Bang. Bang. Bang.

The whole house seemed to shake around Jason as a fist hammered on the front door. Each knock made his skin crawl and his heart leap into his throat.

Before the third knock, he could trick himself into thinking it was the postman or something, but it was the tenth knock, and they weren't stopping. No postman knocks that many times.

'Is it the police?' His hands shook as he cracked his bedroom door and peered down the hall. The door was wooden, with an opaque glass window in the centre.

He couldn't see exactly who was there, but it looked like three people, all tall and men. His eye twitched slightly as the banging continued. It was only getting louder, and no one else was home. Sooner or later, he would have to open the door.

Jason didn't want police in his house on the best of days. One whiff of his bedroom and he would be done for possession.

But this was not the best of days. If the police were here, that could only mean one thing.

They had found the body.

"Fuck, Shit!" he swore, his mind running at a mile a minute, 'What do I do? What do I say?'

Suddenly, the knocking stopped, and a muffled shout came from the other side of the door.

"Oi, Jason, we know you're in!"

He froze; that voice was familiar. "Max?" He called back, his voice shaking slightly.

"Yeah, it's me, Vincent and Kashyap. Let us in, will you? We look like a bunch of thugs hammering your door like this,"

'Should I do it?' Jason was hesitant and, at the same time, relieved. 'Maybe it would be good to tell them what happened. They'll understand,' And even if they didn't, he just wanted to get it off his chest. The knowledge of what they did was festering like an open wound in the back of his mind.

"Hey! don't leave us hanging!" Came another voice, slightly higher pitched, with a tinge of English to the accent, Liverpool, to be precise.

"Yeah, let us in, dude!" A different voice again, this time deeper and more Irish.

Jason took a deep breath and let it out in one big burst. "I'm coming!" He yelled back, his voice still shaking slightly less than before.

In his dishevelled dressing gown and bare feet, he ran to the door and opened it. A trio of boys greeted him, all of them eighteen.

On the right was Max, a boy of ethnicity so mixed even he didn't know where he was from. What stood out about Max was his mouth. Whether he was grinning, laughing, or talking until the cows came home, he never shut it.

Beside him was Vincent. He had darker skin and wore baggy clothes that hid an incredibly athletic body beneath mountains of loose-fitting jeans and a hoodie two sizes too big.

Finally, there was Kashyap. He and Jason had grown up together, and besides Matthew, he considered Kashyap his closest friend.

Kashyap stepped through the door, frowning. He grabbed Jason by the arm, making him flinch. "What the fuck was that?"

"Huh?" Jason mumbled, terrified he had been found out already. If his friends had to find out what happened, he wanted them to hear it from him.

"Why aren't you answering your phone? Are you ignoring me?"

"I don't..."

"Harriet called me this morning," Kashyap said sternly, his voice similar to what teachers used to lecture naughty children.

"My mother?" Jason muttered blankly.

"Yes, she's worried sick. Why won't you talk to her about what happened?" Kashyap crossed his arms, and clearly, this was the part where Jason was supposed to talk.

He checked that the door was closed, glancing nervously at Vincent and Max standing behind Kashyap in the hallway.

"C-Can we sit down first?"

"Of course..." Kashyap nodded, his stern expression easing slightly. He hadn't expected Jason to be this bad.

Jason led them to his room, where they sat at the end of his bed. It was a bombsite of a room, with the floor entirely obscured by mountains of dirty laundry and empty crisp packets.

"You should really clean this place," Vincent said, his Liverpool accent thickening when he said 'you'.

Jason managed a half-hearted laugh before going to a nondescript pile of laundry and hoking through it. He brought out a bong and a wide variety of other, slightly more illegal things. "It's easier to hide things when my room is a mess," He said.

Vincent rolled his eyes. He hadn't expected anything less from Jason.

After he sat down again, he gripped the end of his bed for support and heaved a deep sigh.

"Are you okay, man? I could give you a minute if you-" Max said worriedly.

