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 were 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.”
25
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 rise, 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 tripled. 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.
Danni stopped wriggling and kept her weeping eyes on him.
Damien reached out a hand and moved his fingers toward her face. “Don’t move and don’t blink.” He grasped the stinger between his thumb and forefinger and plucked it from Danni’s eyelid.
She flinched.
Damien held the insect appendage in front of her. “It was stuck in your eyelid.”
Danni groaned. Her lips were fat and swollen, like she’d had a collagen injection. “That really sucked,” she said.
“I know. But who pulled out first? When I pulled out and opened my eyes, everybody else was out too.”
Danni shrugged.
“HOUSEMATES JADE AND DANNI. YOU WILL BE IN TONIGHT’S HEAD TO HEAD ELIMINATION.”
“Guess that answers your question,” said Danni. “Looks like it’s finally my turn.”
26
Danni and Jade were standing outside the door to the elimination chamber and waiting for the go ahead. Danni was holding herself nervously, so Damien went over to give her a pep talk.
“Just keep a level head and you’ll be fine. Jade is erratic, you can benefit from that.”
“If I benefit then that means Jade dies.”
“If you don’t, then you die.”
Danni nodded. Her face was still very swollen from the wasp stings. She had the features of someone six stones heavier. “Good point. I feel really sick.”
Damien put his hands on her shoulders. “Just breathe slowly. Don’t think about anything but what you’re doing right now.”
“HOUSEMATES DANNI AND JADE, PLEASE ENTER THE ELIMINATION CHAMBER.”
Danni gave Damien a last fleeting look and smiled. “Here I go. Wish me luck.”
“Good luck.”
Damien went and took a seat on the sofa. He could see everything inside the cube room via the viewing screen in the living area.
Danni and Jade stood in the white room, side by side. In front of them was a large metal disc. It was a circular saw. Damien groaned when he spotted it. On the floor next to it, hooked through a series of steel rings, was a sturdy rope.
“HOUSEMATES DANNI AND JADE, PLEASE PICK UP THE ROPE IN FRONT OF YOU FROM OPPOSITE ENDS.”
Reluctantly, the two women did as they were asked. They held the rope up between them like they were about to engage in tug-of-war.
The metal saw disc started spinning. After a few slow revolutions it kicked into gear and became a lethal blur of sharp teeth.
“HOUSEMATES, THE GAME IS SIMPLE. PULL YOUR OPPONENT INTO THE CENTER OF THE ROOM. PLEASE BEGIN.”
Jade and Danni just stood there and stared at one another with terror-filled eyes. Then Jade yanked the rope. Danni went stumbling forward, towards the spinning blade.
Damien lurched to the edge of his seat in the living area and let out an anxious breath.
Danni managed to stop herself just in time. Less than half a foot away from the saw blade she managed to dig in her heels and pull back on the rope. Jade stumbled forwards in response and the two women were back to where they started.
Both of them started to pull and strain, the effort making their already red faces turn beetroot within seconds. They were in a physical battle for their lives.
“Come on, Jade,” Chris shouted. “Give that skinny bitch a ride on the wheel.”
Damien stood up from the sofa and faced Chris who was standing behind it. “I’d be quiet if I were you.”
Chris just smirked.
Jade began to gain a slight advantage and Danni started to slide along the floor. Her bare feet kept turning and adjusting as she tried to gain purchase, but she was slowly losing.
Jade’s teeth showed as she grunted with effort. She yanked the rope like a dog with a chew toy. The more she began to gain a few steps, the more determined she seemed to get. The fact that she was pulling an innocent woman to her death was apparently not in her mind.
Danni gritted her teeth and leant back, almost horizontal. She managed to get the rope going the other way. Jade began to slip and slide; she lost her footing and fell down to her bottom.
Danni yanked harder and dragged Jade to within inches of the whirring blade. Her eyes stretched wide as she stared into the spinning death.
Jade managed to pull back a few feet and a stalemate ensued. Both women groaned and huffed as they fought desperately to gain an inch on their opponent.
Damien and the others watched breathlessly from the other room. Even Chris had his mouth shut.
Jade yanked, Danni stumbled.
Danni got a grip.
Danni yanked.
Jade stumbled.
