Alexia played her part readily, giving a dramatic performance of fighting off my chokehold, gagging and squirming riotously in my grasp, before falling utterly limp and forcing me to adjust my hold so as to not actually strangle her on accident.
Peaking one eye open, safely propped up from each of my hands beneath her arms, she said, "Dad and Papa won't like that you've killed me."
"They'll understand."
Her other eye flew open in unrepressed indignation. "They won't!"
"They'll never know it was me."
"They will!"
"They won't," I assured her, barely repressing a grin beneath my affected mask of seriousness. "They'll never find your body."
"Did I hear that you need help getting rid of a body?" Leigh asked, swooping down to take hold of Alexia's legs and balancing them on both hips, like we were hefting around a ladder.
"Yes, I think there's a garden out back we can bury her in," I replied primly, making as though to begin carrying Alexia through the school. "Your help is much appreciated."
"What are friends for if not disposing of bodies?"
Around us, people were beginning to stare, not least because Alexia had started squealing, "No! No! I'm still alive!" in excited terror.
"Gosh, this is quite a noisy corpse," I remarked as I struggled to not lose my grip amidst her flailing. "How curious."
"Very peculiar," Leigh grunted, also struggling.
"What are you three doing," came a voice I recognized all too well. A rhetorical question. It was quite obvious what we were up to. I craned my neck to see Alexia's primary teacher stride up to us, her long skirt swishing around her ankles, her wrinkled face reproving. "This is a place of learning, not a playground."
Fortunately, I'd picked Alexia up from school often enough that Mrs Wilson obviously recognized me as Alexia's sister and not a child abductor. Still, based on her expression, the ruckus I was causing was almost worse.
Using Leigh's help, I carefully lowered Alexia to her feet. "Sorry, Mrs Wilson."
Her glare could break innocent men in an interrogation into babbling messes. "Where are her parents?" she demanded.
"Work," I answered.
Better to keep my responses short and precise, lest any additional information be used against me. I watched enough true crime to know that much.
"Well." She pursed her lips, displeased. "If you cause another disturbance, I will be forced to ask you to leave, which, as you know, will affect Alexia's grade on her presentation, since attendance this evening is worth points."
"It won't happen again," I promised, properly chastened.
Casting us one further skeptical scowl, she swept away to supervise other families touring the presentation boards.
I loosed a sigh, turning back to Alexia. "You heard her. Behave."
"You started it."
ВИ ЧИТАЄТЕ
Super•Villainous
Фентезі"I've been looking for you." There was an unexpected rasp to his voice, a hint of desperation. He stretched out one hand, as if to brush it across my cheek, or perhaps wrap it around my throat. Oddly enough, I didn't know which option frightened me...
