karma → 5sos au

2.1

"Call an ambulance," Ashton said, still holding on tightly, comfortingly to Bryana's shoulders. "Maybe he - "

"He's dead," Michael said, sweeping a strip of bright red hair off of his forehead. "It's too late to call an ambulance."

"I - I'm going to be sick," Jess said, looking ashen. She ran out of the kitchen, holding her hand over her mouth.

"How could you just kill him like that?" Michael asked Bryana, sounding more accusing than questioning.

"But, Mikey - " Bryana didn't know what to say.

"You saw the way Luke came at her with the knife," Ashton said, coming to her defense. "She had to react - didn't she? She had to protect herself."

"That's right. It was self-defense," Bryana said quickly. Self-defense. Of course.

Self-defense.

Ashton, you're a genius.

"I had to protect myself," she repeated. "He came at me . . . and I just reacted." She was starting to breathe normally, starting to feel a bit like herself again.

"What a horrible joke," Ashthon said, looking down at Luke's body. "You know, Michael, you're as much to blame as Bry."

"I didn't stab him with a knife," Michael said.

"But if you hadn't cooked up this whole thing, if the two of you hadn't planned for Luke to - to - "

"Why, Michael?" Bryana interrupted. "Why pull such a stupid joke?"

"I knew it was stupid," Michael said, sighing. He dropped onto one of the kitchen stools, his shoulders drooping, all of the energy seeming to drain from his body. "I told Luke it was really dumb. But it was that day in the hospital, Bryana. That day I came to tell you that Luke was dead. That's as far as we were going to take the joke. But then - "

"But then what?" Bryana demanded, anger replacing her fear.

"Then when you didn't even cry, when you didn't even look that upset, Luke decided to take the joke as far as he could."

"And you did the whole thing just to scare me?" Bryana asked.

"You deserved it - the way you treated Luke. You used him." Michael's voice softened. "Luke loved acting. He loved makeup. You should've seen him after he got out of the hospital. He was so turned on by the whole idea. He spent days just getting the right smell to make him smell like he was decaying."

"Ugh." Bryana made a face, remembering that sour smell.

"It was all just a stupid joke that went too far," Michael said sadly, shaking his head. "You're right, Bryana. I'm just as much at fault as you are."