Chapter 17: When My Love Comes Down

Sebastien paced back and forth at the edge of the crater, stamping his feet as he went. Rust crumbled beneath his feet. “Where could he have gone?!” he shouted angrily, wringing his hands. He looked out at over the rented ground, and into the distance. “Where are you, Russell..?” he muttered at the air. “Where have you gone?”
“He must have run.” Belle said, a little sadly, behind him. “He must have realised what he'd done, and ran to save his own skin.”
“Well, we knew that.” Sebastien spat irritably at her. “We know he went, we know why he went.”
“Maybe... maybe he went back to Ironwalk.” Belle volunteered.
“What?” He twisted back to look at her.
“Maybe he's left us because he wants to go back to Ironwalk. You know, he has his kid, why does he need us anymore? Maybe he's gone back to his own world.”
Sebastien looked back to Ironwalk, far in the distance.
“Ironwalk... that selfish...”

“How did you... what are you..?” Russell stumbled back and fell over, staring wildly at his... or what he thought was his daughter.
Melanie looked down at herself, studying her arms like she'd never seen them before. “I wonder how this happened?” she murmured, Lesters voice crawling through at the edges of Melanies sweet tenor.
She looked up at him and Russell didn't see his daughter.
“This might turn out to be very useful, Russell!” Melanie beamed up at him. “I thought I'd died!”
“I thought that there was nothing I could do.” Melanie turned back and looked at her own reflection.
“I saw the light, Russell. I felt wind rushing through my hair, I felt sun on my face. I felt...” she sighed. “I felt a horrible sense that I had unfinished business.”
Then she turned back to Russell.

“But here I am! Here I am.” She pounded her knuckles together and grinned at him. “I can still save the island!”
Russell stared at him. He had said nothing.
After a long moment he said, slowly, “Whats happened to Melanie?”
Melanie looked confused. “I'm not sure,” she murmured.
Russell sat up and looked hard at Lester. Melanie. Whatever.
“So it was you who sorted out those wires?”
“Pardon?” Melanie asked quizzically.
“Those wires, back down by the wire-grove. You put them back into order?”
Melanie got up and started walking away up the hill. “I have no idea what you're talking about, Russell. Now come on!” she hollered at him, and pointed up the hill. “We've got a way to walk still to get to Ironwalk.”
“Whats an Ironwalk?” Russell shouted back at him as he got up to hurry behind him.
“Where we first picked you up. With the tower, remember?”
Russell nodded, then came up behind Melanie and picked her up.
“What are you doing?!” she spluttered as she was picked up.
“I walk faster than you do.” he told her firmly, hooking her up onto his back and walking on.
“Where do I go next?” he asked.

A day passed, where nothing of note happened. Russell walked Melanie further, and Sebastien and Belle walked round the crater and towards Ironwalk. The tides rose and fell and rose a little higher than before, waves stabbing further and further up the shore. Rust encroached. Time passed.

The television flickered in the cold moonlight and Russell and Juliet stared sullenly at the images across the screen. Both of them looked straight ahead. Neither of them looked at each other. The images moved on. A baby monitor crackled to the side of them and Melanie howled out of the speaker, her screams prickling the inside of his head. Russell moaned inwardly and slumped forwards a little. Juliet rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat. “Your turn.” she said. Russell closed his eyes and got up. He clumped up the stairs, feet idle in their movement Melanie was howling in her bedroom, a precocious four-year-old. She was sitting up in her bed and crying tears streaming down her face, face red and burning. As he reached the top of the stairs he rolled his eyes and put on a false smile. Grinning, he threw open the door and leapt in. "Melanie, baby! Whats wrong!" he cried, cradling the girl in his arms. She sobbed into his arm. "D-D-Daddy!" she stammered. "There was someone in the window!" He looked outside, confused. There was nothing but the pounding rain, streaming against the window in only the way strong rain and howling wind can, battering the window like a man enraged, beating the glass like it had oinsulted him. There was certainly nobody there. He looked back at his daughter, shivering trembling and sniffing back more tears. "Theres nobody there, melanie!" he said calmly, holding her again. "nothings wrong. Whats the matter with you, huh?" She looked out the window, and he picke duper up so she could see herself. She saw that there was nobody there herself, and her sobbing lessened. Her face returned eventually to a normal colour, and soon she was pretty much back to normal. He smiled at her and she, eventually, after a long while, smiled back at him. Nothing happened between them. There was no spark between them. He helped her and she was helped, but that was it. He looked into her eyes without love, and saw only his own guilt staring back at him. His lip trembled slightly, but he bit it back and turned away. Without looking at her he asked her "Everythings alright, is it? Isn;t it?" She nodded but he didn't see it and left. The television had stopped flickering downstairs. He wondered dully what had happened and went downstairs, expecting to see Juliet sleeping, crying, whatever. As he looked, he saw Juliet slammed against the wall.

