The girl in the photo on her wall blinked. It was strange. She normally only did that on the third Wednesday of every second month, and today was only Sunday. 

“I need more blood,” the captured girl said, breaking the silence of the kitchen. 

Jayney checked the calendar that hung on the wall next to the picture and sighed, “but it's only been two weeks since the last sacrifice.” The mental image of the small-framed man flashed across the inside of her eyelids before she forced herself to open them again. To say she lost a little bit more of her soul with each kill would have been a huge understatement. 

“It wasn't enough,” the girl whined, her tone rising by a few octaves, and her expression changed to reflect that of an unhappy child. “I’m so hungry.” 

Jayney grumbled. “You say that because you don't have to do the dirty work. You just absorb the blood and you're done.”

“I’d like to remind you that I didn't ask to be like this,” the girl responded, her eyes narrowed in the direction of Jayney. The perfect lighting in the photo allowed the unique grey colour of her eyes to be captured for eternity. Her young skin was to stay perfect and smooth for all of eternity, whilst Jayney was condemned to age. She had found her first grey hair not even two weeks ago. 

Jayney had inherited her father's eyes instead, a murky brownish colour. “I already said I was sorry.” 

“Sorry doesn't bring me back,” the girl bit back from her frame, her face contorted in anger, “sorry doesn't give me my body back.” If she had been capable of producing saliva, then Jayney was certain that it would have come flying out of the frame by this point. 

“Okay, okay,” Jayney knew when to admit defeat. Part of her wished that the photo would treat her like most of the family did, and not talk to her at all. “Is there anything I can do to keep you sated for longer this time?”

The girl in the photo relaxed once more and returned to her posed position before shrugging nonchalantly, “I dunno.” 

“Useful,” Jayney grunted, placing the palms of her hands on the kitchen table and pushing herself up to her feet. The old wood creaked under her weight. Her slippers scraped along the kitchen floor as she shuffled in the direction of the bathroom. 

“Thanks, big sis,” the girl from the photo called out to her from her place on the wall. A few moments passed, and she resumed her unblinking stare, looking directly at the camera. An elegant green dress hung effortlessly off of her left shoulder as the rest of the people in the photo were caught forever looking in her direction, captivated by her. The only place where Bella Fitzgerald still held everybody's attention. Forever. Eternal. Dead. 



-x-x-x-x-



The sun was starting to rise by the time Jayney got home. Her body was aching and tired from the night's work. The heavy bottles weighed down her bag, only increasing the pain in her lumbar. It had been years since this had started, but every time still felt like the first time. While Jayney’s body had aged and started to break down from use, whilst her sisters remained perfect. A knot formed in her stomach at the thought of it. 

“I’m back,” she called out, taking her shoes off in the hallway and heading towards the kitchen. She placed the backpack on the table and took out one of the bottles of bright red liquid. “Here,” Jayney walked over to the photo and held the bottle out. Slowly, a small and dainty hand reached out and took the bottle before pulling it back into the frame. 

“Mmm,” Bella breathed. She guzzled down the liquid as if she had not been fed in months. Red trails spilled out from her mouth and trailed their way down her neck and onto her chest. The dress didn’t stain. The people still looked at her with a mix of jealousy and admiration. Everything was still on pause except for Bella. “I’m… still… so… hungry…” she said as she drank down the last part. 

“This won’t last long either at this rate,” Jayney muttered. She went and retrieved another bottle and gave it to her sister regardless. 

“I’m starving,” Bella bit back, her temper flaring once more. She cast the first bottle aside and grabbed the second with a hunger that Jayney hadn’t seen before. 

“Whoa,” she breathed. The doorbell pulled them both into reality. 

“Who is that?” Bella hissed, “Hide the bottles, hide the bottles!” 

“I don’t know,” responded Jayney as she obediently did as she was told. “Coming.” She placed the backpack under the kitchen sink and headed back down the hallway. She could make out a male figure through the glass of the door. 

“Open. Police.” Jayney’s blood froze in her veins. Today was the day. She knew it would eventually come. What would happen to her? What would they do to Bella? 

Jayney took one glance at herself in the mirror. She licked her fingers and tried to flatten down as many fly away hairs as possible. She cleaned a speck of blood from her eyebrow and took a deep breath before turning to face the front door. “Good morning, officer.”

