Not Dead Yet

you come have look!’

5
    The electric gates were opening!
    Shit!
    He was so not expecting this. He was jumpy, his thoughts all over the place. And he remembered he had forgotten to take his medication today; the one that kept the insides of his head all cohesive. Who was coming out? Probably a change of security guards, he thought, but this was too good an opportunity to miss. Just in case it was the bitch herself! She was known to like going out on her own. Although most of the time when she went jogging, according to the press, she had more security guards around her than the President of the USA.
    He braked hard, switched off the Chevy’s engine and pulled the gun out of the front pocket of his pants. He stared at the gates. At the blazing headlights of a car at the bottom of a winding drive, waiting for the gap to be big enough to drive through and out into the street.
    He sprinted across the road and in through the gates. He saw the Mercedes halted, waiting. Smelled its exhaust mingled with the scent of freshly mown grass. Music pounded from its stereo, a Gaia song!
    How sweet was that! Listening to her own music in her last few moments of life! She would die listening to it! How poetic was that?
    The roof was down. Gaia was driving! She was alone!
    I warned you, bitch.
    The big Mercedes engine rumbled away, a steady, musical boom-boom-boom. A gleaming metal beast waiting for the driver to press the pedal and thunder forward into the night. The gates continued opening, jerkily, the right-hand one faster than the left.
    In a clumsy, fumbling movement, despite all his rehearsals, he flipped off the safety catch of the Colt. Then he stepped forward. ‘I warned you, bitch!’ he said. He said it loud, so she could hear. Hesaw her stare at him out of the shadows of the cockpit, like she was full of questions.
    He had the answer in his shaking hand.
    He saw the expression of fear on her face as he came closer.
    But this was not right, he knew. He should turn away, forget it, run. Run home? Run home a failure?
    He pulled the trigger and there was a much louder explosion than he had imagined. The gun jerked as if trying to break free of his hand, and he heard a thud, as if the bullet had hit something in the distance. She was staring at him wide-eyed in terror. Not a scratch on her. He had missed.
    He aimed again, pointing the gun closer at her. She raised her hands in front of her face as he fired again. This time a piece of something flew off the back of her head and some of her hair stood up, in a row of spikes. He fired again, straight into her forehead and a small, dark hole appeared in the centre. She slumped back, quivering like a landed fish that had been hit several times with a hammer, her eyes still staring at him. Dark liquid leaked from the hole and ran down and along the bridge of her nose. ‘You should have listened,’ he said. ‘You should have obeyed me.’
    Then he turned and ran away, back to his car, in a daze.

6
    Gaia was coming to Brighton! The icon coming back to the city where she was born. Brighton’s most famous living star was returning home to play Brighton’s most famous historical female. It was a match made in heaven. A dream for Gaia.
    And an even bigger dream for Anna Galicia. Her biggest fan.
    Her number one fan!
    Only Anna knew the real reason why Gaia was coming here. It was to be with her! The signals had all been very clear.
    Unequivocal.
    ‘She’s arriving next week, Diva, what do you think of that?’
    The cat stared at her without any expression she could read.
    The star of stars was arriving next week. Anna would be there at the hotel to greet her in person. Finally, after years of adoring her, and of communicating with each other from afar, she would have the chance to meet her. Perhaps touch her hand. Even, if things went really well, she might be invited into her suite, to drink cocktails with her – and then?
    Of course you could never tell whether Gaia was into men or women at any given time. She flaunted each new relationship openly. Going through lover after lover, in search of – the one ! She had been married twice, to men, but that was a long time ago. Anna followed her life online, on television, in newspapers and magazines. And she and Gaia had been flirting secretly with each other for years in code. Their own secret code that Gaia used as her emblem on all her merchandise. A tiny, furtive fox.
    Secret fox!
    Gaia had been sending more and more signals