Where was my oldest, best friend? “Ellis!” I zipped through back hallways, hallways I hadn’t even known existed. “Ellis!” I roared, gun held out before me, searching for anyone who remained alive. But the blood was dried and cold, caking her skin and the floor around her. The wound was a faded red, the skin split wide open, revealing the flesh beneath. I crouched down, making to check for a pulse, when I spotted the deep gash across her throat. It seemed as if she was staring toward the window Ellis used to sit and stare out of. I tiptoed closer and closer still until I saw the blank, death-masked face of Mrs. “Ellis,” I whispered, feeling the muscles in my chest tear in two, only to freeze when an older body came into view. I looked down and saw a pool of congealed blood, now nearly black in color.

I forced my feet to move, one reluctant step after the other, until I felt something beneath my shoe. A pair of feet poked out of the shadows, near the bathroom. and then I felt the blood drain from my face. Her dark clothes, the clothes she always wore, were in a heap on the wooden floor. I closed my eyes for a second, then counted to five and turned to face the rest of the room. My breathing seemed to stop as I paused before turning the corner to look at her spot, the place she always sat. Relying on the intensive Ranger training I’d been through in recent months, I crept slowly into the bedroom-Ellis’s bedroom-heart in mouth. I raised my gun and stopped beside the wall. I felt an increasing sense of dread as I approached the door. The closer I got to the room where she had been holed up for years, the stronger the putrid smell became. My heart sank as I reached the bottom of the stairs. They smelled musty the furniture had been covered with sheets for years. Moving as quietly as possible, I checked the first-floor rooms. Standing as still as a stone, I listened for any sounds. “Shit!” I hissed as I covered my nose and mouth with my forearm. The second I did, a vile smell assaulted my nose. I fixed my hat so I could see the whole hallway as I crossed the threshold. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my gun.

The old hinges were broken and the wooden door smashed. They would incur the full force of our revenge, and they wouldn’t see us coming. They deserved all that our fucked-up minds could conjure up. Because what I had planned before was no longer painful enough.

I thought of how we would take each one down.

Book sick fux