G(r)eek Tragedy

3.

When Eithne came home from school, she thought everything was fine. Sure, it was a little too quiet, but nothing to freak out about. That's the thing, though; everything in your life seems ordinary until it isn't. You rely on the expected, the known, to always be there and you block out what doesn't fit. 

Take this for instance: Eithne saw blood before she saw the dead bodies. When she'd walked through the door, there were small, dark drops randomly scattered about. But Eithne didn't think it was blood. Not at first. She thought Nina had spilled some chocolate syrup on the floor. When the bullies at school got real bad, their foster mom Lulu always gave Nina a sundae to cheer her up. So even though the silence and the dirty floor were weird, she shrugged it off. 

But then she walked past the living room and stopped in her tracks. Michael's body laid sprawled out over the cushions, eyes milky and half his torso torn off. The couch was stained black, not even red, too dark to really tell how much blood he'd lost. It didn't matter though. He was dead.

Eithne vomited. There was no warning, no burn or gagging beforehand. She just threw up, fine until she wasn't. She wondered if that was how Michael died. Maybe he was just reading on the couch one second and then something killed him the next, and he wasn't Michael anymore but Michael's body because when you die that sack of flesh you called you is left empty.

Too scared to keep looking, she ran to the kitchen. There was a back door there, a way out. Just get out and find a phone and find Lulu. That was all Eithne had to do. She was just a kid. Kids weren't supposed to deal with this. Whatever...whatever that was got handled by adults.

On the way, though, Eithne tripped and faceplanted into the hardwood floor. She cursed, turning around to see if she'd done any serious damage. What the hell got in her way?

It was Nina. Her little ringlets were glued to the floor and her chest caved in on itself. The bones were visible, off-white points sticking through rusted brown blood and torn muscle. Nothing was missing from her body like Michael, just shattered. Like a bug you accidently stepped on.

Tears streamed down Eithne's face. Her stomach curled in on itself and though every fiber of her being screamed to run, her arms shook when she tried to get up. She stayed on her hands and knees for what seemed like eternity. Nina just laid underneath her, eyes staring at the ceiling.

"Eithne! Eithne, where is he?"

She was suddenly pulled up from the ground, face to face with Ak. Her shoulder hurt. Maybe it was dislocated. Ak was always built, and she knew he had to have some strength in him, but that yank felt like her arm was gonna fall off. Then she'd only have one arm, like Michael in the...

"Eithne," Ak yelled again, face red and sweaty. "Where is he?!"

Eithne didn't understand. Everything felt too foggy and slow to focus on, and her body ached. Ok, think. Nina and Michael were dead. Lulu...Lulu was missing. Who was Ak looking for? Then she felt it. A rumbling growl from the back of the house shook the floor, vibrated through her bones, and echoed in her skull. It felt like...like her dreams of huge eyes and rolling tongues and fear.

"I-I haven't seen Ezekial. It's him? He's the one who...Ezekial did all this, right?"

Ak hesitated a few moments, eyes darting across her face. He must have liked what he'd seen because then he smiled, a dazzling grin that promised trouble, and nodded.

"Yes. You were right, you know. I didn't think it was you, maybe Nina, but by the gods it was you the whole time! No wonder you've never been found."

"What?"