Part 2

The hour passed slowly. At first, Penny tried to sleep but the florescent lights above her were too bright even with her eyes closed. She wished that she had asked for some kind of blindfold – perhaps her T-shirt rolled up and draped over her eyes. At least that would have blocked the light. She was very conscious of the weight of the soil on top of her but it was not crushingly heavy. What it reminded her of most was being buried under the sand at the seaside, something her little brother and she would happily take turns at when they were younger. Every time she breathed in, she felt the loose compost settle a little but it was not so heavy that it kept her from breathing out, as she had been afraid it might be. Although she knew she was going to die in that box and had long since made her peace with the idea, the thought of being crushed and suffocated still scared her.

To pass the time, as her tomb began to grow ever warmer, she pondered what the experience of dying was going to be like. What would actually kill her? She was grateful that she was not being cooked over coals or an open fire and she did not like the thought of her skin burning, drying out and cracking. They had discussed the technical aspects of cooking her meat many times but the thought of how it would actually feel to be cooked never seemed to come up. This form of cooking was supposed to cook evenly, inside and out, rather than outside through to the inside so she imagined it would continue to grow warmer until her organs started to shut down. The trapped girl could not help wondering just how much heat she would live to experience and how much, if any, pain she might experience as she slowly cooked to death. She hoped that it would feel like falling asleep in a nice, hot bath.

Despite the weight of the soil above her, Penny found that she was able to move her fingers a little, just enough to give some stimulation. Her restricted movement and the overall circumstances meant a climax was highly unlikely but it still felt nice and was a welcome distraction from what was happening to her, although she could not help but wonder if her increased heart rate would speed up or slow down the cooking process. At least, for now, she was relatively comfortable.

“Hey there!” Penny was snapped out of her musings but April’s voice. She turned her head to the side and saw both girls walking towards her with large soda cups in their hands. Jessica appeared to be finishing some kind of pastry. “How’s it going?”

“Well, I think.” Penny smiled, glad to have company again. The loneliness of laying alone in the box in an otherwise empty exhibition hall was not something that she had anticipated, “It’s kind of hard to tell from here! Hey,” she chuckled as she watched Jessica pop the last morsel into her mouth and lick her fingers, “Make sure you leave room for lunch! I hear the main dish is slow-cooked ginger and you wouldn’t want to miss out on that, would you?”

“Oh don’t worry!” Jessica laughed. “I’ve got plenty of appetite left for you! So,” she pulled a stool from the side of the booth and sat down next to the table, bringing her to the same level as Penny’s exposed head and making it easier to chat, “How does it feel?”

“Just kinda warm at the moment.” Penny replied after a few moments consideration as April sat down on her own stool next to Jessica. “A bit like being after the bath when you wrap yourself in a towel that’s been hanging over the radiator.”

“That actually sounds quite nice!” April observed. “Not that I wanted it to, but I was worried that it was going to be painful for you.”

“Maybe it will be at some point but not yet.” smiled Penny. Then a thought occurred to her. “You know, maybe we should do a little more filming? The camera has a time-stamp on, doesn’t it?”

“Well yeah but there’s nothing to see yet.” April looked a little puzzled. “Just your head sticking out of the box and nothing really has changed about that since you went in, other than your cheeks being a little pinker maybe?”

“But we don’t just want people to want to cook girls this way, do we?” Penny explained patiently, mildly amused by the confusion on her team-mates’ faces, “We want girls to choose this method! To want it and look forward to it! If I can prove to them it’s nothing to be afraid of then it might help with marketing and that sort of thing when we win!”

“If we win.” Remarked April, ever the pragmatist. “But yeah, good idea!”

“When we win!” Penny corrected her forcefully. “It’s okay for you two, you can go invent other things but this is my only shot and I wouldn’t have got into this box to be turned into lunch for a room full of strangers if I didn’t believe in what we were doing! Now,” she added with a grin, “go grab the camera!”

Considering herself the most experienced at handling it, Jessica bounced up from her seat and retrieved the camera. Pointing it at Penny’s face she selected the fade-in option, hit record and gave her friend a thumbs-up from behind the camera to show that it was rolling.

“Hello again!” Penny greeted her potential viewers, “Last time I spoke to you, we were about to begin the process. You saw how the box was assembled and how my body was prepared ready for cooking. Well, as you can see I have now been cooking for a little over one hour and I wanted to tell you a little about the experience.” April leant forward with interest, waiting to hear Penny’s description, while Jessica held the camera steady with a close-up of the red-head’s cute, slightly warm-looking face.

