“HOUSEMATES, PLEASE GATHER IN THE LIVING AREA.”
Here we go again.
Damien went and joined the others inside. They had all assembled on the sofa. There was a thickness to the air that was equal parts unwashed sweat, cigarette smoke, and palpitating fear. Damien felt his own heart beating fast with anticipation.
One of us will likely be dead within the hour.
“HOUSEMATES, PLEASE VOTE FOR WHO YOU WISH TO PARTICIPATE IN TONIGHT’S HEAD TO HEAD ELIMINATION TASK. JADE, ALEX, JULES, AND RICHARD HAVE IMMUNITY AND CANNOT BE VOTED FOR.”
Once again, Jade started the voting. “Damien.”
“I vote Damien, too,” said Alex. He shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry.”
Damien rolled his eyes. Everybody seemed to be voting the same as they did yesterday. Nothing had happened for anybody to change their minds about anything.
“I vote…Sarah,” said Damien, picking pretty much at random. He didn’t want to condemn anybody to death.
“I vote Sarah, too,” said Danni.
“Why?” Sarah asked, apparently hurt.
Danni stared at her. “We haven’t been asked to give a reason, but it’s because you hang around with Lewis and whisper whisper whisper. I think you’re working on your own little game.”
“So are you,” Sarah rebuked. “I vote for you!”
“I vote for you too,” said Lewis.
Danni chuckled. “See? There’s my point.”
“I vote Damien,” said Tracey.
“I vote for Sarah,” said Jules. “Same reason as Danni.
Catherine surprised everybody by voting Lewis. She said they had nothing in common, which seemed like a pretty mundane reason considering the situation.
Patrick jumped on Jade and Alex’s bandwagon and voted, “Damien,” while Richard finished off with a vote for Lewis, same as last time. Again, he didn’t explain why.
“Hey, man,” said Lewis. “Why you always be voting for me?”
Richard shrugged his shoulders. “Because I like you least. Isn’t that the point?”
“But why don’t you like me?”
“Why do you care so much? We’re all strangers here.”
“HOUSEMATES, YOU HAVE VOTED. DAMIEN AND SARAH WILL COMPETE IN THE HEAD TO HEAD ELIMINATION TASK.”
“No!” Sarah screamed. “I won’t go in that room and play your evil games.” She suddenly bolted, dodging furniture as she sought a way out. She fled to the garden, scurried across the grass courtyard and leapt against the far wall, clawing at it as if she hoped to climb it through will power alone. The other housemates hurried out after her, calling out for her to calm down. As she jumped up at the wall, trying to drag her way up with her fingernails, her feet slipped out of her heels and left them strewn across the grass.
“Calm down, sweetheart,” said Lewis. He approached her from behind slowly. “You’re going to be okay.”
Sarah spun around and faced him. Her eyes were wide and feral, bleary with tears. “I’m not going to be okay. They have us locked up in here like animals in a slaughterhouse. If I go into that room to do the task, I won’t make it out again.”
“You don’t know that,” said Lewis. “You might be the winner. Damien might be the one who dies.”
Thanks, thought Damien.
“And you think that’s okay?” Sarah cried in disbelief. “What then? Even if I win, that won’t be the end of it. There’ll just be another vote. Who knows what sick, twisted games they have waiting for us. I can’t do this.”
“You don’t have a choice,” said Jade. “We’re playing for our lives here. If you give up then you’re dead for sure.”
“It’s okay for you, Jade. You’re a bitch. You won’t think twice about screwing someone over in order to win. I don’t have that in me.”
“Hey, fuck you,” said Jade. “I’m trying to help you. I won’t bother next time, but you’re going in that room whether you like it or not.”
“I will not!” Sarah turned back around and began scrabbling at the brickwork again.
Lewis reached out a hand to her. “Darling, there’s no way out of here.”
She spun around to face him again, only this time she shoved him aside and marched back across the courtyard. She re-entered the house with the other housemates in tow. No one knew what she was planning to do, but it held their rapt attention like an ensuing train wreck. They were all happy for her to try and escape, if only to see what happened.