She hit the wall hard, and the picture next to her cracked and fell down on the ground. Books on the shelf next to her fell to the floor. Russell saw in slow motion as a man to the side pulled a gun out, He looked scared and the gun trembled silver in his hand. The eyes beneath his balaclava were mad and staring, the skin red with sweat. “Don't make me do it! Just get out of my way and let me out the house, damnit!”
“Alright, alright!” Juliets face was red with tears. He walked forwards and his trembling hand ripped the necklace from around her breast. Russell gasped.

He had gotten Juliets necklace for her months ago. A wedding present for her. He remembered that he had to take a second job to get her the necklace. He remembered a day shift at his office, a day of being trodden on by 'superiors', and a night of secret burger-flipping, of being abused by pricks with no hope. He remembered how he forewent food occasionally to pay for his diamond habit and how eventually he had given it to her, presented her the fantastic necklace, gold-plated, glass diamond, and how she had smiled. That half-hearted, grimace of a smile where the smile was more of a proof of his inadequacy. The necklace looked out of her breast at him ever since, and reminded him of that terrible terrible smile which proved how he wasn't a man. That necklace proved everything he hated about himself.

It snapped. The necklace trickled into the air and dissolved into gold atmosphere, The burglar stuffed the diamond into his pocket and ran his gun up under Juliets chin. She went up onto her tiptoes and whimpered as the barrel stuck into her face. Russell stepped down and the floorboard creaked. The burglar twisted around, his eyes bulged and his finger pulsed on the trigger. Bullets ricoche'd past his foot and planted themselves in the carpet, and the noise, the horrendous bang flashed through the house. Russell slammed his shoulder to the side, flattening himself against the wall as more bullets ripped the air past him. Juliet ducked down and hid, face in her hands, nails raking her forehead, “Russell! Russell, save me! Help me!” she pattered and Russell leapt forwards. He shoulder-barged the burglar into the door and the glass cracked in the door. He ripped the burglar ontot he ground and punched him hard in the mouth, and the gun flickered out of his hands and onto the floor across the room.

It smoked by itself and Juliet screamed aloud as Russell pushed the burglar out of the way and dived for the gun. He fell and reached out for it, and his fingers scraped it before the burglar stomped on his fingers and he felt them crack beneath the steel boot. He cried out in agony and his fingers arched back in pain and shock. The burglar kicked him in the side of the head. He reached down and picked up the gun as Russell held his head in pain, blood trickling between his fingers, and Juliet screaming in the corner. The burglar stood, the side of his face split with glass, and he grinned a wide grin and raised his gun to Russell. “Now stay down, man, and you'll stay alive.” He whipped the gun around the room and yelled aloud “Nobody needs to get hurt!”. The gun trembled in the moonlight and it sparkled. He moved to the exit, slowly, pointing his gun alternately at Russell on the ground and Juliet crumpled by the door.

He leaned for the handle.

Juliet barrelled her shoulder into him from below, knocking him back, and leapt on top of him, scraping at him for the glass diamond. She cried at him, tears dripping onto his face, “No! No! No!”

He pulled his gun to his side, struggling with her on the floor, ornemants falling like raindrops around them.

Russell watched helplessly as a bullet ripped through her, spewing blood onto the wall behind her. She slumped onto the barrel. The burglar dropped the gun, staring at his own hands in horrified fascination, Blood dribbled from his fingers. He stumbled backwards, cried out and tumbled out of the room.

Russell picked himself up and stumbled forwards, dripping blood over the corpse of his wife. He looked down, bent over her.

He felt nothing but guilt.