Alive

Chapter 10

Sara stood and stared me blank in the face as I rose, Ivy's blood stained on my lap from where I had held her during her final breaths.

"We can't tell Crystal about Ivy." I say blankly, looking straight at Sara with a dark, expressionless look.

"Why not? She deserves to know that her mortal friends has passed." Sara argues, her gaze turning cold against mine.

"Because the truth hurts Sara!" I boom out, getting the higher ground. "And as you inferior I order you to keep this just between us."

"And if I don't?" Sara counters as I feel rage burning in my stomach. All Sara ever wanted to do was pester me since she arrived in Scarlet's camp, and I for one had had it.

"I'll make sure Scarlet hears about how you decided you were going to take off towards the mortal village." I respond, my voice filling with annoyance. "and perhaps that news would spark her curiosity and go after you about your little trip. And we know just how much Scarlet hates mortals. How much do you think she'd hate a traitor?" I finish and watch as Sara's anger quickly faded to surprise.

"You wouldn't dare." Sara says quietly. "Scarlet would kill me if she thought I was conspiring with the enemy."

"try me." I hiss. "Help me bury the body.... Then we'll discuss this incident."

. . .

Sara and I quickly drag Ivy's body away from the scene of the crime. I kept looking around franticly for straggling mortals who could come out of the village lands out of pure curiosity and somehow run into us. I checked behind me once or twice to check up on Sara, who I knew was behind me the whole time, but failed to trust her enough to think that she would stick with the plan of burying the black-haired assassin. We arrived soon at a small clearing near a swamp where pixies and other small and annoying creatures dwelled. I knew no mortal nor vampire would dare come to these grounds to deal with the pixies and gypsies, so this would make the perfect burial location for Ivy.

"We'll start digging here." I say as I lay Ivy's body down on the soft mossy ground below. Sara crossed her arms protectively before nodding, an uneasy look plastered on her face. "Something wrong?" I ask as soon as I notice.

"First, we don't have shovels, genius." Sara said, her old attitude filled tone back. "and second, yes, I do have a problem. Why were you following me in the first place?" she finished with a glare, staring me hard in the eyes.

"We'll go and get shovels." I answer her first question. "And I was following you because you were part of Crystal's search party, when the party returned you weren't anywhere near the group." Sara fell silent after my last remark as I looked at her with an expecting glare for what seemed like a hundred awkward hours before I started to walk off. "You stay here with the body while I go get us a couple shovels." I order before disappearing into the forest.

. . .

I returned soon after I had left. A nearby farmer had generously loaned me two shovels in exchange for me not slaughtering his cattle for my tribe. I agree, it wasn't really a good way to bargain, but I'd rather threaten to kill a whole herd of cattle than to let a body rot in the middle of nowhere. When I had returned, Sara shot up from where she sat on a stump. I was surprised she listened to my orders, since her entire purpose in life seemed to be to annoy me. I quickly tossed her a spade and we started digging, breaking the soft, marsh ground easily with the stone carved spades.

"Sheesh, this woman is big! I've never dug a grave so big in my entire life!" Sara complained after we had dug a foot into the ground.

"I doubt you've ever dug a grave in your life." I reply, throwing her a doubtful glance as I kept digging the grave further into the moist soil that began to look more like clay than anything else.