WHEN THE DARKNESS COMES I NICK CLARK

Big Brother

Big Brother

"Where the hell have you been!?"

Lourdes barged past Madison, clothes splattered with 'Call me Art's' blood, her pale face framed with tangled dark hair, her eyes empty of expression. It was now late afternoon, the sun starting to sink in the sky, but as Lourdes had cycled home, it felt like time had danced forwards a decade, almost instantly aging her. Killing had crossed some unspoken line, scarring Lourdes's soul, but at the same time, it had felt like she'd fought her demons and won. She wasn't as weak as she'd believed herself to be, but it was just the beginning of a long battle, and as her gaze met Alicia's, she saw the same struggle for strength in Alicia's eyes.

"Matt?" Lourdes said quietly, chucking Alicia the bag of drugs, who caught them with a shaking hand.

But Alicia didn't answer her, going over to where Nick was lying on the couch, his eyes scrunched shut. The television was on mute, displaying an emergency news bulletin, Lourdes barely registering the crowds surging across the screen.

"Where did you go, Lourdes!?" Madison asked, stepping in front of her, face completely bloodless. "Why are you covered in blood!? Are you hurt!?"

She made to grab Lourdes, who sidestepped her, pulling out her cell. "Where's my dad?" Lourdes demanded, dialling his number.

"He's not here."

"Obviously," Lourdes snapped, pressing the cell to her ear, only to reach voicemail. "Shit," she hissed, hitting the redial button.

"Don't treat me like the enemy, Lourdes," Madison snapped back, looming over her, "just tell me where the hell you went and explain what the hell happened to you!"

"I had to help Nick because you weren't here," Lourdes spat, rounding on Madison, "when I should have been with my dad" -

- "Nobody stopped you from going with your father" -

- "You told me and Nick to stay put" -

- "An order you evidently didn't obey" -

- "Nick was relapsing, I had to goddamn do something!"

Madison held up her trembling hands. "All I'm saying, Lourdes, was that I told you to stay here for your own safety," she tried and failed to say calmly, "that I would have let you go with your dad if you wanted to" -

- "You can't tell me what I can and can't do! You're not my mom" -

- "You are a minor under my care, therefore that means you are my responsibility" -

- "School's out, Madison" -

- "You were practically pissing your pants, Lourdes!" Madison yelled. "Over my dead body you would have gone out there with your father, risking his safety as well as yours in the state you were in!"

Lourdes stared at Madison, her fists curling into balls by her sides, fighting the urge to hit anyone, anything.

"Nick was and is ill," Madison said, her voice cracking, trying and failing to take back control, "and you were scared. So I thought it best that both of you stay here in the house until Travis and I came back with Alicia and the others. But when we returned, it was only to find you gone, and Nick practically comatose. So you need to excuse me for not being just a little bit angry, okay!?" -

- "I killed one of them."

"What?" Madison said in disbelief, doing a double-take.

"I killed one of them," Lourdes said simply, "it tried to bite Toby and I killed it."

"Slow down sweetie," Madison said quietly, "what did you kill?" Her voice was light and gentle, trying to coax Lourdes into letting slip her secrets, luring Lourdes into a false sense of security.

"The principal," Lourdes said, some distant part of her recognizing she was close to cracking, " 'Call me Art'. He... he was like Cal. He – he'd changed."

Madison studied Lourdes for a long moment, before pulling her into her arms, leaning her blonde head against Lourdes's dark one. "It's okay, baby girl," she soothed, "it's over, you're safe now."

"It's not safe!" Lourdes screamed, tearing herself out of Madison's arms. "It never was! It was always coming to this, the end!"

"Lourdes" -

- "I had to smash his skull in with a fire extinguisher," Lourdes yelled, tears rolling down her face, "bashing his brains out" -

- "SHUT UP!" Alicia suddenly screamed, making Nick who was now sitting up, wrap his arms around his head. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

"It's the fucking truth!" Lourdes screeched back, spit flecking the air. "That's the way we have to live now! You get sick, you die and you turn" -

- "No" -

- "Baby," Madison said, rushing over to Alicia, "it's okay. That's not going to happen to Matt"

- "Wait, is that Chris!?" Nick interjected, pointing at the television with a trembling finger, making everybody whirl around, only to see Chris at the forefront of the crowd, video camera in hand.

"What the hell..." Madison breathed, still holding the now sobbing Alicia against her shoulder, Nick scrambling off the sofa, only to fall to the floor. "Lie down, Nick!" she yelled, before suddenly letting go of Alicia and rushing after Lourdes who had made a sudden dart for the door.

"Let go of me!" Lourdes yelled, twisting and turning wildly as Madison pinioned her arms into almost paralysis.

"What the hell's going on!?" Travis demanded, suddenly piling into the room, Liza hard on his heels.

Lourdes tore herself out of Madison's grip, flinging herself into Liza's arms instead, who was staring at the television as if she had seen a ghost. Liza didn't know what the hell was happening, having spent most of the day bunkered in the library studying for her finals, Travis dragging her into what felt like the Fifth Dimension.

"It's okay, bebita, I'm here now," Liza said to Lourdes, running her beringed hand over her daughter's dark head, before turning to Travis, her brown eyes, Lourdes's eyes, suddenly filled with determination. "Travis," she snapped, making his head snap up, "look." She jerked her own head at the television screen, Chris still visible amongst the crowd, making Travis do an almost comical double-take.

Exhaling sharply, Travis then pulled out the keys to the pick-up from his pocket. "Ah, the advantages of Big Brother," he said sarcastically, "it's 1984 all over again."

Can't you see it's over
Because you're the god of a shrinking universe...