"Looks empty." Ember says as she puts the car in park. “The lights are all off.”
“She likes the dark and quiet when she’s severely hungover.”
“Well, let’s go turn on all the lights and ask her some questions, really loudly.” Ember smirks at me.
I lead her up to the house and use the number pad on the front door to open it. The light blinks red, letting me know I used the wrong number. I try to punch it in again but that same red light comes on.
“She changed the code.” I mutter and kick at the door.
“Hmm,” E looks around and then up. “Think you could climb to that?” She points to my room’s balcony.
“That will be a last resort. Let’s check the back doors first.”
I lead Ember around to the back of the house and into our backyard, I point up to the various cameras and look back at her, “I don’t think they are on.”
“And your pool looks pretty fucking gross, too.” I look over and see that the pool is a dark green colour and the pumps aren’t even on.
I get to the door and thankfully it opens inward when I turn the knob, “I was hoping she would forget this in her drunken state.” I shrug.
“Hey, wait.” She says as I start to walk inside, “you realize what will happen here today right?”
“Yeah.” I nod because I do know. My mother’s last hours on this Earth are winding down fast.
“Okay.” She nods for me to continue.
The kitchen is a filthy mess of dishes and old rotting food everywhere. The fridge door has been left open and the smell of sour milk reaches us.
“Holy fuck,” E says into her sleeve. “What the hell happened here?”
Now I'm worried, not about my mother but about Sonja. She would've definitely cleaned this up if she was here. Did she finally see that this family just isn't worth her time? No, I can't see her just up and leaving, she would call me first.
"Dude, how long has it been since you were home?" E asks around a gag.
"Like a week? I brought Emmett with me and my mother asked if he was my boyfriend and called me a faggot." I shrug.
"What? Were you two making out or something?"
I snap my head back and look at her, "no!"
"I'm just playing." She starts to laugh.
"Jesus Christ." I breathe through my heart palpitations and lead her into the foyer and to the stairs.
There are two empty bottles of vodka on the stairs and what looks to be a few spots of blood. It's not a lot, just a few spots but I feel my blood pressure soar and my heartbeat is thumping in my ears. We get to the top of the stairs and I see my bedroom door has a huge hole in it and there's some blood around it. That's probably where those spots of blood came from. She must've attempted to punch a hole through it.
Her bedroom door is shut, "this is her room." I say to Ember and turn the knob. It's locked.
"Kick it in." Ember says. "If she's already dead then that makes our job easier."
"True." I should probably have a bit more tact when talking about my mother but she's never earned that from me.
I kick in the door and it flies open to hit the wall behind it. Wood splinters fly up and land around our feet as we make our way into her bedroom.
"Wha...?" My mother mumbles as she tries to sit up in bed. There looks to be a puddle of vomit beside her, it's fresh unlike the one on the floor which has long dried up.
"Hello Mrs. Greene." E singsongs into the room and the sound of her voice sends chills down my spine. "Gosh! You sure made a mess this last week huh?"
"Who are you…?" My mother slowly mumbles out as her head sways back and forth.
"Mother," I growl out, "what the fuck happened here?"
Her face immediately morphs into one of pure hatred, "you!" She points at me and then to my surprise, tries to spit at me, "I told you to never come back here, there's nothing for you here."
"Have you lost your fucking mind?" I yell into her face.
"You don't belong here." She snarls back.
"This is my fucking house! The deed says so."
"Fucking Robert!" She screams as she pulls her hair, "he did this to punish me, he left everything to his worthless son."
"Now, now... Christina, is it?" Ember sits at Mother’s feet at the edge of the bed. As crazy as my mother is acting right now, E looks as calm as a peach.
"Who the fuck are you?" Mother snarls back at her.
"I am Ember Craven." She looks my mother in the eye with a small smile on her face.
"Craven?"
"That's right." She nods.
"Like Rebecca Craven?" My mother screws up her face in disgust, "the one my husband fantasized about."
I watch as E's hands fist into the comforter on the bed, the only thing betraying her calm exterior, "did he now? That was my mother."
"Whatever." My mother shakes her head and lays back onto the bed.
"It's time to get up." Ember says as she stands and walks to my mother's side of the bed, "now." Then she grabs my mother's arm and hauls her up and out of the bed. Fuck, she's strong.
"Hey!" Mother begins to struggle but she is no match for E. Ember throws her down onto the armchair in the corner and grabs her chin.
"We're going to play a game." She growls into my mother's face, "I will ask you questions and for each one you don't answer or you lie, I will cut into your face." She brings out a large hunting
