THE SIXTH GUEST: Chapter Four - Part Five

Eddie had expected it to be cooler down in the churchyard – that the uncanny heat had been clinging to the trees – but it was hotter down there; it was sweltering. At first he thought it was just another symptom of withdrawal: something else to screw with his life until he shrivelled up and died. But no, this was different. The vagrants were responding to it as they queued up at the back of the van. The wind was up, blasting round the corners of the church and into his face but it was a hot wind. Everyone was talking about it until he barged past them. It didn’t matter to him. Only three things mattered now: getting the junk that Travis was hoarding up there in the wood, seeing his lovely Angie one more time, and destroying the lives of both Travis and that slutty girl of his, Selina.

There were half a dozen bums waiting in a line at the back of the van. Eddie jostled his way through, ignoring their complaints and went straight to the Christian dolling out food. “Hey! I want to talk to you!”

“Please can you wait your turn? We’ve got enough for everyone.”

“No. It has to be now! I want to tell you about Travis and that slut he’s always with: Selina!”

The older man who organised things came round from the side of the van with his palms up. “Calm down Eddie. What seems to be the trouble?”

“The trouble is you’ve got some wolves in the enclosure! Travis and Selina! You know them?” He pointed in their general direction, up into the woods.

“Yes. What about them? Is this about that scuffle you had earlier?”

“Did you know he’s a drug dealer? Did you know that? He only comes here to sell! He’s not even homeless!”

The Christian put his hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “Why don’t you calm down for a minute. There’s no need to get so riled up.”

“He uses this little barbecue you throw to sell his drugs! He’s into all kinds of shit like that! He got me into—He got me into it – sold it to me and my girlfriend. He doesn’t give a shit about anyone!”

“Calm down Eddie. Come on. Just calm down.”

“Don’t you care? Don’t you care that he’s selling that shit here of all places?” He glared into the Christian’s face, at the confusion and fear; the doubt. And he realised. “You already know. You already know, don’t you?”

“Eddie, just calm— It’s not as straight forward as you might think.”

“Are you afraid of him? Is that it?”

The Christian said nothing but that same fear and doubt stayed in his face.

“My girlfriend is dying! And I might be— I’m dying too! Doesn’t that matter to you? Doesn’t that matter to anyone?”

“Please son, just calm down. We can talk about this.”

“No,” snapped Eddie, wiping his mouth again. “Nothing’s ever going to stop him. God in heaven couldn’t stop him. You aren’t going to do anything about this, are you?” He could see that the Christian wouldn’t though he couldn’t understand why; was so far away from the pampered and secure existence the man lived in. “The police won’t do anything. He’s going to get away with this like he’s got away with everything since we were kids.”

Eddie glared angrily into space, seeing the truth of it; then he knocked the Christian back out the way and went over to the foot of the church wall. It was hard to see in the shadow cast by the van and the people but when the lightning flashed again he caught the glint of reflected light. What was left of the whisky bottle that Travis had given him was still there, most of it shattered but the neck still whole extending into a jagged circle of razor sharp broken glass. Eddie brandished it like a threatening fist in front of his face.

“He’s not getting away with it this time! He’s not doing to anybody else what he did to me and Angie! If you won’t do anything then I will! I’m going to cut him up! And then I’m going to cut up that slutty girl of his, Selina. And then I’m going to take that junk he’s got and go back to Angie with it!”

“Eddie, please!”

“Stay back! Nobody fucking touch me!”

He barged through what had been the queue to the van but were now just gawkers. The wind was even stronger, battering him first from behind and then from the front. Sheet lightning flashed and popped overhead in the clouds then a bolt of it came down on the grass only twenty feet away from him to his right.

“Jesus Christ!” he stumbled back. A woman was screaming but he didn’t care. All he saw were those three things: Travis & Selina REVENGE, going back to Angie LOVE, and getting his hands on that heroin NEED. He marched forward toward the foot of the stone steps leading up into the wood.

Then the thunder hit.

It was louder and closer than anything he had ever heard in his life and hit him like twin claw hammers cracking simultaneously against each eardrum. He lost all equilibrium, falling right then left. Shattered glass was falling all around him like jagged hail, cutting him and cracking on his head: coloured glass that had come from the stained glass windows. He span. The homeless men and women were panicking, running in random directions. The Christians were gripping one another, heads down. A lightning bolt came down on top of the van, covering them in sparks. They cried out and scampered away from it, protecting their faces.

Eddie’s mind was just images and chaos, no coherency at all, like the others... apart from those three things: LOVE, NEED and REVENGE. It could have been the end of the fucking world; he didn’t care anymore; all he cared about was jamming his broken bottle into Travis’s face, slashing it across Selina’s slutty cleavage. That was all he wanted now; all he had in him left to do.

He staggered on, buffeted from the side by the wind. The thunder came again, like another physical blow where his shoulder blades met, knocking him off balance. Another lightning bolt came down, dancing on the steps in front of him, then another to his left, in the two metre gap between him and the church wall. Dozens of bolts came down near the van; on the drive; on the lawn, striking the mausoleum, hitting the tree near the road and the bush shelter. People were running and screaming but they didn’t know which way to go, which direction was away from it.

Then the biggest strike came and the world went white. He saw the van being torn in half. He saw rubble and earth flying up from the impact. He saw bodies thrown into the air. Then the blast wave hit him and Eddie was flung backwards, legs over torso, legs over torso. His field of vision flashed bright and dark, bright and dark; then as he was spinning up in the air, a second blast of light and terrible heat hit him, knocking him harder and faster.

He hit the stone steps leading up to the woods and then he lost all sense of where he was.