by Mark Ayre
“Man, when did you guys last come in here?”
Eve knew what Doc meant. She had no doubt something had killed these men and women recently. It looked as though they’d died decades ago; that the organisation had left them to rot.
The area was empty of the living. From the circular space, eight doors led into various rooms or corridors. The heaviest and oldest looking of these led into the red room. Bar one, all options were silent.
Eve pointed to the room from which came the noises. Once she had everyone’s attention, she signalled those who were armed should raise their guns. That meant Omi, Doc and Eve. Graham was a weapon unto himself, and stepped forward, ready to launch.
Eve approached first. Now there were no signs of hell coming to call; she felt safe shielding them. Having already tangled with one monster and not ruling out the existence of more, she knew this invisible defence might not be enough.
As she stepped over a skeleton and proceeded towards the room, the door pulled back. Eve stopped, so did those behind her. There was a squeal. A man in his thirties with messy dark hair and jeans in his arms came tumbling out. He was topless. His boxers were on backwards. Falling to his knees, he raised his hands and squeaked.
“Pardon?” said Eve.
“Don’t shoot,” he said. “I surrender.”
His raised arms trembled as might trees atop an earthquake. Eve looked at her mother.
“You know him?”
“He’s a midwife. He delivered my baby.”
It was Hattie who had answered. She blushed when Eve turned her way, as though afraid she might have given an incorrect answer.
“I look after the mums,” said the midwife. “I help them give birth. I make sure their baby is okay. I’m not a bad guy.”
“Are you unaware of what happens to the women who enter the red room but do not come out pregnant?”
The midwife hung his head; said nothing.
“That’s what I thought. Sounds as though you’re complicit, and you know what that means?”
She raised her gun. A voice said, “Hang on.”
A woman, from the room from which the midwife had so recently been ejected.
“Who is it?” called Eve.
“Pandora. You’ve come to kill me, right? So maybe you should focus on that. Don’t waste bullets on Michael.”
“I wouldn’t consider it a waste,” said Eve. “More like a pleasure.”
“Oh sister of mine,” said Pandora. “You’re so cold. I love it.”
Eve tried not to look at her mother. Her grip tightened on her gun. She wanted to argue the point but had she not been about to end the life of a man on his knees, unarmed, arms raised in surrender?
“You don’t sound as though you were born today,” said Eve.
“You know why that is,” said Pandora.
“I do. Why don’t you come out, so I can kill you?”
“I’m like a mayfly. I’ll be dead by the end of the day. I’d like to enjoy what little time I have.”
Eve looked at the near-naked man, on his knees, trembling.
“Looks like you have been.”
Pandora laughed. “He made for adequate stress relief.”
“I’m glad,” said Eve. “Now come out before I kill him.”
“No, thank you. Echidna.”
“It’s Eve.”
“Actually,” said Omi. “Echidna is a primordial sea monster from Greek Mythology.”
Before Eve could sarcastically thank Omi for this tidbit, a door nearby burst open. Something entered the room.
“I think I know what happened to the skeletons,” said Doc.
The monster approached.
“You must be Echidna.”
The monster charged.
“I know what you’re thinking,” said Lucy through Rachel’s mouth. Her gun she pointed at Ursula, rather than Adam. Centre mass. Adam thought he knew why.
“I’m thinking you’re a bitch,” said Ursula, her expression sheet-white with fury. “Rachel was always kind to you. Made you feel included though you never deserved it. And you killed her. Just like that. Don’t you feel guilty?”
“I feel like I wasn’t talking to you,” said Lucy. “Aiming at you, talking to him. Learn the distinction and shut up. Now, Adam, what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking I’m going to kill you.”
“I know how you escaped your cell. The idiots that staffed this place couldn’t see the truth when it was staring them in the face; when it was the only solution that made sense. I know what you did, and I know what you’re thinking.”
“Still thinking I’m going to kill you.”
