“Me? Why?”
“Because you’re not speaking as much. I don’t want you clamming up.” She stresses.
“Emmett came to me last night and told me Marlana approached him about Coach and Shay.” I tell her.
“I know. He told me this morning.” She shakes her head, “I’m not sure what to believe when it comes to Marlana, but it’s definitely something we can ask Shay about.”
“I also told him about what happened with me and Coach.”
“I’m glad. It’s not something you should have to hold inside and deal with alone. We all love you… obviously me the most.” She waves her hand.
“Yeah I know.” I chuckle, “you do love me the most.”
I press the button on the visor to open the front gates. I hate this house and I can’t wait to finally be done with it. Maybe I’ll rent it out or sell it. The latter may be more difficult considering two people committed suicide here. Finding realtors should be fun too.
I park the car in front of the garage and look to the front door, hoping to see Sonja standing there waiting to greet me. Nope, the house is just as dead as the people that were found in it.
We enter in through the front door and there’s still a lingering smell of sour milk but much better than it was before.
“Mm!” Ember exclaims as she claps her hands, “Pine-Sol with a pinch of sour milk… appetizing.”
I snort and shake my head at her, “I’m heading out to deal with slime.”
“Gross, I’ll come watch.” She says with her nose crinkled.
I pull out a lawn chair for her to sit as I set up the pumps to drain the pool. This process takes about a half hour, so I head inside and pull some beers out of the still slightly smelling fridge. I bring them out and hand one to E.
“Are you still on pain meds?” I ask, my eyes wide as I watch her gulp down half the beer.
“Yep.” She nods and licks her lips.
“Is that a good idea?”
“Who fucking cares?” She shrugs, “Drake said YOLO.”
“You did not just do that…”
“Drake is from Toronto, right?” She grins and she drains the bottle. “I’ll take another.”
“Ember… that’s a bad…”
“YOLO!” She screams, cutting me off.
I head back inside and grab her another beer. This is her last one, even if she threatens me with that big ass knife she always has on her. We do have to hit up the police station after this, so keeping a limit on our alcohol intake would be smart.
About fifteen minutes later, the shallow end is completely drained and Ember is grumbling from her spot on the lawn chair.
“I can’t believe you cut me off. I just want to live.” She groans as she throws her arm over her face. “The green slime in this pool reminds me of Vin’s smoothies.” She gags.
“Gross.” I chuckle.
I look out to the deep end and try to judge how much longer this is going to take, when I see something bobbing just under the surface. I can’t really tell what it is because of the dark green goo surrounding it. I get up from the chair and walk around the pool to the deep end.
Ember comes up beside me and we both watch as the water slowly drops. The water parts around a round hairy object and I think it might be a raccoon or a fox, because we get those around here. But why wasn’t it floating?
“Oh fuck,” E grabs my arm and pulls me back. “Travis look at me.”
“What?” I look at her with my brow raised, “some animal…”
“No,” she shakes her head and drags me by the arm into the house.
“E.” I yank on her hold once we get inside the kitchen, “what’s wrong with you?”
She pulls out her phone and calls Vin on speakerphone.
“Hey baby.” He picks up.
“Get everyone and come to Travis’.”
“Why?” He begins to sound worried and frankly so am I. Is Ember afraid of animals? I turn to go back out to the pool, but she pulls me back.
“Now Vin!” She hangs up and pushes me into a chair.
“Ember!” I yell at her, “what the hell?”
“Listen to me.” She says quietly, “there’s something in that pool.”
“I know!” I exclaim, “it’s just an animal. Relax! I’ll grab it out!”
“No,” she shakes her head and a tear rolls down her cheek. Okay, so maybe she loves wildlife?
“E,” I say gently as I wipe the tear, “I will go remove it and I don’t know, we can bury it or something.”
“Travis, that’s not an animal.” She shakes her head.
“What?” I try to stand up and she places a hand on my shoulder.
“I think we found Sonja.”
I understand her words but it’s just not commuting in my brain right. Sonja? I turn my head slowly and look out towards the pool. Maybe she’s mistaken, there’s no way it could be Sonja. She wasn’t a good swimmer though, could she have fallen in?
“Let’s give the pool a few more minutes to drain...”
I don’t let her finish and I push myself out of the chair and walk around her. I need to go see, if it is her, it should be me that finds her. I’m the one that caused this to happen anyways. If I hadn’t left her here, she’d be fine. I throw open the patio door, hearing E’s screams behind me and not giving a fuck. It’s my duty as her son to make sure it’s her.
The smell is the first thing that hits me. It’s a bit like the green slime smell but now I can detect the underlying stench of decay. I reach the edge and look over just as E makes it to my side and grabs my arm. It’s a body, I can see it clearly now that the water has moved down