“So far,” Penny explained, “there is no pain. Not even any real discomfort. I was worried that the compost on top of me was going to feel too heavy but it doesn’t. The box seems to be warming up steadily, much more slowly than an oven would. It’s designed to hold its temperature for far longer but I’m sure I won’t be around for too much of it once it reaches its peak. I don’t know exactly how long I’ll survive in here or whether I’ll have an opportunity to talk to you again so I’d like to say that, from the point of view of the meat, I can really recommend this cooking method and would definitely choose it over an oven or spit! Well,” she grinned a little cheekily, “in case I don’t get another chance to speak to you, I’d better say ‘bon appetite!’”

“Great!” Jessica grinned, having turned off the camera and set it back on its stand. She took out her phone and glanced at the time. “I suppose it’s going to be another couple of hours before anyone else starts arriving. Is there anything you need? Anything we can do to keep you comfortable?”

“I could do with a little drink of water?” Penny asked, tentatively, “If that’s allowed?” She and Jessica both looked at April.

“I guess a little couldn’t hurt, just to wet your whistle, as my Gran used to say?”

“Exactly.” Penny smiled gratefully. “Don’t worry, I know nobody likes their meat stewed in pee!” All three girls laughed as April went to the fridge and took out one of the plastic water bottles that had been provided by the organisers for all the teams. Carefully, so as not to spill it, she tipped a little of the delightfully icy liquid into Penny’s open mouth.

“We’re gonna go again for a bit.” April explained after checking that Penny had got enough water. We’ll come check on you again in another hour but one of the organisers is here and wants to go through some paperwork with us, contracts and that sort of thing. We said we had to come check on you first. Hopefully by next time we’ll be able to smell some cooking going on?” she added with a somewhat wolfish grin. Although she was a little sad to be losing her friend, she could not hide the fact that she was looking forward to finding out how she tasted!

“Is there anything else you need?” Jessica asked kindly. Penny remembered the issue she had experienced the first time she was left alone.

“Do you think you could put something over my eyes?” she asked meekly, “So I can try to sleep?” April went to search for a suitable blindfold while Jessica stood next to her friend, smiling down at her and gently stroking her hair.

“I’m not sure I said it properly before,” she smiled a little sadly, “but I really am so grateful for what you’re doing. We both are. When we win,” she grinned, “and I know we will, we will owe it all to you!” Penny wasn’t quite sure what to say so just smiled back.

“Oh come on,” she managed after a moment, “this is totally a team effort!”

“Yeah,” Jessica agreed with a little giggle, “but I think you’ve managed to totally redefine taking one for the team!” Just then, April returned with a clean, soft hand-towel which she folded over and over until it was a little less than four inches wide. She laid it carefully over Penny’s slightly sweaty face, covering her eyes. The moment she did so, Penny was enveloped in darkness. This was much better. The darkness combined with the strange comfort of the increasingly warm box seemed to guarantee sleep.

“Here.” Jessica surprised Penny by leaning down and kissing her. Not an affectionate peck like April had given but a full, romantic and passionate kiss on the mouth. Without even realising what she was doing, Penny began to move her fingers again. “Stick around until we get back,” Jessica whispered cheekily in her ear, “and there’s more where that came from!”

*

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!”

*

By the time Jessica and April returned from their meeting with the organisers, the hall was filling up quite nicely. It was still half an hour or so before the public were to be let in but all the other contestants were there, setting up their demonstrations. Since plagiarism or other types of copying would be pretty much impossible by that point, and all devices and procedures were described on the entry forms, there was no restriction on contestants who were already set up wandering around and taking a look at what others had come up with. Since Penny was well on her way to being done and there was very little for them to do other than wait, the two girls decided to go explore. After setting their video running on the provided screen, showing Penny’s introduction and the early stages of the prep, they set off.

The first thing that struck them both was the number of naked girls and young women either wandering around, helping to set up the devices in or on which they would likely very soon be cooked or simply sitting in the booths, flicking though magazines or on their phones while they waited for their teams to get set up. Nobody other than Penny actually seemed to be cooking yet so it seemed fair to assume most other cooking methods on display that day involved a shorter process. The youngest they saw seemed to be a pair of girls, sisters from the looks of them, around eighteen or nineteen years old who were chasing each other around the booth playing tag to the obvious irritation of the team that were trying to set up in there. There were a few young women, mostly from the mixed teams, who looked to be around twenty-two or twenty-three but most seemed to be in their late teens, twenty at most, as was fairly typical for meat girls. Chatting with each other as they explored, April and Jessica pondered how many had been purchased for the demonstrations and how many were friends or family members talked into helping out.

