Disclaimer: I own nothing pertaining to Masters of Horror or "Cigarette Burns".
The massive gate leading to the estate's grounds was wide open. Even Haley, who'd only ever seen places like this on TV, knew this was not normal. Yet Kirby didn't even pause as he steered the car down the long driveway and pulled up in front of the imposing mansion. Haley was shocked when he abruptly killed the engine and leaped out of the car, leaving his keys still dangling from the ignition.
"Wait up!" Haley shouted while fumbling with her seat belt. Either he didn't hear her or he ignored her, because Kirby didn't slow down. Haley finally freed herself and rushed out after him. Despite her much shorter legs, she managed to catch up to him just when he reached the main door. It, too, was left mysteriously open. Haley grabbed Kirby's arm. "Dude, what if it's a break-in? Shouldn't we call the cops or something?"
"Can't wait," Kirby muttered and pulled himself free, not violently, but more like he'd snagged his coat on a tree branch. His face was weirdly distracted-looking. Haley's stomach churned, but she followed him.
To his companion's growing dismay, Kirby didn't enter the mansion with any kind of caution. He ran through the foyer and down the vacant halls, calling Bellinger's name. Suddenly, he almost ran smack into the butler and skidded to a halt. Haley let out a sharp yelp and grabbed onto his arm again, her eyes bugging at the sight before them.
No longer the elegantly stoic man Kirby remembered from his previous visits, Bellinger's butler stood before the shocked pair in a fighter's crouch, shirtless and clutching what looked like a ceremonial Asian dagger. A delicate tassel hung from its pommel, and its blade was smeared with blood. His blood, apparently, since every inch of the man's exposed torso was covered in deep crisscrossing slashes.
Kirby swallowed nervously and blurted the first thing that popped into his head, "Mister Bellinger called me."
Haley threw him an incredulous look. Did he seriously think the guy cared whether they had a freakin' appointment?
The butler glared in accusation. "You brought the film to this house."
Kirby raised both hands in a placating gesture. "Look, I don't want any trouble, alright?"
"But you brought trouble to this house, didn't you!"
"Oh shit..." Haley whimpered, totally unaware as she did so.
"And now you're back," the bloodied man grinned, "Well..." His expression brightened then, like a wonderful idea just occurred to him. "I know what you want! You want to see the movie!"
"No I don't," Kirby answered without hesitation. And at that moment, he really meant it.
"Yes you do," the butler insisted coyly. If it weren't for the blood and the insanity radiating from the man's eyes, Haley might have laughed at the whole surreal situation.
"I hope you get what you want," the butler said, "What you deserve!" Without warning, he plunged the dagger into his right eye. Haley's scream mingled with his. Kirby grabbed her and the pair darted past the butler who had fallen to his knees. A morbid impulse forced Haley to peer over her shoulder just as the mutilated man drew out the blade from his mangled eye socket and and drove it into his left eye. Then she and Kirby turned a corner and the man was lost from sight. But they could still hear him, and that was worse, for despite the agony he must have been in, the butler wasn't screaming anymore. He was laughing.
They stumbled through a set of doors and into Bellinger's private screening room. A movie was running, its end credits scrolling up the screen. It was such a mundane image the two of them stared at it in confusion for a moment.
"Is that La Fin Absolue Du Monde?" Haley whispered. The credits were in French, she noticed.
Kirby gave an uncertain shake of his head, then let his gaze wander through the small theater. He nudged her and pointed towards the projection booth. Haley looked where he pointed and saw through the small window what looked like a hunched figure.
"I think that's Bellinger," Kirby said and started towards the booth.
Haley tightened her grip on his arm and pulled him to a stop. "W-Wait!"
"He could be hurt."
"We could get hurt! Just 'cause I like watching slasher films doesn't mean I wanna fucking be in one," she declared, "Let's just call the cops, Kirby. Please!"
Kirby chewed the inside of his lip. "Look, if you don't wanna come, just wait here while I go check on him."
Haley shook her head emphatically. "No way am I gonna be by myself anywhere in this crazy house."
"Then come with me," Kirby snapped, yanking his arm free as he marched towards the projectionist booth. Haley hesitated only a second before she followed him. The churning in her stomach became a roil.
The only light in the booth came from the projector that was still running. All that really did was make the shadows that much more pronounced. Kirby and Haley found Bellinger standing behind the second projector. Only his head and shoulders were visible. His pale face was covered in sweat and he was grimacing and making sounds that were not at all reassuring. As soon as he noticed the two newcomers his hand came into view and rested on top of the silent projector. He was holding a straight razor. Blood smeared it and the backs of his fingers. Haley swallowed bile. Kirby tensed.
"Bellinger?"
The older man flashed a sickly grin. "You missed the good part."
"What's going on?" Kirby asked, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.
Bellinger glanced at the razor in his hand with mild bemusement, as if he had no idea where it came from. He set it down on the projector. "Nothing," he said with an air of distraction, "Everything is alright."
No surprise, Kirby wasn't all that convinced. "You sure? Maybe I should call a doctor."
A faraway look came to Bellinger's eerie pale eyes. "I have done terrible things in my life. You don't make as much money as I have...without burying a few bodies," his breath wheezed, "You only can sleep at night...if they stay buried. But they never do."
Haley couldn't help herself. She asked him, "You watched La Fin Absolue Du Monde?" Could that really be what drove the butler to cut himself up and made this multi-millionaire do whatever the hell he did to himself? A few minutes ago Haley wouldn't have even considered such a crazy legend about the lost film might actually be true. But now...
