"Hey, stand up!" Kit shook the sleeping Kimber by the shoulder.
Kimber shot up with a fright, awakened from a dream. It took her a little while to be able to grasp reality again. She suddenly remembered how she'd shook the bars of her prison and cried till exhaustion took hold of her and she fell asleep. She looked up at Kit still at a complete loss.
"You should get up!" Kit repeated it once again a bit more abruptly, "my brother wants to see you."
The hairs on Kimber's neck were standing on end, "what...what does he want from me?" She asked uncertainly.
"He wants to offer you a deal."
"What kinda deal?" Kimber looked at Kit perplexed.
"Your life for Christian's," Kit said impassively.
Unbounded relief engulfed Kimber. Christian was alive, that was all she could think of. She pulled herself up reluctantly.
"You look terrible!" Kit noted dryly. She shoved a little water bowl in front of her feet, "wash your face and come on!"
Kimber knelt down to the ground and daubed her hands with water. She sprinkled some of it onto her face and spread the droplets of water all over her face. At least she will not look so unsightly anymore when she meets Christian, she thought. Her happiness to be able to see him again mixed with a feeling of uncertainly and fear. In what condition will he be in? Was he badly hurt? Kimber remembered the bloody hankie again that Quentin had sent her.
Kit pushed Kimber in front of herself till they reached the room where Quentin had his praxis set up. Kimber hesitated. Everything rebelled inside her against going in there. She felt her heart beating faster and her knees becoming wobbly. The horrible memories of the time of her torture became very much alive in her once more, "I...I can't go in there," she garbled, "everything in there makes me remember the...the..." Her voice faltered.
"Don't be afraid, as long as you're with me nothing will happen to you," Kit grabbed Kimber's hand and pulled her with.
Christian was bound to a chair with his arms and legs when Kimber stepped into the room. He thought he was having a vision. He lifted his head tiredly and watched her through his half open eye lids. She was so gorgeous in her white wedding dress and he stopped breathing for a moment. He blinked to get rid of the hallucination he was having, but when he reopened his eyes, she was still there, "Kimber..." He muttered.
"Christian!" Kimber ran towards him, but Quentin was quicker. He grabbed her before she could reach the chair Christian was tied to.
"Get back!" He grappled her by the arms gruffly and threw her back into the other corner of the room, "we'll have enough time for that afterwards."
Kimber didn't dare to oppose against Quentin's orders. She had to find out once already what he was capable of. She stood in the corner shaking, with her hands folded to her chest and stared at Christian. The way he looked almost broke her heart. His face was drained of colour, his cheeks sunken and hollow, his forehead covered with cold sweat and he was breathing heavily. There were no more twinkles in his eyes and he was looking down apathetically. Kimber had the feeling he didn't really realise she was there, "what have you done to him?" She asked scandalized by the way he looked.
"We had to still him, so he doesn't cause any trouble," Quentin said nonchalantly. He turned to Kit, "can we start?"
She nodded with her lips pressed together. She wasn't too enamoured with Quentin's little games, but she wasn't brave enough to oppose him herself. She took a small pendulum unenthusiastically out the cabinet and put it down in front of Quentin onto the table.
He was watching Kimber with a smirk, "you know how much I love to play games, I thought we should let destiny decide who's the winner and who will loose."
"If I stay here willingly, you let Christian go then?" Kimber asked hopefully.
Quentin laughed, "you didn't understand the game, my love. It isn't YOU who decides, it's destiny."
"What happens with the one who's the...winner?" Kimber had the guts to complete the sentence even though she was afraid of the answer.
Quentin's eyes sparkling oddly, "the winner is allowed to watch how the looser is executed."
"Oh my god, no!" Kimber sunk to her knees sobbing. She looked at Christian who was still staring before himself completely impassively. Each way, nobody will rush to her rescue-none of the people present anyway. They were totally at the mercy of the lunacy of this man. She looked at Kit helplessly, "you told me you loved me. How can you watch him kill me then?" She asked despondently.
"I'm sorry," Kit said quietly, "I didn't make up the rules."
"Let us start already!" Quentin said impatiently. He lifted the pendulum up the table, "if the pendulum swings to the left it means Kimber, if it swings right it's Christian," he established the rules of the game, "and now the question..." He cleared his throat, "who's gonna die?"
Kimber stared at the pendulum paralysed from fear as it started moving slowly. She closed her eyes and was praying quietly for a miracle to occur.
The doors of the warehouse hall fell to pieces without any initial warning accompanied by the deafening sound of a detonation, and only a few seconds later the praxis room was filled with armed SWAT officers pointing their fire arms at Quentin and Kit.
"Freeze or we'll shoot!" One of the officers shouted.
Kit stared into the nozzle of one of the machine guns knocked for six, "I...I surrender," she mumbled.
"Hands over your head and lay down onto the ground slowly!" The officer ordered her.
Kit complied. She suspiciously glanced over to Quentin, "give up please!" She begged him, "they'll kill you otherwise!"
A wide smile appeared on his face, "I'd die happier than crawl on the ground like a worm," he said. He started laughing, "but I won't go alone," he pulled out a pistol of his belt quick as lightning and aimed it at Christian.
Kimber cried out when he pulled the trigger and she saw Christian sinking back on the chair suddenly. She felt somebody grabbing her and pushing her down to the floor. The sound of a firing machine gun filled the room and she saw from the corner of her eyes Quentin collapsing covered in blood.
Kimber fought against the sensation that she was going to faint soon. She lifted her head and saw one of the officers leaning over Christian and untying him. She stared shocked at the blood stain on his shirt getting larger and larger. He's dead, she thought desperately. She gave up the fight and let herself fall into a redemptory unconsciousness.