Joy's voice, raw with hours of frustration from the ongoing argument, sliced through the tense silence with a uncharacteristic blatant anger. "How many lies have you told?"

Quint froze, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly. His eyes, wide with panic, darted around the room as a flush crept up his neck and over his face. He stammered, "N-n- three!" He looked startled by his own admission, then tried again, enunciating with painstaking slowness. "N-uh-ree. I mean no-three!" With a frustrated grunt, he vigorously slammed his hand down.

Moving with a quick, deliberate grace that belied her rising fury, Joy reached out. Her hand clamped around the collar of his shirt, yanking him off balance. She pulled fervently down to the right. On his collarbone, three distinct, tell-tale lines marred his skin: a vibrant red, the tell-tale mark of a fabricated lie; a sorrowful blue, indicating an emotional deception; and a sickly green, the undeniable sign of gaslighting. Quint defensively pulled away, his face deepening to a furious crimson and his jaw clamped. Unbelieving, she touched the streaks softly. Quint swung her hand away from the shirt with great might. She limply obeyed and looked silently at him for a few seconds, until her own face turned red. SHe crumbled, her last straw had broke.

"So let me get this straight," Joy's voice cracked, tears streaming down her face and plastering strands of hair to her cheeks, "you're screwed, and you want to lie to me? You should be doing something in your last few days, you moron! Why are you doing this? Why this?" She sobbed, her body wracked with grief.

Quint straightened, his eyes turning cold and serious. "That's right, there was something I wanted to do." Joy gasped as his arm snaked around her back. The glint of metal preceded a searing pain as his knife plunged deeply into her stomach. He withdrew the blade. She stumbled backward, collapsing to the floor with pain. He stood there and meticulously cleaned the blood from his knife. He flinched as he felt the dreaded, and anticipated pull from his collar bone as the lines were guided out by a invisible string. He slumped over Joy's body. Their heartbeats the matching. They were found cold and soaked thoroughly with Joy's blood the next morning, Quint's cat, Elmer, had even nibbled them before the police arrived.