Under My Skin

36:2 | a small sacrifice

Chapter Thirty-Six (Part two):

Unmoving. Lifeless. Dead.

Blaine's hands plunged to his knees as he took several laboured breaths to steady himself. From his peripheries, he saw the road sign reading Didham Road, indicating they were less than a minute from Reid's house.

A muffled scream emerged from behind him. He swivelled around and noticed the ghastly face of Indiya weeping as her gaze remained superglued on Rayhan, her pupils constricting and dilating alternatively. "Don't. Don't look, Indiya." But he knew he was much too late.

"Is he dead? He can't be dead." She wailed, holding her body as she wobbled back and forth on the heels of her feet. Blaine didn't answer, his eyes diverting toward the car and noticing that Reid was still asleep; his head lunged forward, bobbing with each shallow breath, only held back by his seatbelt. "I can check. I'm trained in basic life skills." She took a timid step forward.

"You shouldn't touch him." A mature female voice crept in from behind them. The two swung their heads back, seeing Sihem standing behind them. She let out a soft heart-wrenching sob. Her eyes peeled upon her husband's lifeless body before they flew to Reid's unconscious body in the car.

"I'll call an ambulance," Blaine whispered.

"No. No, you can't." Sihem raced forward. "Reid, he doesn't even have a license. He'd go down for this." She spat out. She had a decision to make, a role to play. Would she play the doting wife, or would she play the loving mother? "We need to get Reid inside, and then we'll sort this out." She tiptoed to Reid, tugging the door open, hearing her son mumbling inarticulate words as she reached out to him. "Blaine, help me get him out." She nodded to Indiya. "You stay out here with...with..." Her voice broke, but Indiya knew what she meant.

Together, Blaine and Sihem carried Reid into the house, leaving him in a recovery position in his bed before creeping back downstairs. Blaine watched as she assembled several packs of unopened gloves.

"I don't understand. Why do we need these?"

But she didn't answer. Instead, she darted back outside. "Indiya, go inside. If Reid wakes up, you don't mention this to him. None of this happened." She said sternly, "you say nothing, Indiya. If he remembers anything, you deny it and say nothing until we get back, okay?"

Indiya nodded; her face crinkled up as several tears escaped her eyes, cruising down her glistening face and showing no evidence of slowing down. She slowly plodded back to the house.

Sihem kneeled beside her husband's body, and the sound of rustling plastic was heavy as she placed her gloves on. She palpated two fingers against Rayhan's neck and let out a muffled sob when she couldn't feel any beating against the skin on her fingers. "We need to move him into the boot of the car."

"This isn't right, Sihem. We should call an ambulance."

She shook her head; her cheeks were beet-red and tear-streaked, but she remained composed. "You need to listen to me. We need to move him. Quickly before someone comes out and sees us."

Blaine swallowed back any further objections as he hovered over the body. He noticed the man's eyes were wide as though they'd been prised open; even in his death, he was challenging Blaine. The same way he'd glare at Blaine every time he made a quip that he was better at football than Reid or when the father would notice that Blaine's gaze lingered on Ria a moment too long. He gulped as he pressed the pulps of his fingers against his eyelids, closing them for what would be the last time.

He held the man's upper body whilst Sihem gripped the lower portion. It felt wrong, as though they were carrying a sack of mulch and not a human body. They shoved him into the boot, his body impossibly rumpled. Blaine gnawed back the bile in his throat every time he heard Rayhan's head, elbows and knees smacking against the boot with a loud thud as they struggled to squeeze the tall man's frame inside.