|
|
|
|
|
|
|
hand was clasped against her mouth, pinching her nostrils shut. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trev blinked tears from his own stinging eyes. He looked again toward the side of the room. Though he tried to hold his breath, what he saw made him gasp. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Much of the smoke had cleared away. Probably poured out through the doorway. A murky, orange haze remained. Thin enough to let him see too much. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
He gagged once, but the white-haired man didn't seem to notice. Maybe in a trance, Trev thought as he willed his throat to relax. Sandy suddenly hunched over and vomited. Still, the man paid no attention. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trev wondered where Rhonda was. Maybe she'd stayed in the hall. Lucky her. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grandpa was crouched, facing the wall. He was naked. His brown skin gleamed like polished wood. As he chanted softly, he ripped pages from a book that lay open on the floor. He rolled the pages into a tube, held them over a candle until they ignited, then raised his blazing torch to the charred and runny flesh of the corpse on the wall. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A female. Rather small, but not a child. Old enough to have breasts. She was nailed upside-down to the wall, her arms and legs stretched out wide. Trev could see no skin on her that hadn't been burnt. Her hair was gone. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
On the floor beneath her head and shoulders was a plastic tub brimming with black fluid. Bits of gray ash floated on its surface. So did small, white globs of congealed grease. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As Trev watched, disgusted and amazed, the old |
|
|
|
|
|