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CHAPTER 41 - THE DIE IS CAST


JUSTIN AND CHRIS’S HOUSE - NEXT DAY


LOUNGE


JUSTIN


Oh god the things he is doing to me! I can’t keep still!


“You’re going to get carpet burns if you don’t stop wriggling.” He purrs, then licks a hot wet stripe from my neck down to the base of my spine.


“Which you will kiss better!” I groan.


“If you insist.” I grin over my shoulder at him. “Over you go then.” He barely gives me enough room to do, which means our cocks brush against each other. “God, you should see how your eyes lit up just then, like diamonds!” Before I can respond, his tongue is in my mouth and I am being kissed like I am his last meal.


I marvel at the saliva that joins us as he lifts his lips, it glistens in the candlelight before disappearing


“Very Cameron Diaz and Ewan Magregor.” The love of my life chuckles.


“What?” I frown.


“There was a movie with them, and one pivotal scene was the kiss they shared, and the string of spit…”


“Oh. Was that There's Something About Mary?”


“No, that was her using cum as hair gel.”


“What was the other movie then?” I slick his hair off his forehead, he immediately flops it back. “Want me to put cum in your hair?” I tease him.


“On my head? Nope. In my mouth, yes. In my hand, yes. On my stomach and thighs, yes. Up my ass, eventually. But definitely not there.” 


“Oh, great, as long as I can put it some...eventually, Brian did you really just say eventually?” 


“Yeah. As long as I can do the same. And I can, right?”


“You have just won two things: my promise to be raw with you alone, and the prize for dumbest question of your life!”


“I accept. Want to hear my speech.” He rolls us so that I am on top of him.


“No.” I give him a quick kiss then blow his hair off of his face, he swats my butt, I sigh as I hate to do this, but…I have to say it. “As you brought up movies...um, opening three scenes are off!” He gapes at me. “I know, mood killer, but it is really bugging me! It is either the music or the sequence...” When he places his fingers on my lips, the spoiled brat wants to have his say, but I stop myself.


“...it is out of whack. I am so glad you noticed. Want to run it through and see what's wrong? With all that’s been happening we’ve not really focused, have we?”


“No. Let me get the disc and the script. You get the lights!” I wriggle off of from him.


“And I will call the guys, we need to get this shit nailed down!”


SIXTEEN HOURS LATER


JUSTIN’S BEDROOM


BRIAN


We have done it! The minute I called Mercy, she said come to hers as it made more sense. But we have got the film nailed! The scenes are now right. Justin has been reworking the score. Barney and I, as I thought, work great together. No egos, no grandstanding, just wanting to make this the best it can be. I yawn as I switch off the lights, feeling tired but exhilarated. Emmett and George are finally on their way to Paris, having postponed their trip again. Ben and Drew are back at his working on an exercise regime and fight scenes with Chris and Daph. Ted and Cyn are sorting out the financing, once they have had about ten hours sleep and not before...if I even attempt to think of texting, they will know, and they will quit.


I stop as I take in the scene. Justin is still working, his guitar on the bed, and in the silence, the only sound is the scratch of his pen against the paper. 


“Hey, Butthoven, enough now.” I hand him the Beam and take the guitar off the bed.


“Butthoven? Really?” He smiles tiredly, but does put the score sheets on the side. “Oh, I so needed this. And that. It was good to…”


“Get back to it?” I settle behind him and massage his shoulders.


“Mmm.” Is his response and he pulls the blankets higher around us. 


“What’s bugging you now?” I ask.


“What do you mean?”


“Well, I am very good at massaging, and right now I might as well be kneading a diamond. Tell me.”


“Been thinking about Michael. He would record what he wanted to say and then call them, right?”


“Yeah…” I feel the dread settle in my stomach, as I had thought the same thing.


“Do you...do you think he also recorded their reactions to the calls? You know, if they answered at the time?”


“You mean the crash, right?” He nods then looks up, his expression both fearful and sickened. “Because if he did and Mercy finds that out…”


“...let’s hope he didn’t, and if he did, that she doesn’t.”


MICHAEL’S HOUSE - MORNING, A WEEK LATER


BATHROOM


MICHAEL


I look and feel like shit! Not only was I in jail overnight, but when I was released and making my way home, I realised something, well not so much realised as remembered and recognised. When I first saw him, I thought he looked vaguely familiar but could not place him, but then it hit me...he is Billy, as in Mercy’s ex, Billy! And, of course, it now makes perfect sense! I wash my face and try to remember where he said he was now, then I smell it again, a burning smell! 


Furious, I go downstairs to call the aircon company. After ten minutes on hold, I am finally connected to someone. “Yes, this is Michael Novotny of...yes, it is me again! No, I can definitely smell burning, clearly there is a fault and I don't care what you say, you are not the one smelling it!” I am halted in my tirade by the door knocking. “Just send someone around today!”


I stalk to the door and yank it open. I am stunned to see Uncle Vic. “What are you doing here?! I thought I was persona non grata in your world!” 


“Oh, you are. I just wanted to come by for my...are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” 


“Uncle Vic, please just turn around now!” I whisper urgently. “Please!”


He does so and looks up and down the street. “What exactly am I looking at?”


“What are you...can't you see him?!” 


“Who?! Michael, I just see some random guy. Now can I get my...hey!” He yells as I yank him inside. “Let go of me, Michael!”


“Inhale!” I order. Warily, he does so. “Can you smell something burning?!”


