"-started drinking a few years ago and having these hallucinations-"
"Amber?"
"Amber?"
"AMBER!"
Amber snapped her head up, taking her eyes away from the dead, mangled victim. She cleared her throat and put her hands in her coat pockets. The wind bit at her in every direction, and blood crawled down the hill she was standing on, soaked up by the snow.
"I see." She made it a point to shrug it off, but her stomach lurched. She looked to her right where her mother was being dragged, kicking and screaming, in hand cuffs. Four officers were holding her down, waiting for the ambulance to come and give her a sedative. According to the officer beside her, it would only be a few more minutes. Amber prayed that her mom wouldn't recognize her, but she already knew there was no way she would. She was having one of her hallucinogenic episodes.
She moved towards the body, took some gloves from one of the officers, and picked up the ax her mother had used on the victim. "Do you know who it is?"
"Victim or perp?"
She bit her tongue, aware that she should ask for both, but not wanting to. "Victim."
"John Ride. Lived only two houses down."
"Any witnesses?" She bit the inside of her cheek, and stepped aside, not wanting the blood to touch her shoes.
"A couple people heard the noise, none seen what happened. Why? We know she did it."
Amber felt self-conscious and wondered if anyone here knew.
"I want to know what happened here. What did she see to make her do such a horrible thing to a man like this?"
The officer cleared his throat. "Man like this?"
"You know what I mean."
The officer shrugged. "Well when we got here she was yelling about a monster, how she had just killed a blue monster-dragon, or something like this."
Against her will, Amber snorted. As a kid, Amber's mom always talked about blue dragons and monsters. She cleared her throat, aware of people looking at her. "So we got a crazy?"
"Basically."
"Okay, wrap up the scene and-"
She felt someone come up behind her and she spun around, ready to fight, but it was just another officer. He held up a badge that stated he was the FBI and her brows fused together. The FBI on such an obscene case?
"Did the perp have family members we can talk to?"
Amber was caught off guard, finally thinking the emotional roller coaster was over with. "Excuse you?"
The agent raised an eyebrow and the officer interjected before she could speak. "We are getting right on that. Neighbors say she had a son and daughter. Um, Camael and Tony."
"Had?"
"Both died in a car accident six years ago, left her here alone."
"Father?"
"Died when the kids were just little."
Amber got her phone out and texted her twin brother:
Jason, need to talk. Call me
She excused herself from the crime scene and walked back to her car, away from her old house. Thanking God, all the while, that she had left her maniac of a mother behind her, and also, their names.
