The Cunning

101

Kieran washed his hands and exited the bathroom, wiping them on his jeans. He took his phone from his pocket to check the time when a thump at the end of the hallway caught his attention. It had come from Jase's bedroom.

More curious than concerned, he approached the door, pressing his ear against the wood.

"You cunt!" came a yell from the other side. Kieran instinctively reached for the handle, cursing when it didn't budge. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew the voice didn't belong to Jase and something wasn't right.

He ran downstairs, pushing past everyone in the living room to get to the table, calling Jase at the same time. Janine spotted him first, getting Sam and Jase's attention and pointing in Kieran's direction. His panicked facial expression was enough to get the men out of their seats.

"There's something going on in Madison's room, the door's locked-" Jase didn't wait for him to finish, barking orders at people to move out of his way, Sam and Kieran followed in his wake. He took the stairs two at a time, key already in hand.

There was no sound when they reached the door. The silence was almost tangible, leaking out from underneath, overpowered only by the dizzying bass of Jase's pulse in his own ears. He slid the key in the lock, pausing for a moment. A hurricane of scenarios flipbooked through his mind, all of them resulting in finding Madison dead. He had to brace himself before twisting.

The door opened with a short whine. Kieran was already wretching, covering his mouth and averting his eyes. Even Jase had to hold his breath, though for entirely different reasons. All he could see was blood. Lines of red swiped across the wall resembling silly string, a web of crimson splashed over the popcorn ceiling, a puddle collected on the bed, it was everywhere.

Jase's knees buckled and he had to use the doorframe to steady himself, leaning his shoulder against it. He struggled to register the image of Madison's body, half slumped on the bed and half on the floor, glistening in dark syrupy fluids. Everything inside him tensed, his vision came in waves of focussed and unfocussed, an excruciating ringing screeched in his ears.

Then Madison sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand, smearing the blood on her face and she wasn't the lifeless body posed unnaturally on the edge of the matress.

She was on her knees at the head of the corpse, the white t-shirt she was wearing was no longer white, now saturated with blood and clinging to her body. One sleeve hung off her shoulder where the collar had been torn.

Jase could feel his limbs again as relief seized him, returning oxygen to his lungs. He took in the scene once more, specifically Madison's white knuckles wrapped around his switchblade and the poor guy who had picked the wrong one to fuck around and find out with. The discarded jogger bottoms flung on the chest of drawers didn't go amiss. Nor did the jeans sagging around the body's thighs, exposing a pair of checkered boxers. The math did itself.

"Is that Charlie?" Sam asked, breaking the silence.

"Jesus Christ," Kieran mumbled from a safe distance, having just about pulled himself together.

Madison's head snapped round, she hadn't noticed them come in. Jase found her eyes through the clumps of bloodied hair clinging to her face but he couldn't for the life of him gauge what she was thinking.

Without a word, Madison stepped off the bed, took the box of cigarettes from Charlie's back pocket and calmly slid one out. She lit it, chucking the packet back at him. Sam alternated between watching her and watching Jase but Jase was only watching Madison as she stepped over to them, placing his switchblade on the chest of drawers, the blade tacky with Charlie's blood.