‘You do. But you haven’t admitted it to yourself yet. You try to conceal it. Keep your feelings hidden. But they still grow, inside you.’ Its voice made Khaos feel itchy, dirty, like insects were crawling over her skin, like she had walked through cobwebs.
‘We’re just friends!’ argued Khaos, scratching her shoulder scars unconsciously.
‘That’s what she thinks. But if she only knew what you really felt…’
‘She will never know. I don’t even understand what I feel. And it doesn’t matter anyway. She’s in love, and engaged.’
‘Ahh, yes…’ The image changed now, to the face of Mark, Carmen’s new fiancé. ‘She is with him.’
‘They are perfect together. And so happy.’ She could not even say it without the bitterness being apparent in her voice. She could also not help but feel that knot of angst in her chest at the sight of him, but she tried to ignore it. ‘What difference does it make if I have feelings? They’re only stupid, human feelings anyway. I will learn to control them.’ She remembered the spirit within her assuring her of this. ‘What do you care of my feelings anyway, demon?’
‘I just want to help you, poor soul.’
‘Help? What do you know of help? Why would you want to help me?’
‘I can see how you hurt, inside. I can show you how you can be happy. It is so easy. Don’t you want to be happy?’ It voice crept across her brain like a spider.
Khaos nearly replied, but stopped herself. What was she doing? Why was she listening to the voice of a demon? How could anything it said be helpful to her?
Realising she had let her guard down, she tried to be stern. ‘You don’t know happiness, demon Envy. All you know is how to destroy the happiness of others. You will never be truly happy.’
‘So you know my name then. Well I know yours. Or at least what you call yourself, Khaos, destroyer of worlds.’
‘I’m here to destroy you.’
‘Yes, that’s what the voice that possesses you wants you to do. But what does the real you want?’
‘What?’ The demon’s words echoed what Loka had said, the day before, when they had fought. How could it know all this? Was it a trick, to catch her off guard? Were they in league with each other, Loka and the demon?
Or was it the truth?
‘Cam?’ said a familiar voice from just outside the secret room. Khaos turned, slowly, to see Marla, standing and watching with her arms folded. She did not seem annoyed this time, but her face was pulled into that thoughtful, calculating look again.
‘Marla! I’m sorry… I was just… um…’ Khaos flailed for an excuse as to why she was in there, but her mind was blank. Meanwhile, the room had resumed a normal temperature, and the slithering voice was gone, for now.
‘I keep catching you out, don’t I Cam?’ she smiled oddly. ‘Something draws you to this room. You can feel a presence here, can’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘You’re trying to work it out, aren’t you? You want to know why this room is significant to me? I think you’ve nearly cracked it.’
‘You’ve heard… the whispering?’ suggested Khaos uncertain.
‘Yes. I knew you had heard it. Even on that first night when you first arrived here, you could sense it. I could tell by your face. No one else has noticed it, you know. They think it’s just a funny looking mirror I keep locked up.’
‘Really? Not even Carmen?’
‘Carmen? God, she is the most unobservant person ever. She wouldn’t notice if your throat was cut! She’s way too wrapped up in herself. You shouldn’t rate her so highly.’
‘I don’t…’
‘Yes you do. You like her, don’t you?’ She laughed at Khaos’s reaction. ‘Calm, down, Cam, I’m not saying you want to jump into bed with her. You just naturally like her. Everyone does, initially. She is very good at drawing you in, making you feel special. But she is extremely shallow. She is not like you and I, Cam.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘She doesn’t believe in the supernatural. Magic, sorcery, forces beyond human understanding. Whatever you want to call it. She has no concept of anything beyond her own little world. Not like you and I,’ she smiled conspiratorially at Khaos. ‘This is why I wanted you to stay, because I knew I could speak freely to you of my beliefs, and you would understand.’
‘And what do you believe?’ Khaos barely disguised the dread in her voice, as she foresaw what was to come.
