– We need to get home for the kids – lads, can ye take care of the rest of this?

– Aye, Davey says.

– Something doesn’t feel…

On instinct, Bee turns just as Bai spins down low on the floor and kicks her legs out from under her in one elegant motion, she glides her hand under the sofa and she stabs each of Bee’s eyes, killing her instantly. As Ali lunges for his gun, Audrey stabs him in the groin. She turns his own gun up to his chin, puts a cushion on top of it, then fires – feathers fly up into the air. Davey takes off his mask, in shock he lunges forward. Audrey slams her hand hard up into the underside of Davey’s nose, sending bone into his brain and killing him instantly.

Rab’s roar is savage. Trying to regain his breath, he looks at his wife with profound pain etched over his face. He ages visibly. His hands shake. Audrey gently pulls any weapons out of his reach.

– Do we have to cut their heads off, Bai? What do you think?

Audrey looks at all the corpses.

– Just their ears, or balls for the men – they deserve a rusty knife, those two.

She points at the Triads rolled up in the rug. They’re beginning to turn blue.

– Should we make them eat them, Bai? I mean, leave their balls stuffed in their mouths – obviously they can’t actually eat them! It would look good, right? It would make a statement? It’s – creative!

Rab is in shock. He looks at Audrey and then at Bai, and then his wife and Ali and Davey.

– I don’t understand what is…

– We could take off their toes. Let the rats deal with the rest, Audrey. If we cut a few toes off, the rats will smell that good steak tartare, huh? Yummy, right? They’ll be in here by the dozen. They might eat all the bodies for us. It would be a Christmas feast for them, no?

– That’s not a bad idea, Bai.

– Who the fuck are you?

Rab goes to stand up and Audrey points a gun at him.

– Sit down.

Bai gently lifts the fox mask off from Bee. She lays it on the floor so Rab can look at her one last time. Bee’s face is angled toward her husband – teardrops tattooed under her eyes, gold dagger in each one. Other than that, she appears untouched. He thinks of their kids. The physical pain of grief floods through every artery and vein; even his feet shake. His teeth begin to clatter.

– I didn’t realise who you were, I should have thought…

Rab puts his head in his hands.