Funny how everyone is content to be a spectator, until it’s their turn. Then they lose their minds. Nobody was panicking when it was me in there.
Sarah headed over to the kitchen. She was clutching at her mousy blonde hair with both hands and letting out a breathy moan. Madness had taken over her and with each second that passed she seemed to descend more and more into a mental abyss where any rational thought was absent.
She opened one of the kitchen drawers.
“What are you doing?” Damien asked, suddenly getting a bad feeling.
Sarah pulled out a curved knife and pointed it at the housemates. They all kept their distance behind the counter as she shouted at them. “Stay back,” she screamed. “Just stay back.”
“Hey,” said Danni. “Calm down, sweetheart. We’ll figure something out. I…I’ll take your place. Okay?”
“Don’t be stupid,” said Jade. “You’re talking about your life, Danni. You can’t volunteer to go in her place. This is a competition and she has to play by the rules.”
“I don’t care,” Danni said. “I’ve had enough of this.”
Tracey shrugged her shoulders. “Just let her. What difference does it make?”
Sarah laughed, but it was a hysterical, unhinged noise. “You hear that?” she shouted at the ceiling. “You here that, Mr-fucking-Landlord? She’s going to take my place. She’s going to do the task, so leave me alone.”
There was silence for a moment.
Then the speakers crackled.
“UNNACCEPTABLE, HOUSEMATE SARAH. YOU WERE VOTED FOR BY YOUR PEERS. YOU WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE TASK.”
“No, I won’t.” Snot and tears were now streaming down Sarah’s puffy face. The knife in her hand wobbled.
“Come on,” said Lewis. “Give me the knife, darling. We’ll figure something out.”
She shook her head at him and seemed finally to get a hold of herself. She took a deep breath and stopped shaking. “I won’t go in there,” she said in a slow whisper.
Then she ran the knife across her wrist below the steel bracelet.
Blood jetted down her arm and dripped in a steady stream from her fingertips. She stared at them all with a look of child-like wonder in her eyes. She almost seemed to smile for a moment. Perhaps she was glad to have made her own decision, instead of being forced into something she didn’t want to do.
Then her legs buckled.
Lewis tried to grab Sarah, but he wasn’t quick enough and she crumpled to the tiled floor. The rest of the housemates stood around in shock while she slowly bled to death on the kitchen floor.
4
On the television screen a silhouette changed to a picture of Sarah. Unlike the one taken of Chris this was a personal photo taken from a previous time. It was a photo where she was smiling. Beneath the silhouette was the word THIEF.
A video started playing.
A withered old lady appeared onscreen. She looked tired and frail, perhaps in her final year. When she spoke, her voice sounded like rustling leaves.
“When I met George, my best days were behind me. I was forty-nine years old and divorced. I didn’t think I would trust a man ever again. But when I met my George, I had no choice but to fall in love with him. He was a kind man, a funny man; worked hard every day of his life without a single complaint. I loved him from the start. I loved him completely. His daughter, though, that was another matter. She only came by when she wanted something – money usually. When I married her father she made no secret that she did not approve. She acted like her father wa
s somehow betraying her mother, but the woman had been dead gone nine years – a tragic car accident, God bless her soul. George still loved her of course – I never resented him for that – but he also loved me. He provided for me and made me happy. We had twelve wonderful years together.
Then he got cancer. Sixty-six years old with only a year to live. I cursed God for giving him to me for such a short while. I had wasted so much of my life before I met him, and now I was going to lose him. But I was thankful for the time we still had together.
We took a trip to Australia while he was still well enough and then came home to spend our last months together. I retired from work and spent every day with him. When the time finally came, he told me about his will, told me he was leaving everything to me and that I would be looked after. I forgot about it for a while, focused only on spending as much time as I could with my George. I was never interested in his money.
He lasted another week and then passed away in a fit of pain. I’ll never forget his last, agonising hours. It haunts me to this day.
I found the will a couple of weeks later amongst the things in his office. As he had said, it left everything to me, with the exception of a small sum which I was to give to his daughter, Sarah. Even though she had barely visited her father while he was ill, I was happy to honour my George’s wishes. I invited her to the house and went through the will with her. She was angry to receive so little. She said that I had forced him to sign it all away. She stormed up to the guest room in a huff and didn’t come back down again all night.
