Page 100 of The Time Of Queens

“Yeah, well I am still pissed off that I didn’t get to be the one who killed her. After everything that bitch face did, not only to me but then to my daughter!” I said, tossing more soil on top, but then the second I heard a groan coming from behind me, I turned and acted on instinct. We all screamed as one the second Layla’s dirty body popped up, like some dazed zombie.

I swung my shovel so hard, that when I hit her head with it, I couldn’t help but wince as I did this with the edge part of the shovel, which ended up acting like an axe. Which meant that it half chopped her head off, making it arch to one side as a spray of blood pumped up like a fountain.

“AHHH!” we all screamed again as she blinked at us a few times. This before her eyes then rolled upwards, and she fell back into the grave. We each remained frozen before taking small steps closer to the now bloody corpse.

“Well, I think she’s definitely dead this time,” Sophia said after we all inched even closer to look down at her now mutilated body.

“There you go, you got to kill her, after all,” Pip said, patting me on the shoulder.

“Although, I also feel like she may be like a cat and have nine lives at this point,” Sophia pointed out, making Pip swing her shovel up to her shoulder and ask in a happy tone,

“Want me to bash her head in… what’s left of it anyway?”

“Nah, that’s okay, I think even half severed means it’s good enough… unless she really is a zombie, then in that case, we can let the boys handle her,” I said, shivering at the idea she would pop up again any minute and start making gurgling zombie sounds.

“Speaking of which…” I started to say, as we continued covering the body.

“Oh yeah, there is no way we are telling them,” Sophia said, already seeing where I was going with this.

“Thank Chri… the Gods… happy now?” I said, making Sophia smirk as I corrected myself. We continued like this for a little while longer, until there was a very suspicious body-shaped mound. As it was a little bit like a sleeping bag, it never fully rolled up as tight as it did when you first bought it and pulled it from the bag.

“Are we sure this is going to be okay?” I asked, turning my head a little and cringing at the obvious mound.

“Ah, we will just pound it down a little, a couple of grass patches, some branches, and we are good to go,” Pip assured me, which sounded like way too much work at this point.

“Or we could just leave like that,” I suggested.

“Works for me,” Sophia said, who was the dirtiest I had ever seen her, and no doubt itching for a shower. Then again, she most likely looked just like I did. As for Pip, she had used some dirt to spread on her face like a superhero mask at one point, pretending to be Arnold Schwarzenegger from predator.

We continued to look down at our half-arsed job of burying someone when I reaffirmed,

“Now we have to swear this doesn’t leave here, no one can ever know.”

“What happens when grave digging stays with grave digging,” Pip replied, doing a scout’s honour salute.

“Technically, it’s burying,” Sophia added.

“But we had to dig said grave first,” Pip argued, making her concede,

“Fair point.”

“Okay, so we are in agreement then, no one finds out,” I reiterated.

“Yep, dirty, pinky promise,” Pip said, holding out both her little fingers for us to take. She was in the middle of where we all were staring at our not so handy work. We each linked pinkies and shook on it.

“Yes, we are in total agreement,” Sophia added, looking down at herself and seeing like my dress and Pip’s, we were all covered in mud.

“So how do we explain the mud?” I asked, thinking it was wise at this point to get our stories straight.

“We all ended up falling in the mud after trying to help you up on our way back,” Sophia offered.

“Hey, why me…? Okay, don’t answer that,” I said when they both shot me a look. One that said, hello you are the clumsy one, remember.

“Right, well on that note, we better get back before they do discover what we have been up to,” Sophia said with a grimace.

Of course, all three of our heads snapped up the second we heard someone clearing their voice behind us. Our reactions to this were simultaneous as we turned as one, at the same time putting the shovels behind our backs. I then sucked in a quick breath when finding not only my husband standing there, but Adam and Zagan too. Each one with their arms folded across their chests, staring at us.

“Do you think they heard us?”Pip asked,

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