‘I am a poor soul,’ she echoed the words of the mirror. ‘I long for happiness, but have never known it, and did not know how to find it. That is, until I found this mirror. Do you know, I was at an antique shop in Chelsea, I walk past it all the time, but never wanted to go in. Until one day, I felt drawn there, and what do you think I found?’
‘The mirror?’
‘Correct. It seemed to be asking me to buy it, so I did. In fact, it really did ask me to buy it. Since then, it has been talking to me, reassuring me, guiding me. I realised then that it has the power to show the future. Not a set-in-stone, unchangeable future, but the future you want, and how you can achieve it.’
‘So the mirror tells you what to do?’
‘No, you misunderstand. It doesn’t’ control me. It is trying to help me, by showing me the bigger picture. It gives me the strength, the confidence to achieve what I want in life, and if life doesn’t give it to me, then I have to reach out and take it!’ She smiled glassily; her eyes glimmering with that frightening madness again. ‘Do you understand, Cam?’
‘I think… I think I do.’ Khaos tried to stifle a shudder at that unblinking grin. ‘But what is so wrong with your life, that you need this thing? You’re wealthy, successful, young, beautiful…’
Marla waved a hand at her irritably. ‘That’s all very well, but when you’ve been overshadowed all your life by your prettier, younger sister, who really hasn’t done a day’s work in her life, who has achieved nothing except a few pretty photographs of herself in some magazines, and a reputation for over-the-top partying, all your efforts are wasted. No one seems to realise, let alone appreciate that I have been keeping the family business running since our parents died.’ A few tears escaped her eyes then, and she wiped them hastily. ‘All we ever get is bad press because of stupid things she does. Life would be a lot easier without her in the picture.’
‘Marla, what are you saying?’
‘I’m saying, I think I’ve worked out what I can use you for.’ Now her smile became triumphant. ‘My sister needs to disappear. And you will be the one to do it.’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
‘Marla, you surely can’t mean…’
‘Yes, yes I can. Everything would be much easier if she wasn’t around.’
‘But you don’t mean you want her… Dead?’ Khaos hated saying the word, yet she knew that this would happen, before she had arrived here; she had already seen it in dead time, that cold desert place where she could see the future. Yet now that she had got to know the two sisters, and lived with them here... And to ask her, Khaos, to do it, so blithely, as if it were nothing, a mere task that needed completing. A duty. It was unthinkable.
‘Dead is such a strong word. But poor Mother and father had to go through it. And think of the story she will leave behind. A poor sister, left on her own. A distraught fiancé. The media will mourn her. And then they will forget her. They will move on, to someone more deserving.’
‘Marla, you cannot imagine this! Killing off your sister, for sympathy! You cannot let your jealousy rule you!’ She stared at the mirror then, realisation dawned. ‘Did the mirror show you this?’
‘It showed me the bigger picture, and how to achieve it. Sacrifices must be made.’ She smiled strangely at Khaos’ shocked face. ‘Oh, I will miss her, don’t think I’m that heartless. But surely you can see that for my life to change, she must die?’
‘You can’t just kill people that get in your way! Especially your own sister! Surely you realise that?’ She glaredat Marla, who smirked, staring
off into the distance. Then Khaos turned her glare onto the hateful mirror, the cause of all this insanity. ‘This mirror has made you mad. You think it’s helping you, but it’s not. It’s making your actions selfish, and cruel. You will not find happiness this way, Marla, only more sorrow.’
‘What do you know of my sorrow? You don’t know what it’s like to be me! You don’t understand!’
‘Trust me Marla, I might not know what it’s like to be in your position, but I know what it is to be unsatisfied with the lot life has given you.’ She thought, painfully, of her own hopeless situation. ‘But having your sister killed is not the way.’
‘I’m tired of talking about it, Cam. It’s not a topic of discussion. It’s your Task. I order you to kill her.’ Marla’s face was now deadpan again.
‘But I can’t…’
‘You say that a lot,’ Marla interrupted, ‘But you underestimate yourself. And there’s nothing that sword can’t do.’ She smiled, her expression calculative. ‘It will be easy. We have a summer house down by the coast. Take her there on pretence of a weekend away. Even better, tell her Mark arranged something for her, a surprise perhaps. She’s so gullible; she will definitely fall for it.’
