Jake walked through the house, trying to find Will. He wasn’t in the living room or kitchen. He heard a noise from upstairs. Jake headed up the stairs towards his room. He found Will browsing his bookshelf. Jake stopped in front of Will.

“You and I have been friends forever,” Jake started. “I have something to tell you, and I really need you to listen. Can you do that?”

“Um, this isn’t the ‘I’m actually gay’ speech is it?” Will asked sarcastically. He even laughed at his own joke, but upon noticing that Jake was staring at him very seriously he grew very serious himself. “Holy shit. Are you really? Well, I’m all for it man. Seriously though, that whole liking Angela thing threw me off. I had no idea.”

“I’m not gay,” Jake said shortly. “This is serious and I’m coming to you.”

“Alright, shoot,” Will said.

“This whole thing with Stan has got me thinking,” Jake barely whispered his words. “We’ve got a lot of enemies…you and me. I mean, Stan may be dead but Dave and Ash aren’t.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Will asked seriously concerned.

“I’m talking about slaughtering our enemies,” said Jake passionately. “Anyone who ever gave is a harsh look in the hallway, or who talked about us behind their back, we can end it! All of the torment will be gone. You and me, man. Together.”

“Haha,” Will said uncomfortably. “Nice joke. Uncomfortable and not funny joke, but good one.”

“I’m serious!” Jake yelled. “Stan and those bastards put us through years of fucking torment! We can end all that.”

Will simply stared at Jake in a gaped look of shock. Stan appeared just behind Will’s shoulder.

“He’s not going for it,” Stan said.

Jake shot Stan a harsh look.

“I’m noticing that,” Jake spat through gritted teeth. “He will. Give him time.”

“No,” said Stan. “He’s gonna rush out and tell someone. “I know what happens next.”

Will looked behind him to try and figure out who Jake appeared to be talking to, but saw no one. He started backing towards the door.

“Are you gonna help me with this?” Jake asked Will. “I can’t do this without you.”

“No, I’m not gonna help you!” Will shouted.

“You are insane!” Jake yelled back. He grabbed Will by the shoulders and lightly shook him. “You aren’t thinking rationally. Haven’t you ever wanted to play god? We can do this! We can kill ‘em all.”

You’re wasting your time,” Stan told Jake.

“No I’m not!” Jake yelled back.

“Just get it over with,” Stan said. “Finish it quickly.”

“I can’t finish it!” Jake bellowed, tears flooding his eyes. “He’s my best friend!!”

“You are insane,” Will said while backing away. “You think you could actually do it? You think you could kill someone?”

“I already have killed someone,” Jake spat back.

“Well, now you did it,” Stan said disappointed. “He knows. Kill him NOW!”

Jake reached out his hand and swiped the knife he used to kill Stan which was resting atop his dresser. Will sees this and tries to take a swing at Jake, but Jake moved too fast and slashed Will’s arm. Blood spills from Will’s forearm to the carpeted flooring. Jake tries to plunge the knife into Will’s stomach, but Will used both hands to hold back Jake’s knife-wielding arm. Will’s deeply cut arm started to give and began shaking violently in the struggle.

“You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to take life,” Jake whispered.

Will’s arm gave out, and Jake plunged the knife deep into Will’s stomach. Will let out a horrible groan and began struggling for breath as he fell to the ground.

“You didn’t have to dirty my knife,” said Jake as he looked on at the agonized dying Will. “You should have joined me. You’re not my friend! You never were. You are just like them!”

Jake turned his attention back to Stan.

“Nicely done,” Stan said disgusted. “He went quicker than me. Glad to see you are no longer playing with your food.”

“He was just lucky,” Jake said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “What was he playing at, not joining me? What were you playing at?”

Jake looked to Stan’s other side where Will stood. The three of them stared down at Will’s dead body. The standing Will looked back at Jake.

“It’s all over now,” he said. “Now that you killed me, who is gonna take the fall if you get caught? You needed me. You really probably shouldn’t have killed me.”

“You wouldn’t help me,” Jake reminded him.

“You’re gonna go down for this now,” Stan said. “You know this right?”

“I was your one chance out,” Will said. “Why are you doing this by the way?”

“He’s doing it to save the bitch,” Stan informed.

“DON’T CALL HER BITCH!” Jake warned Stan.

“Or what?” Stan asked. “You gonna kill me?”

“Zing,” Will said and fist bumped Stan.

“Will you two shut up!?!” Jake said, trying to clear his head.

Jake redirected his attention to Will’s body. He wound up and kicked it with all his might.

“I hate you!” Jake yelled. He began stomping on Will’s corpse. “You took my life away!”

“Well, that was weird to watch,” Will informed Jake. Jake just shot him a nasty look.

“My one chance of getting out of this is over because of you,” Jake said.

“It’s not our fault man,” Stan said. “I told you not to bring him in on this. Now you have two peole dead who are closely linked to you, one of whom is in your room and that blood is not cleaning out of this carpet. Face it brother, you are gonna burn.”

“Shut up!” Jake said. “It’s not my fault. I can fix it.”

“How exactly?” Will asked.

Jake paced around Will’s body, thinking hard and then came to his conclusion.

“Angela,” Jake said simply. “I gotta see Angela. I did this all for her, right? I have to tell her. She’ll understand. She’ll be able to see I love her. That I love her so much, I’d kill for her.”

“That’ll go over well,” Will said.

“I need her,” Jake said, face twitching. “I love her. She can make this right. I love her. I love her. I love her. I love her. I love her.”

“Ummmm,” Will said watching Jake confused.

“Yeah, he does this,” Stan said.

“Button button,” Will said. “Whose got the button?”

Stan elbowed Will. “She has to know,” Stan said.

“She’ll understand,” Jake said. “I did it for her. For her. For—”

Jake stopped. He stared blankly off into space. After a moment, he snapped to and shook his head. He looked down at Will’s body. He dropped to his knees and looked into Will’s lifeless eyes. He gazed transfixed in the stillness of them. With a sudden burst of energy, Jake got to his feet.

“She has to know how much I love her,” Jake said.

*           *           *

There was a knock at the door. Angela got up and looked through the peep hole. She saw that it was Jake and a flutter of excitement stilled her heart. She opened the door and offered a big smile, the first genuine smile in two days. Jake smiled back lovingly. Then Angela felt an unexpected burst of pain in her abdomen. She looked down to see a dagger lodged in her front. A wave of sickness and shock felled her feet and Jake entered the house.