“Good.” She pulled me into a quick hug, and I threw my arms around her waist, drawing her close to me. We both smelled awful, but I didn’t care. I buried my face into her ugly purple shirt, so glad to be able to touch someone after days of no contact at all.
We broke apart, and I held my breath as she pushed open the door to the main floor.
It was quiet.
There was almost as much trash and clutter up here as there was in the basement, and we had to pick our way through the mess as we moved.
We didn’t even bother heading to the front door, as my mother had used the front foyer as a dumping ground for half-finished ‘furniture flipping projects’ that never seemed to get finished. She claimed it was a good way to earn extra cash,though I assume one would have to actually sell a piece to profit from it.
We would never be able to quietly move the heavy pieces out of the way. So, instead, we tip-toed toward the kitchen, hoping to go out the back door.
Neither of us spoke, but I so badly wanted to ask Cass where she thought our mother was. It was so quiet it almost sounded like the house was empty.
Was it really going to be this easy to escape?
My foot crunched on a styrofoam takeout container that was full of rotting food and roaches. I tried not to wince as we crept past the rickety kitchen table that was buried in ancient newspapers.
Cass was several feet ahead of me, and I almost squealed in excitement as her fingers closed around the brass knob of the back door.
This was real! This was happening… we were really going to go outside!
My whole body was humming with a strange sort of electricity, and I grinned as Cassandra’s fingers turned the knob, and the door cracked open, spilling golden light into the disgusting kitchen.
There was a rustle of movement behind me, like a rhino was stomping through the pile of garbage on the floor.
Before I knew what was happening, cold, nicotine-stained fingers wrapped around my neck.
“What thefuckdo you think you little demons are doing!?” my mother screeched. I tried to run, but she spun me around, backhanding me across the face so hard I saw stars.
“What are you doing out of the basement?” Foul-smelling spittle splattered across my face, and I was met with her dark, bloodshot eyes. Her hair fell in inky strings around her gaunt face, and I felt my bones lock up in terror.
She always said that we were demons sent from the devil to punish her, but right in that moment,shelooked like she was evil incarnate.
She wrapped her hands around my throat and squeezed so hard I choked.
“You’ve tested me for the last time, little devil boy! Were you planning to infect the world with your sins?”
I choked and wheezed as her fingers tightened even harder. She shook me as she squeezed, and black spots began to bleed across my vision.
“Mommy, please… stop. Don’t you love me?”
“Love you!? Who could ever love the devil?” She was squeezing my throat so hard I was worried she would snap my neck.
A strange feeling of euphoria began to spread through me as my vision finally completely succumbed to darkness.
I was floating in a sea of oblivion, wondering if I really was the devil and if I deserved to have been born in this hell in which I had been raised.
Suddenly, the pressure on my neck disappeared, and I sucked in a life-saving breath. A hot, thick liquid splattered across my face. Some got in my mouth.
It tasted like metal.
Blinking away the darkness, I found myself lying on the disgusting kitchen floor, covered in a sticky, red substance.
Cass was standing behind my mother, who was also on the ground. Though she was in worse shape than me. She was twitching violently and making a strange gurgling sound as she clawed at her throat.
Blood was shooting from her neck in thick, periodic spurts, and it took me a moment to realize that it was because her throat had been slit.
My wide eyes fell to Cassandra’s hand, which was clutching a bloody kitchen knife. Her face was nearly paper white, and her lips were a firm line… but her eyes… They were burning with that same angry fire.