Marla executed the plan perfectly. Carmen returned alone to the house the following morning, Mark at work. With deceiving conviction, Marla told Carmen that Mark had arranged a surprise at the summer house, and that she wasn’t meant to know about it. Carmen believed every word. As Marla had predicted, she was hopelessly gullible, and got overly excited about the whole thing, much to Khaos’s dismay.
‘Cam can escort you there, I’m sure she can arrange transport,’ said Marla with false generosity.
‘Really? Are you sure you can spare her?’ Carmen exclaimed. ‘Marly, you are the best!’ She threw her arms around her sister affectionately. Once again, Marla’s arms remained at her sides stiffly, and her expression did not change.
Khaos felt sick to her stomach; how could Marla remain so cold in the face of her sister’s happiness, knowing that she was oblivious to the plan laid out around her? History seemed to be repeating itself before her eyes; it was Cain killing Abel all over again.
Conveniently, Nyx became a nondescript black car with blacked out windows, a perfectly incognito vehicle to take them out of town, away from paparazzi and fans. Khaos began loading up Nyx the car with Carmen’s many Louis Vuitton bags. As she was doing so, she heard someone approaching from the house, and looked up, expecting it to be Marla or Carmen. Instead, it was Loka, stomping towards her.
‘Loka, what brings you here?’ she said brightly, bracing herself for the inevitable glare.
‘You’re not really going to kill her, are you?’ Loka demanded.
‘Those are my orders.’ Khaos replied, aware that she did not even know herself what she was going to do. ‘What does it matter to you?’
‘You can’t do it. You must not lay a finger on her. Do you understand?’ Loka pointed in Khaos face threateningly. She looked as if she wanted to say something else then, but stopped herself, and swiftly turned and stomped back to the house.
Khaos stared after her bemusedly. ‘What is that woman’s problem?’ she muttered, mainly to herself. ‘Why does she care so much? I didn’t think she even liked Carmen.’
‘The fiend is right, though, Khaos,’ said the voice in her head. ‘You must not harm the mortal Carmen.’
‘Well, of course not, I had no intention…’
‘You must not alter the path fate has laid out for the sisters.’
‘So what does that mean? If Marla tries to kill her…’
‘You must not intervene.’
‘So for the demon to manifest, Carmen must die?! How is that fair?’ argued Khaos, dismayed.
‘’For the demon to take form, Marla must be in a state of absolute raging envy. The only thing that will bring her to this point is the desire to kill her sister, who embodies everything she wishes to be, but in her eyes, cannot be.’
‘But why don’t we stop Marla? Why don’t we just stop the demon from manifesting?’
‘Because then the demon won’t be destroyed. That is the purpose of your mission. The demon is only vulnerable when it fully takes form. And for that to happen, Marla must let it consume her completely. If we don’t destroy it now, it will only find someone else to ruin, and we will have to start all over again, tracking it down to the time it will manifest again. It will never stop, Khaos. Only you can stop it.’
‘So I have to just… let it happen?!’
‘Sometimes, one must die, to save the others. Is it not better to save the whole of mankind, even if it means there must be a martyr?’
‘I hate your logic,’ she said sullenly. She felt tears pricking her eyes, but forced them back. ‘So what am I to do? How can I get out of my orders from Marla?’
‘You must find a way to bring her back here. Engineer the situation so that you can put fate back on course.’
‘Of course. How hard can that be?’
‘You still doubt yourself, but you will find a way. You have managed so far,’ reassured the voice.Khaos decided that she would just have to tell Carmen everything, or at least, about Marla’s plot, and then try and figure out a plan from there. Perhaps Carmen would have some ideas. Though as Khaos watched her, sitting in the passenger seat chattering excitedly and checking her phone every few minutes, she doubted it. She really was not ready for this reality check.
With every moment that passed, they got that bit closer to the summer house, and thus closer to Carmen’s doom. Carmen carried on obliviously, talking nonsense that Khaos was barely able to concentrate on.
