The House Guest - Mark Edwards Page 0,92

I would have tried it, if Brittany hadn’t been holding on to me. Though if I was going to die anyway . . .

Ruth was just a metre away. She stared at me. And I noticed that she didn’t look so scared anymore. At some point during Gabriel’s long speech, her demeanour had changed. Like she’d switched from playing one role to another. And I realised I’d seen this before. I’d witnessed her vomiting from nerves a minute before a play began. Then, when the curtain went up, she strode on to the stage full of confidence.

I held her gaze for a moment. She nodded at me. Then she turned her attention to Gabriel.

‘Do these people know who you really are?’ she asked, her voice soft but carrying as if she were onstage in front of an audience. ‘Do they know that you’re nothing more than a glorified stalker? Do they know how you sat in that room upstairs, jerking off in front of a dumb horror film like a sad little boy?’

Gabriel’s face turned pink.

‘Do they know how fucking crazy you are?’

‘You bitch!’

He lunged for her. He still had the cauterising pen in his hand, the tip glowing red-hot, and he aimed for her face.

I elbowed Brittany in the stomach, pulled free and threw myself into Gabriel’s path. The pen connected with my cheek.

I had never felt pain like it, and I think I must have cried out, but I was momentarily blinded by the agony, the burn, and I was only dimly aware of Eden grabbing hold of Ruth and pushing her to the ground, and Gabriel shouting, ‘Kill him’, presumably meaning me.

I saw Emilio raise his gun towards me.

Behind him, a blur of motion. It was Eden, pulling a Glock from her bag.

Shooting Emilio in the head.

Chapter 42

For a second, nobody moved. Blood had sprayed from Emilio’s head, coating Gabriel and Mona. Gabriel turned to Eden, his mouth hanging open, blood in his beard. At the same moment, the door to the room, which was about fifteen feet from where we stood, flew open and someone burst through it, holding aloft an assault rifle.

It was Callum.

‘Everybody down!’ he yelled.

Pandemonium broke out in the crowd. There was a surge away from the door, a scramble towards the windows at the back of the room. Somebody started screaming, and then it was a chorus of screams and yells as they pushed and shoved each other to get away from Callum. Somebody barged into me, sending me sprawling, but a pair of hands caught me. Ruth. When she pulled me up I saw the room had split into two groups. Most people were crowded around the windows. In the middle of the room: me, Ruth, Eden and Gabriel, with Emilio’s body on the floor at our feet.

Eden had her arm around Gabriel’s neck, pushing him down so he was bent over. She held the muzzle of the gun against his head. Callum was slightly to the side of our group, holding what I thought was an AK-47. Facing us, between our group and the huddled mass to their rear, stood Brittany, Nick and Mona. Nick had his rifle in his hands, aimed at Callum, who pointed his own gun back at the other man. Brittany held a handgun – presumably the Glock that Emilio had dropped – and had it trained on Eden.

‘Come on!’ Callum shouted, and Eden retreated backwards towards the door, dragging Gabriel with her. We followed. Callum kept his gun aimed at Nick.

Mona stood between Brittany and Nick, weaponless. She took a step towards us. ‘Let him go,’ she said.

Eden retreated another half-step and tightened her grip on Gabriel’s neck. ‘Don’t come any closer.’

‘Let Gabriel go,’ Mona said, ‘and we’ll let you all walk out of here.’

‘Liar.’

Slightly behind Mona, I watched Nick adjust his stance. He still had his rifle aimed at Callum and he looked jacked, his eyes wild, finger on the trigger.

‘Kill them,’ Mona said.

‘But, Gabriel . . .’ said Brittany.

‘Just do it.’

Brittany still hesitated, but Nick didn’t. Callum must have realised at the same time as me, and he squeezed the trigger.

He missed. The shot went wild, not striking anyone.

Nick shot Callum in the chest. The impact sent him crashing against the wall.

Eden cried out. She took her gun away from Gabriel’s head and shot Nick. He went down. Then Eden turned the gun towards Mona – but Gabriel, now the gun was no longer against his temple, shoved Eden so she lurched to