The Lunatic Messiah

by Simon Cutting

  I run down the stairs as fast as I can, and on the way up I pass Gavrilo and Lucy. Lucy smiles at me with her many teeth and holds out her hand, as has become her habit.

  'Come with me and watch the fun!' she says.

  Gavrilo is wearing his long leather coat and underneath it I can see the bulge of his revolver as he brushes past me on the carpeted stairs of the apartment building.

  'What exactly did you do to your hand anyway? It looks like stigmata,' Lucy says, gesturing at the long jagged scar.

  'Maybe I died for my sins,' I say, trying not to let her distract me from whatever it is I'm trying to do, whatever it is.

  Lucy laughs and her blonde hair swishes around her shoulders as she throws back her head.

  'Sometimes I think it would be a pity if you died. But not often.'

  She pushes her thumbnail hard into the palm of my hand and I grimace and break away.

  'There's one on the back of your neck as well,' she says as I run past her and Gavrilo to the top of the stairs where I slam the door to the apartment behind me and bolt it.

  'Did you lock that door last night?' I hear Evan say to Ada from over by the balcony where they are still eating breakfast.

  'I thought you did,' replies Ada, placing down her fork.

  I reach up and feel my neck, and sure enough, Lucy is right. There is another raised scar, running the length of my neck. There is no pain with this one, which is why I didn't notice it, but it's yet another mystery. I can't help but wonder what I did to injure myself so severely in three different places.

  There is a sharp knock at the door, three times in quick succession and Ada looks curiously at Evan and then gets up to answer it. She wraps her robe more tightly around herself and pushes past me to look through the spy hole. She pulls back her head and tries the other eye.

  'Who is it? It's early,' Evan says, finishing off his tea.

  'I don't know. I can't see anything,' Ada replies stepping back.

  I put my own eye up to the hole and I can instantly tell that Lucy is covering it with her finger from the faint red light that shines through her blood vessels.

  'Lucy! Let my peephole go!' I shout, desperate for Evan and Ada to realise the danger they are in, but all I hear is a faint, girlish giggling.

  There is another loud authoritative knock on the door.

  'Who is it?' calls out Ada, with a tinge of nervousness in her voice.

  'This is Gavrilo Yama of the Excessive Violence Squad,' replies Gavrilo, and as he says it, the door explodes inwards, the wood cracking around the bolt and hitting Ada in the face.

  She falls to the floor clutching her nose, and I can see a thin trickle of blood seeping out from between her fingers. Evan gets to his feet in surprise, but he is only wearing his boxer shorts and he looks far from intimidating as Gavrilo reaches underneath his coat and draws the revolver. Lucy is standing behind her father, her eyes sparkling. Her ears prick up at Ada's muffled moaning like Lassie hearing a child fall down a well. I move between Ada and Gavrilo, desperate to stop him but feeling completely powerless.

  'Step aside, Mr Finch,' Lucy says politely, and Gavrilo turns to look at her.

  'You talking to your imaginary friend again?'

  'All friends are imaginary,' she replies.

  Gavrilo enters the room, motioning for Lucy to close the mangled door behind them.

  'What do you want?' Evan manages to stammer.

  'Oh nothing much. Mr Grey has been so pleased with your recent courier work that he's decided to give you both a promotion.'

  'It's a fabulous opportunity. This will be in all the papers,' Lucy adds.

  Gavrilo flips open the chamber of his revolver and allows the bullets to fall into his palm. He then holds one up in front of him so that they can both clearly see it, and reloads it. Spinning the chamber he points the gun at Ada's head.

  'One in six, Ada. Are you feeling lucky?'

  Both Evan and I scream, and I turn my head away. Our screams drown out the clicking sound of an empty chamber. Lucy can barely contain her disappointment at the lack of splattered brains on the carpet. Evan rushes forwards but Gavrilo points the gun at him and he pauses.

  'One in five, Evan.'

  He pulls the trigger and this time both Ada and Evan let out a little cry of terror. The gun clicks again and Ada screams and then bursts into tears. Evan kneels down beside her and puts his arms around her, shielding her with his body.

  'What's this all about? Whatever we did, I'm sure we can fix it,' pleads Evan as he examines the damage to Ada's nose.

  It's slight, and already it has stopped bleeding, but there is clearly going to be a bruise. Gavrilo walks over to the table and places his revolver on it, surveying the empty plates.

  'So this was your last meal,' he says. 'I hope it was a good one.'

  'Bacon,' murmurs Ada.

  I walk over to where Gavrilo is standing, whilst Lucy watches on in amusement. The others are still ignoring me but she seems fixated on what I'm doing, as well she should. I slide the gun to the edge of the table and remove the single bullet whilst Gavrilo is talking. He has his hands behind his back like an orator of old, pacing back and forth as he talks.

  'There's a certain purity in death, don't you think? Life is so messy and uncertain. There are no definitive answers or actions and everything becomes just a matter of spin and faulty memory. But death! Death is pure. The way a person dies remains the same throughout the rest of time. It's a final, perfect moment that transcends the ambiguity of life.'

