“Then what?” said Richard. “You’re going to bring this whole thing down to its knees? I’m sure it’s that easy.”
Damien shrugged. “Honestly I don’t know what I’ll do. But, even if the other housemates were evil and deserved what they got, these people have still fucked with me personally. I’m not sure I can let that go.”
“Me either,” said Richard. “But I’m sure the money will help.”
“I’m not going to do anything,” said Danni. “I just want to go back to my life. I’m not even supposed to be here.”
“Yeah, me either,” said Jade.
“No, really,” said Danni. She went on to tell them all what she had told Damien, that her boss was the one who was supposed to be inside the house but she had impersonated her in order to change her life for the better.
“I applaud your balls,” said Richard, “but things didn’t really pay off for you there, did they?”
“That really sucks,” said Jade. “I’m sorry you got caught up in all this with us sorry bunch of criminals.”
“You don’t know that we’re criminals,” said Richard. “We have no clue what each of us has done.”
“I wouldn’t say no clue,” said Damien, pointing behind the sofa to the television. The silhouetted grid of faces had changed to display only a single line of four shadows now – one for each of the remaining housemates. Beneath the silhouettes were the final four remaining words: PEDDLER, MURDERER, TRAITOR, and CRUSADER.
Just as Damien had finished pointing at the screen, it switched over and displayed the opening credits to some movie. The jaunty soundtrack suggested a comedy, which was ironic as nobody would be in anywhere near the mood to enjoy it.
“Well,” Jade said. “If people are watching, I’m going to give them a show. Let’s go see what goodies are in the pantry. This might be my last chance to get shitfaced.”
“Screw it!” said Damien. “Think I’ll join you.”
He followed Jade over to the pantry door and felt himself relax at the thought of having a drink. Despite the many ills of alcohol, nothing was quite as relaxing as a couple bottles of beer.
And that was exactly what they found inside the pantry: bottles and bottles of Mexican beers, fresh limes, and several crates of beer; not to mention a huge bottle of tequila and a smaller one of scotch. But that wasn’t all there was. Something else was inside the pantry.
3
Damien’s eyes went wide. “Holy shitballs! Chris? You’re alive?”
The former housemate, Chris, was trussed up inside the pantry. His eyes were glassy and afraid – the left one wasn’t even moving. The many bruises that adorned his face suggested he had been through quite an ordeal.
Damien shook his head in confusion. An ordeal that happened while he should have been dead.
Jade reached into the pantry and yanked the gag out of Chris’s mouth. He spluttered and coughed as he was suddenly able to breathe through his mouth again. His swollen nose must have been difficult to draw air in with.
“What are you doing here?” asked Damien. His skin was tingling with the sudden shock of seeing a dead man still alive and well.
Maybe not ‘well’ exactly, but alive at least.
When Chris spoke, he sounded timid and afraid, not at all like the brash Neanderthal he had been previously.
“The…the toxin didn’t kill me. They…they used the counteragent to revive me before I was dead.”
“Why?” said Damien. “Who?”
Chris shook his head and blinked. It was clear that his left eye was damaged as it remained stationary even as his other eye moved about freely.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I only spoke to that big guy in the black overalls. “He told me I was going to get another chance to win the game. He called me a ‘wild card’.”
Damien sighed. He reached into the pantry and started struggling with Chris’s bonds. They were too tight.
“Can somebody go fetch me a knife,” he said. “I need to cut him free.”
Danni hurried and got Damien a knife from the kitchen, but even with the sharp blade it still took almost ten minutes to cut Chris loose and get him out of the pantry. They helped him over to the sofa and sat the poor guy down.
“I don’t understand why they let you live,” said Jade. “You were disqualified from the competition. The Landlord told us we were the remaining four contestants.”
“Maybe he’s in on all this,” said Richard. “He went out first, without a mark on him.”
Danni huffed. “I don’t see what having a person on the inside would achieve. We’re all under control and doing what we’re told. Cameras cover our every move, I imagine, so why would they need a pair of eyes inside the house?”
“I don’t know,” said Richard, glaring down at Chris. “This just seems a bit fishy to me.”
Damien laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, you just never struck me as the type of guy to say ‘a bit fishy’.”
There was a brief moment of silence, but then Richard cracked up laughing too. “You know what,” he said. “That might just be the first time I ever said it.”
Danni sat down beside Chris and patted him on the knee. “Did they tell you anything, Chris? Did they give you a reason for placing you back inside the house?”
Chris shook his head. “Just that I was being given another chance.”
Damien folded his arms and chewed at his lip. He didn’t like this. Chris was the biggest jerk in the house when this whole thing had started, even more so than Richard. Having him back inside with them would only mean bad things – and Richard’s accusation of Chris being a part of what was going on was not entirely without merit either.
Damien unfolded his arms and sighed. “Alright, well, not a lot has changed. We still have a day to rest, so let’s get the beers out. We can figure this all out later.”
Jade headed back over to the pantry and returned with a six pack of cervezas and the bottle of tequila. “Let’s get wasted,” she said as she set them all down on the table. “There’s plenty more when this is through.”
