Shadowfire Book Two: Ice Cold

Chapter 11

As I walked into the blood-stained room, the gold flame that had gathered around me like an aura faded away.

I felt something squish under my shoe. Lifting my foot. I saw what looked like a lung. The usually pure white candles were stained red.

I surveyed the room, and I could see other organs scattered around. The other lung was perfectly mirrored from the one I had stepped on, with a body splitting the mirror down the middle.

A heart and brain were on opposite walls, stuck by nothing but dried blood. Blood splattered the floor in the center, in a rough five pointed star shape. The intestines were lined in a swirl once again meeting the body. I knew this was a joke. It had to be a joke.

I walked carefully, trying not to disturb what seemed to be a sensitively made work of art.

Please, please be a prank.

I reached the body, finding what terrified me most. I found what should've been my mother. Instead, I saw a corpse. It's arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, and toes were all separated at each joint. It's head was separate from his body, and the chest was hollow of everything, even bone. Her eyes were burned out, and her mouth open in an eternal scream of terror.

Each part was just close enough that you could see the few centimeters separating them but only when you observed it closely enough to be scarred by it.

The Oracle, my mother, was murdered and turned into madman's masterpiece. Only hours after I had disowned her.