At last, they started to see signs for Poole, and Khaos could take it no more. Without a word of explanation, she gripped the steering wheel, overriding Nyx’s driving, and swerved off the motorway and onto a slip road, leading to a service station, where they stopped in the first available space.
‘Cam, is there a problem? Do we need petrol?’
‘No.’
‘Are you hungry then?’
‘No. Carmen, you must listen to me now, I have to tell you something.’
‘Cam? What is it?’ Carmen looked anxiously at Khaos’ face. ‘What’s wrong?’
Khaos stayed silent for a long time, trying to think of a way to begin. How to explain? Where to start?
‘Carmen, Mark is not meeting you at the summer house.’
‘What? Yes he is, Marla told me…’
‘No, she is lying. There’s no secret weekend planned for you. Mark does not even know about it.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Marla made it up. It’s all a big lie to convince you to go there, with me, so that… So that I…’
‘Cam, what are you talking about?’ Carmen frowned, genuinely annoyed for once. ‘And how dare you speak about my sister like that! Why would she lie?’
‘Carmen, you’re going to find this hard to believe but… Marla, she asked me to… She asked me to… to kill you.’ Khaos stuttered, struggling with the right words.
‘Is this some sort of joke?’
‘No Carmen, it’s the truth. No jokes. No lies.’
‘But that’s ridiculous; my sister wouldn’t want me dead!’
‘Your sister… Isn’t herself…’ Khaos struggled again, wondering what to say; should she tell her about the mirror?
‘Well that’s obvious. She hasn’t been herself in months, I’ve noticed. I thought it was because she broke up with her boyfriend Tom. But that’s no reason to order someone to kill me!’ She laughed nervously. ‘Surely you are joking?’
‘I wish I was.’
‘But that’s crazy! No, it’s some sort of twisted joke, I’m sure. I know she’s always been jealous of me but this… It’s crazy. Surely you’re not serious?’ she stared into Khaos eyes imploringly.
‘I’m serious. Marla asked me to do this. Carmen, you have to understand, your sister… She’s not well.’
‘She has mental pro
blems, doesn’t she? I knew it. She’s always been a bit odd, but lately…’ she sighed. ‘But that doesn’t explain why she would ask you to kill me?’
‘Do you know what she hired me for, Carmen? And what Loka is? And who Russell was?’
‘Assistants? Bodyguards?’
‘Assassins. We’re assassins, Carmen. I don’t even know half the things Marla has been involved in, but it is clear that when someone gets in her way, she does not hesitate to dispatch them. And she has hired people like us to do her dirty work for her. She didn’t even bat an eye when Russell was killed,’ Khaos recalled.
‘Russell was killed?! She didn’t say anything when I asked her about him! She didn’t even look fazed…’
‘Exactly.’
‘How did he die?’
Khaos hesitated. ‘I don’t know.’ She lied, instantly regretting it. What good was it to keep it secret? But somehow, she could not bear the look on Carmen’s face if she realised that Khaos was… a monster…
‘Has she asked you to kill before?’
‘No.’
‘But you are armed. And you are trained to kill…’ She looked at Khaos then with fear in her eyes.
‘Carmen, I’m not going to hurt you. I promise. I’ve no intention of carrying out Marla’s orders. But we have to come up with some sort of plan.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, we can’t go to the summer house. Marla will know where we are and if she knows I haven’t carried out my orders…’
‘If I could just talk to her, I’m sure I could make her see sense. We are sisters after all.’
‘Maybe,’ Khaos considered. ‘But we have to be careful how we approach her. We can’t just go back now and confront her, Loka and her heavies will be there.’
‘Damn that Loka! I’m sure it’s her influence that’s making Marla like this!’
‘You might be right,’ mused Khaos. ‘Right now, we need to think of somewhere we can hide while we come up with a plan.’
‘Well, that’s going to be hard. We have other houses, and a few apartments in town, but Marla knows them all, she will know to look for us there. Maybe we should just stay in a hotel or something.’
Khaos Page 13