Everyone settled down onto the sofa. Jade handed Chris a beer and he took it gladly. Damien took one for himself and enjoyed the crisp taste as it hit the back of his throat.
Danni was sitting beside him, a shot of tequila in her hand. She leant in close to him so that the others couldn’t hear. “Do you think Chris is the traitor?”
Damien frowned at her. “Huh?”
“Murderer, peddler, crusader, traitor. Do you think that Chris could be the traitor?”
Damien shook his head. “No. He’s the ‘thug’, remember? Before he arrived there was four of us left and four words on the screen.”
“Then one of us is the traitor.”
“What are you getting at? I’m more concerned about the fact that one of us is a murderer.”
Danni sighed. “You’re not understanding me. Maybe the traitor is here because of a betrayal in the past, but maybe they’re betraying us right now. Maybe there really is someone on the inside.”
“You mean like a mole?”
Danni nodded.
“Maybe. Like I said, though, I don’t see the point. I think you’re barking up the wrong tree. I think that Jade and Richard probably just screwed someone over in their past and that’s why they’re here. Anyway, Jade said she didn’t trust you either. I guess we’re all wondering who we can rely on.”
Danni cleared her throat and took a sip of her tequila. “Perhaps you’re right. I’m paranoid.”
“It’s not paranoia when someone is actually trying to kill you.”
In fact it would be crazy not to be paranoid right now.
“What did they do to you?” Jade asked Chris. “You’re all messed up.”
Chris blinked and once again his left eye appeared dead and unmoving. “Most of it is due to whatever shit they shot into my wrists. When I woke up from the dose they gave me in the cube room I was blind i
n one eye and had the shakes. I still feel like I could drop dead at any minute – can feel it in my heart. The toxin has messed me up inside.”
Jade cursed under her breath. “That sucks man. Least you ain’t dead, though.”
“May as well be.”
“Is it true?” said Damien. “That you killed a guy at a football match.”
Chris stared at Damien with his one good eye. “How you know about that?”
“They played a video after you were dead – when we thought you were dead. They play a video after anybody dies. It looks like the reason we’re all in here is because someone on the outside wants to take revenge on us. Your video featured the father of the man you killed. Up until now, we’ve never had the chance to verify if the video accusations are true. So, is it true? Did you kill a guy?”
Chris nodded solemnly. “Didn’t mean to. I’d had a shitload to drink and got into one of my moods. I was looking for trouble, but I went too far. I beat the guy to death. Not proud of it, but it’s in my past. Can’t say I think too much about it.”
Damien shook his head. Chris’s lack of regret was disgusting. “Well, it looks like the guy’s father spent a lot of time thinking about it. He gave his life savings to get you in here.”
Chris’s face contorted. “That sonofabitch. If I ever get out of here… He better hope he dies of old age before I find him. I remember the old fucker in court, giving me the evils the whole time.”
Damien huffed. “Can you blame him? You killed his son. You made his grandchildren orphans for no other reason than because you had too much to drink. You deserve everything you get.”
Chris smirked. His bad eyes was watery and red. “So do you, else you wouldn’t be here. Maybe you should leave your judgements to yourself because I honestly don’t give a shit what you think.”
Damien nodded. “You probably don’t, but I promise you that you won’t make it out of this alive. I’ll happily die if it means taking you with me and away from that money.”
Chris just laughed. “We’ll see.”
“Yeah,” said Damien. “We will.”
4
Damien had removed himself for the most part. Chris had seemed to regain some of his vitality after several bottles of beer, and he and Richard seemed to be having a grand old time as they laughed and hollered on the sofa. Jade was enjoying their company, too, but seemed to keep drifting off into her thoughts. Damien had noticed her several times staring into space.
Damien and Danni were sitting in the kitchen, sharing a bottle of red wine and sharing stories. Damien told her all about his friend, Harry, and how he was very sick. Danni had expressed her love for the theatre and did her best to convince Damien to try it one day if he ever got the chance. Her favourite show was The Lion King. He promised he would go see it.
“It’s pretty noble you being here to help your friend,” she said. “A much better reason than most of the other people in here, me included.”
“You’re not even supposed to be here,” he said. “If anybody deserves to get out of this, it’s you.”
Danni stroked his forearm with the tips of her fingernails. “Thanks. It’s terrible to say, but I hope both you and I get out of this.”
Damien sighed. “I’d like to see us all get through this alive, but I suppose, if it’s down to just two, then, yeah, I would like it to be me and you.”
She leant forward and kissed him. Then she picked up her glass of wine and held it aloft. “Here’s to you and me not dying.”
Damien picked up his own wine and clinked it against her glass. “And to you and me going and getting a drink some place a lot nicer than this.”
“Do you think Chris is going to be a problem?” she asked, her thoughts suddenly seeming to grow darker.
Damien nodded. “You can count on it. The guy is a psychopath.”
“It looks like he and Richard are getting pretty close.”
It was true. The men had been boozing together like a couple of old friends. They obviously understood that they were the pariahs of the group, but now that the numbers were so low, they had everything to gain by teaming up.
Damien cleared his throat and put down his glass. “That’s because Richard knows he’s on his own in here. No one has forgotten what he did to Lewis. The only person likely to condone that type of behaviour is Chris, so they make a good pair. In fact, they should fucking marry one another.”
