“Alright?”

Jake looked round. Carl stood in the doorway, swathed in his towelling dressing gown. The white cotton blazed under the harsh strip light of the bathroom. Jake squinted against the glare.

“I’m okay.”

Carl didn’t say anything else. He just nodded. Jake saw, behind him, Veronica’s pale golden head moving into vision as she came up the stairs. She was carrying another bottle of champagne cool from the fridge, beaded with condensation. Jake’s stomach lurched at the sight of it.

“I think I’ve had enough, V,” he said.

She looked at him anxiously, then at Carl and nodded. She was wrapped in her dressing gown too. Jake was suddenly very aware of his nakedness. As if reading his mind, Carl said ‘want me to get your dressing gown?’

Jake nodded gratefully and Carl disappeared in the direction of his bedroom. Veronica remained in the doorway, looking at him. He tried to smile at her and she smiled back, tremulously.

Carl walked back with Jake’s gown in his hand and Jake took it, wrapping it around himself. With his body hidden, he felt a little better. They stood in a little circle of three at the top of the stairs, by the bathroom door. Carl looked at Veronica, Veronica looked at Carl and they both looked at Jake. Jake could see Carl opening his mouth to say something – he never found out what it was.

“Hey you guys – what the fuck are you doing? Where are you? Come on, let’s get going again – “

Candice’s voice shrilled from the direction of Jake’s bedroom. Jake winced. He could see Carl’s mouth turn down at the sound of that young, rough, strident voice. I’m going to have to get my room fumigated, he thought to himself. To get rid of the smell of that stupid cow.

Candice appeared in the doorway. She was still naked and her jiggling, goose-pimpled flesh looked obscene under the hall lights.

“Come on, guys,” she said. “What are you doing?”

Nobody spoke for a moment. Then Veronica shook back her hair.

“Don’t you think it’s time you were going?” she said remotely.

Candice sniggered again. The sound grated on Jake’s nerves.

“What? Come on, don’t be square. We’re just getting going.”

“Put some fucking clothes on.”

Carl’s voice was stony. Jake watched the smile dissolve from Candice’s face and felt a horrible mixture of pity, revulsion and anger. He clenched his fists.

“What?”

“I said, put some clothes on. Don’t you get it, darling? We’ve had our fun. We don’t want anymore. We don’t want you.”

Candice had gone white. Jake had a sudden feeling that this was the outcome she’d been expecting, right from the moment her cheap white vest hit the floor. The blemishes on her skin flared red against the sudden pallor of her face.

“You what?”

Jake found his voice. He meant to say something a bit kinder, a bit more human. Instead, what emerged from his mouth was ‘can’t you tell when someone’s had enough? What are you, a nymphomaniac, or what?’

He heard his tone, his words, almost aghast at himself. It was Candice herself standing there, suddenly vulnerable, naked and young, looking at them with dumb, uncomprehending hurt. Why couldn’t she see what they wanted was for her to just disappear? Her mouth dropped open and for a moment, Jake thought she would start to cry.

She didn’t. Instead she began to scream, at first incoherently, then in a stream of profanity, stamping her foot, fists clenched. Veronica flinched. Candice came forward, heavy breasts swinging, face white no longer but furiously red.

“You fucking bunch of cunts! You stuck-up cunts! You think you can just do what you like – to me – you cunts – don’t think you can get away with – with treating me like this – cunts –“

She ran out of breath and stood before them, chest heaving. Her eyes looked bruised by all the eye makeup that had sweated down her face. She took another step towards them.

“You fucking cunts. I’m going to the police, I’m going to say you raped me, you brought me back here and gave me drugs and raped me, and they’ll get you, you know they’ll get you, you fucking bunch of freaks –“

Carl was standing between Jake and Veronica, directly in the path of Candice’s stream of invective. He said nothing. Silently, he stepped forward and gave her one hard shove, his large hand on her small shoulder, one quick decisive push. Candice staggered backwards. For a second, her arms clawed at the empty air and then she went straight over backwards, down the stairs, too surprised even to scream. Her head hit the hallway floor first, with a dull cracking thud. The rest of her body followed a second later. For a moment afterwards, there was no sound in the house, just the motes of dust swirling in the displaced air that Candice had fallen through. Jake watched the shimmering column of light in the hallway as downstairs on the hard tiles of the kitchen floor, Candice lay in a tangle of limbs, her shattered head in the centre of a starburst of blood. The dust motes writhed and coiled in the air, as if a giant breath from unseen lungs had blown them gently, to whip them into a whirling, silent, glittering dance.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Time stopped. Or so it felt to Jake. He watched the shaft of dust-filled light settle back into immobility and then he shut his eyes tight. He stood there, blind, trying to shut out the world. His own blood pulsed through the red curtain of his eyelids. If I just stand still for a moment, he thought, everything will be okay.

He heard Carl let out his breath beside him, in one sudden huff. At the same time, Veronica began to whisper, to moan, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Jake kept his eyes shut. He wasn’t aware of it until the next day but he had clenched his fists so tight his fingernails had cut reddened half-moons in the palms of his hands.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

“Shut up.”

Carl’s voice cut across Veronica’s whimpering. None of them had moved yet. Jake heard someone begin to move, Veronica, it must be Veronica and immediately felt his brother shift beside him. Carl must have put out a hand to stop her.

“Wait.”

She started to cry properly.

“Oh my God, Carl – what the fuck – oh my God – “

“Be quiet. Wait here.”

Jake opened his eyes. The light from the hallway made him squint. He could feel his heart thudding regularly inside him – it actually hurt, as if a small fist was punching his ribs from the inside. He felt utterly sick.

Carl moved forward slowly. He put a hand back to stop Veronica and Jake from following him.

“Wait. Stay here.”

The two of them watched him walk slowly downstairs. Jake could feel himself beginning to shake; it was incredible, as if unseen hands were roughly agitating his limbs. His teeth began to chatter.

Carl reached the body on the hallway floor. A slowly spreading pool of blood had begun to creep across the black and white tiles. Candice’s face was hidden by her dirty blonde hair. Carl bent to press his fingers against her neck.

“Is she – “

Veronica’s voice clogged. She cleared her throat and tried again.

“Is she dead?”

“Yes. Yes, she’s dead.”

Carl sounded distracted. He stood up, looking down at Candice. Jake could see the sheen of her inner thighs from the top of the stairs. That’s my semen, he thought, with a clutch of the stomach. He was shaking like someone in the grip of a high fever. His legs felt like they were about to collapse beneath him. He lowered himself to the floor as carefully as his shaking limbs allowed and reached out to clutch the banister, needing to hold onto something solid. His heart beat against him, thud thud thud, a metronome of dread.

“Oh my God – oh my God – “

Jake could see the hem of Veronica’s dressing gown shaking from the corner of his eye. He closed his eyes once more and tried to breathe deeply. He knew he was going to have to be sick again at some point. He tried to speak but his mouth was too dry. He swallowed and tried again.