The House Guest - Mark Edwards Page 0,91

Nick behind us.

Gabriel raised his hands and, again, the murmuring crowd fell silent.

‘Tonight, we have gathered to welcome two new members.’ A long pause. ‘But as you all know, we only allow people to join us who deserve it.’ He pointed a finger at Ruth. ‘This woman does not deserve to be one of us.’

A gasp rippled through the crowd.

What was he talking about?

Gabriel went on, his voice growing louder. ‘She has brought nothing but chaos ever since she came here. Dennis is dead. Mona lost her husband. He was not one of us, but it caused great pain to our co-founder.’

A murmur of sympathy; hands reaching out to console Mona. Did these people really believe she cared, when she had been screwing Krugman? I noticed, though, that Eden seemed shocked. Like this wasn’t in the script.

‘I have a confession,’ Gabriel said, resting his hand on his chest and adopting a solemn tone. I had to hand it to him: if he ever wanted to go into politics, he’d probably end up as president. It was like watching Obama or Trump at one of their rallies, the crowd eating out of his hand.

‘I thought Ruth here was special. I thought she was – and I feel foolish saying this – the one who was destined to be by my side. The woman I’ve searched for all these years. Look at her. Look at her beauty, the light that shines out of her, even when she stands before us, wretched and guilty. I allowed her beauty to dazzle me. To fool me.’

He reached out to touch Ruth and she squirmed away, looking at him in disgust.

He grinned darkly at her and went on. ‘Then I discovered I had invited a serpent into our garden. And I couldn’t accept it. I thought I could force her to join us, even though that goes against everything we stand for. Every one of you here volunteered to become one of us. All of you came to us willingly.’

A murmur of assent. Someone said, ‘Hell, yeah.’

‘And I was going to put us all in danger by making Ruth join. I was foolish. I was weak. I was reminded that, after all, I am just a man. A man, bewitched by beauty.’

He turned in a circle, reaching out to the onlookers. ‘I am sorry for what I was going to do. I hope . . . I hope you can forgive me.’

It was quite a performance. And I half expected someone, anyone, to start laughing. But they were taken in by it. All of them. Only Eden looked perturbed by what was going on, as if she was pissed off that Gabriel had changed the script without telling her. Ruth looked around at the crowd like they were collectively insane.

And they were. A madness had fallen over this group, a madness that reinforced itself as they fed off each other. It was a kind of mass hysteria. Gabriel had said he had been bewitched by Ruth, but these people were the bewitched ones.

It was terrifying, and I could see that terror in Ruth’s eyes.

‘We forgive you,’ someone said. Another person repeated it. And then they were all saying it. We forgive you. We forgive you. And then, ‘There’s nothing to forgive.’

A new chant went up: Nothing to forgive. Nothing to forgive.

It took them two or three minutes to quieten down. Gabriel basked in it, mock-humble, like a preacher accepting donations from his flock. Then he put his hands up and they hushed.

‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Thank you all. I am touched.’ He swallowed. My God, he was a fraud. Again, he reminded me of a politician, or a preacher. ‘But now we have business to attend to.’ He pointed at Ruth. ‘Not only did this woman reject us, but she brought a stranger to our door. A stranger who has threatened our very existence by spreading lies about us. A man who enlisted the help of a journalist in an attempt to expose us.’

Dozens of pairs of eyes turned towards me and the hiss went up again, the invisible serpent returning to the room.

‘Don’t worry, don’t worry,’ Gabriel said. ‘The journalist will be dealt with. We now know where she lives. But what do we do to people who betray and threaten us?’

‘We remove them,’ somebody said.

‘We kill them,’ said another.

‘Bring him forward,’ Gabriel said.

Brittany dragged me into the middle of the circle and held me firm before Gabriel. I was close enough to punch him.