The next day the will was gone and so was Sarah. As I hadn’t married George – our previous failed marriages had been enough to jade us towards the institution – Sarah was able to contest my claim towards her father’s assets. She got everything apart from the house, which the court’s awarded to me after having lived there and paid bills for twelve years. George had left almost two-hundred thousand pounds to me, but it all ended up going to Sarah. She took it with a smug smile on her face the whole time, even though she knew that her father’s final wishes were being ignored.”
The old woman let her pale lips stretch into an ugly scowl. She shook her head and looked off camera. “I couldn’t afford to run the house on my own so I had to sell it. It was the only part of George I had left. At first I was going to use the money to place myself in a nice little nursing home, but I decided that without my George there was little point being ‘comfortable’ as my life was already over. I opted to go into a state care home, where the conditions are of course much poorer. I’ve been here for more than ten years now. I’m an old woman; a lonely, bitter woman. But I kept the money from the house for a rainy day. I’m finally putting it to good use.
I hope the money was worth it, Sarah, because this is the price you are paying for your selfish ways. You were a bad daughter to your wonderful father and I hope that when you die, you go to a far different place than him.”
The screen went black. The silhouettes reappeared. Ten shadows were left. Ten words yet to find owners. The THIEF and the THUG were dead. Who would be next?
5
It had taken a good part of an hour for Sarah to die. The blood that pumped from her wrist seemed to go on forever. They tried to staunch it, by wrapping her arm tightly with a belt from Damien’s luggage, but it had only delayed the inevitable. The tourniquet was just a band aid on a deep and critical wound.
During this time, while Sarah lay dying on the floor, not a single person had tried to enter the house. No one had offered medical attention or even acknowledged the incident at all. Now, more than ever, the housemates realised that someone wanted them dead and that no help was coming. All they had now was each other, and yet they were also enemies in a game that had become about life and death.
The only reason the cameras were there was to capture their suffering.
Nobody knew what to do with Sarah’s body so they left her on the kitchen tiles for the time being. Lewis seemed the most upset by her loss, but only marginally. Obviously, there was only so much they could care about one another after only a few days. It was clear that Lewis had lost an ally, though, and right now allies were extremely valuable.
“HOUSEMATES. DUE TO SARAH’S EARLY ELIMINATION FROM THE HOUSE, THE NEXT MOST VOTED-FOR HOUSEMATES WILL PARTICPATE IN THE HEAD TO HEAD TASK. ALONG WITH HOUSEMATE DAMIEN, BOTH LEWIS AND DANNI WILL NOW COMPETE. PLEASE STAND BY TO ENTER THE ELIMINATION CHAMBER.”
“That ain’t fair,” said Lewis.
“Just deal with it,” said Richard. There was a smirk on his face. “Everybody gotta go sometime.”
Lewis glared at him. “Dude, what is your goddamn problem with me?”
“I just don’t like people like you.”
“People like me? What…you mean because I’m black?”
Richard leant back against the rear of the sofa and smiled calmly.
Lewis shook his head and sighed. “Man, that ain’t cool. Maybe you didn’t get the memo, but the world moved on.”
“Don’t talk down to me, nig-”
Lewis squared right up to the bigger man. “Now I know you weren’t about to say what I think you were about to say.”
Richard laughed. He wouldn’t look Lewis in the eye, almost as if he couldn’t bear to.
Lewis stiffened. “Look at me, you racist piece of shit.”
Richard shoved Lewis away from him and then swung his fist. He punched Lewis on the jaw and sent him reeling to the ground. Less than a second later, the larger man was stamping on Lewis’s head. Over and over again.
The sound was sickening.
Damien leapt across the room, tackling Richard to the ground and climbing on top of him.
Richard looked up at Damien and grinned. “My problem ain’t with you, brother, so get the hell off me.”
Damien shook his head in disgust and got up off the man, but he made sure to stand between him and Lewis. Lewis was lying on his side, dazed and moaning. A trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth and from his nose.