Although no girls were cooking yet, it was not too difficult to work out the rough mechanics of the majority of entries. There seemed to be a lot of variations on the traditional spit or stew pot but others were a little more intriguing, such as a device that seemed to consist of a pair of flexible tubes, like thick garden hoses, fed from something that they were pretty sure was a repurposed immersion heater from an old house! There was also a sort of cage which had several cables running from it as if it cooked by passing electric current through the girl.

“Wow, that’s gotta hurt!” Jessica observed, looking with a mixture of fear and fascination at what she was pretty sure was a deep-fryer. It was a large tank of straw-coloured oil which, while not boiling yet, was clearly starting to heat up. Beside it, on the floor for now but attached to a kind of hoist system and swinging arm was a metal basket large enough for a girl or small adult to sit in with her knees tucked up. A petite brunette around there own age stood close by, naked buy holding a folder in her hands and giving sharp instructions to the boys who made up the rest of the team – clearly in this mixed team she was both the leader and test-subject! At least she would know what she was letting herself in for and there could be no question about her willingness, April and Jessica thought to themselves.

“I guess we should get back to our booth.” April commented, noticing that the hall was starting to fill up and that not everyone was attached to a team so the public must have been allowed in. “I hope Penny was able to sleep like she wanted to and that it’s not hurting her too much.”

“Honestly,” Jessica replied with a slight shrug, “of all the devices I’ve seen so far, ours looks to be one of the most humane. Some of those things looks pretty grim and some of the girls are really young!”

“Yeah…” April looked a little troubled. “I hope they’re going to kill them or at least give them something to knock them out before they start cooking or there’s going to be a lot of tears!”

Back at their own booth, a small group of onlookers had gathered. Some were touching the outside of the box, commenting to each other about the warmth they could feel through the wood. Others were watching the video with interest, intrigued to see how the process worked. None of them were paying any attention to Penny herself, despite the fact that her crudely blindfolded head was sticking out the end of the box.

April approached a little gingerly. From what she could tell, Penny was in a slightly delirious state, neither quite awake nor asleep. She was muttering something about sand but she couldn’t really make it out. She was clearly not too long for this world. Wanting to make her last few minutes as comfortable as possible, April took the water bottle out of the fridge again and poured a little more water into her friend’s slightly-open mouth before leaning down and giving her a tender kiss.

“Well, this is it!” Jessica took a deep breath and glanced over at April who seemed to be a picture of confidence, despite how important this moment was for them. She had known the taller girl for long enough to know that she would be just as nervous as she was below the surface but was very good at assuming a mask of confidence when the situation called for it.

The organisers and judges were assembled, a curious crowd of onlookers made up of the public and other contestants gathered behind them. All were waiting to see how well the simple slow-cooking device had worked. Multiple cameras and phones were focussed on the girls, stood behind the box, including a very large one being held by the official cameraman of the event. Obviously Penny could not be the one to do the talking this time so April began.

“Ladies and gentlemen, judges and organisers, thank you for coming to our presentation.” She paused for the polite smattering of applause that followed. “As you will see from the video section of the presentation,” she indicated the screen which had been muted but was still playing, the time-stamps clearly visible in the bottom left corner, “our subject, Penny, has been cooking for several hours and was alive and fully cooperative when the process began.” She removed the slightly damp rolled towel which covered her late friend’s face. Penny looked serene, as if enjoying a lovely dream. Other than some redness, nobody would be able to tell from looking at her head that her body was thoroughly cooked. Of course, this meant there was no way Jessica and April could know for sure whether their device had worked effectively. There was no reason why it should not have done but this was, after all, the first test on anything bigger than a fish! “Oh well,” April whispered under her breath, “moment of truth!”

Working together, the two girls lifted the lid off the box and set it on its end, upright, at one end of the table. There was a feeling of warmth that hit their faces, like leaving an air-conditioned building and going out onto the street on a hot day but it was not hot like opening an oven. With a small garden tool, April gently raked the top layer of compost, careful not to push too deep and risk puncturing the foil.

