Crimson

Six Foot Under

Frederique’s breath was deep and even, barely audible even to the four super charged monsters at the table. They all leant in, voiced hushed and serious. And of course, the conversation topic for such a scene would be Anna’s immediate demise.

‘I’m tired, I don’t want to be here anymore.’ Anna said with a weary sigh.

‘Well you are.’ I snapped at her, gritting my teeth. ‘And you’re too young to tired of life.’

‘I kill people. I do nothing but kill people. It’s getting boring.’

‘Get a hobby then.’

‘The lovers quarrel continues, gaining passion as the wife sleeps on the couch. Will she wake up? Will Anna choose to die? Who does Jack choose?’ Jeff chimed, mostly speaking to Laughing Jack, who, being Laughing Jack, laughed loudly.

‘This isn’t a fucking sitcom. Shut up.’ I growled at them, shoving the other Jack hard enough to send him to the floor.

Anna stood, her head grazing the roof. ‘It’s my decision to make. And I want to do this.’ With that she disappeared.

‘Well screw her.’ I stood, kicking my chair. ‘It’ll be better without you anyway.’ I shouted at the roof to where we could all sense Anna had gone.

‘Jack…?’ The girl on the couch rolled over, rubbing her eyes. ‘Who are you shouting at?’

I barely glanced at her as I walked past, not gracing her with an answer and sprinted up the stairs to my room, storming inside and slamming it loudly behind me.

I was angry enough for my vision to take on a red haze as I paced back and forth in the my room, kicking away whatever lay in my path. She was a selfish, stupid little girl and I hated her. I collapsed onto my bed after a few more minutes, drained. After staring at the ceiling for a few hours, I left to find Frederique.

I walked down the stairs a lot more calmly than I’d gone up them to find Fred’s couch vacated. I looked at Jeff who had decided to spend the rest of the day climbing around on the roof.

‘Where’s Frederique?’ I asked. He shrugged his answer and I left.

I followed her scent, occasionally calling her name until I found her sitting on a bench at the edge of the forest with her knee’s drawn to her chest. She looked up at my approach, her eyes expressionless.

‘Hey Fred.’ I sat beside her. ‘Sorry about earlier today. Anna has decided to go kill herself and we were arguing about it.’

‘One less monster in the world sounds good to me.’

‘Fred. That monster happens to be my friend.’

She didn’t say anything, not glancing at me or giving any indication she’d heard. I looked for something to say, scanning her for anything to comment on. I looked at her hands, furrowing my eyebrows.

‘Why is their cement on your hands?’

She looked at her hands briefly, before dropping them again. ‘I was in the city, I found one of those unset paths and I decided to handprint it.’

I nodded. ‘Do you want to go home?’

‘Yeah, sure.’

I took her arm and together, we walked back to the abandoned mansion in the woods.

†             †             †

The next few days passed in icy stillness. Anna did not make any effort to speak to me, nor I to her. Fred hid in our room constantly. Jeff wondered around the house mindlessly, staying out of the way of all the inhabitants and often left to hunt. Laughing Jack had decided to prolong his hunting trip and avoid this house.