In my dreams, she's laughing. The home I once knew, is up in flames. His blood is on the wall. She always did tell him he was a messy boy. She's not laughing anymore, I am. Her blood is mixed with his on the floor, different shades of red. I slide down the wall into the puddle of red. I am angry now.
"You ruined perfectly good clothing, Della."
Micah
I chuckle as I watch my short boyfriend lean up to grab a cup. He's on his tippy-toes, angrily huffing under his breath.
"Baby," I call, "Do you need some help?"
He turns to look at me and grumbles. I stand and lift him up.
"Lovin the view my baby, sweet sweet ass."
His mother swats me as she comes in. Mrs. Flowerhaze has always been my favorite woman to be around. Unlike my grandma and my mother, she is open to many different things.
"Micah, could you be a dear and go to the attic and fetch me the cook book?"
I nod and make my way down the small hallway. I pass pictures of young Cosminik and his family. When I reach the attic door, I pull it down. Making my way into the attic, I head towards the cook book when I trip over a box. The content, a polaroid, comes tumbling out onto the floor. I quickly stuffed it into my pocket and grabbed the cook book, heading back down to the kitchen. I hand Cosminik's mom the book and I go to sit next to him. Cosminik, who is sprawled across the couch, is asleep. Small snores escape his pursed lips. I smile and place a kiss to his forehead and head upstairs to his room. I click on the camera and start going through it. It starts out with pictures of trees and flowers. But then it starts to get gruesome. Pictures of cut open necks, bloody hands, and the face of a woman screaming. It gets even more terrifying when there is a video of an unknown person. Getting chopped up. The video ends with screams and a person.
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It was weird, because this persons mouth looked exactly like Cosminik's. I put down the camera in horror and made my way back up to the attic after checking that Cosminik was asleep. After stumbling around for a while I stumbled across a picture half burnt. The bottom halves of the family were missing, the only parts remaining were the heads. Four people. A mother and a father, a sister, and my boyfriend. Who are these people? I tip the painting over and read the back. Flowerhaze, 2006. I drop the painting and step back. I trip and fall over and an axe handle falls across my neck. I scream in terror and Cosminik runs up to me. He looks around. First at the painting, then at the axe splattered with blood, then at me. And he gasps. "M-Micah! I can explain!" Are the people downstairs even his family? His arm meets my neck and he presses down. "If you say anything to them, I will hurt you. Anna and Dean took me in when my parents died." I stayed silent and looked up at him. I could imagine him splattered in blood. I could imagine him holding an axe. I made a small choking sound and he let me up. I grabbed him and held him close. And then I stabbed him. He gurgled and fell on the ground.
I awoke with a gasp. I ran down and saw Cosminik, who smiled at me from his spot on the couch and I sighed loudly. The camera was hooked around my neck and the painting was downstairs. The painting was ripped at the face of his family. I sat down and ran my fingers over the rippled paper. "Their names were Della, Rob, and Tella. They didn't approve of me being gay or crossdressing. One night it pushed me so over the edge that I just grabbed an axe and killed them. I burnt our house down and never looked back. Anna found me on the side of the road covered in blood and shaking. She took me home, treated my cut up hands, and send me to bed without asking. I've been with them since." I pulled Cosminik close and kissed his head.
Cosminik "I love you."
The small whisper of ghostly words floated around my mind. Della was there. She always would be. I held the small locket around my neck and leaned back into Micah.
