“Basil, I’m home! I brought back some Gino’s for dinner!”

Basil looked up from the photo album to see Polly coming through the front door, a large pizza box in her hands. She looked at Aubrey, who was sitting next to him on the sofa and smiled. “Oh, Aubrey! I didn’t realize you were here. How are you? Do you want some pizza? It’s veggie tofu. Basil always asks for it whenever I go to order some.”

“Ugh, tofu? Seriously?” Aubrey wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Who in their right mind would pay money to put that stuff on pizza? No thanks, Basil can have it.”

“Thanks Polly! But I’m not very hungry right now.” He looked back down at the album, which sat open-faced on his lap. “I’ll eat it later for dinner.”

Looking at the photo album was weird, to say the least. He’d visited Sunny’s house at one point after his death and just found it lying on the ground in the middle of the living room. The memory was foggy… he wasn’t entirely sure as to why he even visited in the first place. He remembered walking up to the front door and just staring at it for a while. Then when he tried to open it, he found that it was unlocked.

Sunny’s mom wasn’t there. He had no idea what even happened to her. He hadn’t seen her once since he died. Apparently they were supposed to be moving, but everything was still there, almost exactly like how he remembered it from the last time he visited, so many years ago. The situation didn’t interest him much though, so he just picked up the album from the floor and left. When he got back home, he threw it into a closet and promptly forgot about it until now, when Aubrey asked about it.

“A part of me wants to just rip out all of the photos. And then just burn them. Destroy them. Forget they ever existed.” Aubrey said quietly. “But… I don’t think I could bring myself to do that. Not now, after everything.”

Looking at the photos now aroused conflicting emotions in him, ones that he couldn’t even begin to understand. He had no idea how he was even supposed to feel. At one moment, he would be DEPRESSED, knowing fully well that his best days were behind him, and that he wouldn’t have any more happy memories to cherish. A few seconds later, he would be AFRAID when he saw a photo focusing on Mari and Sunny, their happy and care-free faces almost accusatory and blending together to form Something. Then, he would find himself ENRAGED at everyone. At himself, for not taking more photos when he had the chance. At Aubrey, for asking about the album in the first place. At Sunny, for leaving him again. Leaving him with this mess.

No, he couldn’t be mad at him. It wasn’t his fault. Sunny didn’t have a choice. He did the right thing anyway. Sunny wouldn’t leave him unless he had to. Why, they were best friends weren’t they? They did everything together, confided in each other with things that they wouldn’t even talk about with the other members of their group. They understood each other, sympathised with each other, they were practically brothers. Why would Sunny leave him unless he didn’t have any other choice? Backed up into a corner like that, with only one escape… How horrible it must have been.

What kind of best friend was he for leading him into such a situation in the first place?

What kind of best friend was he for hanging his sister’s corpse?

What kind of best friend was he for not bothering to check up on him for four years?

What kind of best friend was he for stabbing him in the eye with a pair of gardening shears?

He blinked. The photographs with Sunny and Mari in them had been altered, their figures scribbled out with a marker. Completely blacked out, save of course for a singular eye. Staring, glaring. Something, an everlasting reminder of what he’s done.

This isn’t right.

The room around him flickered red. Since when did everything get so heavy? He could barely sit up.

“This isn’t fair.”

Why had he been allowed to get away? Mari fell down the stairs and died. Sunny was stabbed in the eye before jumping off a hospital rooftop and dying. But he? He was fine. Oh, he was just perfectly fine. Some cuts and bruises inflicted by Sunny’s Something, maybe. But he’s had worse before. How could it be that he escaped unharmed while they lost their lives? It just wasn’t fair.

He stood up from the couch, causing the photo album to fall down onto the ground. He didn’t care. With stiff determination, he walked into his room, not noticing the confused questions coming from behind him. Was someone there? He couldn’t quite remember. It felt like he was doing something unimportant, something that could be forgotten without consequence. So be it.

Without a second thought, he plunged his right hand under his mattress and brought out a large steak knife. Ah, now he remembered. He took this from Sunny’s house too as well, didn’t he? But why? It had just been sitting out on the counter, sticking out like a sore thumb with its unnaturally shiny blade. As if someone had taken the time to clean and sharpen it every day, taking great care to maintain it despite years of disuse. It was special.

Special, unlike the painful memories that came with the photo album. So he had stuck it under his mattress.

