AN/ And NOW! The END of The END...
Warning: Strong Language and Minor Violence and Major Death.
Ken was still laughing. He returned to his spot near the entrance and sat down, assessing the scene with a mirthful grin on his face. He sheathed his knife and pulled out a gun.
Phyllis was fussing over Joseph, trying to help him sit up. His back leaned against the metal grating of the drain. "You shouldn't have come, love."
"I couldn't be anywhere else." He insisted. "I know I might not be much help, but…"
"But you can give me strength." She whispered so only he could hear. She kissed his cheek and smoothed his hair.
Charles was still holding Lucille away from him by her shoulders. He could still hear Elsie fighting with the police outside. "What next?" He asked the man in charge.
"I'm going to torture that bitch you're holding. I'm going to bleed her like a stuck pig and I'm going to make her watch the man she loves suffer."
"You know she was planning to kill me. If you kill us both, she'll probably be glad." Charles tried to reason.
"You've got a point, but I didn't say I was going to kill you, did I? I'm just going to hurt you a bit." Ken pointed the gun. "But first…" He fired and Lucille let out a yelp as the bullet pierced her leg.
Instinctively, Charles caught her. In the chaos, the lantern beside them was knocked over. It rolled down the steps, the globe shattering on the first step. The flame remained lit as it rolled down towards the lowest level and the powder keg. Phyllis reacted quickly and snuffed the flame before it reached the gun powder.
Now there was only a single lantern lighting the ice house, with a halo of light coming from around the door.
"Step towards the light, Mr. Carson." Ken ordered. Charles obeyed, carrying Mrs. Butte with him.
"I'd be careful with those bullets, Mr. Fletcher." Charles warned. "Or aren't you aware that there is a keg of gun powder in here with us?"
This information was indeed new to Ken. "Gun powder you say?"
Joseph kicked the keg so that it made a knocking sound. "Right here, you lummox."
"Who are you calling a lummox? Some gall you have when you're the damn fool who came running in here." Ken scoffed. "Ain't no woman worth risking your life for."
"If you believe that, then you're the fool." Joseph countered. "I think your problem is that you know you could never deserve a woman who was worth dying for."
Ken wasn't laughing now. He jumped down the steps with frightening alacrity. He knocked Phyllis aside with his hip and kicked Joseph in the shoulder where he had been shot. "Is this how you prove that you deserve a woman? Running blindly into danger?"
Joseph screamed in pain as Ken continued to rage. "Did you think you'd impress her by being a weak, insignificant worm who whimpers at the first little bit of pain? I lost a bloody hand, man!"
Phyllis recognized this side of her husband. He would often get in rages like this, where something in him just snapped. They burned hot, but quick. She knew the only way to ride it out was to keep quiet and let him spend his anger on someone else, but she couldn't let that someone be Joseph, not in his weakened state.
"Leave him alone, Ken."
"Do you love this...this whelp?" Ken ground his heel into Molesley's shoulder.
"I do."
Still, he did not turn to face her. "Have the two of you been having it off? Eh?" He practically spit in Molesley's face. "She isn't even a good fuck, but a fruit like you wouldn't know the difference."
Joseph grabbed Ken's foot and tried to push him away but could not. He groaned in agony.
Phyllis flew at Ken with all her might. She knocked him over and kicked at him. Mr. Carson moved a second after she did, coming to her aid as Ken hit Phyllis with the bloody leather belt on his arm. The buckle hit her under the eye and cut her. Charles grabbed both of Ken's arms from behind and drove him into the powder keg head first. There was a terrible crack as the keg burst open and Ken crumbled unconscious to the floor.
Charles stood panting over Phyllis and Molesley as they clung together, each assured the other that they were fine. There were tears of joy and relief, but Charles knew their troubles weren't finished.
"Thank god, that's over." Lucille's icy voice sighed. "I thought he'd never shut up."
The three sane people looked up at the madwoman. She'd pulled the pistol out of her dress sash. Charles, Phyllis and Joseph had access to both of Ken's guns, but they dare not use them or provoke Lucille by trying to reach for them.
