“That’s perfect,” he called. “Start digging!”
Camila turned her back to him so he wouldn’t see the resentment on her face. She hated that he could tell her what to do, and she had no option but to do it.
How do I even do this? she thought helplessly.
Holding onto the shovel, she pressed the blade’s end against the ground and tried to push. She used as much effort as she could, but nothing was happening. With a frown, she pulled the shovel back and hit at the ground with it, then kicked with her hand to dig the blade into the ground. It moved maybe an inch, and she pushed the handle back, pulling out dirt. Feeling a bit of accomplishment, she repeated the process.
Seriously, though, this ground wasn’t soft at all. She was wondering if she could dig in an inch all around the size this hole was supposed to be. She dug out another small clump of dirt and sighed, wondering how long it would even take
Is the ground frozen?
It would totally work against her if it was. Even if she didn’t want to, they had to bury that body. Leaving it like it was, even if they wrapped it and put it somewhere, would leave them open to diseases as the body started to decompose, and the air around it would be dangerous. She wanted to tell Adrien it was impossible, but he was already drunk, so he’d be even more irrational than normal.
Camila let out a grunt as she tried to push the shovel further into the ground, but she could never make it past that one inch, no matter how much she pushed and kicked. Just pulling out the dirt took more effort, too.
The sun was still shining above her, and she didn’t realize just how much effort it was taking her, until she stopped to wipe the sweat pouring into her eyes. Then she grimaced as she realized she was starting to feel a little sick from using up all this effort, the nausea in her stomach starting up again and making her double over.
“Hey!” Adrien called from behind her. “What’s going on over there! Is that hole ready yet!”
She looked over her shoulder, pressing one hand hard to her stomach, the other holding onto the shovel. With its other end pointed at the ground, she was using it more as support than holding onto it.
“Not yet,” she called back, panting slightly. “It’s… a little hard.”
“Can't you do it a bit faster?” he complained, sounding frustrated. “It’s been more than thirty minutes and you barely look like you’ve done anything!”
Camila turned her back, grumbling to herself. So what if half an hour had passed? Though it did surprise her that it had been so long already. Looking down, she’d only managed to pull out several clumps of dirt. It really did look like she’d barely done anything, but she was putting in all her effort!
If you wanna complain, why don’t you come and do this yourself,she complained to herself, but didn’t dare say it out loud in case he took out his frustrations on her. Just sit over there and do nothing. Also, shut up!
Only, it wasn’t even a few minutes when he yelled out at her again.
“Do it faster!”
His words slurred a little, so he must have drunk a lot. She didn’t look back this time though, just continued trying, once again planting the shovel into the ground and trying to push it in with her foot.
“I’m… doing… the best I—”
Adrien cut off her panted reply, a rough sound escaping her throat as she felt sharp electricity go through her body again. Adrien must have been feeling frustrated to shock her out of nowhere.
She lost her grip on the shovel, her body collapsing onto the ground, twitching. The nausea in her stomach attacked her again, her stomach heaving and making her body flop around on the ground as the urge to vomit rose up in her mouth. Her body wasn’t listening to her, though. She couldn’t even roll over, and the bile that spilled into her mouth washed back down her throat, making her wheeze and grimace as it burned down her throat. She almost choked on it, too, only managing to roll over and let spit slip out the side of her mouth onto the ground.
Seeing her slump to the ground, Adrien relented, releasing his hold on the button and rising up as he put the remote back into his pocket.
“Forget it,” she heard him call out. “Just lay there for a bit and come in. I found a basement so I’ll just drag the body down there instead.”
If you could have done that to begin with, why did you have to make me dig,she thought with resentment.
Putting the body in the basement only helped partially. As long as neither of them went down there, they shouldn’t worry too much about the air being tainted by the body. They’d probably still catch the stink, though, in a few days.
Her body was released from the electric current, but for a while afterward, her body still wouldn’t move as she wanted it, too. Her eyes were filled with tears and snot was pouring down her nose. With another lurch of her stomach, she managed to roll and get her forearms on the ground below her, holding herself up as she let the fluids coming out of her body onto the ground.
“Camila!”
She grimaced, then moved her head to look over at him. The front of his shirt had spots of blood on it that she hadn't noticed before. Her stomach lurched again, but there wasn’t anything for her to puke out.
“It’s done. Now get back in here! The floor needs to be scrubbed.”
Ignoring the rolling of her stomach, Camila struggled to get to her feet. Her legs felt like jelly, and when she tried to take a step, she stumbled and fell. But Adrien just stood there impatiently. Clearly, he wanted her to clean up the blood before he let her rest.