Since Pt4 seems to be inaccessable on the original thread, here it is again (Courtesy of Robblu and his Pastebin!)

Pt4

Penny supposed she must have drifted off to sleep because she did not remember anyone else coming into the room but now she was vaguely aware of chatter close by and metallic scraping, presumably from equipment being rolled into place.

“Hang in there.” A kind voice said as she felt more icy cold water being poured into her slightly-open mouth. She swallowed it instinctively and gratefully. “Not too much longer to go now.” Breathing seemed to be becoming harder and she now felt uncomfortably hot, as if she were suffering from a terrible fever. Her body seemed to be telling her that she was trapped and that she needed to escape but her head could not make sense if it. She could not remember exactly where she was, why it was dark or why she was feeling so hot but the situation had a certain rightness about it, as if it were to be expected and everything was as it should be.

There was a different sensation on her lips now. A nice one. Was someone kissing her?

“Wow that tasted different!” A voice said close to her. Perhaps it was the one who had given her the encouragement a few moments earlier but maybe not. Penny thought about asking but she wasn’t actually sure she could talk and, even if she could, it felt like a lot of effort that she did not care strongly enough to make. “I think her insides are cooking!”

“Wow, really?” Another, similar voice spoke. What was that about cooking? Was someone preparing a meal for them? Insides of what? “I need to try!” Penny felt soft lips on hers again and an inquisitive tongue in her mouth followed by a curious sucking sensation, as if the person kissing her were trying to steal her breath. There was more talking but Penny couldn’t focus on the words. The near-by voices seemed to grow less distinct and mingle with the many other voices in the background.

Penny was nine years old and enjoying a day at the beach. Her mum was sat close by reading a romance novel and her dad was down by the water teaching her older sister Judy how to skim stones. She knew that she was wearing her favourite Little Mermaid swimsuit although she couldn’t see it as she was buried up to her neck in the sand while her little brother Will patted the yellow crystals down around her with his green plastic spade. It was a fun game but she was starting to feel uncomfortable. It was too hot. Not from the sun which was tempered by a pleasantly cool breeze but rather the heat was coming from the sand around her. She worried they had dug the hole too deep – she had learned in school how, if you dug down far enough you would find red hot lava. Perhaps they had accidentally broken through the crust of the Earth and were about to cause a brand new volcano, right there on the beach?

There was an ear-splitting scream that brought Penny’s mind right back to the here and now. Or as close to it as she was capable of focussing on.

“What was that?” She murmured softly, “Sounds like someone got hurt.” She tried to sit up but found she could not move. And why was it still so dark? Perhaps someone needed to turn the lights on before someone else got hurt. “I should go help.”

“Don’t worry.” A reassuring hand was on her forehead, dabbing her with a damp cloth. “Just lay still. It’s nothing for you to worry about. Either someone’s demonstration is not going as well as they hoped or somebody bought a ticket without checking what kind of show this was!” There were more voices around now, lots more. What had been a dull background chatter now seemed like more of a roar. Yet, strangest of all, among the many voices all around her, Penny could pick out her own. She was sure she was not talking yet the words sounded familiar. She tried to focus but something was wrong – she was hearing the same few sentences over and over again. Something about a demonstration? Then something about feeling comfortable?

But Penny was not comfortable. She did not like it there in hot, dark, noisy room where she couldn’t seem to move. She wanted to be back on the beach. It had been nice there, at least until the sand started getting hot.

“My turn!” Will grinned as Penny wriggled her shoulders and scooped the sand aside to get out of the hole. It was annoying how the sand from the sides seemed to be falling in – they would need to do some more digging before it was big enough again to bury Will, even ‘though he was a lot smaller than her. Penny was comfortable now. She felt happy. The sand hadn’t been that hot after all – she must have just imagined it. As she and her brother lay on their bellies scooping out the sand she wondered if they could did a hole deep enough to bury Mum or Dad?

“One last kiss?” April suggested, leaning over the shallowly-breathing face of her friend before touching lips as they had before, savouring the rich flavour of the steam which rose from inside Penny’s nearly-cooked body.

“My turn!” Jessica stepped forward as April stood up. As the flavourful fumes filled her mouth she felt a change. A stillness came over Penny and, although the steam still rose it was no longer being pushed by her lungs. “Wow!” Jessica stood up, a little wide-eyed. “I think I just tasted her last breath! And it was delicious!”