Residue
He reeks of gunpowder. Jessica's nose twitches at the scent, and she tightens her grip on the curtains. She threads her fingers through the thick, velvet material and brushes her forehead against it, comforting her aching brow.
Although her eyes sting, the scent wafting into her nostrils agitates her even more. Mingling with the gunpowder is copper. It stinks like Kanon had taken a paintbrush and spackled fresh blood onto his uniform, which Jessica knows had always smelt like vanilla cologne.
Her heart thunders in her chest and rattles her ribcage. Her knees knock together, her femurs threatening to break under pressure. Time stretches on infinitely behind the curtain. With each passing second, her lungs compress with stale air and blow out through her pursed lips and the spaces of her chattering teeth.
"You're still here, right?" she whispers.
Kanon squeezes her shoulder. She leans into his touch. "I'm here, Jessica-sama," he murmurs, and he wreathes his arm around her waist. He brushes through her hair with bony fingers, his fingernails picking through a knot in the base of her ponytail.
"Thank you," she croons, resting her head to his shoulder. She sucks down another breath, her eyelashes tickling the coarse bandages. Darkness smears her vision. Her corneas throb with every glance, and she closes her eyes, ignoring the dull pressure swelling in her skull.
"Is Nanjo-sensei-?" She chokes down the insinuation.
Kanon huffs out a sigh. "Yes. I witnessed his corpse with Beatrice-sama."
A bitter laugh escapes the back of Jessica's throat. She grips what she believes to be his lapels, her thumb brushing over the shimmery emblem of the Ushiromiya family. "And here I was hoping you'd tell me he was alive," she hisses, tasting dust and metal on her tongue.
She hears his heartbeat skip. It returns to being like a metronome immediately. Jessica feels for his cufflinks, and he slips his free hand around her palm. He squeezes again, his reassurance heating her body and burning her cheeks. She wants nothing more than to look upon his face and see the dark scarlet splotches decorating his pale cheeks, the contrasting hues almost comical and clownish in her mind's eye.
"Kanon-kun, will this be over soon?" she asks, raising her head.
A sentence begins to tumble out of his mouth, but he catches himself. He gulps like a beaten bass drum. The sound of his sleeve rolling up to his elbow catches her attention, and he releases her. Jessica reaches out for him, her fingers twitching as they meet nothing and flex inwardly, her nails scraping against her bloodless palms.
He counters her question with an odd query. "Do you want to know the time?"
"Uh, I mean, yeah, tell me the time," she says, keeping her hands outstretched. "Just don't let go again. Please, I know I'm-" She swallows. "-I don't wanna sound needy. You know I don't. I just need to know you're still here, Yoshiya-kun."
He takes hold of her wrists. He closes the gap between them, his flat chest against her bosom. She feels wiry sinew beneath his thick clothing, the residue's odor wafting into her nostrils. A floral hint perfumes the stench, reminding her of his work in the rose garden when she had watched him struggle to heave bags of soil onto a wheelbarrow.
In the darkness, all she can see is him dripping from head to toe in smoke and gore. The bodies pile up behind him. The servants' limbs, twisted and broken, slacken on top of each other. Her cousins' and parents' mouths gape with missing teeth and bruised gums. And the glimmering gold serves as the mountainous backdrop, their corpses reflecting on the sides of their hidden fortune.
Before Kanon arrived, she had heard two gunshots. One happened from outside the room. The other blasted from somewhere else in the mansion, followed by a hyena's laugh. Unless Eva had concocted an elaborate trap to kill Nanjo, Jessica knows and loves the name of another culprit.
Tears soothe her. They flush out the burning toxins in her eyes. Her shoulders hitch, and she snatches Kanon's shirt. She buries her face into the crook of his neck, breathing in the scents clinging to his body.
"What time is it? You didn't tell me," she asks, opening her eyes, gagging on copper.
Kanon's breath tickles her ear as he speaks. "Time is up, my beloved. The Golden Land awaits."
Light pierces through the bandages. Pain shoots through her legs and to her scalp, peeling her skin apart in a hot, white flash. Together with her killer, Jessica becomes nothing more than particles of gunpowder.