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“I don’t care about that. They have it all on camera. Two people come in here, no people come out. That’s all I got paid for.”

“You got paid to kill two people. A husband and a wife.”

“So?”

“So the wife isn’t the wife,” Gav said, pointing the scalpel meaningfully at me. “And neither one of them is dead.”

“And?”

“I’m just saying,” he said, going back to the pinky toe, “you didn’t really do the job you got paid for.”

“You want my job? You think you can do my job?”

“No, I don’t want your job! I’m just saying.”

“God, Gavriel. Alright. Let me alone. I gotta think.” I rubbed my hands over my eyes. This wasn’t going at all the way I’d thought it would go. I wanted Gav to come up with an idea that didn’t involve killing innocent people or getting caught.

“Alright,” Gav said. He wiped up the mess under Mr. Steadhill’s feet, spraying the tile with bleach before tossing the washrags down into the incinerator. He stopped at the door and looked back. “Want to come up for a barbecue this weekend?”

“Maybe. If I can figure this thing out.”

“Hey, don’t do anything drastic, okay?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not some emotional pansy like you,” I said, not knowing if that was entirely true after all. After last night. “See you around, Gav.”

“See you.”

He left, and I was alone with Mr. Steadhill. I twirled the scalpel in my hand. Gav being more coldhearted than me? I wasn’t falling for this girl. If anything, I was making her fall for me.

“This isn’t like me,” I said aloud, more to myself than to the man tied down on the table next to me. “I swear it. It’s just a bit of fun, that’s all. I can kill her whenever I want to.”

Sara

Rien let me brush my teeth in the waiting room bathroom that morning. I washed up as best as I could without a shower. I wanted to ask him if I could take a bath in the other side of his house, but when I came out, he was rubbing at the dark circles under his eyes. He locked me up in the library and then went back to the operating room, leaving me to eat a bagel alone. I heard voices through the bookshelves, and occasionally Gary’s screams. I tried to ignore them.

After an hour, he came back into the library wearing a different shirt. I didn’t know how to act around him. He moved as confidently as he had before, treating me like nothing had happened. I was nervous, panicky. I tried to act as nonchalantly as he did.

“Thank you for breakfast,” I said, motioning with the bagel.

“Sure,” he said. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah.” I thought of what he’d said earlier. “Even the part where I lost my conscious identity.”

“Really? I didn’t think I was that good.”

I choked on my bagel with nervous laughter. Rien offered me the glass of water. I took a drink and wiped my tears away, coughing. All of the uncertainty that I’d carried with me through the night burst out of me.

“Oh,” I said, breathing deeply. “Okay. Alright.”

“Did you want anything else to eat?”

“I’m fine. Rien,” I said, catching him about to leave.

“Yes?”

“Why did you come in here last night?”

He raised his eyebrows slightly and leaned against the door.

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