A life with a monster is no life at all.
A life with a monster is no life at all.
A life with a monster is no life at all.
Fawn took a breath so deep it almost split the seams of her dress.
‘I… do not,’ she said and immediately stepped forward into Lawrence’s line of fire. The pearl, travelling at seventeen hundred miles per hour, alongwith the little ball of cotton wool that Walter had wedged down the barrel to keep the pearl from falling out in Lawrence’s pocket, only had to travel a mere inch through the air before it pierced Fawn’s left temple, shattered her skull and lodged itself in her brain. The lights blacked out and so the audience didn’t see Fawn slump to the floor, but Lawrence felt her body fall at his feet.
‘Bring up the lights! THE LIGHTS!’ Lawrence yelled. Danny relayed the order in the wings, Eddie gave the signal and the lights slowly came up to reveal Fawn’s body to the audience.
‘NO!’ Walter couldn’t look away. Her eyes were open but glassy and he vomited at the sight of her.
‘I demand to know what’s happened!’ Hamish shouted. The crowd jostled, and the sound of sobs echoedthrough the air. Some could see that this was not a part of the show at all, but some were still trying to figure out how the clever trick had been done. The crew and most of the cast ran on stage to see what the commotion was but as soon as they saw her, no one moved any closer. They all simply stood in a circle, looking down at the body of the girl they once knew, her blood pouring from her andtrickling down the rake of the stage. They all knew there was nothing they could do. She was already gone.
‘Someone needs to explain what’s happened!’ Hamish kept shouting.
‘Hamish,’ Lawrence said, tears starting to spill from his eyes.
‘I demand to know!’
‘HAMISH!’ Lawrence yelled. ‘This… this was an accident.’ Lawrence still had the gun in his trembling hand. He kneltdown and placed it on the stage.
‘Was it? We all know what sort of man you are, Hamish,’ spat one of the ensemble girls. ‘We all know what you did to her.’
‘You drove her to it,’ spat another. ‘We barely knew her because you kept her to yourself. Locked away.’
‘She only had to speak to someone other than you and she’d end up battered and bruised.’
‘Keep your voicesdown,’ Hamish hissed.
‘Or what? We’ll end up like her?’ said Lawrence. ‘No. Maybe I was wrong and this wasn’t an accident. This is… this is murder.’ Some of the boys came to Lawrence’s side, let him lean on them as he covered his mouth, not sure of what else to say.
‘Murder…?’ Hamish looked at Fawn’s limp body. ‘Who was it, exactly, who murdered her?’
Randall came up closebehind Walter so that he could feel the gun in the small of his back. ‘Run.’
Walter turned to face him. ‘No,’ he said, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.
‘Walter. I’m warning you.’
‘They’re looking for amurderer, Randall. You kill me now and you’ll be the one they’re looking for. And your boss? The finger is already being pointed in his direction and I don’t know if this isthe sort of thing Hamish will be able to bribe the police to overlook.’ Walter could feel another wave of nausea pass through him, but he swallowed it down. ‘This is the problem with making enemies, Randall. When things spiral out of your control, no one will have a problem pointing the finger at you, whether you’re to blame or not.’ Randall lowered the gun as Walter’s words sank in.
‘Aslong as you remember one thing, Walter.’ Randall quickly put his gun back in his waistband. ‘It was you that loaded the gun that killed her.’ He ran back down the wing and left, Walter hoped, for good.
‘Is… is she dead?’ asked a man from the audience, but those on stage remained silent and staring. No one had the words to express what had just happened. All they knew was that Fawn was gone.The ensemble girls clutched each other’s hands. The boys around Lawrence all held each other’s shoulders. A lady in the front row wiped her tears with her handkerchief and wobbled to a standing position. Her husband in the seat next to her did the same. The man who had been concerned enough to raise his voice now raised himself out of his seat as did the group of men with whom he had attended.One by one, every member of the audience, not able to take their eyes off the actress centre stage, rose to their feet and bowed their heads, giving Fawn her final standing ovation.
