Missy pointed the gun at her. “No. You’re not.”
Julie stared at the gun. “Are you seriously pointing that thing at me?” Her voice was quieter now, almost subdued. “I thought we were friends.”
Missy laughed. “Yeah. I like you. It’s been fun hanging with you these last few days. But there’s something I never told you about myself.”
Julie scowled. “What?”
“I don’t like to share.”
Missy squeezed the.38’s trigger. A bullet ripped through Julie’s shoulder and a spatter of blood arced through the air behind her. Julie hit the floor and squealed in agony. Missy approached her and stood over her, pointed the gun down at her. Julie looked up at her and blubbered, opened her mouth to plead for her life.
Missy shot her again.
She stopped moving.
“Holy shit. Why did you do that?”
Missy turned and saw that Rob was on his feet again and was at last managing to stay that way. She went to him and gingerly touched his swollen jaw, making him wince. “Does that hurt?”
“Yeah.”
“Stupid question, huh?”
“Yeah. Now how about answering mine?”
Missy shrugged. “No big mystery. Like I told her, I don’t like to share. She should have been satisfied with that one sympathy fuck, but that obviously wasn’t happening. I’m sure you didn’t mind having the little bitch rip your clothes off every few hours. That sort of pisses me off, you want to know the truth.”
Rob’s face reddened. “I…I’m sorry.”
Missy touched his jaw again, this time not quite as gently. “I could make you very sorry.”
He winced again but didn’t look away from her as he said, “I know.”
“You belong to me.”
“I know.”
“And no one else.”
“I know.”
She smiled. “I love you, Rob.”
“I…” Tears welled in his eyes as he struggled to speak. “I…love you…Missy.”
“I know you do, baby.” She stood on her toes and kissed him lightly on the mouth. She took one of his hands and curled his fingers around the butt of the gun. “But it’s time you proved yourself to me.”
His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
She stepped away from him and nodded at the two vacationers still strapped to chairs. “Finish them.”
Rob looked at them. His face twisted. “Oh God…”
Rob stared at the gun in his hand. It didn’t look right there. It didn’t fill him with the sick sense of power he imagined Roxie-Missy-derived from it. He knew what it could do, had witnessed its killing power too many times. It was a dangerous, despicable thing and holding it filled him with loathing. He couldn’t imagine putting it to a human being’s head and pulling the trigger. And yet it was what Missy wanted from him. There didn’t seem to be a way out of it. Despite her profession of love, he suspected there was a strong chance she would kill him if he didn’t do as she wished.
Her expression was hard, devoid of mercy. “No more hanging out on the sidelines letting me do all the work. No more illusions of being better than me just because you haven’t gotten your hands dirty.”
“I don’t think I’m better than you.”
“Prove it. Kill them.”
Rob looked at the woman, grimacing at the sight of her burned face. One side of that face was still beautiful. The sickening contrast made his stomach twist. He was suddenly glad Julie was dead. No one capable of inflicting this level of cruelty deserved to live. But Missy was just as cruel. Didn’t that mean she deserved to die, too?
He looked at the gun.
Then looked at the woman again. She watched him through bleary eyes, whimpering softly but otherwise waiting quietly for the end. He detected resignation in her expression. She was at peace with the idea of dying, would probably welcome it by now. So killing her could almost be seen as an act of mercy. But that was just a rationalization. Her wound looked awful, but it was hardly fatal. She could recover, maybe have plastic surgery, and go on with her life. It would be a life forever haunted by this night, but at least she would have a chance.
So he was at a crossroads. Again.
He could do what Missy wanted-kill this poor woman and the guy with the mangled hands.
Or he could do the right thing. Finally. For once.
He swallowed hard and pointed the gun at Missy. “I’m sorry.”
She smiled and moved closer. “It’s okay. It’s sort of what I expected.”
Her fist smashed across his bruised jaw.
Rob howled and staggered away from her, the gun falling from his hand. He stumbled and fell backward onto his ass. By the time he was able to sit up again, Missy had scooped up the gun and was standing over him. He tensed, waiting for her to point it at him and put a big fucking hole in his head.
Instead, she cracked the butt of the gun against the crown of his skull.
Rob wobbled and fell over.
His vision blurred as he lay on his side and watched her walk away from him. Everything went black for a moment. His eyes fluttered open again and he saw that Missy had set the chair formerly occupied by Chuck in front of the woman with the burned face.
His vision grew foggy again.
Blackness was descending.
But that was okay.
He didn’t want to see this.
“He should have shot you. It would’ve been easier for you than this.”
The woman met her gaze. She didn’t seem afraid now. Missy didn’t like that. Amazingly, the unburned side of her face almost seemed to smile. “It doesn’t matter how I die. God will have mercy on my soul and the souls of my friends.”
Missy snorted. “God? Really? How ridiculous. Religion is all meaningless bullshit, you know. I’m gonna stick this knife in you.” She gestured with the hunting knife. The gun was back in the tote bag. She didn’t think she’d need it again tonight. “Like, way up inside you. And it is going to hurt, let me tell you. A lot. At some point your heart will stop beating. Brain function will stop shortly after that. And that will be the end of you. Your essence won’t continue in some other place. You’ll be over.”
The woman’s hideous half smile didn’t falter. “No. I won’t. I wish you could feel what I feel right now. The presence of the eternal. You’d be on your knees and praying with me.”
“Feel this.”
Missy pushed the knife in up under the woman’s sternum. Just an inch at first, holding it there and letting her feel it. She wasn’t smiling anymore. She started breathing faster and looked down at the knife. Her voice emerged as a whine. “It hurts.”
Missy smiled. “I know. Didn’t I tell you?”
She pushed the knife in another inch.
The woman cried louder and began to beg. “Please…”
Missy laughed. “I’ve been waiting for that. You’d like me to finish it fast, wouldn’t you? That’d be nice, huh?”
The woman looked her in the eye. “Yes. Please…”
Missy made a tsk-tsk sound. “Wow, this just isn’t your night.” She twisted the knife a little, increasing the volume of the woman’s whimpering. She laughed. “Nothing’s working out the way you want.”
She was able to keep it up another fifteen or so minutes, slowly sliding the knife in inch by agonizing inch, savoring the way the woman’s eyes danced in their sockets as her pain and sense of desperation continued to increase.
Then she was gone.
She played the same game with the guy with the mangled fingers.
That just left Chuck.
He was still sprawled across the space where the sofa had been. She knelt next to him and watched the rise and fall of his chest. He was bleeding from a lot of places, but he’d been lucky. None of the wounds alone would kill him. Loss of blood, however, just might. She’d have to call 911 on her way out.
She wanted him to live for a couple of reasons. He’d fought hard to survive and had very nearly beat them. He was tough. She was impressed. But he was still the guy who’d insulted her. So living would be his punishment. For the rest of his life, he would feel the crushing weight of guilt.