I pushed past Mark while Shane and Toni did the same. In my three years of living in this house I had walked in on a few strange things, but nothing prepared me for this.

When I first moved into the sharehouse my housemates weren’t Shelly and Toni. Shelly moved in a year later, while Toni moved in after I got married. Shelly and Toni were both mischievous and even though I was more reserved, we became good friends.

It was Mark’s hand that woke me from my shock. He whispered, “Call an ambulance,” into my ear. I stepped outside and dialled the number. This was the first time I had called an ambulance, and I was still half in shock when the barrage of questions came. I answered them as best as I could, name, emergency, address. The ambulance was on it’s way.

Then the operator asked me how Shelly’s condition was. I couldn’t look. Even looking through the window was hard, and I could only see her chest. But it moved, I was sure of it. Toni blocked my view, but I couldn’t stay outside anyway. The operator was giving me instructions I didn’t understand, but I knew Mark would.

As I entered Shane nearly knocked me over on his way out, but once I was inside I couldn’t see Mark. Toni responded to my unspoken question with a look to the hallway. I headed there and found Mark next to Grant’s body. Mark looked up and shook his head…