Painting the House Red

Chapter 3: Down to the Upway and Back

Paige drove, I sat shotgun, and Charity was in the back. She had taken the longest to recover from the initial shock of "The Event", but she eventually came around. We got the the nearest Upway and took our sandwiches to go. I got my favorite: A meat lovers sandwich, loaded down with beef, pepperoni, salami, and pretty much every meat you can think of. Paige got a chicken bacon ranch, and Charity picked a BLT. I know I shouldn't be thinking this, but it was genuinely funny how pouty she looked while eating her food. I realize how horrible of a friend I was for not feeling pity, but it was just that I hadn't been hit full force with Cate's loss yet. It just happens that way for some people.

We got back to the house and I opened the front door with caution. Who knows what could have been lurking around while we were gone? When I felt confident enough to poke my head in, I did. Surprisingly, nothing ripped my head off, so we went in. Everything was as we left it: dull, bloodstained, and dark. In one night, our apartment had turned from being the cozy home of four college friends, to someplace straight out of a horror movie. I sighed audibly once I got comfortable on the couch.

"Okay, huddle up girls. We need a plan." I ushered them to sit down in front of me. Paige pulled out her ever handy notepad and fluffy cat pen.

"So? Any ideas?" She asked, prepared to take notes.

"Evidently, this monster is sentient, based on the pictures it was capable of drawing. A mere animal doing that would be a one in a million chance, so we're dealing with something more serious here. What we need to do is outsmart it." Charity nodded.

"And the best way to outsmart a monster would be..?" I shrugged.

"I mean, I've never done this before. How should I know?" Paige stopped writing and tapped her pen on the tip of her chin.

"Bait." Charity and I both stared at her blankly.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"Bait." She stated again, even more plainly. "We need to taunt it with something it really wants before it'll come out. Then once it's out of hiding, we attack." She closed one eye like she was aiming and made a firing motion, like a gun, with her right hand. Charity's eyes widened and then her brow furrowed.

"Wait, but how would we kill it? It's not like we have medieval weapons or anything just lying around." Paige grinned and held up a finger for us to wait. She got up and walked over to the first set of kitchen cabinets.

"So maybe this is a bit of a bad time to tell you guys this, but I have a pistol." She reached down to the floor and pulled up the loose, creaky board that was always bothering us. "My parents had me trained before college so I could defend myself in dangerous situations." We both gaped at her.

"Wait. So you've had a gun the entire time we've lived here, and none of us knew?" She grimaced and nodded slowly.

"Yeah... I probably should have told you sooner, I just thought it might make you uncomfortable. You all know I came from a more backwoods, country sort of community, but I wasn't sure how country I wanted you to see me as." My gaze softened and I walked over to stand in front of her.

"You know what, it's fine. All that matters is that we know now and we can use it to our advantage." I took the pistol into my hands and inspected it carefully. It was a ruger sp101. A smaller, compact gun, good for home defense. I noted that it had a five shot cylinder, but only 3 bullets. Hopefully, we wouldn't have to use that many, I thought to myself.

"So can we address the elephant in the room?" I asked with a heavy tone of voice. "Someone's going to have to be the bait. If the monster wants human flesh, or more specifically, hearts, that's what we're going to need." Paige looked down at the ground, but Charity stood from her place on the floor.

"I'll do it." I looked at her, concerned.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." She joined us in the kitchen and put a firm hand on my shoulder. "For Cate." I sighed and accepted the fact that she had set her mind on it, but I also realized deep down she was the only one who could do it. We needed Paige to fire the gun, since she was the only one who knew how to use it, and as for me, well I was just too chicken. I had never been good in scary situations. I would freeze up and sometimes lose my sense of vision or black out. It was like I didn't have a fight or flight response system.

Paige and I wrapped our arms around Charity, complimenting her on her bravery with heavy hearts.