‘We’renot in love —’ Oscar fumbled.
‘Oh, oh…’ Hamish made Olive pout. ‘I can hear her crying inside.’ Suddenly, Olive’s empty hand flung out and leant against the railing for support. She took in a deep breath and the blue in her eyes faded just for a moment. She looked down at Oscar.
‘Oscar… he’s in my head,’ she cried. ‘I can hear what he’s thinking.’
‘Olive, stay with us!’ Waltercalled up to her, but she was already crying out in pain as her skin started to crackle again, this time more furiously.
‘MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!’ she begged but her face snapped into serenity and she stood up straight once more. ‘Goodness me, she puts up a fight. Now, where were we.’ Hamish made her place the gun back against her head. ‘Youtook my girl fromme, so it only seems rightthat I take the one that replaced her. She’s not quite as elegant as Fawn, a little clumsy, but pretty enough…’ Hamish made Olive run a hand down the front of her body and this time Oscar really did run to the ladder.
‘Oscar, don’t!’ Walter shouted, but it was too late. Oscar climbed up the ladder as fast as his body would allow him and he was met by the gun now pointing directly betweenhis eyes.
‘Hello, Oscar. How lovely to meet you.’ Olive was grinning from ear to ear but now that he was up close Oscar could see that, despite the blue, her eyes were still her own. They were wide and panicked with tears constantly spilling out of them, down her cheeks and collecting underneath her chin. ‘Originally, I wanted Walter, but he’s got so old now, the day he dies is probablysooner than expected and where’s the fun in that? No, Wally, bless him, always seemed like a caring fellow when he wasn’t plotting my murder. It’d be much more fun to watch the guilt eat him alive for the rest of his numbered days knowing one of you was killed because of his own foolish past mistakes.’ A laugh slipped out of Olive’s mouth which made her lips contort in a way that briefly changedher whole face and Oscar worried that Hamish wasn’t ever going to leave her. ‘It didn’t matter which of you I killed. I thought I’d managed to crush you with that light earlier, but it turned out it was just another one of the theatre mice.’
‘You… thought Doug was me? That light was meant for me?’ Oscar said, glancing down at the shattered light in the corner.
‘Oh no, is the guiltsetting in? What does that feel like, I wonder?’
‘It feels like this,’ Olive managed to whisper, and she let all the guilt she could muster flood through her body. She thought of Doug never being able to use his arm again because of something she could have stopped had she not been so foolishly in love with Oscar. She stumbled backwards, Hamish clearly not enjoying the feeling of caringabout anyone other than himself.
‘Olive, if you’re in there,’ Oscar said quietly, as if Hamish wouldn’t be able to hear, ‘put the gun down.’
‘Do you really think it’s that easy?’ Hamish tried to make Olive put the gun back under her chin, but her arm started to shake, like there was a resistant force pushing against it. ‘You couldn’t stop me taking back my revolver or stealing apearl necklace. What makes you think you’ll be able to stop what’s coming next?’
‘I think Olive’s stronger than you think she is,’ Walter called up.
‘This little thing?’ Hamish said, but Olive’s voice was shaking and changing in pitch. ‘She’s no match for me.’
‘Oh no?’ Oscar crossed his arms and watched in amusement as Olive fought against Hamish inside her. Hamish pushedto the left, but Olive pushed to the right. Hamish tried to pull back the hammer of the revolver, but Olive wouldn’t let him lift her thumbs. Olive’s eyes were still streaming but focused whilst Hamish clenched her teeth tightly together.
Walter watched from the stage, wishing he was able to do something, but his time of climbing up that ladder was long since over.
‘Fawn, where areyou?’ he whispered and immediately the air fizzled with a warm yellow light that wrapped around him and a voice in his ear whispered, ‘Always here.’
He followed the trail of crackling yellow all the way up to the fly floor where the little bursts of flame all joined together to create one single blazing ball of light. It floated slowly and quietly behind Olive where Oscar could see it andhe got ready to warn Olive, but a soft voice hushed him in his ear. As he closed his mouth, a calmness washed through him, as if he knew everything was going to be all right. The ball started to get brighter and brighter and crackle louder and louder and the fight between Hamish and Olive ceased. Hamish turned around in Olive’s body and before he had a chance to make Olive react, the ball of lightflew forwards and into Olive’s chest and simultaneously a ball of blue flew out from between her shoulder blades. The gun slipped out of Olive’s hand, over the railing and plummeted towards the stage where Walter awkwardly dashed forward as best he could to catch it.
It was then he heard a loud crackling in his ear and along with it, a laugh he knew so well, because it often haunted hisdreams. Walter turned to face the light that hovered, still, for a moment, its bolts of lightning reaching out like hands before it zipped towards him. And even though Walter’s legs wouldn’t have let him run away anyway, he stood still and welcomed the impact of the blow.
The force of Fawn expelling Hamish from Olive’s body had sent Olive flying backwards into Oscar where he was ready tocatch her. Olive’s hair was singed and smoking, and her arms were peppered with little burns, like someone had held a cigarette to her skin over and over.
‘Olive? Olive!’ He shook her gently and patted her cheek but when her eyes finally opened, they glowed yellow.
‘I’ll only borrow her for a moment, I promise.’ The voice was more like Olive’s own but much more refined – still notthe voice of the girl he knew. Fawn quickly guided Olive to her feet and looked down onto the stage where Walter was bent double, his hands rested on his knees facing away from them.
‘I’m too weak to fight him, Fawn.’
Hamish turned Walter’s body, which was overcome with blue electricity.
‘Your mind isn’t,’ Fawn smiled, and Olive let her.
‘It never was but even whenI was younger and stronger, I never fought for you like I should have.’
‘Had you fought the way Hamish fought, I wouldn’t have been in love with you.’ She smiled, and even though Oscar knew it wasn’t Olive speaking, he still felt that familiar twinge of jealousy at hearing her say she loved someone else.
‘Well, that’s some comfort, I suppose.’ Walter smiled as his shaking arm raisedthe revolver up to the fly floor at Olive. ‘Argh…!’ Sweat dripped down the bridge of Walter’s nose.
‘Is there anything I can do, Walter?’ Oscar got to his feet and jumped in front of Olive.
‘All I ask is that whilst I’m holding him off, you listen to me. That girl up there, and that’s Olive, I mean… she’s a good one.’