Basil drove the knifepoint into his left arm as hard as he could, feeling great satisfaction as it slid through his flesh and skin as smoothly as butter. At least, for a moment. He managed to dig it in half an inch or so before hitting bone. Red, beautifully red, glistening and fragrant. It poured out of his arm, painting the world around him red. Just as it should be. So familiar, so comforting, it was like returning home after a long road trip. But still, he needed more. More. He took the knife out and prepared to stab himself again, this time determined to make it all the way through.

…

“Why can’t I do it?”

Frowning, Basil looked at his knife-wielding hand and saw something wrapped around it. Another hand, gripping onto his wrist so hard that its knuckles were turning white.

He turned around. Someone was standing behind him.

No, not just someone.

Aubrey.

Of course, she hated him. She even told him straight to his face. His escape wouldn't be so easy with her around.

A thought popped up in his head.

"Why don't I just get rid of her?"

It sounded so simple. Just pass the knife onto his free hand and let loose. Tell her exactly what he thought about her trying to block his escape. His one and only path to redemption in his sinful life. Just stab Aubrey, stab and stab and stab and stab and stab until there was nothing left. He'd already killed Sunny and Mari, what was one more body to his kill count? And this time, it wouldn't be ambiguous. No, he would just be a murderer. Finally, a definitive title to the madness. He would kill Aubrey.

Aubrey?

“Wait, kill... Aubrey?”

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO

He blinked a few times and she came into focus. It was her hair that became clear first, a screaming weave of finely woven threads that glared at him with its almost obnoxiously bright color. Then the rest of her body, tense and with muscles taut, as if it were exerting as much strength as it possibly could in order to survive. Lastly, her face. Her mouth was moving, saying something that he couldn’t make out. And… tears? Why would Aubrey be crying? She wasn’t the type of person to cry over nothing. That would be more like something he would do.

Something must be wrong.

The room around him darkened splashes of red vanishing from the walls. A sudden bout of nausea overtook him as he looked down and saw a sickeningly dark puddle of blood, growing slowly as more of the stuff dripped from his arm. It didn’t hurt, though. He wasn’t sure whether or not to be thankful for that.

Why did his head hurt so much?

“A-Ah. Aubrey…? What… W-What happened? What did I just do?” Basil muttered. His voice was barely above a whisper, but sounded like a shout amidst his ringing headache. Any louder and his eardrums would surely burst. “No… N-No, that’s a dumb question. Sorry. I did something stupid, didn’t I?”

“Basil, drop the knife. Now.” She said carefully. Despite the firmness in her words, she looked absolutely terrified. It was almost comical, how scared she seemed of him. It didn’t make much sense, considering she was much stronger than her. Maybe it was the knife? It could be that she thought that he was going to stab her or something. Of course, he wouldn’t do such a thing. He never did have a stomach for violence. Even a small paper cut would make him feel queasy. She should know that, shouldn’t she? So why? None of it made any sense. Still… he should probably try to make his intentions clear.

“Aubrey, don’t worry. I-I’m not going to try and hurt you or anything! Y-You’re my friend… So… So, you don’t need to be scared. I won’t hurt you.” Basil tried a smile.

“Basil.” Aubrey gritted her teeth. “Drop. The. Knife.”

He dropped it.

It fell to the ground and at once, Aubrey let out a small breath of relief. She then pulled him closer and looked at the gaping wound on the side of his arm. There, a thin slit faced them as it sporadically spewed small streams of crimson that poured down his sickly pale skin, staining it in the process. He could scarcely remember how it got there. He knew that he did something bad, and… and then he got hurt. Except, not really. It was more of a numbing sensation that while somewhat uncomfortable, didn’t bother him all too much. Still though, it was rather ugly, and contrasted badly with his skin. She gulped and looked back up at him with a look that was somehow both fragile and hardened at the same time.

“Basil. Do you have a first-aid kid in your home?”

“H-Huh? Oh, y-yes… I think.” Basil gave her a small nod. “I… I used it not too long ago, didn’t I? For my hands. Erm, palms. I-I had to use the last bits of gauze we had left to patch up some b-bleeding… Ah, I should buy some more at Othermart, shouldn’t I?”

Aubrey swore under her breath and took a short glance around the room. Then, after the slightest moment of hesitation, she grabbed at the blue bow in her hair, quickly untying it to reveal a rather sizable handkerchief. With nimble fingers that moved in a blur, she managed to wrap it around his arm and tie it off as a makeshift bandage. Blood continued to seep through his wound anyway, obviously unimpressed with her efforts as it bled through the light blue silk.