Bellinger lunged forward in his enthusiasm, throwing his eyes into the weak light and startling the two younger people. "Yeah!" he hissed, "I highly recommend it." He frowned a bit in thought. "It's not a movie, however. It's a preview. It's...the coming attractions of the soul," he grinned. "But it has," he chuckled weakly, "a hell of an ending."
Kirby ventured to change the subject, "You said on the phone you needed help."
The older man nodded. "I was going to ask you to find another movie for me. After all, you did a good job with this one." He shrugged, only it was more like a wince. "I don't need it anymore. I have been inspired," his expression glowed, "I made my own movie!" His hands slid off the top of the projector and out of view. His eyes closed and his face contorted. There was a horrible squishing noise, then Bellinger's hands reappeared clutching something long and fleshy like a string of sausage.
Kirby's eyes widened as his mind struggled to process what he saw. He was dimly aware of Haley whimpering beside him.
Bellinger fed the fleshy object into the projector as he would a reel of film. He had to shift his position to do it and when he did Kirby and Haley saw the wide gash across his belly from where the sausage-string emerged.
"Oh, Jesus! Oh, Jesus!" Haley's words were muffled behind the hand she clamped over her mouth. Her other hand squeezed Kirby's forearm hard enough to leave finger-shaped bruises later.
Bellinger switched on the projector and frantically began to feed more of his intestines into the machine, even as he writhed and choked in the process.
Horrified and nauseated at the same time, Kirby covered his mouth with both hands to stifle his rising gorge. His ears were filled with the sounds of Bellinger's dying sounds and Haley's frantic screams. He turned when Haley pulled at his arm and the two of them ran from the projection booth.
Out in the theater, Haley stumbled to a halt as she gaped at what was up on the screen. The end credits were replaced with a continuing stream of gory abstract art. Pinks and reds and bilious yellows streaking across the screen. It was so ridiculous and so awful at the same time. His guts are almost pretty, she thought just before she doubled over and vomited onto the nearest seat.
Kirby hurried over and touched her shoulder in concern. "Timpson, hey. You alright?"
"Oh god," she coughed, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. "What's happening?" She whirled and confronted Kirby with tears pouring from her eyes. "What the fuck is happening, Kirby!"
"We gotta get the hell outta here, okay?" Kirby said, "We'll call the cops as soon as we're outside."
Haley didn't hide her relief at him finally suggesting something rational. They started for the exit when the sudden arrival of Matthews blocked their escape. He'd followed them here all the way from the Vogue. He'd seen the blood out in the hall and heard the distant howls of the butler. Now he took in the bizarre carnage splashed across the movie screen and Haley's and Kirby's terrified expressions.
Kirby exclaimed, "Jesus, Walter, what're you doing?" It was the first time since Annie's death that he called Matthews by his first name. Neither man really noticed.
Matthews looked trashed. His tailored suit was rumpled, his skin was sagging with fatigue, and he hadn't shaved in a couple of days. The look in his bloodshot eyes was both exhausted and frenzied. It would have been easy to feel sorry for him were it not for the fact that he was brandishing the gun he'd been toting in his belt. "What's going on here?" he stammered, "What filthy fucking thing are you- What is this?" He gestured at the screen with his free hand.
Kirby tried to reason with him, "Look, you don't wanna be here now."
Matthews's grin made his shaky hold on sanity all the more obvious. "You're right. Lately, I've been spending a lot of time doing things I never would have expected. Like sitting out side your theater for days at a time with a loaded gun. Or letting my business go to hell while I figure out ways to ruin your life." The words spilled out of him as more cracks began to show. The more the talked, the faster they came.
Kirby's eyes darted from Matthews's manic face to the gun and back. The strange compulsion that had made him run blithely into the mansion had cleared away, leaving him all too aware of the danger he was in. Worse, the danger he'd put Haley into. She hadn't even wanted to come here, but he dragged her along all the same. If she was killed now, Kirby knew without a doubt the blame rested on him. Even more than the blame for Annie's suicide.
Fortunately, Matthews seemed entirely focused on him. While the older man ranted, Kirby slowly, subtly stretched his arm out and maneuvered Haley to stand behind him, blocking her from Matthews's aim. He felt her hands clutching at the back of his coat and her stuttering breaths on the back of his neck. He imagined the look of wide-eyed terror on her face and wished he could tell her how sorry he was for getting her into this shit.
"I didn't wanna throw my life away!" Matthews continued. Then his expression turned sly, kicking Kirby's dread up a notch. "But now...if you get shot here, what's it matter? Who's gonna notice?" Now his gaze included Haley in his fevered awareness. "Just two more freaks on a stack of bodies tomorrow."
No. He couldn't let this crazy bastard kill Haley. And he didn't want to die either, Kirby realized with a jolt. Before he had a chance to second guess his actions, Kirby grabbed Matthews by the wrist and forced it up until the gun pointed towards the ceiling. Matthews immediately started fighting for control of the weapon and a deadly tug of war ensued.
Suddenly, there a flash at the movie screen drew Kirby's gaze. In towering white letters on a black field, the words LA FIN ABSOLUE DU MONDE blazed. A flickering cigarette burn superimposed itself over the title. Kirby's eyes widened. He heard Haley shout his name, heard a gunshot just as another, brighter cigarette burn flooded his vision, then darkness.
A/N: Dun, dun, dunnn... Cliffhanger. Stay tuned! -)