Nightmare Stare [Chapter Seventeen]

"Molly!?" I said loudly with a mixture of surprise and confusion residing in my voice. "What are you doing home? Come inside, honey!" I opened the door sending it bouncing agasint the wall. She walked inside, I took a few of her bags from her.
"The house looks..." She paused circling around. I closed the door when she said,"...different."
"Oh, well yeah. I took up some new hobbies and haven't really had the time to clean the house, or change the pictures."
She walked up to one of the pictures hanging on the wall. It was a picture of her and her brother sitting back to back, fake smiles all around.
"I can't believe you used to let me do my hair like that, Daddy!" She rolled her eyes thinking back to how much she used to love that hair style.
"Well, you were a very stubborn little girl." I said with a laugh. She joined in.
"Yeah, that sounds like me!" She said. Then she started walking to her old room. My eyes shot open and I ran past her, blocking her from opening the door.
"You don't want to go in here!" I told her.
"What, why not?" She asked. "Daddy! You didn't throw away all of my stuff did you?"
"No, no no!" I said, dropping her bags on the floor. "Its nothing like that, I just...I just..."
"You just what?" She asked.
"Well, I moved your stuff to your grandmother's, but then..." I paused.
"But then mom died?" She said, her eyes looking to the floor. "Did they ever catch the monster who killed her?" She asked.
"Not to my knowledge." I told her.
"So what did you do with my room?" She asked trying to reach past me and open the door. I stopped her.
"I started sculpting." I cursed myself inside. She looked to her brother's old room.
"Daddy, have you heard from Greg yet?" She asked. I took her by the arm and walked her down the hallway.
"No, darling, I haven't." I said. "Was he keeping a secret from me? You know you can tell me."
"What do you mean by a secret?" She asked.
"Like anything he didn't want me to know." I said walking her into the kitchen. "Something he maybe thought I'd be mad about?"
"What are you getting at?" She asked.
"Can I be honest with you?" I asked.
"Of course." She said.
"I think Greg was gay and left home because he thought I wouldn't approve of him."
Molly didn't say anything for a while. She just stood in the kitchen for a while.
"Daddy, Greg knew you hated your gay brother, it scared him to live with you." She said. Then we walked into the living room, she set her bag down on the couch. "Well, I won't stay for too long, Daddy, I was just going to stay the night."
"Oh, are you sure?" I asked.
"Yeah, I called a few times to tell you, but you never answered. My best friend is getting married downtown, and I'm the maid of honor."
"Congratulations, honey!" I said. "I'm glad you stopped by. Its good to have you home again." I kissed her on the forehead.
"Are you going to bed?" She asked.
"I was already in bed, just getting back to it." I said.
"Okay, Daddy. I'll see you in the morning." She smiled.
"I'll get you some blankets first." I left, and found some blankets, gave them to her and returned to my room, Audrey sound asleep.

In the morning I told Audrey I would be spending the day with Molly. Audrey asked to come along but I told her it would be better if she just stayed home. She complied and I took Molly out for breakfast, we went to this Greek resturant called 'Ω's'. It was pretty good, not going to lie. I offer to take Molly to the Inn where her best friend is getting married, but she's firm on walking there herself. She tells me she'll be back in the morning to pick up her stuff. I offer again, telling her I want to catch up on times lost, but she says,
"Neither of us are going anywhere, Daddy. I'll see you tomorrow." She hugs me. "I love you."
"I love you too, Molly. Have fun, take lots of pictures!" I tell her as we split ways. I make it home faster than I had expected, the sun is still rising in the sky. For once the world seems happy, the sun is bright, the flowers are vivid, the birds are singinig, all the things we ignore as we become adults.
I get home and something's a little off. I walk around the house calling Audrey's name, but I hear no reply. I check the living room, the kitchen, my bedroom, Molly's old room, the hall bathroom, the backyard, all nothing. Then I walk into the garage and my shoes are wet. My nose flares up and my eyes start to water. The burning smell of fermaldahyde singes my eyes, sending my vision into a blurry underwater world. I take a few seconds to adjust, and calm my eyes down. When my vision is restored I see Audrey standing with an bat in her hands panting. She hunched over, the tip of the bat resting on the wet floor. There's broken glass skattered all around her, and there flopping on the floor like a dying fish on land, is the angel.

-Sir Jestro