Danni shrugged. “I don’t know. She was drunk and confiding in me. I told her some secrets too. Maybe that’s why she trusted me.”
“So what is the real reason you are here?”
“Honestly...I don’t know. I’m not supposed to be here.”
Damien rolled his eyes. “Welcome to the club.”
Danni shook her head. “No, I mean I’m really not supposed to be here. The people in charge here wanted Danielle Robinson but my name is Danielle Anderson. I’m Danielle Robinson’s PA.”
“I don’t understand,” said Damien.
“When my boss was visited by a strange man and given the opportunity to enter the house and win the prize money she said she wasn’t interested. The stranger seemed disappointed. He left a card with an email address and told Danielle to contact him if she changed her mind. She didn’t. So I made a rash decision.”
“You pretended to be her?”
Danni nodded. “We look alike. Same figure, same hair, same age. Only difference was that she was successful and I was fetching her overpriced cups of coffee. I thought that if I pretended to be her I could change my life. Even if the show producers found out, I would already have gotten my face on television. It could be enough to change my life.
“Guess that’s exactly what it did.”
Danni laughed. “No shit! Looks like my sins are catching up with me whether I’m supposed to be here or not.”
Damien shook his head and thought about it. As much as he felt like a victim for being in the situation he was, Danni was even more so. She hadn’t even done anything wrong to warrant being in the house.
“That really sucks,” he said.
“Yep, really does. Still, not much I can do about it now.” She moved closer to him, close enough that her shivering, almost-naked body was right up against his. Her face was only inches away from his own.
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
“I don’t want to be a lamb in the slaughterhouse anymore. I’m not dead yet.”
She kissed Damien on the mouth. He resisted for a moment, but then wondered why and allowed himself to go with it. He kissed her back and she draped her naked leg over him and got even closer. Damien felt himself growing hard as his hands roved the smooth skin of her thigh.
Danni felt the erection and stopped kissing him. She smiled and purred. “Who’s a big boy then?”
Damien blushed.
“Get a room or I’ll spray you both with the hose!”
The other housemates had all re-entered the living area and were standing in a shivering huddle. Jules was grinning and giggling like a schoolgirl, despite the obvious pain that caused her to hunch over like an old woman. It was ironic to see her appreciate their affection after yesterday admitting how she had coldheartedly watched her sister die.
Damien eased Danni away from him and composed himself. He was forced to place both hands over his lap.
“Good to see you have your priorities straight,” said Richard. “Maybe you should be thinking more about how to get out of here and less about your todger.”
Damien shrugged. “And I suppose you have a ton of ideas?”
“We’re expecting The Landlord,” said Jules, easing down very gingerly onto the sofa. It appeared she might recover from her injuries, but it would take some time. Probably time she would never have. “It’s getting dark,” she said, “and we haven’t been given a task yet.”
Jade sighed. “More fun and games. Can’t wait.”
Damien felt his erection dissipate and was comfortable enough to get up from the sofa. He glanced outside the patio windows and saw that the light outside was growing grey. All of the other tasks they had done had been during daylight hours, followed by a head to head elimination in the evening.
“Well, I’m going to go put some clothes on before I freeze,” said Danni, slithering up off the sofa and brushing past Damien teasingly.
Richard whistled at Damien once she was out of earshot. “Looks like you decided to go out with a bang, if you know what I mean.”
Damien nodded. “You’re a master of the single entendre, Richard.”
Richard frowned. “So, what’s the plan? What do we do if we get another task?”
“We don’t have much choice but to do it. The Landlord will release the toxin if we don’t.”
“Well, maybe that’s for the best,” said Jade. “We could end all this now. We just refuse to cooperate.”
Jules looked at Jade with her mouth open. “And just let The Landlord kill us?”
“We’re dead anyway. At least this way would be on our terms.”
“I agree,” said Damien. “If I can’t get at the people doing this, then the least I can do is end their sadistic little games. Never thought I would ever contemplate suicide but…if we’re going to die anyway?”