Damien glared at Richard, but the man seemed proud of his actions. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”
“Just looking out for my country. Apes and ragheads have no place in a Christian land.”
“You’re no Christian,” said Danni. “You’re a goddamn caveman.”
“You’ll thank me one day, sweetheart. If we let them take over then we’ll be speaking monkey and living in holes in the ground by the end of the decade.”
“HOUSEMATES, THE DOOR TO THE ELIMINATION CHAMBER IS NOW OPEN. DAMIEN, DANNI, AND LEWIS, ENTER IMMEDIATELY.”
Lewis was still on the floor and moaning. Jules was crouched down beside him, trying to rouse him.
Damien looked up and addressed The Landlord. “We need a minute. Lewis is hurt.”
“ENTER NOW OR YOUR BRACELETS WILL ACTIVATE. ALL THREE OF YOU WILL DIE.”
Damien huffed and looked at Danni. She seemed equally as frustrated. “This is ridiculous,” he said. “Come on, let’s try and carry him inside. We’ll help him through it.”
They went and grabbed Lewis under the armpits. They managed to get him up into a sitting position when they saw that his left eye was bloodshot and closed over – either from Richard’s fist or from his stamping boot.
That guy is going to pay for this.
With an awkward heave they managed to get Lewis on his feet. Thankfully he was conscious and managed to stand more or less on his own, but he was extremely groggy and disorientated. They had to steer him towards the door at the far end of the living area to keep him from wandering off.
“I’ll get the door,” said Danni, leaving Damien to hold onto Lewis on his own.
“Racist motherfucker,” Lewis mumbled, leaning his weight against Damien. “Gonna…gonna kick his ass once I get this over with. Once I get this over with. Once I… Gonna kick his ass once I get this over with.”
Damien looked at Lewis and noticed that the guy’s pupils were different sizes. Damien was no doctor,
but he guessed it was concussion or maybe something even more serious. Whatever damage had been inflicted by Richard’s beating would no doubt affect Lewis’s performance in whatever task lay ahead of them. It was totally unfair.
But neither Danni nor I are responsible. We just have to do whatever it takes to save our own backsides.
I’ll do my best to help him, but whatever happens to Lewis is beyond our control.
Danni held the door open and Damien helped Lewis pass through it. Once again Damien was faced with the stark-white cube room. Chris’s body was no longer there. Someone had obviously come and moved him.
A clean-up crew.
How many people are working here? Just the guys in the eyeball jumpers? Or are there more? What about the guy in the black overalls? Is he The Landlord?
In the centre of the room this time was a large iron casket, standing upright and about six foot high. The front of the casket was heavily rusted and had an opening in the middle about the size of a sheet of A4 paper. There seemed to be something inside, attached to the back wall.
“HOUSEMATES, THIS IS A TOTAL ELIMINATION TASK. IT IS ALL OR NOTHING. IF ALL OF YOU SUCCEED, ALL OF YOU LIVE. IF ALL OF YOU FAIL, ALL OF YOU DIE.”
Damien exchanged a glance with Danni. The chance that they all might live was somewhat of a relief, but the ominous cabinet in the middle of the room gave them little cause for hopeful thinking.
Lewis didn’t even seem to realise what was going on. He was slumped up against the wall by the door they had entered through. He was muttering nonsense to himself.
“HOUSEMATES, YOUR TASK IS TO PRESS THE BUTTON AT THE BACK OF THE CABINET. IT IS THAT SIMPLE. GOOD LUCK.”
Damien stared into the hole of the cabinet and noticed the big red button inside. It was no different to the emergency buttons you found at the bottom of escalators to halt them during an accident.
“We just have to press the button?” said Danni. “Seems a little simple.”
Damien breathed out through his nostrils. “Yeah.”
Then a whirring sound filled the room and they all saw the true nature of the task. Inside the casket, a pair of metal fan blades began spinning in opposite directions. They passed rhythmically over the gap in the middle of the casket, making access to the button perilous if ill-timed.
The Housemates: A Novel of Extreme Terror Page 7