The Radcliffe Asylum
I watch the Mushroomers spread sideways in every direction, each of them empowered with a gun as well. They start shooting at the police, though God knows they’re lousy shooters. I wonder what the Pillar told them to do.
The whole scene is a mess of people running in every direction. Every once in a while, a camera stops broadcasting, presumably having been kicked by the panicking crowd. The headline of the Queen being shot in the head is plastered on every news channel. It’s seriously hard to believe this is happening.
But in all this mess, my eyes are looking for the Pillar.
Finally, I glimpse him wheeling himself among the crowd, now covered underneath the blanket. The wheel chair is soon destroyed by the masses and he has to limp up with the rifle in his hand.
A camera man seems to have identified him and focuses on him. I stick to that channel, wondering where he is going. He is definitely not kind to the crowd he meets as he shoots a couple of the Queen’s guards on the way.
Where are you going, Pillar? What are you thinking?
It crosses my mind that he is escaping. A thought that terrifies me and urges me to grip my rifle, in case I’ll have to get out and chase after him. But I see an easier path to the west side, which he hasn’t taken. The Pillar would recognize such an easy chance to get out of this. So where is he heading?
Slowly, it seems like he is heading toward the Queen’s limousine.
The camera shakes all of a sudden, covering the broadcast is over. But then I realize the camera man pulled it off its tripod and decided to follow the Pillar on foot. It’s like a horror footage camera movie now, where we follow the situation from inside out.
Except this camera man is focused on the Pillar.
The limousine’s window is half open. Margaret Kent’s head sticks out, pleading at the Pillar not to kill her. She even promises him to get his one-handed relative to win the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament, like the Pillar had asked her the first time I’d ever seen her.
Then she pleads for her life. “Don’t kill me, Pillar,” she squeaks. “You don’t understand. I’m not really one of them.”
The Pillar loads his rifle, kicks an annoying passerby, then aims to shoot her.
“You’re supposed to be one of us, too!”
“You just said you’re not one of them,” the Pillar said. “So your sentence doesn’t make any sense.”
“It’s metaphorical. You know what I mean.”
“Margaret Kent.” The Pillar is about to shoot her. “Prepare to die.”
Margaret puts up the window, hiding behind it.
“Seriously?” the Pillar muses, then glances back at the camera man, as if making sure his execution of the Duchess will be caught on TV.
Then something happens. Another hit I’m not prepared for.
The Pillar shoots the window open, but Margaret is still alive. Then, Lorina screams from inside, then Jack.
My heart almost stops.
It’s not flattering seeing Lorina in Jack’s arms, but it’s heart-stopping realizing the Pillar will shoot.
“Stop!” I stand up in place, fully aware that none of my None Fu powers will get them to hear me, or allow me to run as fast as I can to stop the Pillar. It’s just a lame, weak attempt to numb my mind from the pain that’s about to attack me.
“He wouldn’t shoot Jack,” the March wails behind me. “Would he?”
I watch the Pillar aim again.
In my darkest hour, a small hand holds mine, so tight, and so gentle. It’s Constance. I glimpse her looking up at me, horrified, sympathizing, understanding. She really does understand what’s happening to me now.
It’s not just that the Pillar might shoot Jack, but it’s that the man who’s killed my family is about to kill… the last of my family; Jack.
“He wouldn’t do it,” Constance tells me. “He’s not that dark of a man…”
But her words mean nothing. The Pillar takes the shot, and I watch the car explode.