Ten

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three – Never There

Chloe screamed and jumped back, almost tripping on the tiled floor. She began to cry and mouthed, "Gabe!"

"I'm afraid that you're not the winner as promised," remarked Madeline walking closer on the tile floor and taking a good look at Gabe's corpse. She then looked up and continued, "Because as it turns out, I am actually the winner and will be 'inheriting' Miles DeGeneres' estate, or to be completely accurate, about ten million dollars of it."

Chloe said nothing but just looked at the pistol in Madeline's hands, all the while crying softly.

"Yes," Madeline raised her eyebrows as if she felt a little guilty, "It turns out that the contest was already pre-determined. I am the winner and the ten million is right now sitting in various foreign bank accounts under my various pseudonyms," she paused, looking almost concerned for Chloe, "Well don't cry sweetheart," she urged, "It will all be over soon."

Chloe shook her head and whispered, "No, please!"

"The only question is," Madeline paused, "How do you want to go?"

Chloe said nothing, but her eyes said, "What are you talking about?"

"How do you want your life to end?" asked Madeline, "I'm giving you a choice, something the others didn't get. I'm going to let you choose how you want to end your existence."

Chloe still looked puzzled.

"And you can't say 'of natural causes when I'm eighty years old,' or anything like that," warned Madeline with a wink.
Right then, Chloe's mind began to move towards ideas of how she could resist and possibly overpower Madeline. The two women were of about the same build, through Chloe was actually slightly larger and taller. If the handgun were removed from the equation, Chloe thought she might have a good chance at defeating Madeline in a fight.

But she knew the biggest problem was the gun. Chloe had outsmarted an armed Bibi earlier with the flashlight, but she had no flashlight on herself now and was pretty certain that the same trick wouldn't work twice. She thought that maybe, just maybe, if Madeline got close enough that she might be able to wrestle the gun away.

The safest thing to do then is to play dumb and cowardly, thought Chloe. This of course was an easy part for Chloe to play, for it wasn't entirely without some truth, for she was uncertain of what to do and completely scared out of her mind.

"Alright," replied Chloe to Madeline's question, "Can I have some time to think about it?"

"Sure," Madeline replied, "But here's the catch. This is a multiple choice question," she paused and pointed out into the main room with her free hand while she held the pistol right at Chloe's torso with the other, "But first, let's move this way."

Chloe obeyed and began walking on the tile that eventually turned into carpet in the main room. Madeline followed at a distance and directed her charge, "Go forwards down that hall," she pointed towards the guest room side of the house.

The two women, still only clad in a bra and panties and a bikini respectively, moved through the house. Chloe was jittery and wobbled nervously as she walked ahead of her captor, while Madeline strutted confidently with her pistol in hand.

Madeline ordered, "Second room on the left."

Chloe followed her order and walked in that direction, passing on the right the bedroom where Dominic's body lay face down on the floor with the back of his head crushed in. The body was beginning to rot now and a smell emanated from the room. She walked right up to the second door on the left and touched the door.