“As you can see,” April continued with almost audible relief, “the charcoal layer is now spent and reduced to ash. While it is still warm, it is no melting or fire risk and can simply be mixed in with the compost for the next use.” As practised, Jessica retrieved a large builder’s bag and set it at on the floor at the end of the table. At the other end, below the head-shelf and technically under Penny’s shoulders, April slid a small, wedge-shaped metal device with a crank-handle. As she turned the handle, the wedge expanded like a car jack and lifted the box to an angle of about twenty degrees. One this was done, Jessica lifted the upper section of the foot of the box out of its grooves and a small shower of compost tumbled into the waiting bag. Carefully, using brushes from a dust-pan and brush set, the two girls swept the warm mix of compost and grey charcoal ash out of the box and into the bag, revealing the metallic chrysalis which contained Penny’s hopefully-cooked body.

The bag was moved out of the way and the box lowered back to its horizontal resting place. Knowing that the foil-wrapped meat was likely to be very hot to the touch, the girls donned oven gloves and, after removing the top half of the neck brace, gently and very carefully lifted their cooked friend out of the box and laid her in front of it on the metal table, looking a little like an ancient mummy unearthed from some Egyptian tomb.

Before the watching eyes of the those with the power to decide her future, not to mention the onlookers and various cameras, April offered up a silent prayer to whatever force controls the universe that their cooking method would have worked how they expected and she wasn’t about to unveil a burned or dried out corpse to the world. Explaining that the meat would likely now be quite delicate, ready to be pulled from the bone, and therefore unwrapping must be done very carefully, she took a pair of industrial shears, capable of cutting through the double layer of aluminium foil and, staring just under Penny’s chin, began to cut through the metal and the thick leafs below like a paramedic cutting through the jeans of an injured person.

Almost immediately, a cloud of steam escaped and the area was filled with a delicious smell – a mixture of cooked pork and garlic mixed with the sweetness of the pineapple and honey. With a sigh of relief, April continued to cut down the length of Penny’s body, taking care to keep her face out of the path of the released steam which, unlike the soil, was incredibly hot. Eventually, she reached Penny’s feet and made a couple of sideways cuts then returned to the head end and cut across her shoulders.

There was a second round of applause, far more genuine and enthusiastic this time, as the girls peeled back the foil revealing the cooked body of their friend. The kale leafs came away with the meal creating the pleasing impression that the meat lay on a bed of garnish on a large platter. In truth, neither April nor Jessica had been quite sure what to expect of a slow-cooked human body but Penny lay there looking much as she had in life, other than a little mottling on her skin which was now a very light brown colour as if the redhead had, for the first time in her life, managed to get a tan. She looked so beautiful, with the sweet steam rising gently from her naked form, that it almost seemed a shame to break her apart but the girls knew that presentation was only a small part of the test – their futures would be made or broken depending on how the meat tasted.

April had correctly theorised that the meat would be practically falling off the bone so she did not need a knife to take a piece of Penny’s delicious-looking thigh, instead gripping a piece with a pair of tongs and pulling it away easily before placing the offering on one of the paper plates that had been provided and handing it to the first judge along with a small wooden fork. She prepared two more pieces the same way so that all the judges had a piece then, as was their right, she and Jessica got to try some for themselves. Rather than continuing with the thigh, they decided to share a breast. Without even using the tongs, Jessica took hold of Penny’s deliciously juicy-looking left breast and pulled, delighted by the way it came away so easily, releasing another waft of the delicious cooked smell. She broke it in half and handed one part to April. It was indeed juicy and both girls had to wipe their chins several times and wash their hands when they were done but it was worth it for the indescribably delicious taste.

It was impossible to tell the mood of the judges as they ate their samples then, along with the organisers and cameraman, made their way to the next booth but they appeared satisfied. Several of the onlookers went with them but a far larger number stayed, anxious to try some of Penny’s meat! In order to make as much as possible accessible, the girls very carefully rolled Penny onto her side so it looked as if she was in bed. The under-side of the meat looked every bit as delicious as the top and neither girl could resist claiming a handful of her juicy bottom before stepping back and letting the public have at it. Some used the plates and made use of the tongs but many were simply grabbing bite-sized pieces of meat straight off the carcass and popping them into their mouth, savouring the delicious flavour.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” a voice intoned over the loud-speakers all around the massive hall some two hours later when there was very little of Penny left. As well as the meat that people might expect to be tasty, the slow-cooking process had made her organs and offal just as delicious and most of her innards had gone the way of her flesh. Only her pretty, uncooked head with its thin ginger plaits remained untouched. “Would all competitors and guests please make their way to the central stage for the announcement of the judges’ decision.

