Chapter #23An Odd Kind of Luck by: imaj   Joe’s hands snap away from your own.
“Rosalie,” you stammer. “I… uh…” Without thinking you rise to your feet. As Siobhan, Rosalie towers over you, being closer in height to your Will Prescott identity. She’s dressed in a simple turtleneck sweater and jeans combo, clutching a large purse in her hands. She stares at you impassively, a calculating look in her eyes.
Suddenly they seem massive, hugely magnified by her glasses, with inky black blotches writhing at the edges of the eyelids. The vision passes quickly and you realise something is badly, badly wrong. Rosalie doesn’t look at people like that, not as if she is weighing them up.
You are already moving when ‘Rosalie’ shoves one hand inside the purse, diving to the side as she pulls out an ugly looking handgun from her purse. Despite its size and weight, the fake aims it at where you were just standing with remarkable speed. Joe manages to shout a warning just before she pulls the trigger. The low bang of the gun being fired seems to reverberate through the room.
If you hadn’t guessed the truth, and you mutter silent thanks to Eldibria for warning you, the fake Rosalie would just have drilled a hole straight through your forehead. Instead the bullet buries itself in the wall, sending plaster everywhere. You are already rolling onto the floor, around and behind the impostor. Getting out of her sight is your first goal – that way you’ll be able to tie her up in your cloak and vanish from her sight.
She’s far too good with that gun and you don’t want to give her the chance to draw a bead on you.
Joe slowly rises to his feet. Far too slowly, where’s that Viritrilbian speed of his? Either he’s too shocked by the sight of what appears to be his wife drawing a gun on him, or he spent so such time over the last few days feeling terrible and not eating that he can’t use it. Either way, he isn’t ready when the fake Rosalie cuffs him on the head with the handle of her pistol. He sinks right back down onto the sofa, his head lolling uselessly.
‘Rosalie’ spins round to face you. Her eyes narrow in suspicion immediately – a good sign, it means your cloak is holding and she can’t see you. Your eyes widen as she points her heavy pistol at a spot just inches away from you. You scrabble to your feet as the fake pulls the trigger again. She shoots three times.
Bea and Charlene are screaming in terror now. The two girls instinctively grab hold of each other and wail. You look down at Bea, who stares straight back at you with terror filled eyes.
Then you look back at the fake Rosalie. She looks thoughtfully at Bea. Then her head tracks in the direction that Bea is looking, turning round slowly until…
Until she is staring straight at you. The impostor grins slightly.
Oh shit…
The gun swings round impossibly fast again. Luckily you are already moving, diving towards the floor. A bullet whistles by your ear, narrowly missing you.
“Bea,” you shout. “You can’t look at me. Cover your eyes.”
Bea doesn’t question you. She just slams one hand in front of her eyes, using the other to hold Charlene close. ‘Rosalie’ grunts in annoyance. She stats scanning the room, trying to work out where you must be hiding.
You’re actually scared, for the first time in a long time. Whoever ‘Rosalie’ really is, she’s got a good idea on what your cloak is and she’s clever enough to try working around it. But you have other tricks that you can use. Pulling yourself to your feet again, you ready the knockout sigil on your finger tips. As she slowly turns round the room looking for you, you walk around her. You try to stay to her sides in case she starts shooting again, waiting for the opportunity to reach out and knock her unconscious.
She pauses for a second, looking at Bea again.
You reach out and tap the impostor on the forehead. The sigil on your fingertips surges with power as you make contact. You’ve set it to keep her out for an hour.
Nothing happens.
Or at least, the fake Rosalie doesn’t collapse to the floor. Instead she swings round with a high kick. It makes contact with your chest, sending you sprawling backwards. You flail as you fall, clipping a lamp with one hand as you pass. The fake pulls her gun round and lets loose another couple of rounds, aiming where the lamp fell, narrowly missing you again. You roll away as she scowls to herself.