“You’re thinking,” Lucy said, unperturbed, “that you and Ursula can turn invisible, walk through any bullets I might fire, through the wall, and escape.” She tutted, shook her head.
“You don’t think that would work?”
“I know how your power tires you. I’d not have to wait long before you collapsed. Then you’d be mine.”
“I could be far enough away by then. You’d never catch me.”
“Far enough? Even carrying Ursula?”
Lucy had already lowered the gun. As she finished speaking, she pulled the trigger.
Ursula screamed. The bullet smashed her leg. The force of it spun her in a pirouette. As she tumbled, Adam moved, dropping to his knees and catching her, pulling her head into his lamp on the ground.
“So romantic,” said Lucy. “Let yourself down, though, haven’t you? You’re so angry at mum you forgot her teachings.”
Adam said nothing; partly because he was focusing on Ursula, mostly because he was furious at himself. Lucy was right. He could have turned invisible and untouchable straight away and taken Lucy out. He let her talk, now this.
Removing the jacket from his back, he threw it around Ursula’s leg, tying it to stem the flow of blood as best he could. If he tried to carry her while using his power, he was unconvinced he’d reach the door.
“I’m sorry,” he said. Ursula was in too much pain to reply.
“This is sweet,” said Lucy. “But you’re wasting time dealing with her. Come on, talk to me. That’s why we’re here, after all.”
Adam kept his focus on Ursula but listened to Lucy. There was only so much he could do for Graham’s mother while trapped with his armed, insane sister.
“I thought you wanted to escape?” said Adam.
“Which shows you’re not so smart. If I wanted to escape, I would have fled when it kicked off. I went looking for Ursula. Found Rachel instead and took her form just in time to team up with the monster’s beautiful mother. Been a bit of rollercoaster since then.”
“So Ursula was your target all along? You were just waiting for the opportune moment?”
Lucy smiled a deadly smile. It did not fit the face she wore. Sidestepping, she kept her gun trained on Ursula while referencing the walls.
“I wish I was a big enough person to expunge vanity. Alas, I’m only human. Possibly half.”
Upon entering the room, it was the walls that had caused Adam to stop short and gasp. Every available inch Lucy had covered with headshot photographs and pictures; from a camera, out of magazines, printed from the internet. Each image overlapped or was overlayed by at least three others. In places, the tacked up pictures ran as many as five or six layers deep with older faces buried like the bodies of Lucy’s victims.
Having spent his life on the run, Adam was not up on popular culture, past or present. Still, some faces he recognised as those of the ultra-famous. He had no doubt many were of B listers with whom he was not familiar. Many more clearly depicted ordinary men and women, out and about, minding their business. Each with no idea, Lucy was taking their photo.
“I love being beautiful,” said Lucy. “I idolise the female form. On occasion, I have tried being male, but it’s never the same. The faces you see here are faces I would like to wear. Some I have worn. Most are unobtainable. None are so beautiful as Ursula. She is the ulti
mate prize and for so long the cruellest trick. My greatest desire kept so close but forbidden. At least, until now.”
Lucy tilted her head to look at Ursula, as though expecting a response. None came, so the maniac shrugged.
“But she is only half of it,” Lucy continued. “Once I have the perfect face and body, I would like the perfect companion. Not sexually, because sex doesn’t interest me. Someone with whom I can share everything, with whom I can form a true bond. That is something I have never known, but you’re my brother, and today this great absence in my life will be rectified.”
A dreamy look had come across her face. Her hands appeared to be loose upon the gun. Adam could almost believe Lucy was ripe for the taking.
Her finger remained on the trigger. Adam suspected a lot of what he saw was an act. He was not confident enough to go for the takedown.
“You can’t be serious?” he said.
“Whyever not?”
“How would we ever bond?”
This confused her.
“You’re my brother,” she said. Big brothers protect their little sisters. I’ve read about it and seen it on the telly.”
“You’re a monster. You killed Bethany, shot Ursula, and have murdered many more.”
