Behind The Mask (Jinxxley)

Chapter Six

Sammi slammed into Jinxx, they rolled on the floor in a mess of limbs. From what I could tell, Jinxx wasn't fighting back, only trying to protect himself from her attacks. She was going at it with all she had, her hands contorted into claws, she scratched at his face, his clothes, anywhere her hands would land. The house was filled with her screeching.

"STOP IT!" Jinxx shouted, he shoved her away, Sammi toppled onto her back and quickly scrambled into a sitting position against the wall. Her golden curls covering half her face, her one visible eye was darting back and forth between Jinxx and I. She lifted her lip in a snarl, staggering to her feet, she glared down at us, her chest rising and falling quickly under her pale pink dress.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my house!" Sammi screeched.

"Sammi," I began, I stood up with my hands in front of myself. "Calm down, it's just us, Jinxx and Ashley."

A flicker of recognition passed across her face, but it was quickly replaced with anger. "YOU. ARE. NOT. JINXX!" She took a step towards me. "AND YOU. ARE. NOT. ASHLEY!" With spitting out each word as she advanced towards us. She opened her mouth and let out a guttural, animalistic scream.

Sammi threw herself head first into my gut. The wind knocked out of me, all I could do was double over and wait it out, unfortunately, Sammi wasn't going to wait for me to recover. She tackled me to the floor, I was surprised at the inhuman strength with which, she held me down, she was yelling gibberish, a thin stream of saliva dangling from the corner of her mouth. I closed my eyes as I felt her small fist being pummeled into my body. Then, they stopped. Sammi was still screaming, but Jinxx had his arms wrapped around her, preventing any movement. She was kicking and cursing, but Jinxx ignored her and repeated the same question over and over.

"Why Sammi, why" He turned her around so she was facing him. "Why Sammi! Why would you do that!" Sammi went limp, her head hanging against her chest, from where I was standing, I could only see her back and Jinxx's face, stained with anger tears.

"Th-they were telling me to do it, they wouldn't stop unless I did it!" She wailed.

"Who! Who told you!" Jinxx was furious, but I couldn't understand why, what had Sammi done? I walked backwards, away from her in case she decided to explode again, but in the process I bumped into something cold and stiff.

That's when I noticed the odor, it was putrid and rank, so much so, that I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before, slowly, I turned around. Now I knew why Jinxx had freaked out when he walked into the kitchen, why the very moment I stepped into the house, the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end. Hanging from the ceiling fan, spinning lazily, was a cat. It's mouth was open in a silent yowl, eyes crusted shut with yellow ooze, blood was drying around it's neck and nose. Now it was my turn to cover my mouth to prevent myself from screaming out.

"Who?" Sammi chuckled. "You. You and everybody else. You come in and stand around me, telling me to do these things, IT'S YOU!" She came back to life and yanked herself out of Jinxx's grasp. Sammi crouched on the floor, laughing. "You've been here to entire time, watching. How do I know who's who?"

"Where's the rest of them! Tell me!"

"Gone." She laughed and rocked back and forth. "Gone, all gone! Hahaha!"

"All of them?" Jinxx shouted at her. "Answer me!"

"Y-no." She hissed. "The stupid cat. I never found him."

"Ashley, find Bach!" I nodded, eager to get out of this kitchen.

Out in the living-room, I called to Bach, poor cat must have been scared to death. I peeked under the couches, behind tables, but couldn't find him. So I walked into the darkened hallway. From what I could tell, there were three rooms in this wing. Hopefully he'd be here, I didn't want to look through the entire house. The first room was Jinxx's snake room. Like Sammi said, it was gone. The black-and-white snake was laying on the bottom of its tank. I didn't want to take any chances, so I walked over to it, and flipped it over using a pen. It felt mushy, like a half-filled tube of water. By the far wall, was another tank, this one holding a boa. But I didn't even have to touch this one to know it was dead. Half of the skin was peeled away from the body, exposing pinkish brown muscles decomposing.