Page 157 of Inbetweeners
Emmett sagged. “Right.” Disappointment swamped him.
“Goodbye, Emmett.”
“That sounds a bit final.”
“Ah, well you never know.”
Tar ended the call and Emmett went to change into the skin-tight jeans. Maybe this would just have to be the perfect night. Though they still had to talk about Vin.
When Phoenix returned, Emmett was barefoot, bare-chested, only wearing the jeans, and he’d put ice hockey on the TV.
Phoenix laughed when he saw what he was watching. “I thought you hated it.”
“It’s growing on me. Number seven is hot.”
“You can’t even see his face.”
“I wasn’t looking at his face.”
Phoenix laid out a selection of Greek dishes on the coffee table. “I wasn’t sure what you’d like so I bought a lot. And beer.”
“Have you ever been to Greece?”
“No, but I’d have liked to. Have you?”
“No. I love the food though.”
They did little more than pick at the meal. Neither of them had an appetite.
When the ice hockey was over and everything was tidied away, Phoenix tugged Emmett onto the couch. Not into his arms, but to sit next to him and Emmett’s heart began to race.
“Vin is going to make me do bad things,” Phoenix said. “Once he takes over, there will be nothing I can do. There’s only one way I can stop him. And I’m going to need your help.”
Emmett was sure he wasn’t going to like this.
“When I die for the ninth time, I’ll take Vin back with me.” Phoenix took hold of Emmett’s hand and rubbed his palm with his thumb. “I figure I’ll wake up in Hell and Vin will be pissed, but at least he won’t be up here. When I died yesterday, there was no sign of him, but I don’t think I can count on that. Once he knows what I’m doing he’ll try to stop me. That’s when I’m going to need your help.”
Emmett was incapable of speech because now he understood.
“What I’m thinking is this. I’ll stab myself in the heart and when I wake, I’ll do it again. I’ll lie in the bath so I won’t make a mess. I need you to take the knife off me—out of me—after I die and then give it back to me when I open my eyes. And I need you to have that holy water right next to you as protection. I’m going to say one of our words and if that’s not the first thing that comes out of my mouth, I need you to kill me. Can you do that for me? Please, Emmett?”
Emmett didn’t even blink.
“Vin will fight. You’ll have to be quick. No hesitation. Maybe you’ll have to kill me more than once. I’m going to try and do it myself for as many times as I can. When Vin realises what I’m doing, he’s going to do everything he can to stop me.”
Emmett didn’t want to do this.So, think of another way.
“I know you don’t want to do it. If you were saying this to me, I’d be thinkingno wayas well. But Vin isn’t going to voluntarily go back and this has to happen tonight.”
Emmett gasped then.
“I can’t risk falling asleep and letting Vin out whether you’re here with me or not. He’s lost Greyson and Sophie. He’ll be angry. He’ll find you and he’ll kill you, and then you’ll be back in Heaven and you can’t help me.”
“You’re such an arsehole,” Emmett finally whispered.
Phoenix landed a kiss on his lips. “I don’t like this any better than you, but it’s what has to be done.”
This was what Tar had been talking about. He’d said that Phoenix was going to ask something of him. But Emmett hadn’t thought it would be this.
