Red Room

2

The inside of the house looked just as horrendously maintained as the outside, but at least they had electricity, running water and gas... surprisingly.

While the male was away, his wife took her sweet time to cook them a warm supper. Its smell floated through the entire ground floor. Maybe that food was the scent used to hide the stench of the air inside.

She filled 3 plates with the food equally much and put them on the kitchen table, each next to a fork and a knife. Afterwards, everybody was allowed to take a sit. The son let his parents sit down first, to make sure the chairs were safe and when he saw the pieces of furniture didn't break under their weight, he dared to sit himself down at the end of the table, at a safe distance from both adults.

He looked in his plate and asked himself if that thing was going to have any negative side effect on him. About what it was, that would probably be better if he didn't know what he was eating.

Nobody said anything while eating and the child was rushed upstairs to his new room to unpack as soon as he was done eating.

Yay, parents, the little boy cheered sarcastically in his mind. He already missed the good old days in the orphanage, I wonder how much does it take them to send me back? And what do I have to do to get kicked out or something?

Back in the ground floor, the pair was having a serious conversation regarding their latest 'purchase'. Knowing her husband, the female was worried that he only did the job for the sake of getting it done.

"Kay, when are we gonna get this over with?", she wanted to know, eager to finish the deed as soon as possible.

The man shrugged, "We might as well get down to it tonight. The sooner, the better."

"Sure, but don't we have to check him out first? I mean, it's confirmed that he has a genetical disorder and really looks sick."

"No, the bitch from the orphanage said albinism doesn't affect your body, but makes you look weird."

"You 100% certain? Is there really nothing working wrong inside him? I mean, we can't sell damaged organs. Hell, would somebody pay anything for something that ain't in a good condition?"

He sighed, "And how would you like to pay those medical checks? We barely have enough money to survive until tomorrow after we pay all the taxes for this shit-hole we live in! This is a lottery, we can only hope to have as many of his organs to be in a good enough state to be sold."

There was still something that made her hold back from committing the crime, which she herself agreed on taking part in, right away, "And... are you sure the police won't arrest us for murder or something?"

His voice quickly became louder, "Of fucking course I am, damn it! Who the heck would miss a 7 years old mutant?! His disease is the damn reason I chose him in particular, and not any basic brat!"

Scared, the wife agreed, "So... Tonight?"

"Well, for how long to you want to keep an extra mouth to feed?"

"Tonight it is!"

They agreed that the mother should go get him to come in the forest with them because he seemed to be less scared of her.

She hurried upstairs and knocked on the door, but didn't wait until he told her she could come in. That was only to warn him she was going to enter anyway.

The son was still arranging his clothes in the drawer, but turned his attention to the door right when he heard the knob moving. His adoptive mom was casually making her way to him.

"Hey, honey.", she put her hand on his shoulder and began to caress it, "We wanna take you for a walk tonight, to show you the surroundings. Whatcha say? Or are you too tired?"

"No, it's fine.", the small male mumbled.

"All right!"

She exited the room and rushed back to her man to tell him she fooled the child into coming with them.

He crossed his arms, "Good. Now go pack ropes and a knife. Oh, and take a lighter too, just in case."

The wife quickly nodded and returned to the kitchen to look for the requested equipment. Meanwhile, the little freak finished setting his roon up and they were ready to go.

The newcomer expected going in that village nearby and being given directions to school, the grocery shop, the church if they were religious, or whichever house they found important enough to send him to. Surprisingly, they took the exact opposite turn.

Yay, road, the kid mentally complained.

They didn't walk much on the road, as the forest was rather close to their home. As the paved way continued to go straight forward into another kilometer-large patch of nothing, the family turned right and soon became invisible between the trees. The deeper they went, the more doubts the boy started having about what surroundings they really wanted to show him. He had a feeling that the forest shouldn't be usually included in village tours. Oh, and what was she carrying in her backpack?

The parents eventually stopped walking, when they thought they were far enough from the rest of the world. One thing they didn't take in consideration, though, was that policemen existed out of civilisation as well.

Only a few meters away from where they were standing, a defender of the law had his home and built. As his working days were filled with crazy people of the village who requested his help for the stupidest things, he wanted to have a peaceful place to spend his free time. But the actual crimes mostly happened in hidden places.

From his office window, the view of the small group of visitors was just fine and the light caused by the fire one of them had set up caught his eye. What could somebody possibly do in such a place at night?

So the policeman took a pair of handcuffs, a smaller gun and a water bucket in case he needed to use any of them.

Meanwhile, the pseudo-father had just made a nice camp fire out of a few dried brenches. Feeling eased that those adults' plans were only a nice evening by the fire, the child sat down and waited for Mommy to take out the marshmalellows from her backpack. Or not.

"Take off your shirt and come here.", the woman, standing next to a tree, instructed. There was something behind her back. Things were becoming strange again.

Hearing the command, the cop approached that certain tree, careful not to be noticed.

Gulping, the little boy walked towards the spot he was told to. Then, his adoptive mother tied him to the tree, leaving his torso bare, and restrainied his hands behind his back. While that was being done, the husband grabbed a thicker branch out of the fire and joined the other two.

"Let's warm that skin up a bit, to make cutting him open easier.", he was grinning devilishly while contemplating the torch in his hand.

He walked up to his 'son', who had already started to cry in fear and struggle to get out.

No, the policeman couldn't believe his eyes. But before he could even be indignated, that monster had already drawn a line from his victim's chest to his stomach with that burning piece of wood. The poor small being screamed at the top of his lungs and begged for mercy. That cutting open he had been talking about would have followed if it hadn't been for the saviour. The cop quickly took out his gun and shot the criminal in the shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain. The wife wanted to run to the fire to bring another torch, this time for the shooter, but remained stoned when the person with the gun showed himself.

"Police!", he rapidly moved his weapon from one to another, "Get on your knees and put your hands where I can see them!"

The pair obeyed. In the next moments, the intruder poured the entire bucket of water on the victim, who was still crying, even though he was safe again. He then untied him, "Come on, little buddy. We've gotta heal that burn."

The boy nodded desperately.