Maria Graham's Series of Unfortunate Events

[GregTheAnti-Viking†]

He had asked her to run. He had told her to flee. Escape. Yet Tabi found herself still here. Hiding behind the flimsy cover of a door, praying that she would not be spotted. From inside her throat she felt a scream wanting to rise out of her, but she swallowed it down.

It was like the dream had been made real. Imraan looked so stoic, towering over Ivan and looking down upon him as if he was dirt. Just like when he towered over her. All the heat in her body had dissipated, leaving her to feel the chill that had filled in the void.

Imraan's voice was cold and measured when he threatened him. He still had the shotgun, the shotgun that had almost ended her life before. Ivan was left with one of the trophies from Tabi's terrible deed. Another gun that had nearly killed her. Her fingers gripped the door tighter and she hung her head, staring down at the floor below her.

"Not gonna waste words, Ivan. Where's Tabitha?"

Tabi sucked in air and her head snapped back up, looking through her tiny window to see the scene. Ivan's hands were shaking. He held the pistol in his hands, but he was shaking. Even from the bedroom she could see it. It was infectious, Tabi found that her legs were starting to wobble as if she was going to topple from the sheer weight of fear emanating from him.

"I warned you. Before. Where is she?"

Tabi Gweneth gulped. Ivan was going to die! Imraan was going to shoot him! She just knew it now! Knew it, and felt completely powerless to stop it from happening. In a few seconds time, she was going to see the boy she loved, the only ray of light on this island, be shot down. All because of her.

A thought popped up into her head. A terrible thought, but perhaps the only way that Ivan could possibly be spared. She just would open the door, put her hands up, tell him to let Ivan leave and take her instead. She would even kneel before him, let him point his gun and then...

Tabi gulped.

But I don't want to die...



Ivan doesn't deserve to die for your actions...


Tabi felt the mist returning to her eyes.


Sorry Mom, Dad... I'm so sorry...



She would count to three. And then...







Three, Two, O-






"... You can't have her."


Tabi froze. The words hit her like a hammer blow. She could hear something, in his voice, there was solemn admition and yet there was also defiance in them as well. Something in his words that had caused the temperature in her to rise. Why was he throwing himself up to him like this. He didn't have to do that for her.

"... And you can't have me yet, either. I don't want anything to do with you, neither does she. She... she did it to save my life, okay? She didn't want to kill Clio!"

Imraan had raised his gun now, aiming it at Ivan's chest.

"Leave us alone. Please."

Tabi turned away from the scene. Her hands were curling up into a fist, nails biting into her flesh. Her mouth was curled down in a frown, and she could feel her teeth pressing against each other, striving to pass each other. Even so, her breathing was slow, measured, and calm. Her gaze peered around the room, she needed something. If Ivan was going to actually summon up the courage to save her. She could do the same.

The answer was found on a nightstand. A slim, brass coloured lamp, with a large lampshade on it. Tabi tiptoed over to it and felt around for the electrical cord. She was able to fish it out of it's electrical socket and wrap the chord.

Tabi took in a deep breath and lifted it off of the table. It was now or never. She crept over to the doorway again. To her relief, Imraan hadn't fired the gun yet. But now that she was here, she felt that the lamp in her hands was made out of lead.

She sucked in a deep breath.

Three. Two. One.

"IVAN RUN!"

Tabi wrenched open the door and threw the lamp at Imraan's body with all the force she could muster.

[D/N]

Steady, Imraan...

He had Ivan convinced. That much he knew.

He had himself convinced. That much he knew as well. Now, Imraan would just wait; he would wait for Tabitha to arrive, for her to reveal herself. Then, well... who knew? Not Imraan, that was for sure. Maybe they'd fight back. Maybe they'd try to bargain. Either way, Imraan would wait for Tabitha and--

"You can't have her."

Well.

Alright then.

Imraan breathed in. He kept the shotgun pointed at Ivan's chest, preparing himself for when Ivan finished talking. If Ivan wasn't going to give up Tabitha, then that was his choice. And he'd have to deal with the consequences for that.

For the wages of sin is death.