“Good morning, Miss. Fitzgerald,” the officer greeted before something clicked in his head, “Jayney? I thought you had left town after all that happened with your sister.” It took her a few moments, but eventually she was able to place where she knew him from. Paul O’Keef. A boy who was a few years younger than her at school. She would never have imagined that he would join the force. Any authority that his voice may have held before had been lost by the tone of shock in his voice. 

“No. No. I never left.” She forced a smile to her lips. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, I just thought that with everything that had happened, that it would have been a different Fitzgerald… I…” he trailed off. He coughed and looked at her, “I’m here due to the spike in missing people.” Jayney felt all of the air leave her body. “We are going door-to-door to see if anybody knows anything that can help us find them.”

Jayney hesitated; she thought of the man from last night. How his big hands had grabbed at her and tried to hold her down. How the alcohol and cigarettes hung on his breath as he breathed. How he had ignored any ‘nos’ she was saying. She thought of where his drained body now lay, at the bottom of the river, with some bags of stones holding him down just in case. “I’m afraid I don’t know a thing.” 

Paul nodded solemnly, “Okay, thank you for your time anyway. Have a nice day. Stay safe.” 

“You too,” she forced a smile once more before closing the door and leaning back on it. She allowed her body to slide down until she was sitting on the floor. She had been doing this a long time, and she made sure that she only killed the people who deserved it. How could they be wasting time looking into seeing where these people were? They should just let her clean the streets and be done with it. They should be grateful. She held her head as she counted to ten, trying her best to get her breathing under control. She could still hear Paul on the other side of the door.

“Yeah, I’ve just spoken to number 34,” he paused, allowing the person on the other end of the line to answer him. “Yeah, that one. The one that killed her sister years ago.” 



-x-x-x-x-



Jayney stormed back into the kitchen, her heart racing almost as fast as her thoughts, “we can’t do this anymore. They’re going to catch me,” she spoke so fast that she tripped over her own words. Silence. She looked at the photo that had been so talkative all day and found it just as it should be. A photo. Static. Her sister looked at her from the photo just the same way that she always did. There was no blood. No anger. No screaming at her. Just her perfect sister frozen in time; all eyes on her. The way she had always liked it. A thought crossed Jayney’s mind. A terrible thought. A silent photo couldn’t fight back. She would finally be free. She would finally be able to leave. Her hands shook as she grabbed a lighter from the kitchen draw and the photo of the wall and headed upstairs. 



-x-x-x-x-



“I’m sorry,” Jayney said sadly to the quiet photo as she took it out of the frame and placed it in the bathtub. Her back ached as she bent over and lit the corner of the photo with the lighter. She fumbled through the dark hallway to her room and began a mad dash to pack as much as she could. Finally, she would be free of the house that she had called home for so long. Clack. The silence in the home was broken. Jayney felt the sick rise up in her throat as she looked around the room like a madman. Clack. It was getting closer. A sweat broke out over her body. Clack. She grabbed the lamp from the bedside table. Clack. She didn’t want to look up, but she made herself. There in the doorway stood Bella. Her beautiful green dress was now burnt and covered with soot. Her perfect skin was covered in painful red burns and blisters. 

“Did you not learn anything from the first time you killed me?” The younger sister spat. “You can’t kill me.”

Jayney struggled for each breath as she looked upon her sister with pure horror. “I… I…” she stuttered. She could still remember how hard her sister had fought as she had held her head under the water, as those years ago. 

“I knew you were jealous. I always knew that you were jealous - but I thought that the least you could do was to keep me alive. Even if it was in photo format.” Her words dripped hatred as she took staggering steps forward. 

“Sorry, I’m… I’m sorry,” Jayney breathed. She felt the corner of the room come into contact with her back. There was nowhere else to run. 

“When will you understand?” Bella was so close that Jayney could smell the burnt material. “That if I have to live, condemned to a photo, for the rest of eternity - then you have to too.” She reached out a blistered hand and grabbed onto Jayney’s forearm. A scolding hot pain shot through Jayney’s body, and she tried to pull her arm out of her sister’s grip, but her sister was too strong. She felt as if every nerve in her body was being set on fire - and then she felt nothing at all.