“Heather? Is that you? What...what happened here? Frances? Frances my dear are you okay? Frances?”

Alan's voice was frantic, confused as he tried to put together a picture with pieces that just didn't fit. Nothing like this had ever intruded on his quiet little life before, and despite myself I felt a pang of guilt for what I'd done to Frances. She may have been a snide, conniving bitch, and I may have wanted my moment of revenge, but she was the love of his life, his wife, and nothing could ever justify that kind of loss.

“Blood? The-there's blood.” Alan held up his hand and stared disbelievingly at the red stains on his fingers from where he'd brushed back her hair. “Oh God, what happened, Heather? Who did this to her?”

“I-I don't know.” I looked down at the two of them in horror as the guilt hit me like a ton of bricks; what had I done? This endeavour had achieved nothing and had led me to destroy yet another human's life. How did I manage to keep making such a mess of things? “I-I'm sorry, Alan, I've got to go I'll...call an ambulance for her...I'm sorry.”

He looked up, and for the first time took in the empty cash drawer abandoned on the bar top, the way I clutched my bag a little too possessively, my wide eyed fear and anxiousness to get out of that place. I was probably being overly paranoid, but I was certain he was putting two and two together, drawing the obvious conclusion, the guilt had to be written plainly all over my face.

“Heather? Did you do this? Tell me what happened here, please.”

I shook my head. “No...no, Alan, I'm sorry.” It didn't seem to matter how many times I said those two words, it would never actually make things better, there was no way he could ever forgive me such a thing. “I-I don't know but....Look I've got to go, I'm running out of time and...and so is she. I'll go ring for that ambulance, okay.”

“No!” Alan shot up from the floor, leaving the side of his unresponsive wife to approach me. Grief shone in his eyes and I think we both knew deep down that she was probably dead, but his face was pinched with an entirely different emotion. Is stood frozen to the spot with dangerous curiosity as he came out from behind the bar and drew closer; he was angry. I'd never seen him angry before, and it was somewhat startling to behold.

“No, you will not just leave.” He grabbed a hold of my wrist and I stupidly did nothing to stop him. With surprising strength he dug his fingers into my flesh and I flinched, knowing he was raising bruises. “You will tell me what happened. What did you do?”

“Ow, Alan, you're hurting me.” I wrenched my arm away, unnerved by his hard words and somewhat crazed demeanour. He'd always been so calm and docile, I had to wonder whether he too had been touched by a demon. But I didn't really have the time to go poking about inside of his head to find out for sure; besides, it could very well have just been grief, the pure power of human emotion that had flipped this switch in him.

“Okay, look, just calm down. I'll stay, alright? I'm not going anywhere you...you don't have to deal with this alone,” I said, feeling out that primal fear of being alone that I was starting to understand only too well. I had caused this after all, it was all I could do to somehow make it better. “But we need to call that ambulance for her, there isn't much time.” For either of us.

“Right, you're right. Yes of course...I'm sorry I hurt you.” Alan took in a shuddering breath as he regained some of his composure and tried to think rationally through all of this chaos.

“Don't worry about it, just go and call the paramedics now, before it's too late.”

It was already too late, I think we both knew that, but I needed to find something to occupy him. Having an ambulance crew – and possibly the police, if Alan told the operator his wife had been attacked – turn up at the door wasn't exactly going to be convenient for me, but I knew he wasn't about to let me sneak away without another word, and if I ran then he'd know for sure I was responsible. There had to be something I could do. I knew the situation was beyond 'fixing', there was no way I could make this better, but maybe I could make his pain a little less.

The brandy bottle behind the bar was half full, I knew it was his favourite. He wasn't a big drinker, but every now and then he would treat himself to a glass or two of a night. Maybe it would be just the ticket to calm his nerves. I heard Alan hang up the phone and had the glass of amber liquid waiting on the bar when he came back into sight.

“They're on their way. I just hope they'll get here in time.”

I didn't. In fact I hope it took them as long as possible, I really couldn't be there when they turned up.

“That's good.” I nodded, forcing a shaking smile to his lips as I slid the drink towards him. “Here, it'll take the edge off.”