“We have our differences. We’ll bicker, that’s okay. We’re siblings. That means we forgive each other’s flaws, no matter what.”
Adam almost laughed. “You’re demented.”
Lucy closed her eyes, but only for a second. Her jaw was tense. Adam could see how she held her temper. Scarily, she looked a lot like Eve or his mother as she did.
“We’ll talk about this later,” she said. “For now, I need to act, before Ursula bleeds out. I’m able to take the form of the dead, but you don’t want to see the result. Trust me. Not pretty, no matter how stunning or fresh the subject. Stand back.”
She stepped forward.
Adam rose.
“Stay where you are.”
“Remember who has the gun,” she said, pointing it at him. “I want us to bond, Adam, but don’t think I won’t put a bullet in you if you try to get in my way.”
“You think shooting me would help us bond?”
“Siblings fight,” said Lucy. “Sometimes, one party gets injured, but they kiss and makeup in the end. That’s how it works.”
She took another step forward, then paused again.
“Oh, and if you have the power to make her inaudible, I’d do that now.”
Another step.
“When I do this, my subjects tend to scream.”
On twelve scorpion-like legs, the ten-foot-high monster sped towards the shield, battering it with at least as much force as had the previous beast.
Shockwaves almost toppled Eve. The assault on her previous shields had left her knackered. When Echidna began pummelling the invisible barrier with three fists, Eve flinched with every blow.
From the room they had initially approached, Pandora emerged, wrapped in a towel, beaming with triumph. She appeared to be in her forties, though she had been born that day. She ruffled Michael’s hair.
“You’re okay now, sweetpea.”
“Don’t count on it,” said Eve.
The threat had less effect than it might have, as Eve strained under Echidna’s constant barrage against her shield.
“Guns at the ready,” she said. Doc and Omi obliged. As Eve tried to raise her weapon, it slipped between her fingers. She was afraid if she stooped to collect it, the shield would break.
Pandora laughed. “This is pathetic, pointless. The door will open. Humanity will fall. Maybe you have thirty seconds to stop it. You never will. You can’t kill me and hold the shield. To destroy me, you’d have to let your little team die.”
Eve looked at Grendel, who growled at her to release the shield, to let her take on the beast. At Sandra and Doc, who feared death. At Omi and Delilah who might have died to save the world but could not face losing each other. At Hattie, who cared only for her daughter, and at Cassandra, who might sacrifice herself but wanted no other fatalities. Eve wasn’t sure how she herself felt.
“Even without your brother, your heart still spells your downfall.”
Her smile was almost unbearable. Perhaps it was this smug look that caused Sandra to collect Eve’s gun and shoot Cassandra in the head.
“Don’t do this.”
Lucy kept the gun on him. Leaning over, she reached towards Ursula’s leg. Her proposed victim was taking long, ragged breaths, trying to deal with the pain of the bullet. When Adam spoke, Ursula looked at him. Adam met her eye, then returned to Lucy.
“I know you think siblings can get through anything,” he continued. “That’s not true, but I think I can forgive what you did to Bethany.”
Adam expected Lucy to meet this statement with suspicion. She beamed.
“Really?”
Adam tried to keep his face relaxed as he nodded. That she found it so easy to believe he could forgive showed how unhinged Lucy was. All the years of wearing the faces’ of others had left her so unbalanced it was amazing she remained standing.
“In time,” he said, after loosening his jaw. “You didn’t know me then. You were following mum’s orders. Bearing that in mind, I can overlook it.”
“Thank you, oh thank you, Adam, I’m so glad to—”
He raised a hand to silence her. She nodded with some contrition.
“I can forgive you for Bethany, but for what you’re about to do, no way. If you murder Ursula after I’ve asked you not to, even as your brother, I can’t move past such a betrayal.”
Lucy stared. She looked at Ursula then back to Adam. Her eyes filled with confusion, as though she was trying to process his words but could not quite make them fit what TV and books had taught her.
