“Celine,” Ash shouted, stumbling down the stairs, repeating her name over and over, his sobs becoming louder and thicker, the desperation in his voice mounting. It was all for nothing. There was no blood, no open wound, but from my vantage point at the top of the stairs I knew she was gone. Her eyes were open and glazed, her neck bent at a strange angle. She’d broken it, simple as that. One second, she was insulting me, and the next, she was dead.

“Call an ambulance,” Ash yelled, and still I didn’t move. “Maya. Call someone, please.”

I looked at his face, filled with remorse and guilt, and realized I felt none of that. Yes, I was afraid, but afraid of us getting caught, of him being taken away from me. My brain knew I should have felt terrible about what had happened, but I held no sorrow for Celine’s death, or how it had occurred. Secretly I was glad, and while that knowledge should have terrified me even more, it didn’t.

I walked to him slowly, put my hand on his back. “It’s too late.”

He let out a loud moan as he put his head to her chest, tried to find her pulse on her neck with his fingers. “I think she’s...oh, Christ...she’s... We have to call the police.”

He was the child now. I had to be the adult and take control. Figure out what was best for both of us, for our family. Brad and Mom wouldn’t be home for hours yet. We had plenty of time. “If we call the police, they’ll send you to prison.”

“They won’t—”

“They will,” I wailed, forcing tears because I couldn’t cry proper ones, not for her. I ran my fingers through my hair, pulling on it like I’d seen people do on TV when they were acting distraught. “We’ll both be locked up.”

“N-no. I won’t let that happen. It was an accident.”

“Do you think they’ll believe that?” I said. “You’ve seen the crime shows. What if there’s a bruise on her arm from where you grabbed her? What if your DNA is under her fingernails? We have to hide her.”

He looked up at me. “We can’t,” he cried. “We can’t!”

“We have to. If we say it’s an accident and they don’t believe us, it’ll be so much worse. And if we tell, it’ll tear us apart. What about Mom? What about Brad? What will they think? We have to hide her, and I’ll cover for you. I promise I’ll do it until the day I die.”