And then Ivan finished his confession.

"She didn't want to kill Clio!"

Imraan paused.

Clio?

Clio the GODSpeed member.

Clio the killer.

Imraan had heard Ivan's other words, but he couldn't give them any credence. Ivan didn't want anything to do with Imraan? Tough. Imraan didn't want anything to do with Ivan either, but look where they were.

But Clio...

The truth was, Imraan simply hadn't remembered who Tabi had killed. He'd remembered her winning an award, oh he certainly remembered that, but with two hundred classmates dead, the details had gotten fuzzy.

Clio the killer.

Imraan allowed himself a moment of doubt, then pushed it back. No. He'd come this far. No turning back now. He'd have time for contemplations, time for justifications later, and those justifications would be legion, of course. After all, even IF, on the off chance that Ivan and Tabitha had killed Clio solely to stop her from killing more (and it sure didn't sound that way to Imraan), that changed nothing. Because unlike them, Imraan knew that he himself would not deserve to survive after he saw his mission through to the end.

No, they were no different than Clio. None of them were. If it came down to Ivan and Tabi against someone deserving, Imraan had no doubt what would happen then.

They would kill.

And that was why they had to die.

Alright, then.

"Alright then, Ivan," Imraan said. He nodded, backing up half a step so he was just inside the hallway. He lowered the shotgun an inch or so, relaxing his finger on the trigger.

Making it look like he was going to leave.

"Alright..."

Hoping it would take Ivan off his guard.

"Alright!"

Imraan's head snapped up again. His finger curled around the trigger, just as he could see Ivan doing the same and--

"IVAN RUN!"

"Huh?"

Imraan turned, squeezing the trigger. and the shotgun blew apart a lampshade and bulb. Fragments of glass and fabric littered the ground as the base of the lamp flipped in midair and struck Imraan on the arm. He stumbled, more out of surprise and the shotgun's recoil than of the impact, and his feet tangled together. He backpedaled to keep his balance, falling into the hallway just as a bullet from Ivan's gun shattered a section of the doorframe.

He was only off his feet for a few seconds ears ringing from the gunshots, and then he was scrambling upwards, stepping back towards the living room and pumping the shotgun, and hoping that the two of them were still there.

[MK Kilmarnock]

There came a moment when Ivan locked up, and couldn't tell just what had shocked him more: the lamp coming from pretty much nowhere and the shotgun blasting at it, or that Imraan had completely caught him off guard. For just one brief, tension-melting moment, Ivan was sure... absolutely SURE that he dissuaded their hunter once more.

Instead, it was Imraan who had persuaded Ivan to drop his guard and give him the small window of time needed to kill him without resistance. That was all it took - a fraction of a second - for all of his efforts to mean nothing. When he dropped his guard, Ivan had nearly failed Tabi again.

But if there was ever a time to be moping about his failures, this was definitely not it. When the lamp was thrown from out of the corner of his vision, just before Ivan fired, Tabi had screamed for him to run. He didn't need to be told twice.

Reaching for the bag that contained all their supplies (and thus, only chances of survival) with his right hand while handling the gun entirely with his left, Ivan fired a round off and booked it for the door. With the way his arm was shaking, the bullet probably didn't hit Imraan. He wasn't even really aiming at that point. All that bullet had to do was suppress Imraan just long enough to cover his escape through that door and to Tabi.

Run...

Just run, like in one of those stupid Bruce Willis movies Louis likes to watch so much. Run, and let the sound of his heartbeat pounding in his ears be the beat to their escape.

Ivan hadn't quite thought about where he and Tabi would go once they managed to get out of Imraan's line of sight, but he couldn't stop moving. No time to think about what he was going to do next, he just needed to do it. His heel kicked the door to the living room shut as his head turned every which way.

"Where now, Tabi?" he uttered reflexively. Only then did he see the back door...

[GregTheAnti-Viking†]

The gun shots made her recoil backwards in shock. She instinctively padded around her body and found no wounds, a small relief at best. The bravado that she had summoned up to throw the lamp at Imraan had faded away. Now all she could think of was flight. Imraan had fallen back into the hallway but there were no chances to be taken. They had to flee from this house.