“Apart from your over active imagination? What is going on with you? I mean,  apart from the chickens coming to roost.”


“Roost? If anyone’s chickens are coming to roost, it is her shithead of a father!” I start to pace. “And her mother. Get what you want and lock up. Actually no, stay here, no wait, I need to think!”


“I’ll say!” Uncle Vic barks. “What is wrong?!”


“That random guy was Billy Horace, Mercy’s ex.” He looks nonplussed. “From school. They only had a couple of dates, but…” I try to calm the fire in my belly but I am too furious. “...he has moved up the street. And now I have all these problems, like the ridiculous kidnapping thing, and I saw them together!”


“Saw who?!” He exclaims


“Billy and Brian!” 


“Brian? What does Brian have to do with this, and when did you see him...I mean them?”


“Yesterday in the freakshow’s store as I was passing to go to work, though why I bothered is anyone’s guess. Not a single customer! Don’t you see?!”


“I suspect he doesn’t as I never met them! Hello, Michael.” Billy smirks from the doorway. “Nice of you to remember me.”


BILLY


I step inside and close the door. “Hi, you must be Vic. I am Billy as he shrieked.”


Vic shakes my hand. “Nice to meet you, though it could’ve been under better circumstances than my nephew’s breakdown!”


“Quite.” I chuckle then turn to Michael. “You look as hideous on the out as you are on the in.” I pull out a cigar and light it. Michael says nothing, he is just staring at me. “So why, I mean apart from you being in love with Mercy and wanting her for you and you alone, just why?”


“In love?” Vic echoes.


“Yep, he is totally in love with Mercy. Always has been. And judging by that question, you’ve said nothing about the other side of you…”


“What bullcrap are you talking?!” Michael spits.


“What other side?” Vic frowns.


“He is bisexual. And as kids they made a pact that by the time they were 39, if neither was with anybody then they would get married and have kids.” I watch him go paler and paler. “But then when she moved to London he was furious and fearful. Fearful that she would find someone to love other than him, and…”


“She dumped you! She dumped you long before…”


“You’re leading with that?!” Vic explodes. “How about, I am not bisexual?!”


“I am not! I just happen to have my heart set on one woman. And one man, it will be perfect. But let me assure you, Uncle Vic, I am 99% gay!”


“And it is the 1% that is making you a psycho over her. Hear this and hear it well. She is not in love with you. She never was. It was a joke to her, but the three year relationship we had when she moved to London was not. Her parents are dead and you killed them by making those calls.”


“I didn’t!” He explodes. “Besides, he is not dead, I saw him! She has to be hiding somewhere! Wait, how did you…”


“Now...” Vic begins then goes quiet, we both do. “...Michael, where did you get that?”


“I have always had it, it is my constitutional right to have one.” He smirks. “I see now.” He steps back and reaches for his coat on the hook behind him, his eyes trained on us, the gun steady. “Move it.”


“Where are we going?” Vic stammers.


“To our house.”


“What house?!” Vic demands.


“Nobody is going anywhere!” Det. Stewart yells, and I pull Vic into the kitchen. “I am going to tell you once, gun down!” The thunk of it hitting the floor has us sagging against each other in relief. I take a look and she has him pinned against the wall, offering no resistance. “You guys okay?! Hardy, come get him!”


“Yeah. Fine.” Vic nods. 


“Let's go, Novotny!” Det. Hardy pulls him outside whilst reading him his rights.


“Jesus, what the fuck was that?!” Vic exclaims.


“Let's get everyone together and I can explain.” 


“Rodney, what are you doing here?” 


MERCY’S HOUSE - FIVE HOURS LATER


LOUNGE


MERCY


Michael is now on a psych ward, everyone is here, and I am flabbergasted. “In love with me?! You have to be kidding! And he shot Brian?! Not Ethan?!”


“They both shot at him.” Caleb hands me a rum and brandy mix. “Ethan’s first shot was pulled because of the shakes, but Michael’s hit him. Then Ethan’s, which were both meant for Dixon, did.”


“I don’t get it still.” Aunt Debs sniffs.


“Aripiprazole. Thanks, Jenia. No, I will ask. Did you know?” Rodney asks Vic.


“Ari what? And know what?”


“That Michael is schizophrenic? Aripiprazole is what he took to control it, and he has been off it since Mercy came back to town and met Brian. And one time before that. But make no mistake, he is a nasty man. That aside, he knew exactly what he was doing to you, Mercy.”


“Still not following!” I carp.


“He saw what Ems saw. You and Brian are his ying-yang.” Rodney explains. “I see you don’t see it. We made a mistake by trying to scare him, but it was a good mistake because it exposed him for the murderer that he is.”


“I am still here, so…” Brian points out.


“But James Dixon is not. Michael killed him.”


We all go quiet, then Justin clears his throat. “Since we are revealing things, you want to tell us who she is?”


“Who are you talking to?” Ben frowns.


“Mercy. Who is she?” Justin repeats. “Who is the person who has been pretending to be you when Vic and Debs weren’t with us?”


“What gave it away?” I frown and beckon her in. “Meet our cousin Lisa.”


“Hey. So what was it?” Lisa smiles at Justin.


“You stopped smoking. And you are left handed.”


“Am not. I am ambidextrous but favour my left. Cigars make me puke. So we just need one more person and then we can explain everything.”


“Who is that?” Brian sighs but does look very proudly at Justin.


“That would be me.” Marilyn smiles as she comes in. “May I have the floor?”

 

Chapter End Notes:

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