“Thank you.” He picked up the glass and knocked its content back in one large swallow. “Did you see who did it? Who attacked her? I-I know it wasn't you...I'm sorry for...”

I held up my hand to stop him, it was bad enough that I had done it, I couldn't stand hearing him apologise for accusing me as well.

“Don't worry about it. And no, no I didn't see who it was. I just heard a noise as I was....passing by and came in to check...curious I suppose.”

It was a lame excuse, full of holes he could pick away at should be choose to, I just had to hope that he wouldn't have the chance to. I watched him expectantly as he toyed with the empty glass, a greasy film shimmering around the inside under the dim lights. Was I really doing this? A sick feeling settled in my stomach as I waited for something to happen, for the calm that the brandy was spreading through his body to take hold and help him achieve some genuine peace.

“I was going to go and see if I could find who it was, they must have been running but couldn't have gotten very far. They'll be long gone by now though I guess.” I went on, talking mostly just to fill the void of uncomfortable silence.

Alan nodded as he started to cough, raising a hand to cover his mouth. “Yes,” he breathed in a strange rasping voice as he hacked and gagged as if something was stuck in his throat. “You-cough-you're probably-cough-right.”

He drew in a shuddering breath as his airway slowly started to close and thumped at his chest in a vain attempt to suck in more air. I felt a lump rise in my own throat to choke me as I watched my actions play out in front of me. Why am I doing this? This didn't need to happen.

Losing the fight with his own body Alan could no longer stand and slumped down to his knees, his face developing a scarlet hue and his eye bulging as he fought to take a breath.

“What?” He managed to rasp as he looked up at me, his eyes fearful and questioning.

Tears rolled freely down my cheeks and I hadn't even realised they'd started flowing. I had no control over the sobs that left my lips as I watched him, saw in his eyes that he knew I had been the death of him, of them both. With a shaking hand I set the tiny, now empty, vial down on the bar, a part of me wishing I had never had the stuff in my possession.

“I'm sorry.” Those words again, so hollow, so meaningless. “I-I didn't know what else to do. I keep digging myself into all these holes and I just....I've got to find some way out of this.”

I think I was speaking more to myself than to Alan, trying to convince myself that I was doing all of this for a reason, that I wasn't just a hideous killer stripping humans of their lives because they were inconveniencing me, but I wasn't sure I believed myself.

He had fallen fully to the floor, weak and unable to support himself any longer as his body continued to shut down thanks to the overdose of the potion I had fed him. At my conscience's behest I knealt by his side and took his hand in mine. Holding his gaze with my own misty eyes as I spoke, though he could no longer reply.

“I really am sorry that you had to know me. I seem to keep ruining people's lives. You didn't deserve this but...you didn't deserve to suffer the loneliness I might have caused either. This...this way I just hope you can find some peace. You deserve that much.”

His eyelids drooped as blessed unconsciousness took him. I gave his hand one last squeeze and let it fall to the floor then stood, wiping my eyes and sniffing back the sobs. I needed to get a grip. One look over the macabre scene and the reality came crashing back to me.

“Shit, what the fuck am I doing?”

How had I managed to dig myself into such a deep hole? I wanted to fall apart, to fall to the floor and let all these emotions that had been plaguing me for so long pour out all over the carpet, but I couldn't. I knew just who and what might be knocking at that door any moment, I had to keep it together; there would never be a good time to fall apart.

I grabbed my bag, feeling the clink and weight of the change in the bottom with an awful pang of guilt in my stomach, and headed for the door. But I'd made it not two steps before the lights began to flicker and a strange sensation fell over the room; it was as if time and reality was being sucked out of existence, leaving me stuck in some kind of hellish limbo. I was too late, they were already here for me.

The door opened and I closed my eyes feeling the dread of impending doom hit me with an almost sick sense of relief, that was it, the end. No more fighting, running, hiding, it was all over. All my struggling had been for nothing, but at least I wouldn't have to live with these deaths on my conscience for much longer.

But the voice that spoke as I heard the click of the door closing surprised me to the core.

“Well, well. So this is what you get up to when I'm not around. I've got to say, Rayne, you've created one hell of a mess.”