TimeLabs Inc (Romantic Sci-fi - LGBTQ)

Climax Part 5 (RSD 3.6)

An hour or so later, Elveloy collapsed onto a chair and seized a passing glass of wine, then another, one in each hand. She felt exhausted, wrung out like a mop. Finally her characters had left her in peace, talking to each other and taking a rather vindictive pleasure in tearing her stories apart. Normally sensitive about her work like most writers, for once she didn't care. Anything to get a moment's respite.

After she gulped down the cabernet and then started sipping the shiraz, she looked around for Angus. How dared he leave her in the middle of it all? What was he up to? He'd been missing for ages.

A twinge of unease wrinkled her brow. When had she seen him last? It was unlike Angus to be away from the festivities - such as they were - for too long.

Reluctantly, she supposed she had better go and find him, make sure everything was all right. Perhaps he'd been bailed up by one of her characters. She had an odd feeling one of them had been missing for some time.

Elveloy knocked politely on the door of Angus' dressing room. Silence. She knocked again. "Angus? Are you in there?"

The door swung open slightly at her touch. Warning bells clanged loudly in her brain - something was wrong. Angus always kept the door locked with a special keycode - known only to himself - allowing entry and exit.

Cautiously she peered around the door and into the room and- stifled a scream. Angus lay on the floor, an empty glass near his hand and his eyes were wide open.

"Angus!" Elveloy rushed forward. She knelt down and felt for a pulse. Nothing. In fact he already felt a little cool.

She took out her phone and started to dial 000 before remembering she was in England. She thought there was some new-fangled European Union number but she hoped 999 would still work, and asked urgently for an ambulance. She sat back on her heels, knowing it was already too late. Angus was dead.

She should probably call the police, but- It was at that moment that it dawned on her that she had made a terrible mistake. How on earth was she going to explain the presence of her characters? Even if they existed in real life, only Evan and Joey were from this time. How would she ever explain Kel or Ziron?

A vivid picture of SWAT teams, the army, and men in white coats jostled in her fevered brain.

"I'm sorry, Angus," she murmured apologetically, and immediately rang back emergency services to cancel the ambulance. "You're going to have to make do with me, to find the guilty person. It has to have been someone in the hotel - most probably one of my own characters! Maybe Inspector Martin can give me a hand, he's a detective. He'd be above suspicion, surely?"

She stood up and brushed off the knees of her pantsuit. "I wonder if there's a doctor in the house?"

She turned back to the door to find a crowd peering in. She shooed everyone back except for Pamela who, as it turned out, was a pathologist.

"What's that on his arm?" Pamela pointed to a nasty red mark. "Looks like a spider bite."

Everyone turned to stare at Joey.

"Don't look at me!" he exclaimed crossly. He bared his teeth. "See? My teeth are human."

The other nominees looked a little shame-faced.

"Wait. There's a burn on his chest. I wonder what caused that?" Pamela muttered to herself, peeling back the jacket.

"Hmm," said Inspector Martin, who had pushed forward through the crowd to stand at her side and was carefully watching Pamela's examination.

"Why don't you all go back into the ballroom and have another drink? Or two? Listen to Lagwagon? I hear they're supposed to be rather good, if you like punk rock," Elveloy suggested hopefully to the crowd of onlookers. No-one moved.

They were all jammed in the doorway, watching Pamela.

"And look here. There's a huge lump on the back of his head - that could easily have cracked his skull."

"Do you think that's what killed him?" asked Rob Martin, getting out a small note book.

"It's hard to tell," said Pamela, sitting back with a sigh. "Judging by the angle of his head, his neck's been broken as well. But without better facilities, I can't tell if that was done before or after death."

Elveloy stood up carefully and placed her back against the wall, her mind racing at terrifying speed. Which of her couples had committed this heinous crime? She tried to remember where everyone had been during the evening. Had anyone been missing for long? She looked down at Angus again. All those injuries!

She remembered the weapons she had inserted into each story. Cal was a hacker - Angus' security system would have been child's play for him; Joey had easy access to spider poison; Zac, Sam, Zac (1), and Pamela, had all travelled with Marcella and her taser rifle; Ken was pretty handy with his crutches, and Kel was a martial arts expert.

Her face whitened.

The murderer wasn't just one of her couples. It was all of them.

~~~

(Author's Note - This story was written to incorporate various prompts - full details can be seen in CupidsCorner's Twisted Romance doc.

Prompts - all five couples are invited to an awards ceremony hosted by Angus Ecrivain (six in my case! lol)

Angus is murdered and one of your couples did it - admittedly I took a slight stretch here

Feature "Never Stops" by Lagwagon - somewhere. Not only does the band play for the awards ceremony, but I think the line "Everyone is guilty now" summons up the story!)