“Then we’re going to do this, then?” asked Richard incredulously. “We’re just going to give up?”
“Giving up would be carrying on like rats in a maze,” said Damien. “This is the only way we can actually go out on our own terms. It’s the only way not to give up.”
Richard stared down at the floor but nodded his head. “Okay, then. I’m in. Maybe if I’m lucky my corpse will shit itself when they try and carry me out of here.”
Everybody agreed to abstain from any tasks. When Danni came back to the living area in a change of clothes, they brought her up to speed.
“So, we just…do nothing?”
Damien nodded. “It’s either that or we just go through another few days of pain and suffering and then die anyway. We want to just end this now.”
“But the Landlord said that they will still honour the winner. They said that the prize money was still up for grabs.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?” asked Jade. “There’s no way they can let any of us out of here alive.”
“Why not,” Danni said. “We don’t know who any of them are, or even where they’re keeping us? They could just blindfold us and dump us somewhere and we’d be none the wiser.”
“This won’t work without all of us onboard,” said Jade. “I know it’s crazy how calmly we’re all discussing it, but when the alternative is torture and eventual death, the idea becomes easier.”
Danni shook her head. “I…I just don’t know if I can do it. I…I’ll see how I feel when the task is announced. I think we should all see what we’re up against before we make any decisions.”
Damien scratched at his chin and realised that he had the fuzz of a half-grown beard. “Okay,” he said. “We’ll play things by ear.”
“HOUSEMATES, PLEASE GATHER IN THE GARDEN. YOUR TASK IS ABOUT TO BEGIN.”
Damien started towards the patio door. “Guess it’s time to find out what we’re made of.”
2
As always, the platform in the garden began to rise up from the surrounding grass, right in front of the painting of an eye. Today it featured a large, multi-coloured wheel. It didn’t matter what it was for, because Damien, and hopefully the other housemates, were not going to play along.
The large wheel locked into place. It was about seven foot high and cast a long shadow beneath a spotlight affixed to the back of it. At the top of the wheel was an arrow, cut roughly from a scrap of metal. The wheel itself was divided into five segments. Each segment had the name and face of a housemate.
“HOUSEMATES, BEFORE YOU IS A WHEEL OF FORTUNE LIKE NO OTHER. IT WILL DECIDE YOUR FATE.”
Damien rolled his eyes. That’s what you think. You can take that wheel and roll it right up your arse.
“ONE HOUSEMATE MUST COME FORWARD AND SPIN THE WHEEL. WHOEVER IT LANDS ON WILL BE SELECTED FOR TONIGHT’S SOLO ELIMINATION TASK.”
“What’s a solo elimination task?” Jules asked.
Damien shrugged. “Who cares? We’re not playing along, remember?”
Jules nodded. She seemed anxious, but even more weak and weary. However afraid she might be, it was obvious that she had had enough. She w
as ready for it all to end. Jules, perhaps more than anyone, had felt the tortures of this house in full force.
“WILL ONE OF THE HOUSEMATES PLEASE NOW SPIN THE WHEEL.”
Instead, all of the housemates sat down on the grass. Damien propped his elbows up on his knees and rested his head in his hands. He relaxed his breathing and prepared himself for the pain that the toxin would soon bring.
“HOUSEMATES, PLEASE COMPLY.”
“How about you bite me?” said Jade.
“Yeah,” Richard growled. “Why don’t you go back to the puddle of shit you climbed out of?”
“HOUSEMATES, REFUSAL TO CO-OPERATE WILL RESULT IN EXPULSION FROM THE HOUSE.”
“Big whoop!” said Jules. “We’ve had enough of your crap.”
Damien looked at Jules, smiled and nodded. Then he looked up at the starry night sky and smiled even wider. At least they couldn’t take the view away.
“You’re just going to have to kill us,” said Damien. “We’re through taking orders.”
“SO BE IT.”
The pain started immediately. Ice and fire combined in every sinew of muscle, blood turning to broken glass in their veins.