This is bad. Very bad. You can’t work out what went wrong with the knockout sigil, a moment of quick reflection checks that it seems to be working normally. Yet Rosalie’s impostor is still standing, and you are trapped in here with her. You can’t even withdraw, because Joe seems to be out for the count and that would leave Bea and Charlene alone with this murderous woman.
As if she is somehow reading your mind, the fake Rosalie lowers her gun and moves to where Bea is cowering on the floor. She reaches down and pulls your foster daughter to her feet, knocking Charlene spinning and prompting a fresh bout of screaming. Bea cries in fear as the fake spins her round. She places the barrel of her gun resting lightly on Bea’s temple.
“Show yourself Connor,” says ‘Rosalie’. She sounds nothing like the real Rosalie. If that’s because she no longer needs any subterfuge, or because she was never capable of imitating Rosalie’s voice, you don’t know. “I don’t want to hurt anyone else here, but…” She pauses and give Bea a rough shake, causing fresh tears to burst from the girls eyes. “I will if I have to. Show yourself.”
You look at Bea. Her hair is wild, matted to the side of her head in places. Her hands curl themselves into claw, then uncurl and repeat the process again and again. Her terrified eyes dart about as she desperately tries to look anywhere but at you. A yawning pit opens up at the bottom of your stomach. You can’t let anything happen to Bea. You just can’t…
You let your cloak slip from your grasp. It unfolds itself from the fake Rosalie, her eyes widening as it does so. For a moment you wonder what it must look like to suddenly appear in front of someone like that. The fake smiles as she raises her gun and points it straight at you. It feels like the end, for your identity as Siobhan at least. Time seems to trickle to a halt as she squeezes the trigger.
There is a blur to the side. Joe – it must be Joe – pushes the impostor’s arm upwards just as the gun fires. She misses you again by the narrowest of margins. The Joe piles into the fake, pulling her to the floor and sending the gun flying into the air.
You don’t hesitate, you grab Bea and drag her out of the room. You take hold of Charlene by the hand as you pass and within a few seconds both are safely in the hall of the little house. They seem fine, physically at least, but Bea’s eyes seem hollow.
You don’t waste time, and push at Bea with as much of Eldibria as you can muster. You drown out her fears and try to raise her confidence. “Bea,” you say, trying to muster as much calm as you can into your voice. “Get Charlene out of here. I have to back and help Joe.”
Bea doesn’t say anything, but she nods in reply. She doesn’t look quite as scared any moe and you hope that your Eldibria-work holds long enough for her to get far away from here. You turn back and return to the living room.
Joe and the fake Rosalie roll across the floor, brawling with each other. The fight moves too fast for you to follow, so you do the sensible thing and stay out. Instead you dart across the floor to where the fake’s gun has fallen and pick it up. You don’t want her getting hold of it.
“A little help here,” says Joe. You turn round to see him sitting on top of the still struggling ‘Rosalie’. He’s got her pinned in place and is holding her arms down, one with each hand. “Can you knock her out?”
“It didn’t work before,” you say, walking over and looking down at the pair. “Ohh…”
The fake Rosalie’s face is a mess, a long gash running down the length of it. Except it’s not gash, no blood flows from it. It’s a rip, and through it you can see a flash of pale flesh beneath. It’s a mask? At least that would explain why your sigil failed earlier. You weren’t actually touching her skin. Realising this, you summon the knockout sigil to your fingertips and slip them into the gap, holding her head in place with your other hand.
The fake Rosalie finally stops struggling.
Joe pulls down the fake’s turtleneck sweater, revealing a quite visible seam along her neck. “Rikes Raggy,” he mutters before you glare at him. He shakes his head in apology. “Let see who she really is.” But before he can peel away the mask, you are distracted by the sound of someone else entering the room.
You look up to see Hal Swann, with the real Rosalie trailing in behind him. “Ah,” he says apologetically. “I see you already caught the assassin.”
You have the following choice: 1. Continue |
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