Control: A Novel of Psychological Horror and Suspense

by Matt Shaw

  “Morgan, no one else will be carrying out the task.”

  “And what about Jordy? Can’t we get her to try and give me mouth to mouth resuscitation?”

  “Morgan, no one will be attempting to bring you back to life.”

  He sat there a moment in silence.

  “Morgan, The Controller would like to thank you for your services.”

  “Yeah, brilliant, thanks for killing me first. I appreciate it,” he said sarcastically. “Here’s me thinking this was going to be good for my career.” He paused a moment, “What screen time do I even have? You’ve been filming for six days now - do I at least get a decent amount of exposure that was promised to me?”

  “Morgan, The Controller would like to reassure you that you will have the exposure you were promised and - once again - would like to thank you for your hard work on bringing this to life.”

  “Yeah, fuck you.”

  He reached forward, grabbed the small box and pocketed it before leaving the room.

  N O W

  D A Y E L E V E N

  “Why would they play it into the house?” Chris asked. He was shaking from both the stress of the situation and the apprehension towards the freshly opened can of worms the playback had caused. Georgia was sitting with him, as was Karen.

  “Because they want us to kill each other,” Georgia said.

  Karen wasn’t saying anything. She too was shaking despite none of the attention being on her. Even if there was a chance to feel normal in the house, it was never long before things took a turn again and something cropped up to remind them of the danger they all faced.

  “Should I go out and explain why I said what I did?” Chris asked.

  “I’d just stay away from them for a while. Give people a chance to calm down.”

  “If someone else was called into The Control Room, someone else would have had to nominate people. I did what I had to do.”

  “I know you did,” said Georgia. “It’s a shitty situation to be in for everyone.”

  “Did Fiona do the right thing?” Karen asked. Her voice startled the others. They had grown accustomed to her silence. They turned to her. “Would it be easier if we all just killed ourselves?”

  None of the group knew what to say. Although unspoken it had been a thought which had crossed most of their minds at some point or other. The bedroom door opened and Paul walked in with Stuart, Jordy, Kate and Jack. The only one who had any kind of expression on their face was Jack and it didn’t fill Chris with any comfort.

  “Look,” Chris didn’t wait for anyone to speak, “I didn’t have a choice. I had to…”

  Stuart cut him off, “No, it’s fine. We understand.”

  Kate sat on the edge of her bed and shuffled back until she was leaning against the headboard. She was staring at Chris, a look of hatred on her face that he hadn’t seen before. He shifted where he was sitting.

  “What would you have had me do?” Chris asked her. “Eliminate myself? Hang myself like Fiona?”

  Paul laughed, “Well this is tense, isn’t it? I do wonder how it will end.”

  “Are you threatening me?” Chris got up from where he was sitting, despite Georgia trying to stop him from doing so.

  “So what if I am? What are you going to do about it? Eliminate me?” Paul sneered.

  Chris looked around. Paul, Stuart and Kate were staring at him with a look of hatred - detest - in their eyes. Karen was weeping, Georgia was looking apprehensive and Jack had a look on his face as though he knew what was coming.

  “I’m not living like this,” Chris hissed.

  “So what are you going to do about it? Bitch and whine about it?” Paul spat. He stood up too - ready for confrontation.

  “We have to kill each other? Why are we delaying it? What’s the point if we’re all dead anyway? Let’s just get it over with, yeah?” Chris stormed from the room. Jack followed.

  “Chris!” he called after him.

  “What’s he doing?” Georgia jumped up too.

  “He doesn’t have it in him to eliminate anyone. Has to do it behind closed doors by nominating three of us. Probably going to do a Fiona and top himself. Well - good fucking riddance,” Paul shouted out so Chris could hear him.

  B E F O R E

  “What are you doing?” Pete called up the stairs in the family home he shared with Fiona where she was lugging her suitcase. “I didn’t think you were leaving yet?”

  “I just wanted to get everything ready so we could relax for a couple of hours.”

  “You should have called me.”

  Pete ran up the stairs and took the suitcase from Fiona. She moved to one side to make it easier for him to get it past her as he took it down the rest of the stairs for her.

  “Thank you,” she said when he reached the bottom.

  “Heavy. How much you got in here? I thought you were only going for about ten days.”

  “Well things might change. They might want me in there longer.”

  “I don’t know - the script seemed pretty dead-ended. What with you having a noose around your neck,” he laughed.

  “Ssh! You’re not supposed to know that.”

  “There’s only us here. I think we’re quite safe from people overhearing. Unless…” he looked around, “… you don’t think the place is bugged, do you?”

  “I just don’t want you accidentally saying it in front of someone. I could get sacked.”

  “What are they going to do? Write you out of the series?” he teased again.

  “It’s not like that. Anyway - nothing is definite. The pages were just a guide line to what they’re going to be looking for.”

  “Seemed pretty sure about themselves,” he said.

  “It all depends how the others react,” Fiona said.

  “See - I really don’t understand this…”

  N O W

  D A Y E L E V E N

  Chris stormed through the living area to the kitchen. The others followed; some concerned, some bemused and some finding the whole thing funny. Chris grabbed a handful of sharp knives from the cutlery drawer and headed back to where the housemates were watching. He threw the knives on the floor, with the exception of one which he kept hold of for himself.