"You're my hero, Charles. You saved me from that monster." She tried to step towards him but grimaced as her leg throbbed in pain. Soon the pain, all pain, would be over, she thought.
Charles decided to take a different tack. "Yes, Lucille…my Lucy. When he hurt you, I knew for the first time how I truly felt. I don't want you to die. I don't want either of us to die. We can live and make a life together."
Charles Carson was still a terrible liar, but the low light of the lonely lantern and Lucille's fogged brain made her believe every word.
"There's no way out of here, Charles."
"We'll find a way. Don't you want to be with me?" He took a step up towards her. He was between her and the exit.
"More than anything."
"You've done so much for me, now let me do something for you. Let me save you." He came nearer still. Phyllis realized that Mr. Carson was shielding them from her. She lifted Joseph gently and they began inching up towards the exit, careful to make no noise.
"But the police…"
"The police are fools." He assured her in his calm, deep voice. "They'll believe whatever we want them to believe. We can pin this all on Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Hoxton. They're the criminals. You're not a criminal; you've only done as you were led to do by love."
"You do understand." Lucille smiled crazily at him. She was hypnotized by these words of kindness coming from him. "I knew you would. We were meant to be together, Charles. I've always known that and now, you know it too."
"Yes, my love, I can see now that we are meant to be together. In this life first, and then the next."
He reached her, his wide frame blocking out her view of the doorway as Phyllis pushed Joseph through in front of her. The space of the ice house brightened as the door opened. Lucille realized what had happened. Charles grabbed her arm as she aimed for the doorway. Her shot hit just above the doorway as Phyllis escaped. Charle's training as a gentleman's gentleman screamed at him that it was not proper to hit a woman, but it had to be done. With a swift backhand, he knocked her down.
Taking her gun, he ran for the door. Let the police handle the rest, he thought. He ducked out the doorway into the bright afternoon to find a dozen guns pointed at him. He dropped the pistol at once and dropped to his knees. "They're both unconscious, I don't know for how long," he gasped.
Elsie kicked the shin of the policeman holding her and broke out of his grasp to run to Charles.
Phyllis and Molesley were being loaded into the hospital ambulance.
Detective Alexander looked at Sergeant Norris. "I'm not sending any men in there. It's too dangerous. We'll wait for them to come out."
The unspoken hope was that neither ever would.
-00-
Ken Fletcher awoke to find himself face down in gunpowder. A voice was calling to him.
"Fletcher! Come out of there. It's over."
Was the voice right? Was it over? He couldn't remember. His head hurt, his arm hurt, it didn't feel like anything was over.
"Mrs. Butte! Give up! Come out of there!"
There was a small groan and a grunt above him. Was that bitch still here? He shuffled to his feet as he pulled the gun from his waistband. His vision was blurred and the room was dark. He saw a flutter of light and turned towards the lamp. It seemed to be floating in the air. But then he saw a hand holding the lantern; her hand, the hand of a madwoman.
Lucille's head was swimming. Charles had betrayed her. He didn't understand. Maybe she was just insane. No. That couldn't be it. Not after everything. She thought of what she'd done. Where had it gone wrong? A voice was telling her to give up. That voice didn't know Lucille Butte. There was still one more thing to do. Though the wife had escaped, she could still kill the brute of a husband. Lucille was surprised to find that she didn't begrudge Phyllis and Molesley escaping. Part of her might actually have been happy for them both if the capacity for happiness still existed in her.
Lucille dragged herself painfully towards the lantern. It was too late to be saved by its light, but she needed its fire. By the dim light cast from the doorway, Lucille saw a dark form moving on the floor of the ice house. One final thing to do, she thought as she reached the lantern and managed to stand.
He fired just as she threw the lantern at the gun powder at his feet.
TBC…
AN/ I think the word I was looking for is KABAM!
There will be two chapters of denouement. If you add up the 57 chapters of this story and the 43 chapters of the mother ship before this craziness happened, that will bring us to 100 chapters. Those of you who remember chapter 100 of the mother ship know what to expect...
