the bony skull. The hands had been crossed over the chest in a mockery of subterranean burial, and the lower torso was covered in patches of cloth that had once been a skirt.
The victim's shoes were placed neatly at her feet and her ankles had been crossed, but the bones of the feet had dropped away from each other and lay where they had fallen on the rocky floor.
Aural could not guess how long the girl had been dead, but the shoes looked like new.
She turned away from the skeleton and stepped in the opposite direction.
The rope pulled snugly at her waist.
'Anywhere in there will do,' Swann called to her. His voice beat back on itself, overlapping the giggle that followed.
Aural moved several steps to the side and squatted. The bones of another skeleton shone dully in the flickering light. This one had been 'buried' like the first, her arms crossed over her chest. The ligaments of the hands had disintegrated and the finger bones had fallen in among the ribs.
When she was in control of herself, Aural called, 'You been busy, ain't you? You been a real little beaver.'
'Oh, you haven't seen them all, ' he said proudly.
'These are very early works. I did them years ago.'
'Well, they say that idle hands are the devil's tool,' Aural said, walking back towards him. If there were other bones, she did not want to see them. 'It's good to know you've been active so you can't get up to any mischief'
As she approached him she realized she could have grabbed one of the bones, a leg bone, a thighbone, and used it to club him to death. If she had had the presence of mind. If she could have brought herself to pick up the bone in the first place. She cursed herself for another opportunity missed. How many more would she have before she joined the boneyard? Girl, you've got to get in control of yourself, she thought.
You've got to take your chance when you get it.
Now, as she lay wide awake, she could hear his steady breathing. The bastard was beginning to snore. He was resting while she was consuming her precious energy in useless rage and anxiety. Damn it, girl, she thought, don't let him sleep. Keep him as bad off as you can, keep him sleepless, get him punchy and careless, force him into making a mistake.
'Hey, shitstick!' she called. 'Wake up. Time to be up and doing, we got some business to take care of.'
He came awake noisily, spluttering, alarmed.
'What? What is it?'
'Come on, stick, get your ass up. You got things to do. And in the meantime, how about some breakfast? You wasn't planning to starve me to death, too, was you?'
'What are you talking about?'
'It's morning. Get your ugly ass up. Feed me, then we'll think of something fun to do.'
'It's morning?' he asked, puzzled. 'How do you know?'
'Let's get at it, slick. Start opening some of them cans.
What have we got for breakfast, beans or peaches?'
She heard him fumbling about, then his lighter flared into flame. Aural saw him looking at his wristwatch, trying to figure out what was going on. Baffled by what his timepiece told him, Swann turned to look at her, holding the lighter in front of him like a lantern.
'What are you up to?' he asked.
Swann studied her for a moment in the insufficient glow of the cigarette lighter. He cocked his head to one side, trying to interpret what he saw. Aural's head peeked out from the golf sack, and she was grinning at him.
'Up and at 'em, chief,' she said. 'Time's awasting.'
Swann clicked the lighter shut and the cavern returned to darkness.
Aural saw red ghosts dance on her retina while Swann moved out of his sleeping bag. She heard him fumble about for a moment, then the lighter snapped on again and he lit a candle. He walked the few feet to her side and peered down at her for a moment before bending and tugging at the rope that bound the sack to his leg. Satisfied that the rope was still secure around her body, he unzipped the sack far enough to see that her wrists and ankles were still manacled.
He zipped the sack up to her chin once more.
'What are you playing at?' He leaned close to her, peering into her eyes. Aural could smell his breath and feel the heat of the candle.
'Just a little s and m. I'm pretending you've got me tied up and are trying to torture me.'
'You'd better be careful,' he said. 'You'd better be very, very careful.
So far I like you.'
'I thought you did. I don't know… a girl can tell.'
'But I know how to be mean,' he said, ignoring her.
He moved the candle until it was directly in front of her face, six inches away from her skin. His own face was behind the flame, the features dancing in the flickering light like a jack-o-lantern. So slowly that it took Aural a moment to realize what was happening, he moved the flame towards her eyes. She watched with fascinated horror as the flame inched closer and closer.
'Tell me when you're sorry that you woke me up at two in the morning,' he said softly. Aural did not look at him; she could see only the bright orange flame creeping ever nearer. The fire filled her field of vision, blocking out anything else, and she fought a scream that wanted to tear loose from her chest. Not my eyes, she thought, terrified.
When the warmth of the candle turned to heat, she blew it out.
Swann emitted a grunt of anger, then the cigarette lighter snapped into flame again. He relit the candle and set it on the ground, too far away for her to blow it out again.
He sat with his arms on his knees, studying her as if she were an enigma that he had just stumbled across.
'What am I going to do with you?' he asked at last.
'You mean you don't know? I was counting on you to have it all figured out.'
'Shut up,' — he said softly.
'If it's up to me, I say let's play another game entirely.
How about the one where I stick you in the sack and set you on fire?
You'll like that one, I promise. I'm good at it.'
'I said be quiet. I'm trying to think.'
'While you're thinking, open a can. I'll have the beans.'
To Aural's amazement, he smiled at her.
'All right,' he said. 'Since you're so eager to get at it, I'm up now anyway. Beans do sound good, don't they?'
He released Aural from the sack, undid her handcuffs from the ankle irons so that she could stretch and feed herself, and fed her beans and peaches.
'Eat up,' he said. 'You're going to need your strength. This will be a longer session than before since we've got more time.'
'More time to kill, you mean,' Aural said.
'That's good. I like that. More time to kill. That's good.'
'I've got hundreds of them,' Aural said.
'I like women with a sense of humor,' Swann said.
'I spent three years living with a gorilla who had the sense of humor of a rock.'
'I think I used to date him,' Aural said. 'Did he have a tattoo on his butt?'
Swann giggled. 'You're funny,' he said.
'You're a little strange yourself. In a very interesting way. I can see why the girls like you.'
'They do, you know,' he said soberly. 'You're yjoking, but they do. My girls love me-at the end. You will, too, you'll see.'
'Do you get those headaches a lot?' Aural asked abruptly. 'I heard you crying last night.'
'I wasn't crying.'