“Aw, Aubrey… Your bow.”

“Who cares about that? Basil, you’re hurt!” She snapped back. Grabbing his hand tightly, she pulled him out of his room, slamming the door open.

“Wh- Oh, you two? Jeez, that startled me! Please don’t slam the doors, Aubrey. You’ll damage the walls.” Polly glanced at them from the dining table.

“Gotta go! Basil, come on. Hurry.” Aubrey practically sprinted as she dragged Basil behind her, who could only barely keep up. He wasn’t entirely sure as to what was happening, but she seemed worried about something. He supposed that it was about his stab wound. The stab wound that he was responsible for.

It was quite painful for him to continue seeing people pay for his own mistakes. Clearly, something was wrong with him on a fundamental level. Time and time again, he kept screwing up. And time after time, he would find a way out of the hole he dug himself into, at the expense of others of course. What a burden he was, finding new ways to fuck up everything around him and then standing idly by as he allowed others to fix the problem for him.

He was a terrible person, wasn’t he?

“Um… A-Aubrey? Can I ask you something?” Basil panted as he jogged next to Aubrey. He was completely out of breath, with wobbly legs that felt like they would collapse at any moment. Meanwhile, Aubrey seemed like she could run for another twenty miles without breaking a sweat. If anything, she was only impatient for having to let him follow along at such a leisurely pace. Great, now he was a literal burden. A human ball and chain.

“What?” She looked at him. Her hand was still clasped firmly around the wrist of his uninjured arm, not showing any indication of letting go. Truth be told, she was holding on so tightly that his hand was beginning to feel numb.

“Where are we going?”

“What? Seriously?” She asked incredulously. “Basil, you just stabbed your arm. You’re bleeding. We’re going to the hospital. Look, we’re not that far off. See?” She pointed at a large, white building that was just beyond their reach.

“Oh. S-Sorry about that…”

“Don’t apologize. We can talk about this after we get you some help.”

When they finally reached the hospital, Basil had to take a second to catch his breath. He wasn’t sure if it was from blood loss, or exhaustion, or both, but he was feeling very light-headed. Aubrey took the opportunity to take a look at his wound, pinching the handkerchief and pulling it up slightly to peek under it. Whatever she saw, it must have been ugly; she looked away and grimaced, quickly sliding the handkerchief back over the wound, which was now crusted with multiple layers of dried blood. He would have to apologize once this was all over. Maybe scrounge up enough money to buy her a new one.

“Um, A-Aubrey?”

“What?”

“If…” Basil paused to take a deep, shuddering breath. God, how long has it been since he had actually ran? How people could do physically demanding activities like this for fun, he couldn’t imagine. It felt like he was dying. It was probably because he was just so weak. “If you were in such a hurry… Um… Couldn’t you have just a-asked Polly to drive us here?”

“... I didn’t think of that.” She groaned and smacked herself in the face. “God, why am I so fucking stupid? I guess I just panicked with everything that was going on. I really screwed that up, huh? We could have gotten you here a lot faster.”

“O-Oh, that’s okay… I should have brought it up earlier.” Basil said. He looked towards the hospital entrance, ignoring Sunny’s corpse which laid in a broken heap just before him. The body was face down, but it was undoubtedly Sunny. His dead body smelled hideous in the hot sun, a half-decomposed pile of flesh and blood with maggots crawling all around him, feasting on the sickly sweet meat before them.

“It’s not your fault.”

“And I slowed us down so much on the way here…” Basil felt like he was going to throw up. But what? He hadn’t even eaten anything for the past few days. He’d probably only manage a few mouthfuls of saliva mixed with stomach acid. “W-Why can’t I do anything right?! You… And you’re just trying to help me too.”

“Don’t say that…” Her voice trailed off as she suddenly gave him a strange look. Only a few seconds passed before Basil started to get a bit anxious. Why was she staring at him like that? With intense, wandering eyes that scanned him from head to toe? Did he do something wrong? What did he do this time? God, he was such a fuck up. He’s done so much wrong in his life that it was becoming habitual; he was starting to lose track of all that he’s done.

“I-I’m sorry!” He sputtered. “Please don’t be mad...”

Aubrey looked like she wanted to say something, but instead she shook her head and started towards the hospital, walking through the corpse as if it weren’t there. As Basil stepped over it to follow her, he saw that chunks of flesh were sticking to her shoes. With each step she took, red footprints trailed behind her. She didn’t seem to care.

Her grip on him tightened.