Felicity’s gasp of air had my eyes popping wide and my arms flailing.
“Ron—” She couldn’t get my name out. The look of horror on her face as she stared over my shoulder had me turning my head. Beside me, Ruby sprang up, her hackles on end, and ferocious barks deafening.
I jumped up at the sight of Matt Lindstrom at the top of the staircase, his face a bloody mess with one cheek ripped open, exposing the bottom of one eye socket. The barrel of his gun pointed between my eyes.
I only had time to grip the handrail before I began to fall. I remembered the sound of a gunshot and Ruby’s high pitched yelp, and then... nothing.
Brad
The imposing house sat in benign darkness. No sign of what might be going on inside, except a sick feeling in my gut and an ever-present chill at the back of my shoulder. It tugged me forward, easing any doubts about my sanity that might’ve crept in. Writing on a mirror, for Christ’s sake. It was insane. But I could feel my girls were here. All three of them.
Jumping the fence, I snuck around the side hoping to find an open window. These old houses had push out windows that were invariably painted shut last century. This one was no exception. Not that I was an expert in breaking and entering.
Picking up a rock, I was ready to smash it through a window when a copper shined his light in my face.
“Oi! What do you think you’re doing?”
Throwing the rock back in the garden, I smiled, shielding my eyes. “Gardening?”
“Nice try, sunshine.” He reached for his cuffs.
“Wait on. I was the one that rang. My girlfriend is in there. I heard screams. We need to get in there, now.”
“A likely story. Turn around and put your hands on the wall, legs spread.”
Shit. “No, seriously, I did hear screams.”
I hadn’t until the faint sound of barking and a hair-raising scream came from behind the weathered glass.
The cop shone the light through the window and I followed the sound to the front of the house, pushed on by an icy hand on my shoulder and the crushing need to save my girls.
“Stay there.” My shadow fell before me as he whipped his torch around, putting me back in the spotlight.
I ignored the order and ran to the front door, scooping up another rock on the way.
“I’m breaking in.”
He yanked me back by the shirt. “No, you’re not.”
The unmistakeable explosion of a gunshot rang out from inside, and we both tensed, eyeing each other like we’d just gone from being opponents to being comrades, ready to do battle together.
He used his baton to smash through the stained, glass window, and radioed for back up as he reached in to unlock the door.
“I’ll need you to stay back. This is police business.”
“Fuck that.”
I pushed past him, bolting down the hallway, and skidded to a stop in the kitchen.
“We’re down here!”
Veronica.
Her cries were muffled, coming from within the pantry where a hidden door stood open in the back. Bumping elbows with the cop as he passed me, gun drawn, we followed her voice, nearly tripping over the sprawled body of a man whose face looked like it had been through a meat grinder. Blood gushed from a hole in his leg and a gun sat discarded by his foot. The policeman crouched down, putting pressure on the wound, and barking into his radio.
I looked away before my stomach added to the mess. Veronica sat huddled on one of the steps further down, with Ruby cradled in her lap, and a blonde woman lying at an awkward angle by Veronica’s feet. Ruby wasn’t moving. I shook my head, wanting this to be some sort of bad dream that I could wake up from.
“Veronica!” She had that glazed look in her eyes and the colour had drained from her face. Her body rocked gently back and forth as she stared blankly back at me.
Haunted. She looked haunted.
I wanted to know what happened. I wanted to snatch my girls away to safety and leave the cop to deal with all the other shit.
My foot hit the top step and a hand gripped my ankle. “Sir, this is a crime scene. You need to back up. Even better, go outside and wait. We need to question you. And before you even think of taking off, you should know I took down all the plate numbers of the cars in the area. Be a good boy and wait outside.”
Opening my mouth to argue, the sound of approaching sirens had me snapping it shut. I let my shoulders drop with a gust of expelled breath and walked backwards, watching those haunted black eyes take in my retreat and feeling like a piece of shit for leaving her there, knowing... knowing deep in my soul that I’d seen that look once before.
On my sister’s face, a week before she died.
And I’d ignored it.
After questioning me for fucking ever, they still wouldn’t let me go back in the house to find her. Holding the back of my neck in my hands, I fixed my stare on the open door, wishing I had x-ray vision. A quake of fear shot shockwaves through my body. I rocked on my heels, trying to absorb the impact, as my life collapsed around me for the third time. Please … let her be okay.
Flashes of red and blue lights swept the scene, and this time, I was ecstatic that they were here. I told them Veronica called me in distress. They sent one car. The news crew had their cameras aimed at the door, alerted by my tip of a possible
