Rude Awaking (Fiction) Con't

It was my sinuses that were assulted first. The smell reminded me of a million dirty pennies. Dirty pennies and something else. It started burning my nose immediately, enough to make my eyes start to water. You would think that that's what bothered me the most, but it wasn't what stopped me in my tracks.

I had only stepped one foot inside the door but I was able to view most of the first landing in once glance. The front room was large and spacious. Even with every light in the vicinity on, you could still barely see what the actual color of the walls were. Everything was painted in a deep crimson color, but it wasn't from decorating. The lamp nearest me sitting on the end table had a thin base and stem and the shade was just as dainty. Or at least it once was...

Directly in front of me, seperating the front rooms, were ceiling to floor pictures that led up the stairs to the second story. The way the pictures were hung, made it look like a timeline. A timeline ending in another puddle of crimson. Even the steps were dripping with that crimson color. To the far right was another sitting area, this time with a large flat screen T.V. mounted on the eastern wall and slightly outdated furniture. Obviously the room a family would spend watching movies and playing board games together in. Just beyond the stairs dark oak cabinets decorated the quant kitchen. All the drawers had been pulled out and utensils and other cooking wares strewn about the floor. Again, everything I saw, everywhere I looked, I saw crimson.

I inched towards the couch in the center of the room to my left. It looked like it used to be a tan color, possibly matching the walls? Though I could only see the side of it, it looked like it had met the same fate as the lamp. There was a small fireplace on the west wall and the smell emitting from it reminded me of the local bar-b-que restaurant. The smell of copper was no longer the poignant smell.. the smell was now much worse, much much worse...

Were they roasting hotdogs when this happened?
God, what's that smell? I thought the smell of blood was bad,..but oh GOD! What IS that smell?

I've never smelled anything that potent before. I think I'm going to be sick.
A hand touching my shoulder startled me out of my own thoughts. I flinched and swung around, finding Sam standing there about as startled as I was.

"Damn, Cowgirl! You scared the stirs off my boots! You O.K.?"

A nervous giggled escaped my lips before I was able to speak. "Oh! I'm.. I'm sorry, Sam. Yea, I'm O.K., how are you?"

He removed his Stetson hat and wiped his brow. I guess the scenery had gotten to him too. His normally pale complexion was a mix of green and gray. We stood there for a minute just staring at eachother and surveying the scene.

"So how many victims were there?" I asked, trying to swallow the bile rising in my throat.

"Umm.. about 4. Well.. 4 1/2, really"

"How is there 4 1/2?" I asked, quickly realizing I really didn't want to know the answer.

"Well,.. this is the thing Belle.." Sam always insisted on using the short version of my name, thought I don't know why. Everyone else he always called by their last name. My birth name is long and people often mistake me for being Catholic because of it. When I was born, my parents wanted em to have a little bit of all my grandparents' names in mine. It didn't seem like a big deal until I was learning how to write it. Imagine a 3 year old trying to correctly write out Anna-Belle Irene Frances McBrady. Trust me, it wasn't easy.

Same was stalling now, like he didn't know how to say what needed to be said. It made me feel like a child again, when my parents were trying to figure out how to tell me my cat had died.

"Spit it out, Sam!" I was growing impatient. My head was starting to spin and the burning in my throat was getting worse.

"Umm.. well.. the 5th one isn't a whole body. We only found parts"

"What do you MEAN 'only parts'? Where's the rest of it?"

He adjusted his stance and lowered his head as if he was ashamed of something he did. But how could he be? He wasn't responsible for this!