Twenty Four Shades Darker: The Hunt

(12) By Firelight

Jute had never conducted a burial before, but leaving the body there felt wrong and even if it hadn't, Holly was refusing to go to sleep until it was moved. The abrasive mood was starting to sink into the rest of the group and even though they'd been moving all day everybody looked wide awake, glaring around at each other in the firelight. Her own eyes were stinging from the smoke. Will and Marisa had both assured her that the entrance would provide enough ventilation but she wasn't so convinced. At least it was warm.

Satine and Lincoln had taken the task of moving the skeleton outside, which they did with a lot of show. At one point, spotting Will's terrified expression, Lincoln had grabbed a dangling arm and waved it in the boy's face. Will had clamped a slender hand over his own mouth and pressed himself further into the rocky wall. Lincoln had laughed; as usual, Satine followed a beat later. She had been about to intervene when Blaire had done it for her.

"Don't be cruel, Link."

Lincoln stuck his tongue out. She'd noticed that he did this whenever he had nothing to say and it made him look even younger than normal.

"Just get that creepy thing out of here." That had been Holly, curled up in a tight little ball and rocking backwards and forwards a little. Her hysterical moment had passed and she was starting to sound more like herself, which was a relief. Taken aback by the skeleton herself, Jute had been unable to do anything apart from stroke the younger girl's hair and try to convince them both that it was just a dead thing.

So the skeleton had ended up outside. By that time Will had recovered and had emerged, blinking, into the evening light.

"You're going to bury her, right? It's not right for her to not get buried."

She'd assured him that yes, she was going to get buried as soon as they could work out how to dig a grave. The two Career boys had pulled faces at each other, Satine's a gross parody of his usual expression, Lincoln's an exact copy. Will had frowned at them and shuffled a few paces backwards, half-hiding himself behind a pile of rocks. He was the same height as Lincoln and not much smaller than Satine, but the other two were built slim and strong whereas he was just skinny. Whenever he moved it seemed to Jute like he was about to fall over.

"I...I'll help. If you want." His face momentarily flickered, afraid, but then set itself. "We could find a ditch or something and that'd mean not having to waste that much time..."

As soon as she'd nodded he'd gone stumbling off and was back less than a minute later, having found a suitable ditch. She'd sent Satine and Lincoln on ahead to check that there were no Peacekeepers around while she tried to convince herself to pick up the body. It was just a dead thing. There was nothing in there; whatever had made the girl herself was long gone. This was nothing more than a pile of bones.

She couldn't shake the feeling that it would have been bad luck to touch it.

She ducked her head back into the cave. Marisa, Blaire and Barley had formed a small group, muttering amongst themselves, but they stopped as soon as they saw her. Was it just the firelight or were Blaire's eyes filled with anger?

"We've found a spot to bury her. If someone could come and move her..."

Barley had shaken his head and clutched at his ankles. Strange. Holly had reported that he'd had no problems hunting the rabbit and he'd skinned it and divided it up without so much as flinching, even though the sight of the innards glistening on the cave floor had been enough to turn even her stomach. But the idea of human death seemed to shock the boy right to his core. She remembered his reaction to Derreke's death; he'd thrown up. Thank goodness he hadn't paid much attention to Cordelia.

Animals. Humans. There was a difference. She was sure it was going to hit her later.

Marisa and Blaire volunteered to move the body, hoisting it up into Blaire's arms as though it weighed nothing. The girl from Ten did not look pleased. During training she'd been a bright spark, laughing and joking as much as was possible, but since the incident with Avery - where was she? - she'd started to retreat into herself, speaking only to the others.