Danni topped up the wine glasses. “They’re going to be much harder to deal with as a team. Chris being back could really hurt us.”
Damien took a swig of his wine. He was beginning to really enjoy the taste. He might even prefer it to beer. “We’ll take things as they come. Even if those two morons have each other’s backs it doesn’t matter, because you’ve got mine and I got yours.”
“What about Jade?”
“I think she’s starting to crumble. She hasn’t been herself the last day or so. She’s not even thinking about sides, but even if she was she would probably realise that she’s the odd one out now that Chris has arrived.”
Danni pulled some of her brown hair out of her face and looked over at Jade on the sofa who was still staring into space. “Too bad for her. She was doing so well.”
“Yeah, she’s a tough bird.” Damien finished off the last of his wine and realised that the bottle was empty. He looked at Danni and raised his eyebrows. “Another?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
Damien went over to the pantry and got another clutch of bottles. He placed two white in the fridge and took the remaining red one back to the counter. Danni unscrewed the top and began pouring.
“I’m glad I met you, Damien. If there’s anything good to be gained from this whole thing, it’s that.”
“Likewise,” said Damien. “Without you to talk to I think I might have gone insane.”
Danni sipped her wine and then chuckled. “Give it chance. There’s still time.”
Day 9
“GOOD MORNING HOUSEMATES. TODAY IS THE PENULTIMATE DAY OF THE COMPETITION. TODAY ONE OF YOU WILL DIE.”
Damien felt his heart beating. With things being so close to an end, everything seemed much more imminent. The lack of housemates meant that the chances of him being involved in a grizzly task were much higher. There was a one in five chance today that he might die, and those odds were only going to get worse.
“WILL ALL HOUSEMATES KINDLY ENTER THE GARDEN AND AWAIT INSTRUCTION.”
Everybody filed out into the garden. There was a light drizzle that threatened to get worse as thunder rumbled off in the distance. The sky above them was a brooding grey.
As if on cue, the courtyard platform began to raise, bringing with it the latest task for the housemates. This time the intended horror was clear.
“Oh God,” said Danni. “They’re sick. Totally sick! I’m not doing it.”
Damien grabbed her shoulder and gave her a reassuring shake. You can do this. There’ll be nothing to it.”
Risen up out of the ground was a wooden shelf fixed horizontally at head height. Affixed at spaced intervals were five glass bowls like old fashioned fish tanks, only much larger. At the bottom of each bowl was an opening covered by a folded leather flap. Inside each of the bowls were hundreds of swarming wasps.
“PARTICIPATION IN THIS TASK IS MANDATORY. INSIDE EACH OF THE GLASS BOWLS IS A COLONY OF SAXON WASPS. THEY HAVE BEEN AROUSED BY A CHEMICAL PHEROMONE AND ARE CURRENTLY IN ATTACK MODE. THE TASK AHEAD OF YOU IS AS FOLLOWS… PLACE YOUR HEADS INSIDE THE GLASS BOWLS. THE FIRST TWO PEOPLE TO REMOVE THEIR HEADS WILL PERFORM IN TONIGHT’S ELIMINATION TASK. PLEASE BEGIN.”
Damien swallowed a lump in his throat and stared at the buzzing fury in front of him. The yellow and black blur was an embodiment of ferocity. Their hundreds of tiny bodies made up a single attacking organism. And he was about to shove his face right in the middle of it.
“I don’t think I can do this,” said Danni. “In fact I can’t.”
“You have to,” said Damien
. “Or else you’ll end up in the elimination task and might die.”
“You’ll die now,” said Jade. “The Landlord said this task was mandatory. That means anyone who refuses gets the cuffs.”
Danni shook her head and looked like she was close to freaking out. Damien held her hand. “I can hold onto you from here,” he said. “Just close your eyes and take deep breaths. I promise I will get you through this.”
Danni looked at him. Her dark eyes were like saucers. But she nodded. “Okay.”
The five housemates stood in a line, looked at one another and then crouched below the leather flaps at the bottom of the bowls.
“After three,” said Jade. “One…two…three…”
All five housemates shoved their heads into the glass bowls. There was no screaming, just terrified silence broken only by buzzing. Damien closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, making sure to close up any entry into his body that the wasps could exploit.
The stinging began immediately.
Damien gritted his teeth harder as one sting became several became dozens. The pain was not at first agonising, but as the number of insect attacks increased the throbbing in his cheeks, forehead, and neck increased. The discomfort was added to by the repulsion of a thousand little legs creeping over his flesh.
Screw this!
Damien yanked his head down through the leather flap and leapt away. He batted at his face with both hands and spat and blinked fitfully.
He realised that everybody else was doing the same. There was nobody left with their head still inside the bowl and everyone was moving about the lawn and batting at their heads in the same way as him.
Danni looked up at him with a glowing red face. Her upper eyelid was swollen and a little black speck marked her. She looked truly miserable.
Damien approached her, ignoring the burning agony that engulfed his own face. “Hold still,” he said.
The Housemates: A Novel of Extreme Terror Page 15