All The Way Down

Chapter 40

Esto dropped me at Brick's house, and I went up the stairs to the porch. A street light painted the front yard in shades of gray. The hair on the back of my neck was standing straight up, and it felt like my nerves were electrically charged. When I opened the glass storm door I could see that someone had splintered the frame by kicking the front door in. I felt like I was ready for anything at that point, though. I stepped inside with my fists clenched, ready to fight.

I hit the light switch, and if I thought I was ready for anything, I was mistaken. There were fat streaks of red on every surface. It looked as if someone had uncorked a bag of blood and spun around, letting centrifugal force paint the walls. Bands of the stuff six inches wide spattered the television console, the drapes, the sofa, and the carpet. Even the ceiling had blood on it. A wide stripe of it had hit the light fixture on the ceiling and the blood glowed red on it.

A wet, fertile, cloying smell permeated the air and I knew that the source of the blood was still there in the house somewhere. I had the horrifying feeling that it was Rosalie's blood on the walls and ceiling and that I would find her crumpled body around a corner. I started checking the rooms, looking for the source.

The kitchen had gotten the same treatment as the living room, with red streaks spattered on the cabinets and linoleum. Big red footprints were visible on the floor.

I followed a big smeared stripe down one wall of the hall that led to the bedrooms and the guest bathroom. The hall carpet was soaked, with a pool in front of the bathroom door. I knew I had found the source. I hit the light switch in the bathroom and the red bulb came on, lighting Brick's darkroom in that awful crimson glow.

Colonel, Michelle's dog, was impaled front to rear on the shower rod and hanging over the tub like a pig at a luau. His feet stuck awkwardly into the air and his head hung down with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. The arteries on his neck had been cut. One bloody eye was open. I felt like crying.

I pulled down the shower rod, and Colonel's body fell to the tub with a hideous thud. When Colonel's head hit the edge of the tub, something round popped out of the dog's mouth and it bounced on the linoleum floor a couple of times before it rolled to a sticky stop at my feet. My hands were so bloody at that point that I picked the thing up without thinking about it. Then I realized it was the golf ball that Rosalie had become so attached to.

I had to get a bag or sheet or something to get the dog out of there. As I turned for the door I spotted the damage to the picture of Michelle. Someone had dipped a finger in blood and drawn a target around Michelle's face.