“HOUSEMATES DANNI AND JADE, YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES TO DECIDE A VICTOR OR BOTH OF YOU WILL DIE.”
Neither women could afford to show a reaction to The Landlord’s statement, but the increased effort showed on their faces. They had now gone bright purple and their eyeballs bulged.
Jade was the first to slip. One of her ankles turned inwards and she lost her purchase. Danni took advantage and summoned the last of her strength reserves. Jade slid on her heels, unable to dig in. The spinning saw blade got closer and closer.
Jade managed to strike her heels into the ground just a few inches away from the lethal metal teeth. She looked at Danni, her eyes wide and pleading, her chest heaving in and out. “Please!” she said.
Then Danni gave the rope one final yank and Jade went stumbling forward.
Watching the viewing screen, Damien cried out in horror. He had expected the blade to saw Jade clean in two, but it didn’t. Jade fell onto the blade and it quickly hollowed out her insides. Her head and neck and waist and legs remained intact, but her middle was gone. She slumped to the floor with the saw blade continuing to spin inside of her. It almost looked like a part of her torso.
The bracelet on Danni’s right hand snapped open and fell to the floor.
27
Danni came out of the elimination chamber covered in blood. She had a faraway gaze on her face that suggested she may have lost a part of herself to the horror. Damien led her over to the sofa and gently sat her down. Jade’s video had already begun to play on the television screen.
“My brother was stabbed twenty nine times and left to rot on the bathroom floor,” said a middle-aged woman with brown hair greying around the temples. “His head was almost hanging off. I knew that Jade was the one who did it. She was a manipulative bitch from the day my brother met her. They argued and fought all the time if she didn’t get her way, and I had seen her lose her temper several times. All the drugs they were doing together just made things worse. When Jade had been doing coke, her temper was insane. She’s the only one who could have killed my brother.
But the police found nothing to stick. They found the knife but no fingerprints. They caught Jade out in a few lies, but nothing conclusive. The fact that she was high all the time meant that anything she said could not be verified one way or the other. No one was ever brought to trial and my brother’s murder is still unsolved – officially. I know that Jade did it, though. And now she’s going to face my trial…my punishment.”
The viewing screen went blank. The Landlord’s voice came over the speakers.
“CONGRATULATIONS REMAINING HOUSEMATES, TOMORROW IS YOUR FINAL DAY INSIDE THIS HOUSE. SOME OF YOU WILL DIE, SOME OF YOU WILL GO FREE. GOOD LUCK AND SLEEP WELL.”
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Day 10
Everyone worked together at breakfast to fry up sausages, eggs, bacon, toast, and mushrooms. For some of them – perhaps all of them – it could be their final meal. They all ate their morning feast in silence.
They all felt the loss of Jade harder than any of the other housemates. She had been loud and ever-present, the mouth of the house. Her loss was a silent hole in the atmosphere.
Can’t believe she was a cold blooded murderer, Damien thought. I had her more pegged as a reformed drug addict or a thief. Well, maybe what happened was what got her straight. Maybe she was trying to put the past behind her.
Well, guilty or not, at least I can stop worrying who the ‘murderer’ is. All that’s left is the ‘peddler’, the ‘crusader’, and the ‘traitor’. I wonder which one is Danni and which one is Richard?
“I wonder how long we have,” said Danni, placing down her knife and fork on her empty plate. “I mean until the tasks begin.”
Richard shrugged. “Not long I suppose. I didn’t sleep a wink last night. Think it’s the first time I’ve ever been afraid.”
“That’s quite an admission,” said Damien. “You’re not really the vulnerable type.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I plan on leaving you all for dead, but I can’t help but freak out about what I’ve just lived through and what’s still left ahead of me. There’s no way to truly survive this thing. Even the winners can’t exactly just go back to their old lives like nothing happened. This crap will stain our souls forever.”
“Maybe that’s the point,” said Damien. “Maybe we’re supposed to learn a lesson and be better people than we were.”
Richard nodded his head, almost imperceptible, and then went to say something, but Chris cut him off.
“When I get out of here, I’m going to be rich – with balls of steel to boot. Surviving this thing is going to make me feel like a fucking legend; walking away when everyone else is dead…pretty epic!”
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