the late miss roberts and her many crimes

Broken Pattern

There were a thousand reasons why Emma shouldn't have let Jason into the house. She didn't even know how he'd found her address (in actual fact, he'd pestered Allison for details about what Emma's house looked like and figured it out from there), she barely knew who he was and above all, she didn't want to get involved with families. However, when a guy shows up at your door loudly complaining about his binder and bursts into your living room, it's hard to tell him to go away. With Jason sitting on one end of the sofa and Emma perched on the opposite arm, Emma considered her situation. Jason wasn't wildly in love with her, so she wouldn't be able to trick him as easily. However, with any luck, he wouldn't be around her long enough to sense that anything was going wrong.

Jason shifted awkwardly in his seat. "So..." He said, trailing off. "You're dating my little sister, huh?" His face twitched into what might have been a smile if he hadn't looked quite so much like he wanted to punch something. Maybe the overprotective older brother idea was outplayed, and maybe Jason was about as intimidating as a puppy, but he wanted to do his best to help his little sister. Despite all this, Emma was still vaguely concerned. Anyone could be dangerous if they had enough purpose behind them.

She realised that she was staring aimlessly into space and settled for simply saying "Yeah, I am."

The awkward silence resumed.

Emma watched Jason's body language carefully. His fists were tensed and shaking, corresponding with the set of his jaw, making him look furious. On the other hand, his legs were trembling violently and his nails were digging into his palms hard enough to have drawn blood from at least two of the indents. He was afraid of her. Why would he be afraid? He would only have heard about her through Allison, so unless Allison was afraid of her then everything should have been okay. Maybe he was just worried about his sister dating anyone? He didn't really seem the type to be irrational though, so what did Allison know? Had Allison found out? She paused and looked back over to Jason, who met her eyes.

"Please don't hurt her. I don't know whether you're the serial killer, because you don't seem like a serial killer, or whether you're just weirdly obsessed with serial killers, but either way you freak me out. You're attractive, sure, but you're weird. She found some collection of papers about the Tarantula Killer in your room and frankly that's just bizarre. Also, you keep calling her the wrong name. That's less weird and more rude, but still not good." He stopped for breath and sighed. "I don't want you to think I'm being a dick, but from what I've heard you're a little bit off. And Allison was right last week, there is a smell coming from your kitchen."

At this, Emma froze. The smell. The suspicion. They would know. Oh god, they would find out again and she would have to kill and maybe this time she wouldn't get away, she'd get caught and she'd have to see every family of every mistake she'd ever made, including her own. The edge of her left eye began to twitch and she blinked hard, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I think you're being ridiculous," she muttered, then repeated herself at a higher volume, voice beginning to shake.

Jason noticed the building panic on her face and pulled out his phone carefully and hid it behind his back, using muscle memory to type out a message to Allison, whispering to himself as he did so. "Call... police... Emma... danger... please." He aimed for where he thought the send button would be and slid the phone back into his pocket.

"Emma, please calm down, you're scaring me."

"Scaring you? I'm scaring you? You're scaring the hell out of me! You show up at my house and somehow know about me and about things even Allison shouldn't know about." Emma was shouting now, face sweating and eyes seeming to bulge. "You're making it happen again, because I can't have her, because I can never have her because I always kill her!"

Eyes widening, Jason jumped to his feet. "You killed her? You can't have killed Allison, please no you can't, she's-"

Emma scoffed. "Not Allison, not really. April, again and again. April, then Carol... Then Allison, whenever that has to happen, because it does have to, and then whoever comes next. I don't know how to stop it."

For the first time, Jason noticed she was crying. Not proper sobs, just tears pouring out of her eyes as if she didn't even know they were there. "You don't have to kill anyone, Emma. You've never had to kill anyone."

"The hell do you know? You've known me in person for ten minutes and I've already pulled a knife on you."

"You haven't pulled a knife on me."

"Oh, silly me, I was so busy planning it that I forgot to actually do it." Emma smiled, unnaturally wide and unfriendly, and Jason stepped back away from the gleaming blade in her hand. She gasped and Jason flinched violently. "What if I don't have to kill her this time around?" Emma looked up and Jason could almost see the thoughts flashing behind her eyes.

"No one has to die, Emma."

Emma shook her head, hair quivering as she did. "No, that's not how it works. Someone always has to die, Jason. But maybe for once it won't be her."

Jason frowned, trying to stall for time before Allison managed to get help. "Who's it going to be then?"

Emma grinned, dry lips cracking and bleeding onto her teeth, and darted forward, pressing the knife between Jason's ribs. "You, of course." She pulled out the knife, gently licking the blood off the blade as Jason choked in the background.

He crumpled to the floor, and it took Emma a few moments to realise that he wasn't coughing, but laughing.

"What is it? I just stabbed you, what the hell are you laughing at?"

"I... I left the front door... open." He collapsed with a thud, arms reaching out to something behind Emma. She turned slowly to see a blonde girl with tearstained green eyes, mouth wide open and phone in her hand.

"Emma?"

Emma stepped forwards, and Allison gasped, staring at the ground behind her and dropping to the floor.

"Oh, god. Jason? Emma, what have you done?" Allison felt blood soaking through her clothes and retched. "What have I done?"