*Just a warning that this chapter talks about death...a lot.*


"What the fuck JJ!" I yelled, my eyes bursting open, "I'm not going to kill you!"
I threw the knife across the room and it slid into the darkness of the far off corner.
"Why?!" JJ screamed at me, tears were rolling viciously down his face and I could hear his angry breathes, "Just kill me already!"
"NO! I'm not killing you!" I shouted back at him, "I'm not a murderer! And you're like a friend to me!"
"And friends keep their promises, don't they?"
I looked at him, confused with my head tilted slightly to the side, "what?"

"You promised to complete the seven tasks! You understood that I would be gone from your life and you would be safe!! And now you're too much of a wimp to finish the fucking job!"
"I'm sorry JJ…." I replied with my voice softer now and more caring, "I can't kill you, you are my friend and besides…." I placed my hand reassuringly on his shoulder, "I doubt I could ever bring myself to kill a person…"
"Well you seem to have managed pretty god damn well before!" JJ spat at me, shrugging my hand from his shoulder.
"What?" I questioned him, confusion running deeply through my voice.
"Don't you get it Mikes!" He took a step towards me so that our noses almost touched.
"Get what?" I asked.
"The fact that you've already killed six people!"


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I held my breath as I allowed JJ's words to come tumbling down on me. Killed six people, how? I would never do that. Maybe this day was a dream like when Vince came to visit me, or maybe I hadn't even started any of the tasks or maybe I was never attacked and I'm simply asleep and dreaming on the knackered sofa back at home with Gerard drawing a moustache on my face in permanent marker while I sleep. I don't even know anymore.

I backed away from JJ slowly and sat down on the grey mattress, twiddling my thumbs and wondering what I could possibly say.

"I don't ever remember killing six people JJ! And I think I'd remember something like that…I'm not a mass murderer!"
"Well you are Mikey…You've killed six people and I'm pretty sure that makes you a mass murderer…." JJ replied calmly, sitting cross-legged in front of me and playing with the loose threads on the sleeve of his shirt.
"But who!" I yelled, "who have I killed?! And how the fuck have I killed them without noticing!" I let my head fall into my hands as tears began to roll onto the floor from my cheeks, "I didn’t mean to kill them! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I deserve to die! I'm so sorry…."
"Don't be sorry….." JJ replied.
"What?!"
"You are safe now…Remember the six people in the gang that attacked you…"
"Yeah, of course, but how di-"

"Task 6. Remember?"
I nodded my head cautiously.
"You swapped the drugs that the man was going to take to methylenedioxymethamphetamine…"
"Yeah, what is that?!" I asked.
"MDMA…"
"And that is?..."
"Ecstasy Mikey!" JJ yelled at me, he continued with a calmer tone, "The guy will have overdosed on ecstasy by now. It's likely to have caused an intracranial haemorrhage. His brain is literally bleeding. You brought all of the keys out of the house. He can't escape, and let's say that without immediate medical treatment…well….he's most likely dead by now…"
"Oh my God!" I gasped, "I killed someone! I really did, didn’t I?"

JJ nodded again.
"Task 5…" He continued calmly, ignoring my sobs, "When you pulled the cable out of the vending machine at the sports centre and your drink got stuck in it."
I nodded, but kept my bloodshot eyes glued to the floor.
"Well the second member of the gang did the same thing, but because there was no cable holding the vending machine anywhere…when he got annoyed it fell on him and crushed him…I checked at the hospital…he died a few hours ago…"
"JJ…please stop telling me these…" I whimpered.
"No…" he replied, "You must know what you have done. After all you didn’t kill me like you promised that you would."
"But why do you want to die?" I asked.

"You don’t need to know just yet….anyway. Task 4. The lifeguard that tried to save you died a few hours later at his home. He died from dry drowning, when he panicked and tried to save you from the bottom of the pool he accidentally breathed in too much water. This eventually caused his vocal chords to spasm and close up, making it impossible for him to breathe. He died with his parents by his side…"
"That doesn't make it any better JJ!" I screamed, "I still killed him!"
"Um, the water killed him…"
"Shut up!" I replied weakly, feeling sick and blood curdle in my stomach.

"Task 3…now, what was task 3? Oh….yeah. You got Frank really drunk and then left him tylenol for his hangover…oops. This killed him and his liver…"
"But JJ, why?!"
"These people are mass murders! They were going to kill you and your family! They are trying to kill me and have already killed all of my fa-"
He trailed off, his voice fading softly into the darkness. He stood up and switched on the pathetic light bulb that swung above our heads.

"And anyway in task 2 you gave that guy a scarf…" he continued, "I think he's called Harold. Well he wore that really long scarf while driving with the roof down. The scarf got caught in the wheels and you can only imagine what happened next…"
"I don't want to imagine how I killed another person JJ! I don't care if they're criminals! I don’t kill people…"

"And task one…." He continued, ignoring me, "You snuck into the house of Vince, the gang leader, and damaged the heaters, the heaters leaked carbon monoxide, didn't you?"
"Um…yeah…" I lied.
"You did complete task one, Mikes, didn't you?"
"Um….well not exactly…."
"Mikey! What the hell, why didn't you say s-"

We were interrupted.
There was a knock at the door, and it did not sound friendly. A familiar figure stood outside.

Vincent.

Notes

hello again! Another cliffhanger! Everything is beginning to make sense now and Mikey finally knows what the tasks all meant! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm going away for a few weeks on Saturday so there might be an update before then: if there is wifi then ill update like usual if not then expect a tonne of chapters when I get back. Thanks for reading. :)
-LOu