Painting the House Red

Chapter 2: Where It All Begins

I awoke with a start as Paige screamed.

"Dabria!!! Wake up!" I pushed her off me.

"What?" It took a moment for the marks on the walls to catch my attention. There were symbols drawn and splattered everywhere with an unknown red substance. "What is that?!" I yelled, now sitting straight up. I wasn't sure I wanted to know, but I had to ask. Charity ran back into the room with some of the blood on her hands.

"That's not the worst part." Her lips were quivering and she motioned for us to come out to the living room. When I saw what she was referring to, I held back my screams and sobs for their sakes. There had been blood markings on the walls in the bedroom, but I hadn't questioned where the blood had come from. Now I knew. It came from Cate's mutilated corpse. I covered my mouth with my hands and a squeak escaped my lips. Charity ran out of the room and Paige followed her.

"Cate." My voice was a raspy whisper from fright and shock. My brain couldn't quite process what was in front of me. Her clothes had been ripped off of the upper part of her body and her chest had been torn apart. I didn't want to have to look closer, but for all of our sakes, I was strong and opened my tightly closed eyes. I had no problem with gore normally, but this was one of my best friends. How could I not gag and tear up when I looked at it? Her, I reminded myself. I inched closer (as much as I could bear) to get a better look. Her chest was evidently mangled, and, oddly enough, her heart was missing. Something, whatever had done this, had taken her heart. What kind of monster would do that, I wondered. I took a deep breath and sat down on the couch, closing my eyes.

"What now." It was more of a statement than a question. Charity was quietly crying on the floor in the bathroom by herself and Paige had gone to comfort her. I decided it would be best if I cleaned up the mess something (or someone) had made. It never occured to me to call the police, which was odd considering the situation, but I figured since it was such an odd happening, and I was almost just a kid myself, so I didn't plan that far ahead. Once the mess was cleaned up, I went to find Paige and Charity.

"Girls, I know this is hard, but we need to focus on figuring out who -or what- did this." They wiped away their tears and nodded, probably too choked up to form coherent words. They rose from the bathroom floor and followed me back into the bedroom. I knew I was suppressing my grief and it would hit me later, but I needed to take advantage of my clear mind in the moment.

"What do you think the... Drawings, are for?" Paige asked, her organized and focused side taking hold. I thought for a moment.

"Maybe it's a warning? It could be almost anything. All I know is the thing that did this is insane." I examined the wall closer. Some of the splatters were random, but most of them weren't. There were circles, swirls, and the most prominent of all, a star covered in thorns. The center had an extra circle in it and I thought I saw something familiar written there, but it was too smudged to fully read.

"Eht moedn-" I felt a strange tingling go down my spine as I muttered it out loud. That was the end of what I could make out, but I wasn't sure how much I wanted to finish reading it anyway. Paige had gone back to the hall closet to get some cleaning supplies for the walls. We sat for a few hours with a bucket of bloody cleaning water trying to scrub the stains off the walls, but we gave up when it was mostly gone. All that was left were a few deeper, faded stains we didn't think would come out. My stomach growled and I looked down at it.

"What time is it Paige?" I asked. She checked her watch and raised her eyebrows.

"It's 2:00." I smiled despite the situation.

"So that's why I'm so hungry. You want to make some food or do you wanna grab something at Upway?" It didn't take her long to know what she wanted.

"Upway. I'm in no mood to cook."