#2 In The Dark

Chap. 5_evil fountains and good riddance?

"Everybody listen to me," Stark said, with as much authority as she could gain after such a shocking epiphany. "Either someone in here killed poor old Mark-"

To which Alison responded with a subdued whimper.

"- or," she continued, still with calm assertion, "Or there's a way out."

Everyone now started to look upwards towards her face, brandishing a comforting smile. All three Askham triplets now turned from burrowing themselves, scared witless, into their parents, to having a glint of hope. Huw lowered his newspaper and had the same thoughts. People were starting to think there was a way out of this. And, despite both Stark and Rob thinking it was an undoubted lie, she had to say it. Spirits had to be raised. Because, if this 'prophecy' was to be believed, then it was within ten seconds that another person, or even child, would die here.

"Everyone, stand together," Stark commanded, face changing back to one of intense preparation.

Rob, knowing people would need encouragement, did as he was told and went and stood by his former colleague. He had to say, with the great experience he'd had under pressured conditions, she was doing remarkably well. And he'd never been as pressured as right now. He knew he could be next on the list. Though he had a faint feeling he wouldn't be.

Frank wasn't so sure. He was shaky, and his insides were melting into jelly, though that wasn't an unusual circumstance. But he was standing in admiration at his fake fiancée, and was enjoying her take command. So he followed suit. And within a couple of seconds, everyone else did too.

"If we all stand together, it'll be harder for a target to be found," she explained as the rest of the room dashed towards her.

"And," whispering quietly to herself and Frank, "it'll be easier to get an idea of who did it."

Rob heard, without the two noticing and smiled to himself. Heart racing, pulse booming through his body, he called out the three last words to one of the seventeen alive people in the room.

"Three"

The whole room remained low, with small moments of sobbing interrupting the otherwise silent throng.

"Two"

Suzanne had left her phone with the torch pointing upwards on a table, the other side of the room. And as she held onto Mark and Owen, her two 'boys', she wished she'd kept it just to illuminate the situation a little bit more. She noticed that the policewoman and her partner had them. And so did the two waitresses, Mary and Yasmin she thought their names were. Others would have them, she thought, but probably not know how to use them. She was grateful for those more technologically abl in the group. Everyone was, to be honest.

"One"

And that was the last word that one of them heard. The word 'Please' raced and echoed through most of the minds of the remaining seventeen. That word, just over and over. As if that was going to help them.

But in some ways, it did. Because they did stay alive. All of them. Except one.

But it wasn't as though 'Please' had anything to do with it.

*****

A small wheeze could be heard as someone exhaled air very quickly.

Someone who, with much misfortune, wouldn't breathe in or out again, Stark noticed.

She didn't half try though. To breathe. She wheezed and wheezed, until her lungs just wouldn't work again.

Simply because they didn't have enough blood to them.