“Do you know who Francis was?” Adam said, trying another angle.
“Of course,” said Lucy. “He was in charge of capturing you before mum took over. He was a failure.”
“He was,” said Adam. “For years, he still made our lives miserable. When we came face to face with him, Eve—”
“Don’t talk about her,” Lucy said. Adam was surprised by the ferocity in her voice. He raised his hands.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know that was a problem. Eve’s your sibling too, you know?”
A twitch had appeared above Lucy’s right eye. Though her gun remained aimed at Adam’s chest, her hands shook. Here was a maniac used to murdering without hesitation anyone who upset her. With all her might, she was fighting that impulse.
“You may not like to talk about her,” Adam proceeded. “But my point is she wanted to kill Francis for all he’d done. I asked her to let him live, and she did because that’s what brother and sister teams do.“
Lucy again glanced at Ursula, but for only a second. When she returned to Adam, she seemed to have curtailed her desire to kill him for upsetting her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “When I was little, mum would tell me stories about you and Eve. At night, I would relive the stories in my dreams by taking Eve’s place. You and I would flee our pursuers. We’d destroy those who got in our way.”
Adam was amazed to see a tear in Lucy’s eye. Emotion was overcoming her. It did not compel her to drop the gun.
“I know it’s silly,” she said, “but I grew to resent Eve. Still, I get your point. You’re my brother. If I want to develop a trusting relationship with you, I should grant this favour. Right?”
“That’s right.”
Her eyes remained wet. Her face lit when Adam confirmed she’d answered correctly. Her hand was still far too close to Ursula for comfort.
“I’ve always dreamed of being beautiful.”
“And you will be,” said Adam. “Ursula ain’t the most beautiful girl in the world. We’ll find someone else.”
Lucy was nodding. “Yes, yes, I can find someone else.” She almost glanced at Ursula one more time, then stopped. Looked at Adam.
“You’ll let me kill someone else?�
�
At last, suspicion came. Lucy was so desperate for Adam to be her willing brother that desire had overpowered logic. Now logic began to fight back.
“I wouldn’t want to watch you do it but…” Adam shook his head. “No, I’m sorry, I’d never let you murder someone, nor will I have to stop you. You’ll be dead, and in dying, you’ll save the world. Not that I need that reason to murder you, after everything you’ve done.”
The twitch became a spasm. Fury rushed into every inch of Lucy’s expression and frame.
“You liar. You hateful liar. I only ever wanted to be your sister.”
“You shouldn’t have killed Bethany or shot Ursula. You should haven’t tortured an innocent girl and arranged it so I would kill her.”
“Fuck you,” said Lucy. “I’m taking Ursula’s face. You see if you can draw that little pistol in time to stop me.”
“I’m not the only one with a gun.”
“Wha—”
The bullet smashed into Lucy’s side and threw her with considerable force into the wall. Adam looked at Ursula, who let the shotgun fall upon her chest, then gave Adam a chiding look.
“What do you mean I ain’t the most beautiful girl in the world?”
Eve spun towards Cassandra, hand out, shouting, “No.”
The distraction followed by the action did not spell the shield’s end. It sufficiently damaged the structural integrity of the barrier that when next it faced Echidna’s fists, it shattered.
The broken energy hit Eve and sent her tumbling across the room.
The monster roared. Doc and Omi began to fire while Grendel roared and pounced, and Sandra fled.
“Get out,” Omi roared to Hattie and Delilah. “Go now.”
At first, Omi and Doc had been firing into the beast’s mask-like face. The bullets seemed to vanish upon meeting the white sheet but did no damage. They moved to firing at the muscular torso.
Two of the beast’s hands met Doc’s chest like rocket powered sledgehammers, sending him screaming across the room, crashing into a work station, landing on the crumbling remains of two of Echidna’s previous victims.
“Go, go, go,” Omi shouted.