Trouble in Paradise | ONC 2024

9 - Bang Bang

Luke blinked hard for what felt like the thousandth time today. The pounding in his head had gotten worse since waking up. He felt like the whole word was pulsing along with his heartbeat, and the floor was oscillating beneath his feet, and every noise was either a faraway cry or sounded like it originated underwater. It was a miracle he hadn't thrown up yet.

The door behind the desk suddenly swung open again. Tally was back. "On second thought," she said, "let's get this over with now."

She used Luke's gun and shot one of the legs of Margaret's chair. And as Margaret, along with her chair, pitched forward, Tally shot her in the neck.

The first shot sounded faraway. The next sounded underwater. Luke flinched away the first time, surprised by it, but the surprise abided by the second shot -- the killshot --  and he witnessed it clear as day. Tally nodded, satisfied, and disappeared behind the door once more. Elsie was screaming, and Margaret was on the floor, squirming as the wound in her neck spurted. Her watery eyes wandered to Luke, and he watched her helplessly.

Margaret was smart enough not to waste her last precious energy on speaking -- her throat was filled with blood, and nothing could be heard through that. Instead, she mouthed her final words to him.

You kill that bitch.

Luke stared at her, the world warping around him, and she stared back until she couldn't anymore. She stilled, her eyes slowly coming to a rest looking down. The puddle beneath her spread to the tips of his shoes.

Luke squeezed his eyes shut. For a brief moment, he hoped they wouldn't open, but they did. Silence had again settled over the lobby of the Paradise Hotel. Somewhere in the back rooms, Tasi was tending to Tally's wound. Here, two dead bodies bled out onto the floor, and the two live ones were so quiet, they may as well be dead, too.

Luke brushed his shoulder against the side of his head. He didn't know how much blood was there, but it bothered him that there was blood at all, and he kept trying to wipe it off, probably making the wound worse. The delirium was making him act stupid, but he couldn't stop trying to clean it off. More than his head hurt; he had the suspicion that he'd been dragged a lot outside, based on how cold he'd been when he first woke up and the odd sharp cuts he felt on his back. Pebbles. Pebbles and rain.

"I don't think we properly met before," Elsie said suddenly, eyes glued to the floor in front of her, where neither Tate's nor Margaret's blood had yet reached. "I'm Elsie."

The woman in the wedding dress. The woman who'd awkwardly complimented Tasi's Christmas tree. He'd thought she seemed sweet. Kind.

"I'm Luke," he replied.

"Bet you regret that highball."

He laughed, then winced. "Don't make me laugh. It hurts."

Elsie chuckled. "Sorry." Her smile was fleeting, though, and it fell slowly as she shook her head. "You know, right before that monster walked into the lobby...I actually felt safe for the first time in a long time. How ironic is that?" She exhaled, looking at the desk, but clearly seeing something else, and her face twisted with anger. "I spent the last few years surrounded by people who I thought loved me. But it wasn't love. It was a delusion. When I broke free, I thought I'd spend the rest of my life by my lonesome, convinced there was no good out there." She smiled again, sadly. "And then Tate helped me inside. And then Margaret cared for him so much, it got her killed."

"Elsie," Luke said quietly. "What are you doing?"

She looked at him. "Saying my final words, I suppose. I don't know you, Luke, and you don't know me, but if you're the last friend I'm gonna have...I need to declare that I'm not some stupid girl who bounced from a bad home to a cult to getting shot in this stupid chair in this stupid hotel. I had thoughts. I cared for people. I had dreams once, and I wanted to have them again." She looked between her feet. "I'm a person."

Luke took a deep breath. He was hearing too many final words today. "You're not going to die."

"I appreciate that, but it really looks like I am. And you, too. And she'll finish off Tasi when she's done with us, and then she'll torch the place and drive off." She paused. "I don't mean to be so macabre, but I really don't see any other possibility."

Luke had no counterargument. He couldn't tell her, with certainty, that she wasn't going to die when he had no plan. But just because he couldn't tell her with certainty didn't mean he wasn't certain. Which he was. 

Somehow. Someway. He may not make it out alive, but neither would Tally.