Lego House

xxix. Terror

Author's Note
Heading into the final chapters, they will be a whole lot shorter. So, this one is incredibly short, but just bear with me. These are the final three chapters. Enjoy!

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Michael turns slowly, about to make a smartass comment about how he'd only really left two dead bodies. But the words catch in his throat when he sees who Maust is toting along with him now. Michael's parents. Michael's father looks malnourished and beaten raw. His skin is pale and almost translucent, when not purple and yellow from all of the bruising. His eyes are sunken in, and his hair thin and wispy. His mother is not much better, only that she looks more like she's been crying a hell of a lot rather than being beaten. She looks dazed, afraid, distant. Her skin is pale and her hair thin. She is wearing only a white gown, and the loose fabric makes her look so, so small. She is skin and bones; her arms are sticks, her legs are sticks. "Mum? Dad?" he whispers, and their eyes meet his.

"Nice to see you still recognise them after all this time. Oh, and this is my wife." Michael hadn't even noticed the other woman. She was cowering behind Maust. She looked a lot better than Michael's parents, though she definitely wasn't of full health. She had a black eye and bruises along her arms and legs. However, she did appear well fed. "Now that we're all acquainted," he says with a smug smile, sliding two guns from the holster wrapped around him. He aims them at Mr and Mrs Trestail, both on either side of him. Michael hears a gun click and rise from behind him.

"Keep looking, Paul." Michael glances back and sees Rose's gun aimed directly at Maust, who is still smiling.

"I will shoot them both, simultaneously in fact, in five seconds if the three of you don't back away from that computer this instant." His voice is so calm. Michael feels his heart breaking. Rose and Paul don't even flinch.

"Rose," Michael whispers, and she shakes her head.

"Michael, saving two lives isn't worth saving billions of people," she explains, her voice quiet and her gun still trained on Maust.

"Five."

"Rose, please."

"Michael."

"I thought they were dead, I thought I'd lost them forever, Rose. All I wanted with this trip, when we began in the first place, was to get them back," he pleads. Rose still doesn't budge. "Paul," he whispers, tears stinging his eyes. The typing continues.

"Four."

"Michael, no one lives forever, damn it! They're going to die one day or another. Look at them – how are you going to fix them if you surrender now? You're not. But we can fix the broken world Maust has created."

"Three."

"Rose, please, just, please."

"No," she persists. A gunshot follows her firm word, and she cries out in pain as her gun clutters to the ground. She falls next, blood pouring from her shoulder. Michael drops down next to her, cradling her in his arms. She winces, holding the wound in her shoulder in order to stop herself from losing too much blood.

"Now, young man, please step away from the computer or else I'm going to have to kill Michael's dear parents here."

"Don't you dare, Maust." His hand is over Roselle's, applying a firm but not overbearing pressure. "Please, don't."

"Paul, for goodness sakes!" Rose yells.

"Please, please – someone, please."

Irisa breathes as quietly as she can. As soon as she saw people coming through the door, she dived to the ground. She can hear them bickering as she fiddles with her gun. She's terrified she'll miss and he'll just shoot her after she shoots Paul or Michael or Rose. She knows Rose has been shot, though. She knows she was the one obviously holding the gun. Her brave, brave sister. She didn't act quickly enough though.

Irisa curses under her breath, wishing she could just be weak and terrified and boring and worthless like before. But, no, things have changed. She'd kill herself over and over if she didn't save the Trestails. Autumn would kill her. Jarrett would too. They would all want to, at least. And Rose, she's dying. Maybe. Irisa's not sure where she was shot exactly, but it could be fatal.

"Two." Maust is taking forever to count down. He's leaving too much time for Paul to potentially delete everything. He doesn't have backup. She hears Michael begging everyone, anyone. Paul and Maust. Both of them, one of them. Just to stop. He has better chance convincing Paul. However, Paul doesn't seem to care much for Michael. He seems the hero type, he'd go great lengths to save the world, no matter who it meant he would have to sacrifice. "Michael, come on, man, stop your friend."

"Stop taking so damn long, just bloody shoot them," Irisa snarls as she stands. Her gun is raised, aimed directly at his chest. She fires, wills the horrors to be over, but hears two gunshots following her own.