  Lucy shakes her head with embarrassment as Gavrilo picks up the revolver again. He points it at the two, apparently aiming for Evan, who puts his hands in front of his face as if he means to catch the bullet.

  'Um, Gavrilo?' she says.

  'One in four... what? Interruptions. You know, that's what she was always doing. That's why she's dead, so I don't care if you don't like to hear it, because you are exactly like your mother!'

  Lucy's eyes flash fire. There's a demonic glint to them, the opposite of the angelic light that shines from Gabriel. This is even stronger and brighter than truth; this is evil. Lucy just shrugs.

  'Nothing.'

  'Good. Okay, one in four,' Gavrilo says and pulls the trigger.

  Evan and Ada scream again, but Lucy and I know better. She walks over to me and sits down cross-legged at my feet to watch the show.

  'You two are lucky! I say lucky of course in a very narrowly defined sense. There are plenty of people luckier than you today, but in terms of just beating the odds you're doing very well. Of course, there's one thing you should always remember,' Gavrilo says. 'The house always wins. One in three.'

  Lucy buries her head in her hands, and I think she may be laughing but I'm not entirely sure. The noise that she emits is low and growling and certainly not the kind of sound that normally indicates amusement. The revolver clicks, and even Gavrilo looks surprised this time. Just as he looks at the gun, Evan leaps to his feet, his pale, thin body, launching through the air towards Gavrilo with a scream of rage. Gavrilo looks up with plenty of time to spare and raises the butt of his huge revolver, smashing it down on Evan's approaching face. He crumples to the floor pathetically, like a puppet with its strings cut, and Ada places her hand over her mouth to suppress a scream. Gavrilo looks down on the figure at his feet and kicks him hard in the ribs.

  'The survival instinct,' he begins, and Lucy groans at the tediousness of it all, 'is one of the strongest of all instincts. Stronger than sex, and certainly stronger than love. The thing you need to remember, my foolish little friend, is that it is based on survival of the fittest. You are not the top of this food chain. I am.'

  'You are a fucking idiot,' Lucy whispers to herself, and I can't help but agree with her.

  'One in two, children. Pray to whatever Gods will listen.'

  The gun clicks once more and Gavrilo looks at it incredulously.

  'This is absolutely unbelievable. I have never known anyone to make it right to the
end...'

  Lucy leaps to her feet with childlike enthusiasm and snatches the gun from his hand before he can stop her.

  'You want to see something really amazing?' she says and aims the gun directly at his head.

  'What are you doing?'

  Click. Lucy throws the empty revolver back to him and he catches it with fumbling hands. He flicks open the barrel and looks inside. I can see the six empty chambers with sunlight pouring through them from the balcony window behind him. He checks the floor and the table and actually scratches his head, which is not something I've ever seen a confused person actually do before.

  'Well where the hell is the bullet?' he says angrily, and Lucy points in my direction.

  'He took it out while you were verbally masturbating.'

  I hold up the bullet between my thumb and forefinger for all to see, and to my surprise, they all do. Evan and Ada look at me, their terror and confusion only heightened by my presence. Gavrilo is not so easily swayed. After a brief moment of bewilderment he takes a step towards me.

  'And who the fuck are you?' he snarls, trying to snatch the bullet from my hand.

  'I'm her imaginary friend,' I reply, and before either he or I know what is happening I thrust my head forwards and catch him on the bridge of the nose, knocking him to the floor.

  He throws his hands to his face and they gush with blood, just as Ada's had done, but Gavrilo's flow is even more copious. Evan and Ada have gotten to their feet now and are backing towards the door. Both of them have bleeding noses too, but Gavrilo's is quite clearly broken. He lets out a torrent of abuse so foul that a pimp would blush, but he sounds muffled and nasal. He sounds like a man with a broken nose. Lucy looks at me and smiles but she makes no move towards me.

  'Go downstairs. I'll be down there in a second,' I say to the terrified couple.

  They both take one more glance around the room and then run away. I can hear their bare feet clattering down the stairs as I head into their bedroom. Lucy follows me in, standing coyly by the doorway and watching as I throw some random clothes and money into a briefcase, as well as a pair of shoes for each of them. Fortunately, Ada doesn't seem to be the kind of girl who balances herself on six inch spikes, so they both have sneakers.

  'Where are you going to go?' Lucy says.

  'Why would I tell you?' I say as I push past her, just as Gavrilo is using the table to get to his feet in the living room.

  'Because I'll already know,' she replies.

  I pause and look at her, and her eyes flash again. Her face is having trouble holding her true appearance at bay but I don't know if she's bluffing or not. I don't know what she is or what she wants, but there's no time to contemplate it now.

  'Up north I suppose,' I lie.

  Lucy stares at me placidly as Gavrilo reaches into his pocket and begins to reload the revolver.

  'You're a dead man,' he says.

  'Very possibly,' I reply and run from the room, hauling the suitcase behind me.

  17