Dangerous Game

The Two-Faced Man

"Go on then, dear, show me what you've learnt," Lucy's grandmother said. She had a nasal cannula attached to a bottle of oxygen near her bed. "Go on, don't be shy."
Lucy stood with her box of magic tricks and playing cards and even the bean bags that had been so hard to learn how to juggle with and put on a show.

Then she was lying on the couch, hearing voices. Her grandmother's, and a man's? She must have fallen asleep, was her father back to pick her up? Slowly, Lucy opened her eyes to see a woman with a pretty blouse and a long puffy skirt that reached her knee.
"How pitiful, your life spent working hard. Your son miraculously earned all this money only to leave you looking after his daughter in return for covering your medical expenses." The man had old clothes like she'd seen in movies. He even had a top hat and a cane like an old-fashioned gentleman, but the face on the back of his head stared at her. "Truly a sad tale."

She wondered then if this was the man her grandmother had warned her about. She'd never said much outside of a warning. She told everyone to never perform on Halloween, even her cousins. No rehearsals, no singing or anything. But if he was here, that meant it was Halloween.

Her chest was tight when she woke and Lucy coughed, sitting up and gasping for air. Why did she feel so warm? She scrambled out of bed, feeling the cold floor on her bare feet and the cool air on her skin. Air. Lucy needed air but there was no way to get it, outside wasn't clean and fresh anymore. At the very least, she needed to get out of her room, take a walk around. It couldn't be considered morning yet, surely, so she'd be safe to wander in peace.

As she walked, she ran her fingers through her hair until she stood in front of the fireplace. Despite the late, or maybe early, hour, it was still lit. She was content to sit in a nearby chair, watching the flames twist and writhe.

"Not sleeping well, Miss Williams?" She turned to see Langdon, walking down the stairs and towards her.
"Not tonight," she said. No point in lying if she had the 'night vision of the soul' powers he claimed to have.
"You dreamed about your grandmother, about the two-faced man you mentioned." It wasn't a question, somehow he knew. He stood in front of her, staring down with a piercing gaze.
"But it was just a dream," she said. Her parents had no reason to lie about her grandmother's death. If such a man had murdered her grandmother, surely he'd be easy to find? And no doubt they'd have to pay for therapy for me and I was seven, old enough to remember.

He turned towards the fire burning in the centre of the room and hummed.
"Do you wake up from all your dreams and wander around the outpost?"
"I don't always wander, but I do wake up from bad dreams." This was the first bad dream in a while. She'd had them near the start of the apocalypse, about her family, about what the outside world looked like, using images her mind had conjured up.

Every once in a while she'd dream about her grandmother. She'd figured it was her mind's way of dealing with what upset her so much as a child. Her nan couldn't simply just be gone, someone had to have done something to make her 'gone'.

"So what makes this one different?"
"It was just more vivid," Lucy said with a shrug. The thought of the man brandishing the knife by her grandmother's bedside stuck in her mind, and the woman, with three eyes. She'd said she was family. "It felt more real but... Even if it was real, it's not like I can ask my parents about it."
"No, you can't." Lucy stood and walked towards the fire, feeling its warmth better now the flames were so close. "What do you think is the truth? Do you think spirits took your grandmother's life, or that she died peacefully?"
"I don't know."

She'd had those dreams since her grandmother passed away, but never in so much detail. And she'd never remembered much of them before outside of the two-faced man in old-fashioned clothing. Lucy couldn't find a reason as to why her parents would lie. Most children encountered death at some point, and if it was murder, surely they'd have expected her to find out eventually?

"You're conflicted." He smirked as he looked at her.
"I just don't see a reason for my parents lying about it," she said honestly. "It's not like they couldn't afford the therapy if my nan really was killed in front of me. And it's scary, but why hide it?"
"People don't need reason to lie." Lucy didn't want to admit he was right so she stayed quiet, watching the dancing flames. Some of them twisted into shapes.

"I should go back to my room," she said as she turned away and took a step to the stairs.
"Why?"
"Ms. Venable," I answered. "She doesn't like anybody sneaking around and heaven forbid she finds us together. She'll think we've been doing something else."
He laughed. "Sex."
"Yes. Gallant's already told everyone he knows it was you, and Timothy and Ellie have done it as well. One more set of people might give her a heart attack, even if what she thinks isn't true." Lucy continued heading to the stairs but paused on the first step, turning back to Langdon. "Was it you? With Gallant?"

"Classified." He grinned. "But I can tell you something far more interesting." His pace was excruciatingly slow as he walked towards her.
"What is it?" Even as she stood on the step, he was taller than her, did he have to lean in so close?
"Ms. Venable created the copulation rule herself," he whispered. The hairs on her body stood on end as he chuckled. ""The Cooperative made no such rule, human nature and all... We provided contraceptives which she had withheld from you all."

"She wanted to control us having sex?" Lucy asked, furrowing her brow. Why would she want to do that? It made sense that sex was forbidden, pregnancy wasn't exactly an easy thing to manage in an apocalypse with limited resources. But then again, Langdon had a point. Lots of people enjoyed sex and there was little else to do, if the Cooperative had provided contraceptives... "How do you know if you're telling the truth? Ms. Venable has probably destroyed the contraceptives. And why would she want to do that anyway?"
"Classified." He smirked. "And I suppose you don't know if I'm telling the truth. That's for you to decide."

"I should head back to my room," Lucy said quickly. Her mind spun with all the ideas and thoughts. She'd never get back to sleep now. "Goodnight, Mr. Langdon." She turned and hurried back to her room before he could say anything else that would add to the raging storm of thoughts in her mind.