Psycho Killer || Starrison

Chapter Nine

All of that happened within a second.

Harrison would scream in fear, but he had no control over his body now; he could only stand and watch, terrified. Paralyzed by coldness.

No. Not Ringo. It was impossible.

"What did you do?!"

Calm down. He's alive, he's just lost his consciousness, Arthur replied coldly and numbly.

"He's my best friend!" As if it made any difference to his comrade.

Arthur only shrugged and took the unconscious body, dragging it to the basement, covering all the clues of what could happen here. After a few minutes Ringo laid, tied down to the table with belts. George had a terrible deja vu, and didn't like it at all.

"You can't hurt him!"

So what am I supposed to do.

Harrison's mind was like a river full of thoughts, thousands in one second. "Codex! Doesn't Codex forbid killing people like this? He wasn't drawn! It's not his time!"

There was a silence. The most terrifying silence in the Beatle's life.

He couldn't believe in what has happened a few seconds ago. Ringo got suspicious. Arthur has stunned him... and locked in the basement. After all, it was all lost now! All of his life, he'll be damned! Unless... no, he pushed this terrible thought aside and looked at the sleeping drummer, his closed eyes and messy strands of hair falling on eyes. He couldn't kill Richard, he simply wasn't able to. Never — not the man he loved most in this world.

"You won't murder him," George snapped out to Arthur suddenly. "I won't let you. He can't die, do you hear me?!"

Arthur backed off, somehow shocked, not able to understand the man's reaction. Why do you care about him so much. It's a human, just like everybody else. The victim like any other.

"Ritchie is NOT like any other!"

How though.

He hasn't felt such a frustration while talking with Arthur for so long. He wished for him to disappear, to get rid of this emotionless voice in his head at this moment so much.

"Because it's Ritchie! He didn't deserve anything that happened to him! All of this! His life is important!"

Nobody's life is important. Life is indeed worthless. Only our lives count. And Codex.

"Arthur, I LOVE him!"

What does "love" mean.

And then Harrison understood their conversation is pointless. "Leave me alone."

His comrade only shrugged and disappeared, not caring about how George was mad at him. This man never cared. He'll come back soon though; he was always coming back.

At this moment the guitarist couldn't make any rational decision. He knew Richard won't wake up in a few more hours. So he gained control over his muscles and ran out of this damned room, closing the doors carefully behind. And then leaned against them, falling on the floor in resignation. What should he do? What?

He had the man of his dreams tied up in the basement — gloomy irony of this situation made him laugh, against the common sense and overwhelming panic. But this laugh ended quickly. George raised hands in front of his eyes; they were all covered in fresh blood. And not only them. The surrounding walls. Everything splattered in crimson and pieces of insides. Abandoned bodies. Terrifying tools.

A loud scream from behind the doors made him shiver. And then another. And another. Agonizing, tormented, scream of a panicked soul. Some hand took his arm, yanking. "MURDERER! MURDERER!" The voice kept screaming, right into his ears, shaking his eardrums. Sharp nails, scratching his body from everywhere. "BUTCHER!" Nothing could change what he had become. He tried lying to himself, but he couldn't get away from the truth — he tried to believe it wasn't real him. But those monstrous things, they were all part of George.

Harrison hid his head in knees, protecting with arms, wanting to shut out the entire world, shaking uncontrollably. There was no blood. There were no screams. He was losing control over himself. And now he had to get himself back together, recover forces. Calm down and think of some ways out of this damn situation. For Ringo.

And so George raised up from the ground, knowing he has not much time left. He needed some plan before Ringo would wake up — or even worse, before Arthur would kindly decide to take care of the drummer on his own. The guitarist didn't even try to imagine this. The terrible thought of his lovely Ritchie left at the mercy of a monster made his mind scream. Oh, Ritchie.

Some quick impulse made him open the basement's door again, letting a trickle of light in. But then another screams exploded in his mind, begging for mercy; he couldn't stop imagining the view of his friend down there. He saw Ringo waking up, looking around carefully, as his eyes were slowly filling with terror at the blood and horrible tools' sight.

"I can't."

Harrison closed the door. He wasn't ready. He was never ready, and he will never wake up ready, but honestly, did anyone care about his opinion? Of course not. Nobody cared two years ago when Arthur made him choose the first innocent victim, neither does anyone now, when it comes to saving his friend's life desperately. The guitarist wiped the tears off his cheek, going into the living room's direction. All he needed was to sit down and clear his thoughts. He'll make it.

Seconds later George was sitting on a couch. He turned the radio on, hoping to detach himself from reality, stop thinking, but the fate mocked him for the another time. After only a few songs the evening news started; every station talked about him, his terrible case, not even knowing they mean George Harrison, this famous musician. Nobody would even suspect a Beatle to be a serial killer, a monster terrorizing the entire city. Well... technically, Arthur weren't a Beatle. But it didn't change anything, because Harrison was the one that couldn't sleep at night, haunted by guilt and ghosts of murdered people. The one to live in constant fear.

The audition was still on, but George turned the radio off with one aggressive hit. He's had enough. It has gone too far. First Macca, then Ringo... the spiral needed to be stopped. With this thought, suddenly so self-confident, he got up and walked to the place where Starkey was just waking up.

"I'll tell everything... I'll admit to all my crimes. I'll finish this."