Everyone tumbled onto their sides and scrunched up into the foetal position. It did not help a great deal, but there was some comfort in going out the same way you came in. Jules threw up in the grass. The brownish goop covered her chin as she moaned.
Richard pulled so hard at his bracelets that blood began to flow down his wrists as flesh was shorn away by the sharp edges of metal. Mostly, though, they all fought the pain bravely. Each of them fought off the urge to scream in favour of a muffled growl of anguish. Danni hissed and rocked back and forth in the grass. Tears flooded down her cheeks. Damien tried to move over to her, but his muscles cramped and made the short crawl impossible.
“SPIN THE WHEEL, MAKE IT STOP.”
Damien felt a pinch in his neck, followed by a slight alleviation of pain. He was still in agony, but his muscles had unlocked and stopped their cramping. The Landlord was giving them all a taster of the relief available from the counter-agent.
“THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING. SPIN THE WHEEL OR ALL OF YOU WILL DIE.”
“Screw you!” Damien spat.
“Yeah,” said Richard. “Bring it on. I love this shit.”
Everyone remained on the ground, in pain and waiting for more. They all remained resolute that this was how they wanted to go out, in a feat of courage and endurance – maybe even bravery. Perhaps for some of them it was a means of redemption, a baptism of fire.
Danni wobbled up onto her knees. She clutched at the grass in front of her and let out an animalistic moan.
“Just lie down,” Damien told her. “It will all be over in a minute.”
“I don’t want it to be over,” she said. “I don’t want to die.”
She began crawling on her hands and knees towards the wheel. She dug her fingers into the grass as she went, as if doing so would help propel her onwards.
“Don’t do it,” said Damien. “It will only result in more pain. We can end this now.”
“Get back here, bitch,” Richard said.
Danni shook her head and kept crawling forward. In normal circumstances, Damien could have caught up to her in a single stride but, overloaded with so much pain, he was forced to watch her make it over to the wheel.
When she got there, Danni used the scaffolds that held the wheel in place to pull herself back to her feet. Her legs were wobbly like a new born fowl, but she managed to stay upright. She placed both hands on the wheel and then let her full weight fall upon it. She collapsed to the ground, but not before giving the wheel a great big yank on the way down.
The wheel spun.
The faces and names of the housemates became a whirl as they chased each other in a circle. Each revolution of the wheel resulted in a click click click. It really was just like a game show.
The most twisted, messed-up game show of all time.
Damien watched in horror as the wheel began to slow down. The other housemates, including Danni, just lay on the grass and watched with wide eyes.
Click click click!
The wheel got slower and slower.
Click…click…click!
…click!
…
…
Click!
“HOUSEMATE DAMIEN WILL PERFORM TONIGHT’S SOLO ELIMINATION.”
Damien felt the counter-agent flood in through his collar. He sighed, not with relief, but with defeat. The torment was not yet over. Danni had condemned him to another task.
She lay several feet away, tears streaming down her face as she looked at him. She shook her head over and over and mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.”
But apologies weren’t going to help anyone.
3
Danni had been apologising to Damien incessantly since the incident in the garden. He had already accepted her apology, saw no reason not to as it changed very little. He would just refuse the elimination task and do what he intended to do earlier. If Danni still held on to hope for survival then good for her. He would not begrudge her that.
Jade on the other hand was less forgiving.
“You bitch,” she shouted at Danni. “We all just went through a shitload of agony for no reason.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I just don’t want to die.”
Jade shoved Danni hard, sending her stumbling back on her bare feet. “We’s gonna die anyhow. You just made damn sure it’s gonna hurt worse.”
Danni started crying. “Jade, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do what I did. I just couldn’t help it.”
Jade went to shove Danni again, but Damien stepped between the two women. “Come on. It doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done.”
“Like hell it is,” said Jade. “I’m going to fuck her up for what she just did.”
Danni whimpered.
Damien shot Jade a look that he hoped showed that he meant business. “Nobody is doing anything. We are going to sit down, have a drink, and wait for my task to begin. Anything else is just a waste of energy best spent elsewhere.”