Ivan slammed the bedroom door and instantly Tabi ran to the nightstand again and tried to lift it up, but yielded no success. She frantically scanned the room to find something that could keep the door closed but she found nothing to aid her. There was no time to drag it in place. If he was still alive, Imraan would be at the door in seconds.

Ivan asked for where they would go now. Tabi's thoughts raced around in search of an answer. But none came to her. The only priority was keeping Ivan from being killed because of her, now she wasn't sure of where they were to go next. All the she could think of was the need to get out of here. Ivan didn't deserve to die. And neither did Tabi. But Imraan was coming closer now and if she didn't do anything there would be no escape. She bit down on her lips and scrambled over to the back door.

"I don't know, anywhere! Just run!" She yelled, not sparing any care to hide the fear in her voice.

Her hands touched the rounded handle and she twisted it, but the door wouldn't open. Sweat was pooling in her hands, making the handle slick and difficult for her to grasp. She could hear footsteps in the other room causing her to frantically juggle the brass knob, but it would not yield to her frantic pushing and pulling of the door.

"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it!" she moaned with each turn of the doorknob.

He could hear the footsteps stopping. Imraan was at the door.

"Shit!" she yelled as she twisted the handle and rammed the door with her shoulder.

Tabi had not expected the door to give way to her force, but by some miracle she found herself stumbling into the grass outside of the house. Her head whipped back and Ivan had followed her out and offered a hand. Despite what had just happened, she found herself giving a smile. They were out of the house, and it was all thanks to her. She stretched out her arm to take it.

But then she looked back into the bedroom. The door was starting to open and she saw the barrel of Imraan's gun sticking out from behind the wooden frame.

"Run!"

Tabi scrambled up from a crawl into an awkward gallop as she ran away from the house. She didn't know where they were going to go. She just wanted to get away from here. She gave a quick glance behind her and saw that Ivan was following close behind her, pistol still in his hands. She didn't see Imraan yet, and now was praying to herself that he wouldn't pursue them. They had to get away. She could only hope that they were in the clear. She didn't dare look back again.

((Tabi Gweneth and Ivan Kuznetsov continued in Feel a Fear))

[D/N]

"Ivaaaaan!"

Imraan's anger had been tapped, and it was gushing like black oil. The only question was the depth of the reserve.

He scrambled to his feet and stepped back into the family room, heedless of whether there might be a gun pointed straight at the doorway or not. If there was, there was. Die now or die later, Imraan would never hold back again.

No gun. No one at all.

Imraan's head snapped towards the closed bedroom door. He could hear noises, and one guess as to who they might belong to.

He took a moment to firm up his grip on the shotgun, then strode around the couch and was at the door. He took another second to confirm the noise. Then he grabbed the doorknob, twisted, banged the door all the way open with his shoulder while he took hold of the shotgun in both hands... and they were running out the back door.

Running from their fate.

"Your fault! You can't run!!"

Imraan crossed the bedroom in a couple heavy strides, and reached the back door, aiming at the two of them as they tried to run. He'd shoot them. He'd shoot them.

But they were too far away.

He lowered the gun and stepped into the yard.

The figures of Ivan and Tabitha were receding into the distance, and even in his current state Imraan knew full that he didn't have a chance to hit them at that distance.

They were going to escape. Escape and kill again. Maybe a killer like Clio. Maybe an innocent like Kaitlin.

Had he failed again?

No.

No. The answer to everything he'd been looking for since he'd gotten here. He hadn't failed. He hadn't failed, he wouldn't fail, because he still had time to do the right thing.

It was the only way to make it up to everyone. It was the only solution.

Imraan ran back into the house. He grabbed his bag, slung it over his shoulder. Refilled his empty water bottles from the tap. The water was a bit murky, but at this stage, Imraan was quite beyond caring about his long-term health. That done, he stepped again into the backyard. He couldn't see them anymore. That was OK. He knew which direction they'd gone.

So long as he didn't back down, he couldn't fail.

(Imraan Al-Hariq continued in Feel a Fear)