Page 107 of Charlie
“Let’s do it!” Conor shouted over the loud music and Sara and the other four raised the guns to their heads with big grins. The last time Sara had been in a similar situation her hands had been shaking, but this time, she didn’t seem the least bit concerned. Maybe she was convinced the gun would be empty again, but most likely it was the combination of whatever drug had been in the champagne and the hyped-up atmosphere around her.
What if he killed them? I should say something to stop them, but I’d gone into survival mode and was terrified of drawing attention to myself. Keeping in the background, I dug in behind Maximum and spoke into the phone again. “He’s having people shoot themselves.Send help, Kit!”
“One!” Conor led the countdown but everyone counted along with him.
“Two!”
“Three!”
“Four, get ready to be freeee!!!” Conor was smiling from ear to ear and blew his five followers a kiss.
Sara pursed her lips and sent an air kiss back while I tugged at Maximum’s and Atlas’ t-shirts and gestured for them to pull back with me. They turned to me just as the group shouted, “Five!”
The gunshots were loud enough to be heard over the music. Sara, Carlos, Estelle, Maya, and Isabel, who had just been grinning and joking a few seconds ago, were now quiet and lifeless as they half sat, half lay in that bizarre way as a human train.
Conor gave a jump with excitement and turned to the group. “Our pioneers have gone before us. Let’s follow and keep the party going on the other side. Who wants to go next?”
Maximum swayed on his feet and raised his hand with a few others, but I jerked him back.
As if he was trying to understand what had just happened, Atlas stood quiet with his eyebrows drawn inward.
“Wait, are they dead?” Aisha asked with a hand to her face. She leaned forward squinting her eyes as if she wasn’t sure what she was looking at.
“No, they’re not dead my love. They just took the elevator to the next level. And now, we’re all going to join them.” Conor took the guns from the corpses on the floor and dried the blood off with a beige-colored cloth before handing them to the next people in line who were getting down on the floor to continue the human chain.
“What about you, Liv? Why don’t you go next?”
I felt Conor’s eyes on me and people turned to look. Swaying on my feet, I felt sweat drip between my breasts and from my forehead as I pretended to be as drugged as them. “Sure, just hang on. I don’t want the children to miss out. I wanna go with them. Come, on boys, let’s go and fetch the others.”
Without waiting for Conor’s response, I pulled the boys along and staggered to the stairs.
“Hurry back down here. We’ll do a special round for you and the children after this one.”
I felt like screaming with terror when the boys weren’t as fast or as willing to move as I wanted them to. It was like seeing a shark in the water and not being able to move away fast enough.
“I wanted to go next,” Maximum complained when we were half way up the stairs.
The music had been cranked up again, but I spoke into his ear. “Snap the fuck out of it. He’s killing people”
Maximum giggled. “That’s a bad word. You can’t say the F word.”
Another collective countdown sounded and looking over my shoulder, I saw another round of five people pull the trigger and kill themselves. Pushing the boys to move faster, I screamed into the phone to overpower the music. “Kit, I need help right now.”
If she answered, I couldn’t hear it over the music and it took all my focus to get the boys moving down the long hallway. When I finally opened the door to River and Nathan’s room, Lumi came at me.
“What’s going on? We hear loud music and fireworks.”
“That’s not fireworks. Conor has lost his mind. He’s having everyone kill themselves and he wants us to come down and kill ourselves too.” I slammed the door shut behind me and locked it just as another round of shots were heard from downstairs.
Lumi’s golden skin paled in front of my eyes and her hands covered her mouth.
“But they’re not doing it, are they? They wouldn’t kill themselves.” River moved closer too.
“I wanted to go next, we’re going to an awesome party on the other side,” Maximum repeated but this time I shook his shoulders.
“Wake up, boy. There isnoparty.”
Maximum and Atlas sat down on Nathan’s bed and only now that the music was playing low in the distance, and no one was giggling, did they seem to wake up a little.
