Guilty by Association [Jacob Barber x reader]

Two.

Two.

The girl sat next to the boy's corpse for what seemed like an eternity, transfixed on his glazed-over eyes and slack jaw before she finally regained the feeling in her legs. She couldn't bear to look at him anymore, so she nudged him and turned his body face down.

She scrambled the twenty-something feet back to her phone, which she'd dropped when she was ambushed. She picked it up and held it in her trembling bloody fingers. Nine... one... Esther's heart started to race as she deleted the numbers and instead dialed her lover's phone number.

It took only two rings before he answered. "What? What do you want?" Jacob's voice sounded irritated.

"Jacob, I-" At the mere sound of his voice, Esther started to sob. She covered her mouth in an attempt to muffle herself. "I'm so sorry."

"Esther, are you okay? I'm not even mad anymore about earlier. It's okay," Jacob's voice changed unexpectedly when he heard Esther breaking down. "Where are you? Are you at school yet?"

"I'm..." she sniffled and took a shaky breath. "I'm still in the park. Please come-"

"I'm on my way." The dull ringing had taken place in Jacob's voice.

Esther hung up as well and she shakily stuffed her phone back in her pocket. She anxiously paced, checking the footpath for anybody. Thankfully, almost nobody ever walked here this time of day, only the seldom morning joggers.

She paced in perpetual worry until she heard someone making their way down the trail. She quickly sucked in her breath and hid behind a bush, her wound throbbing in sync with her racing heartbeat.

"Esther?"

The relief came all at once. She emerged from her hiding place. "Jacob!"

Jacob slowed as he approached her, taking notice of the blood splattered all over her face and neck, in her hair, and coating her hands. "Holy shit, Esther, you're- you're bleeding!" He raced the rest of the way and gathered her in his arms. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I- stabbed." Esther's adrenaline had finally worn off and the deep puncture was no longer numb.

"Holy shit! Esther, we- we gotta get you to the- to the hospital!" The panic in his voice was apparent as he reached for his phone.

"No!" Esther shouted as Jacob held the wildly confused look. "I killed him, Jake..."

"Wh- Killed who, Essie?"

"Ben!" Esther wailed. "He attacked me!"

"What? Ben attacked- Ben did this to you?"

"Yeah... He's over there..." Esther's weak voice said and promptly pointed to where their fatal scuffle had taken place.

Jacob cautiously approached the area Esther had specified and identified Ben. He reached for the boy's shoulder and turned him just a bit to see, and dropped him on his back once he saw the dead eyes looking back at him. "Oh, God!" His voice was cracked and shaky as he covered his mouth with his hand. "Esther what did you do?!"

"He- he, he stabbed me, Jake, he-" Jacob turned to face her as for the first time she lifted her now permanently stained Archer High sweatshirt. She turned so Jacob could get a better view and bit her lip. "How bad is it?"

Jacob's hands were shaking as he reached towards his girlfriend to lift her shirt more. He could see that the stab wound was not as deep as he expected from the amount of blood, approximately an inch and a half deep and the same wide. Luckily, the end was slender and the serrated edge didn't make contact with her skin. "We..." he swallowed hard. "We need a doctor, Ess."

"I- I'll go to jail! I can't, I can't, I can't-"

"Okay, Ess, we'll figure this out! But we need to leave. Get rid of any trace of you being here, okay? We'll fix you up at home, okay? It'll be okay." Jacob took Esther in his arms again and rubbed her upper back soothingly.

"I'm wearing gloves, but, uh, my blood is on the knife."

The pair looked back over at the body of the boy, the knife jutting out from his chest. Jacob was subtly backing away, shaking his head, and Esther was again forced to face Ben. She gulped as she neared him, almost losing herself in his glassy eyes again. She gripped the handle tight and closed her eyes before pulling back. She suppressed the urge to vomit and get her DNA anywhere near him. Thankfully, she had skipped breakfast. Esther walked back to Jacob and didn't turn back this time.

"Ess, come on, we need to hurry home," Jacob said, pulling her gently along.

The rest of their sprint home was silent.

***

Jacob checked the driveway for cars and any neighbors. Once the coast was clear, they scampered across the lawn and through the front door. "We need to burn our clothes. I'll start a fire in the fireplace. We'll fix you up and then we'll shower okay?"

"What are we gonna do about my back?" Esther asked quietly.

"We can't google anything. The police can check our history. I saw in, um, in a movie once-"

"Oh, God!" Esther whined.

"It's, it's called 'cauterizing', all we, um, do is we- we clean the wound, and take uh, I don't know, like, a... knife or something, heat it and..."

Esther nodded. "Okay, let's do it. We need to get to school on time, too. We need to get there on time or else, well..."

Jacob left the room to wash his hands, then gather the supplies they'd need.

Alcohol, knife, gauze, petroleum, bandages, household painkillers, and a wooden spoon.

Jacob extended the pills and Esther took them with a heavy swig of the alcohol.

Jacob held out the wooden spoon. "For you to... bite down on. This will hurt. Badly."

Esther held a stone face and pulled her shirt over her head, carefully clamping the spoon between her teeth.

"Ready?" Jacob asked, hovering over her.

Esther's breathing was ragged as she rapidly nodded.

Jacob poured the alcohol onto Esther's recently cleaned wound as she shouted and cried. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Jacob's voice cracked. "Get ready, I'm heating the knife now." They were standing next to the fireplace, and Jacob let the knife sit over the fire until red hot. He let it cool until no longer red. "On the count of-!" Jacob pressed the knife onto her puncture as the spoon muffled her screams of agony.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" At this point, Jacob was crying too, tears streaming down his face as he trembled and whined. He held the bottle of alcohol up once more as Esther braced herself once more. She howled behind the stick.

After sitting for a moment to let themselves catch their bearings, the young couple stripped off their clothes and threw them into the fire pit.

Once finished cleaning up the rest of the mess, they hopped in the shower together to save time.

Esther would have guessed that her first time showering with a boy would have been a more intimate moment. Not to say that what was currently happening wasn't. Jacob was hunched over, sobbing as he scrubbed every inch of his body until he was red raw, and Esther tried not to focus on the searing pain of her entire body as she washed the blood out of her hair.

***

Esther had downed as many painkillers as Jacob would let her, and not only her back, but her entire body was numb.

Jacob wrapped Esther's abdomen in gauze and petroleum. They dressed in similar clothes as to what they had on before, in case Jacob's parents remembered what they were wearing, before heading out, giving the place a good sweep just in case.

They took the long way.

Thanks for reading.

This is me, signing off.