Deception

-10-

     "What are you doing?!" the woman yells as she slams the door behind her. 

     "Who the hell are you?" Abe says, harshly. 

     "Celine? What are you doing here?" the Colonel asks.

     "'Celine'? How the hell do you know her?" the detective asks. He leans over and helps JC up.

     "Abe," she whispers then winces. "You remember her, right?"

     Before he can answer, Colonel points his gun towards the two of them, Abe pushing the telepath behind him and raising his gun back at him.

     "Madame, I'm afraid you've come at a very inopportune time," Benjamin starts, the Colonel pointing his gun towards him. "Something dreadful has happened here."

     "I can see that and I'm glad I got here before it got any worse," the seer states as Abe lowers his gun and JC takes a deep breath. Chef shoots up his pointer finger. 

     "This is only the tip of the iceberg!" he states as he lowers his hand. "And it's a big iceberg. How can I put this delicately...? MARK'S FUCKING DEAD!!!"

     "What?" Celine asks in shock. 

     "Dead, like my hopes and dreams," Chef continues as he looks down towards the ground then his head jolts back up. "And he's a flesh-eating zombie, too."

     "Homo necrosis," Celine says in a worried tone. 

     "Exactly, hence the guns," Colonel states as he waves his gun around.

     "That is not 'hence the guns'!" Abe shouts as he waves his gun mockingly.

     "Stop waving those bloody guns around!" the butler exclaims, which earns him both Colonel and the detective's gun plus Chef's ladle waved in his face.

     "Hol-Hold on! Tell me what happened. How did Mark... die?" Celine questions.

     "It was murder."

     Thunder strikes as everyone turns toward Damien, who had just spoken, and Lira, JC wincing as she stumbles, her shoulder sending pain through her body.

     "And worse yet... the body is missing," Lira added.

     "What? Show me. And don't say that word," Celine states.

     "What word? Murder?" Chef asks as thunder strikes and they appear where Mark's body used to be. As the redhead and brunette are about to question it, JC's shoulder starts to hurt again, a quiet hiss escapes her lips.

     "Yes! That word!" Celine exclaims.

     "Well, I mean murder is a rather accurate description of what occur-" Benjamin starts as thunder sounds, the telepath hissing as she clutches her shoulder. Celine moves towards him and hits his shoulder.

     "Do you not see the lightning?!" Celine yells at him.

     "You sayin' it was lightning that murdered Mark?" Abe asks as thunder sounds, the redhead wincing as she slaps him on his arm.

     "Well, mother nature doesn't exactly strike me as having murderous intentions," he stops to think as thunder strikes, JC whimpering as she falls towards Abe and Lira. "Unless you count that time that I was sucked into the board game, Jumanji and I-" 

     "Stop! Stop!" Celine shouts.

     "Stop, please! It's hurting Jay!" Lira cries as she looks at the telepath's shoulder, a small amount of blood coming from the wound. She speeds to get a cloth then comes back and places it on her wound. JC nods a thank you as Abe holds her steady.