  “Chris, what are you doing?”

  Chris’ eyes were fixed on Paul, “Pick one up.”

  “You’re going to kill me?”

  “Chris, put the knife down…”

  Both Kate and Karen reached down and grabbed a knife of their own. They didn’t point it at anyone but kept it close to their bodies as though ready to defend themselves should the need arise.

  “Well? Are you going to kill me?” Paul asked again. “For one hundred thousand pounds - can you take a life?” he continued.

  “They can keep the money!” Chris shouted. He went to lunge towards Paul but stopped in his tracks as a loud siren played into the house. The siren stopped as the plasma screen switched on - it’s volume turned up to maximum output.

  On screen was the main interviewer from the audition process, “Housemates stop what you’re doing,” the man said, “the experiment is over.”

  Paul, Stuart and Jordy cheered. Georgia, Chris, Jack, Kate and Karen just looked puzzled.

  “What’s going on?” Chris asked. He kept his knife raised towards Paul - unsure of what to believe anymore.

  The man onscreen continued, “You were selected to take part in a televised experiment to see what would drive a normal person to commit murder; whether it be for financial reward or their own survival…”

  “What the fuck is going on?!” Chris asked again.

  Jack sat on one of the living room sofas - also unsure of what to make of everything.

  “Everything you have been subjected to has been elaborately staged.”

  Jack looked over to Jordy. He was wondering how that had been elaborately staged. He had been forced to fuck her. Had he not fucked her - what would have been the outcome for her? This so-called experiment - would it
have been over, their bluff called? And the meat they had eaten. They had seen Morgan’s body cut up. Was that too fake?

  “Housemates, sit tight - we’re coming to get you,” the man said before the screen went black.

  “Congratulations!” Paul said.

  “I don’t understand,” Chris dropped the knife. “I don’t get it.”

  “The whole thing was a televised experiment to see what would drive someone to commit murder - myself, Jordy, Stuart, Fiona, Morgan, Richard, Philip - we’re all actors brought in to drive the experiment forward… Make it seem real. I had you fooled, right? Honestly thought you were going to kill me,” he laughed.

  Chris sat down next to Jack who was looking at Jordy, “You’re not HIV?”

  She shook her head, “No - I had to do blood tests to prove it. I’m clean of everything.”

  “They made us…”

  She shook her head again, “No.” She hesitated, “I guess I can tell you now but… I got to choose you out of a handful of candidates…”

  B E F O R E

  Jordy was sitting opposite the two people interviewing her.

  “This is a copy of the terms and conditions and states your fee, plus an additional amount we hadn’t discussed. If you’d like to give it a read,” the man said.

  “Okay. Now?”

  “Now would be good. We’re keen to get this signed off…”

  “Should I go to the other room?” Jordy asked.

  “Here is fine.”

  The man continued to watch Jordy as she settled back to read the paperwork through as per his request. The man picked a pen up from the table, took the lid off, and slid it across the desk towards Jordy’s. After a few minutes, Jordy stretched across and took hold of the pen. She signed the paperwork off and passed both pen and paper to the two officials.

  The man reached down to a case, by his feet, and pulled out a handful of files.

  “If you could just choose the candidate you’d like to have in the house with you,” he said as he handed the files across the table.

  Jordy laughed, “It’s weird - I don’t usually get a choice in what my punters look like.”

  N O W

  D A Y E L E V E N

  Jordy was explaining, “I knew the part I had to play, I got to choose someone I liked the look of to play it through with me,” she said. “That’s why they took your blood too in a medical - make sure you were clean.”

  “All this for a fucking television show?!” Jack couldn’t believe it and he wasn’t the only one.

  Karen screamed and ran forward, blade in hand. Before anyone could do anything to react she stuck the tip of the blade into Paul’s chest. The girls screamed out as Paul dropped to his knees. Stuart ran to his aid as Jack and Chris wrestled the knife from Karen.

  “It’s a trick!” she was screaming. “It’s just another trick. They’re playing with us. They’re going to kill us all!”

  The door to The Control Room opened and Morgan, Philip, Fiona and Richard came running into the house cheering as they did so. Their cheers stopped when they saw what had unfolded in the living room. Paul was gasping for air with the blade sticking from his chest, Stuart and the girls were trying to comfort him and Jack and Chris were holding Karen to the floor where she continued to scream and writhe around. The sight of the ex-housemates, once thought dead, caused Jack and Chris to loosen their grip on Karen. She took the opportunity to lunge forward with the knife again - this time catching Chris in the throat. He gargled up a mouthful of blood as he fell backwards onto the floor, his eyes wide with fear. Before Jack had a chance to react, Karen slashed him across the face and he too fell back clutching his now bleeding face.

  “Only one of us can leave!” she kept screaming again and again. The Control Room door opened and security came running out to take control of the situation and help those who needed it - at least give aid to those who were still able to be helped. Paul and Chris’ eyes were fixed forward, unblinking - chests unmoving.

  Across the nation in several million homes - people watching the events unfold over their late night snacks had their screens suddenly cut off. Eleven days of viewing only to have their pictures replaced with static as the experiment came to an end. Despite the static - enough of the experiment had been seen by millions. People will do anything they need to do in order to survive and - when push comes to shove - societies will crumble.

  T H E E N D