I was impressed. Instead of admitting it though, I doubled down on my hippo snort. We had work to do.
We rolled up the address and I expected to see ambulances, firetrucks, and all manner of emergency services. Okay, with all the crazy creatures running around, they didn’t send out the full first response teamanymore unless everything was literally burning down,which is why private services were sopopularright now.
Still,I found the serenity of thesunnycul-de-sacunsettling. The woman’s scream still vibrated somewhere inside me.
Another freakishly hot day in December. Colorado was so weird. We’d pay for it soon though. Any dayitwould turn aroundanddumpingsnow on us with extreme prejudice.
Travis and I didn’t waste any time getting to the doorstep. I rang the doorbell and instantly felt like an idiot.Based off the terrified screams,I was pretty surethe homeowner wasn’tgoing to politely cometothe door and ask us what we were doing there.
I tried the handle and it was open. “Score,” I said, smiling at Travis.
He smiled back and a gang of butterflies exploded in a frenzy in my stomach. I turned back to the house, instantly irritated. I couldn’t tell if this was the normal Travis-inducing irritation or if it was the fetus pumpingouthormonesmeant to make me crazy.
The door easily swung open and I stepped into the foyer of a typical,suburbanhouse. There were family pictures all over the walls. To the left was the living room which led back to the kitchen. The television was left onacrimedrama show, but no one was sitting on the couch watching.The only sign of life was the blood spatter across the screen.
I gripped Batman in one hand, an icy drip in my stomach warned mysubconsciousthere was something very wrong here. I could feel it in the air.
“Do you feel that?” I asked Travis in a quiet voice.
The flame thrower was strapped to his back and he sported a utility belt with knives, various tools and now a couple spray bottles of cleaning solutions.He looked ridiculous, but I had to admit his accessories had saved our asses on more than a fewoccasions.
“Yeah, like there’s some kind of electrical current leftover, like lightning just struck, orsome kind of burn?”he said.
Travis hadnailed it exactly on the head. I’d never been close tolightning,but I shared his thought.I inhaled deeper, trying to catch a trace ofsulfur. Instead I smelled burning and dirty pennies.
As I drew up next to the couch, I realized there was someone on the ground in front of it. A man in a black suit was face down on the ground.I swallowed the lump in my throat.Icy sweat broke out on my brow and under my armpits.
I elbowed Travis in the gut in case he didn’t see it.
“It looks like...” Travis started but then faltered. “Did he kill himself?” The man on the ground had two dark bloody marks on the carpet seeping out from his wrists.In one hand, heclutched apocketknife. The bladewasdipped in red.
“It was a woman who called,” I reminded him, pressing forwardignoring the churning in my stomach.We had to find her. She sounded so scared. We walked backandaroundinto the kitchen.I went first, but before I could lay a step on thetile, Ileapt backward and turned around to look Travis in the eyefor three heart beats. ThenI leaned over and puked.
Travis put a hand on my back and helped steady me by holding my shoulders when I stood up straight again. My vision swam a bit. Travis stared past me at the carnageI’d seen a moment ago.His green eyes, wide and glossy, his cheeks looked suddenly sunken.
Two women and a kid lay in a bloody mess on the tile floor.They wore black formal wear too.
“It looks like they all killed themselves,” Travis said just above a whisper. “Even the kid,” he said,his words becoming hoarse.
We’d been called to help exorcise people, sometimes their pets, and we’d helped usher unwanted demons and spiritsout of households.Sometimes people got killed, which is why we made it a policy to send them far off the premises when we were doing our job. Sometimes people had died before we even got there.But this was different. There was something so brutally human about this scene. There wasn’t the telltale of green slime or the stench of sulfur to indicate an evil spirit was near.
Turning off the fear like aspigot, I switched to‘do mode.’“We need to find whatever did this.” Before Travis could say another word, I began searching rooms, opening closets, checking behind bath curtains, ready to wail on whatever evil was lurking.
Nothing. Not a single creature jumped out from behind anything, there wasn’t a single bit of evidence I could find that suggested something from the Stygian had been here. But as I stood next to Travis in the living room while he called 911, I knew a terrible evil had been here and it shook me to my core.
He hung up the phone and eyed me with concern. “Are you okay? You look like you’re going to throw up again.”
I mutely shook my head.Though it was still warm the clouds rolled in overhead, creating and eerie light and adding to the uneasiness churning inside me.
“No, you’re not okay or no you’re not going to throw up?”
I managed to meet his eye. “I’m fine.”
“Wow, sodefinitelynot okay.” he took me by the shoulders and led me outside where the air wasfresh,and those stupid birds were still chirping. Heslidopen the van doorand forced me to sit downon the edge, my feet on the ground.
I wanted a drink. I wanted a drink very badly.
Doit. You’re going to get rid of your problem soon,so what does it matter?