Jade met his stare and seemed in no way threatened, but eventually she relented and took a step back. “Fine, but just so you know. I don’t trust that bitch. She’s been fanning around this place since the beginning like it’s a goddamn vacation. Why is it that everyone gets how serious this is but her?”
“I do understand the situation we’re in,” Danni said. “I just haven’t given up yet.”
“Cus you haven’t felt no pain yet. At least, not like the rest of us. I swear, next chance I get I’m sending you into that white room.”
“Enough with the threats, Jade,” said Damien. “Correct me if I’m wrong but you haven’t been in an elimination task either.”
Jade held up her left hand covered in a thick bandage. “There’s a reason for that!”
“We’ve all done what we’ve had to to stay alive, so why blame Danni for doing the same?”
Jade rolled her eyes and gave up the argument. “I’m just saying that I don’t trust her. She ain’t like the rest of us.”
I know, Damien thought. She’s the only one here who is actually innocent.
“HOUSEMATE DAMIEN, PLEASE ENTER THE ELIMINATION CHAMBER.”
“What are you going to do?” Richard asked him.
Damien sighed. I’m going to go inside, see what the score is. Likelihood is that I’ll refuse the task. That might mean the rest of you getting a dose from the bracelets. You good with that?”
Richard nodded. “Do what you have to do. Nothing’s changed from earlier. I’m still tired of this shit.”
Damien nodded and turned away. He marched over to the elimination chamber’s door and felt a growing numbness. Even the fear of pain, and the agony itself, was becoming tolerable. For the most part he was already dead.
He opened up the door and stepped inside the white cube room. This time in the centre was a small table with a glass box on
it. From over by the door, it was unclear what was inside the box.
“HOUSEMATE DAMIEN, YOU WISH TO DIE SO HERE IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY. IN THE CENTRE OF THE ROOM IS A BOX. INSIDE THE BOX IS THE TOOL YOU NEED TO END YOUR LIFE. PLEASE PICK IT UP.”
Not yet following, Damien went over to the glass box and opened it up. He found an ornate looking revolver inside of it. It was heavy in his hand.
“IN YOUR HAND IS A WEBLEY MK. IV REVOLVER. IT TOOK THE LIFE OF GERMANS IN BOTH WORLD WARS. NOW IT MIGHT TAKE YOURS. A SINGLE BULLET SITS WITHIN ITS SIX CYLINDERS. YOU MUST FIRE THE REVOLVER AT YOUR SKULL ONCE AND THEN AT THE CEILING ONCE. REPEAT THIS UNTIL YOU ARE EITHER DEAD OR YOU HAVE FIRED THE BULLET AT THE CEILING. IF YOU ARE STILL ALIVE AT THE END OF THE TASK, YOUR RIGHT BRACELET WILL BE REMOVED.”
Damien’s eyes went wide. Did he just hear right? If he survived this sick game of Russian roulette then he would be half way to escaping the neurotoxin clamped around his wrists.
Are they seriously considering letting a winner go at the end of all this? Or is it just a sick game to make us all think there’s a way out.
Damien felt sure that the gesture was just a ploy designed to prevent a revolt like the one that happened earlier in the garden. Still, it was a means to an end. If Damien got one of the bracelets off then he only had one more to worry about.
Damien nodded and raised the pistol up against the side of his head. He closed his eyes and had to stop himself from chuckling. Of all the times he had seen this kind of thing in the movies, he never once imagined that it would happen to him.
Well, it’ll be a story to tell the grandkids if I ever get out of this hellhole.
Damien took a deep breath and placed his forefinger against the trigger. Slowly he applied pressure.
Click!
A great gust of relief burst forth from Damien’s lungs and he actually laughed, somewhat maniacally.
He pointed the revolver at the ceiling and pulled the trigger again.
Click!
Damn it. Two down, one in four chance left.
He placed the revolver’s muzzle back against his temple and took in another deep breath and held it. He squeezed the trigger again.
The Housemates: A Novel of Extreme Terror Page 13