Rot & Romance (Rewriting)

Chapter 28

She could barely keep her eyes open as she drove home from work.

Karen never did like working late. It was much more tiring than the day tour. She much prefered her morning shift. Also, that way she wouldn't miss her shows in the evening. There were so many reality shows on TV, she could barely keep up with them all. It was a guilty pleasure of hers. She'd never tell her co-workers that she was into them. She even tried to keep her secret from her own daughter, but that didn't last very long.

"I can't believe you watch this crap, Mom!" Elaine would say when she'd catch her watching.

"Believe me, it's nothing I'm proud of," Karen would answer back.

She figured watching other people's lives on TV was a quick escape from her own monotonous routine.

Staged or not, it got the job done.

Karen pulled into her driveway to see her neighbor, Mr. Parker, hysterical in front of her open front door.

"Oh my God," Karen gasped as she quickly stepped out of the car. "Mr. Parker, what happened?"

He turned to Karen, eyes red, and a stream of thick tears sliding down his face and dangling from his mustache.

"Sh-She's gone. Susan's gone."

"What do you mean? What happened to Susan?"

Mr. Parker was too distraught to reply. He dropped to his feet and began sobbing to the dark heavens. The scene was too heartbreaking for Karen too watch. She turned to her front door and noticed that it wasn't open--the door was gone.

"What the hell?"

Karen ran up to her front door. That was when she noticed the huge dark puddle on the doorsteps. Her heartbeat sped up significantly. Surely it wasn't what she thought it looked like.

Was it?

She ran into the house where she saw the most traumatizing scene she'd ever witnessed with her own two eyes.

"Oh my God!" Karen shrieked at the top of her lungs. "Oh, God, no!"

On her living room floor lay Dave, the neighborhood mailman, surrounded by a large pool of blood that had migrated into the living room from the front doorsteps. And her neighbor from across the street, Susan Parker, laid limply in one of the wood chairs by the kitchen counter.

"No, no, no," Karen shrieked over and over, her hands cupped over her mouth. She turned back toward the street, looking out into the lone block as if she'd find an answer to her horrifying and sickening find.

And then something else just as horrifying hit her.

Elaine!

Where was Elaine?

The need to know if her daughter was okay pushed Karen past the gruesome scene and down the hall toward Elaine's bedroom.

"Elaine!" Karen shrieked.

Silence.

"Elaine!"

God, please be okay!

When she reached Elaine's bedroom door she was almost too afraid to open it.

Almost.

She opened her daughter's bedroom door to find it eerily ordinary inside.

Karen slowly stepped inside.

"Elaine?" she croaked.

The only sound came from the music playing on her laptop. Homework sheets laid scattered across her unmade bed. Karen turned towards Elaine's closet and checked inside.