Jason shook his head, "No, it's fine,"

"Okay, then tell us what happened." Kashyap urged softly, trying not to put too much pressure on Jason, whose wheels had all but come off.

Jason started to tap his finger on the bedpost, and as the rhythm sped up, so did his heartbeat. He had never gotten fight or flight responses from merely opening his mouth before, but that was how he felt at that moment.

Kashyap went to speak, "If-"

"Clare is dead."

The three words landed in the quiet room like a nuclear explosive. The silence after its impact was deafening.

"What?" Vincent asked blankly.

"She's dead," Jason shuddered. It hadn't been the weight off his chest that he wanted it to be. He felt worse after saying it. She really was dead. He hadn't been dreaming or high or making it up. It was real, and he had done it.

"Are you serious?" Kashyap spoke slowly, cogs turning in his head. 'Clare didn't come to school yesterday either, but that doesn't mean she's dead. We would have heard something about it,'

Jason nodded slowly, "Yeah, I-I don't think... I don't think they've found her body yet. But its only a matter of time,"

"Where is it?!" Kashyap asked, his face dropping.

"T-The Glenn," Jason stuttered.

"How the fuck does someone die at the Glenn!?" Kashyap yelled, losing his cool.

Vincent was looking at Jason like he had seen a ghost, and Kashyap was appalled. But perhaps the most unsettling of the trio was Max.

For some reason, he was grinning.

"What's wrong with you!?" Kashyap shouted, grabbing Max by the shoulders.

He suddenly burst out laughing, holding his stomach, "Don't you think you're taking this too far," He gasped, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Huh?" Jason's eyes were open so wide it was a wonder they didn't meet in the middle.

"Come on, man. She was at Matthew's house yesterday after school. There's no way she's dead,"

If Jason were a cartoon character, this would have been the point where he jumped his seat on the bed, and his head went through the ceiling. But since he wasn't, the best he could muster was a look of utter disbelief.

"What are you talking about?" He blurted, too surprised to remain depressed.

Max frowned, "I got a text from Matthew last night, saying that he had found Clare on the side of the road covered in mud."

Jason stared at Max, aghast, "Are you serious?" He was gripping the bedpost so tight his knuckles turned white.

Max nodded, an uneasy expression creeping across his face. "Were you serious when you said that?" He asked cautiously, paying attention to Jason's every twitch.

"Yeah, she's dead."

"No, she isn't." Kashyap butted in, scowling.

Jason shook his head agitatedly, "No, I'm telling you. She's dead."

"No, she's not!" Max shouted, gripping Jason by the shoulder.

Jason shook off the hand and stood up, glaring at the three boys on his bed.

"Listen, I watched her die. That night, there were five of us at the Glenn, and I don't know what happened, but things got out of hand, and the next thing I knew, she was lying face down in the creak."

"Why didn't you get her out!?" Kashyap roared.

"I tried, but she was already dead. She had no pulse. I'm being serious," Jason stared at them pleadingly.

"Guys, I wouldn't lie about something like this, I swear,"

"Well, why did you just leave her there?" Vincent asked grimly.

Jason scratched his wrist nervously, avoiding their piercing glares. He finally up the courage to talk, but his excuse sounded lame even before it left his lips.

"I-I was scared. We all were," He stammered.

All three looked at him, searching for signs of a lie on his face. But he seemed genuine, a fact that frightened them more than anything.

Kashyap turned to Max, and they nodded. Both knew what the other was thinking.

They got up from the bed and began to wade through the piles of dirty clothes and out of Jason's room.

"Where are you going!?" Jason shouted nervously.

Vincent got up, too and followed them out.

"We're going to see for ourselves what really happened," he said, leaving Jason in his quiet, filthy room. Alone.

He started tapping the bedpost again, his nerves making his eyes twitch.

"Fuck!" He spat, clambering to his feet and running out of the room.

"Wait for me! I'm coming too,"

As they set out towards the Glenn, in the light of the early morning. Things were changing on the Devil's Rise.