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The Ortolan's picked me up at the hospital that afternoon I spent the rest of Thanksgiving with them

"Have you spoken to her yet?" Diane asked

"She's been sedated all day"

"Poor girl," Diane replied

Shannie scowled at herout theShe was in what Diane called a navel gazing mood In those moods, Shannie was cold and introspective

"Cut the shit, Who are you kidding?" Shannie said e returned to Ce out the bathroom "You know you want to"

"For the fifty-second time, I don't have my keys"

"We don't need them, I knoay in"

"Great Now you wantan alternative et into ," she said

"But what if they come home while we're in there?"

"Geezus Pete Ja for a walk," Shannie said Behind the rhododendrons guarding my front porch, she instructed me to lift the lattice I smiled at her I had crawled behind those bushes countless tiet into the house this way "Your dad did a great job on the basement," she said after we slipped in "The old oas a slob"

"It's locked," I said trying the base from a nail on the doorframe "That should do it" Aard didn't quite describeShannie knew my house better than me She replaced the key and led the way across the creaky floor Gray seeped through the aging panes

The air was heavy oninthe loss of an occupant The idea gave me the shivers; my hands broke into a cold sweat My curiosity waned I didn't want to look behind the bathroo

At the top of the stairs I told her I didn't want to look "Suite yourself Just James," Excitement sparkled in her eyes

Droplets of blood led from my parent's roo hts andmy stomach erupted; bile rushed into ruesoe with my dead brother's blood Hand tomeal in the kitchen sink