Dutifully, after covering Penny’s face respectfully with a soft towel, April and Jessica joined the throngs of others making their way towards the stage where the head of the company behind the competition, a smart-looking woman in her late forties, stood at a lectern with the other organisers and judges seated behind her. The girls managed to find a space to stand fairly close to the front where they could see quite well. Jessica noticed with amusement that all the other competitors’ clothes were now infused with a wonderful array of cooking smells!

“First of all,” the woman on the stage began once everyone appeared to be gathered, “we would like to thank everyone who entered this year. The standard of entries has been exceptionally high and extremely difficult to judge so we are also incredibly grateful to our panel of chefs and critics who took on this challenging task.” There was a round of polite applause. “And of course,” she continued, “posthumous thanks must go to all the wonderful, selfless girls and young women who gave up their bodies for today’s demonstrations. Without them, the event really would not have been possible!” There was more applause, a little more enthusiastic this time but still with a general air of impatience. People wanted to know who had won.

“So,” the woman smiled, “without further ado, here are the results you’ve all been waiting for. In third place,” she took a large gold envelope from the lectern in front of her and opened it, pulling out the card inside, “winning a £1000 research and development grant, is Sandra and Robert Howarth! Come on up!” The large screen hanging above her head showed the sibling’s entry and video footage of its use. It was a fairly traditional-looking cooking pot heated with electric elements like a tea kettle. In it, two cute brunettes, both with curly locks, were giggling and splashing each other. The prize was presented in the form of an over-sized check, photographs were taken and applause awarded before the pair made their way back down the steps. April wasn’t sure quite how to feel – one prize down, one less chance of winning anything at all, yet there were the two greater prizes still to go and, had they been awarded this one, they would have known they were out of the running for what everyone there really wanted. As things stood, there was still hope!

“Second prize of a week-long residential cookery course and a £5000 research and development grant goes to Suki Ling, Don Arnold and Alex Seacrest!” The trio made their way onto the stage as footage showed a girl of north-Asian heritage cooking in a kind of giant wok. April noticed that she was holding her breath as the second-prize winners left the stage. She glanced over at Jessica beside her and saw that she appeared to be doing the same and was in fact turning distinctly pink-cheeked!

“And finally,” the woman announced, milking the tension, “the winner of the first prize of the Roebuck Scholarship is…” she paused. The silence seemed to go on for several hours. “April Menzies and Jessica Seymour!” There was a massive eruption of applause. For the girls, it did not feel real. They made their way up onto the stage to be photographed accepting their certificate in a kind of daze, while footage of Penny climbing into the box cutting quickly to the unveiling of the meat played above them.

When the prize ceremony had ended and they returned to their booth to clear up, the girls were upset to find that Penny’s pretty head was missing. It seemed like someone had stolen it while most people were watching the announcements and decided to keep it as some kind of souvenir. Realising that there was not a lot they could do about it and still not entirely believing the whole situation was real and not an amazing dream, they began to pack Penny’s all but picked clean bones into a plastic box. They were going to offer them to her family and, if they didn’t want them, perhaps bury them under a tree or something in tribute to their friend who had given so much to help secure their futures.

“Don’t leave just yet, girls!” They turned and say the woman who had announced them as winners stood at the entrance to their booth holding an elegant, dark green cardboard box which looked like a fancy shoebox but a little deeper. “You wouldn’t want to leave without your trophy! Hopefully it will have pride of place in your dorm room and you will take it with you into your future!” She grinned and held out the box to them. A little confused, April stepped forward and took it, finding it to be quite heavy. She set it down on the metal table so that she and Jessica could open it together while the woman stood by, smiling.

Carefully, April lifted the lid off the box and set it aside. The inside of the box was padded and whatever it contained was covered by a sheet of satin the same colour as the outside. She let Jessica remove this. They both gasped when they saw what was inside.

“Vacuum-plated.” The woman explained. “Not gold, I’m afraid, as that tends to be too soft and is too easy damaged but, give her a polish every couple of months and she’ll stay shiny and beautiful forever!”

“Wow!” April exclaimed, lifting the trophy and turning it around in her hands to better inspect. It was Penny’s head! Coated in metal but such a thin layer that every detail of her pretty face, every individual hair in her braids, was visible! Tears began to flow down both girls’ cheeks as they realised that their friend’s head had not been stolen by some morbid souvenir-hunter but rather taken to be preserved in such a way that they could take her with them for whatever adventures lay ahead.

THE END