s still the same result. They’ll be looking for us. Best we leave before the police see us.”
The high priestess placed her head in her hand. What did it mean if the girl was still alive? Did it mean the god hadn’t been appeased? What did that mean? Did she need to offer another sacrifice?
And what of the clue she’d left behind? Perhaps it had sunk into the estuary mud. She hoped so. Deep in the estuary mud.
Part Two – The Detective
11 – A Scottish doctor
RUBY HAD BEEN TAKEN TO A NEARBY LODGE for the night, where she’d washed the dirt and darkness off in a hot shower and had her wounds cared for and bandaged up. Then she’d slept, watched over by one of the island’s doctors.
She drifted in and out of darkness—bad dreams. Each time she came out of the darkness she saw the same face hovering over her, reassuring comforting. The person spoke with a lovely accent.
Yer gonna to be fine, my love.
Eventually, the darkness departed and her energy flowed in.
Walking around the room a few times had helped. Although she felt hung over, she was also in a state of euphoria. She was free, and her body’s natural equilibrium was finding its way back. The doctor dozed off a number of times in the large lounge seat. Ruby appreciated her presence.
She raised the blind on the window and moonlight flowed into the room.
Where are you moon?
She found it.
You’re so beautiful, but why did you do this to me?
No. That thinking was childish. She returned and sat on the bed. She’d asked them to dig around in case her friends had been buried as well, but they seemed convinced she was the only one. She needed to understand how they knew that. Had someone seen what happened? If so, she hoped those involved would be punished. An image of a tall hooded woman came into her head, and Ruby’s skin prickled. Who was that woman?
She rubbed her arms like she had in the shower, vanishing the dirt down the drain. Trying to wash the memories away. Although she was feeling better, the doctor had said recovery would take time. She’d have to deal with symptoms when they came. If she needed professional help, she should seek it. She would.
“You okay, love?” the doctor asked.
