Page 89 of Like Grim Death: Part One
But before I can think of what to do next, what to say, the click resounds through the baptistry again, like film changing.
And there is the sound of sirens.
Lucifer’s eyes leave mine before I can look down, and his shadow seems to stiffen as if someone struck him. If I was closer, I know I would see a muscle in his jaw flex.
Because when I watch the film now, it is a completely different scene and a very different girl.
Flashing lights of red and white and blue. There is crime scene tape in the distance, surrounding a home of white. A picture perfect house in the early morning light cascading down on police cars and firetrucks, and at the focal point of the footage, the back of an ambulance where a little girl with short dark hair sits, her legs dangling down from the perch. She is wrapped in a blanket, blood streaked over her chin, and a paramedic is by her side, asking her questions.
Sid Rain does not look up.
She stares at the dirt ground.
In the distance, the front door of the home is swung open violently, then the screen door after that. Sid flinches at the thwacking sound, but otherwise, she doesn’t move.
A police officer steps through the door, one hand up, urging everyone to stay away as cameras flash in the dawn.
There’s a gurney.
Large, pale feet not covered by the sheet.
But the rest of the body… it isn’t visible.
I cut my gaze back to Sid. Her hair drifts across her sullen face, and she reaches up through the blanket, her fingers bloody as she tucks strands behind her ear.
Silence.
It suddenly cuts through the footage.
The projector lights disappear, plunging us into darkness again. I close my eyes tight. I don’t want to think of what I could have done for Sid. The ways I could have kept Ella innocent and happy. It’s irrational the way my brain jumps for possibilities—I could’ve given money to Ella’s mother. I could have dragged Sid into my own home. I could have… I could have…
The sound of a splash echoes in the room. Water reaches my face, flecks of it as I step back from the baptismal pool. A shadow scuttles behind me, and I ball my hands into fists but I can’t speak. The footage of the two girls who mean the world to me continues to play in my head.
Then a light flicks on, cold and cruel and clinical too bright above our heads, blotting out the movie inside my mind.
I suck in air, like I’ve just broken the surface of a pool.
Narrowing my eyes against the sudden onslaught of light, dropping my gaze to get away from it, I see the baptismal pool once more.
The water is no longer a clear blue.
Instead, as I’m rooted to the hardwood floor, my heart pounding too fast in my chest, I see its tinged pink.
No one speaks as I take in the blood.
And the body.
Propped up on the steps, head tilted back, throat exposed and flayed open in a flap, crimson staining a sticky, white T-shirt, is a girl.
A woman?
I don’t know. From this angle, I see she’s wearing underwear, but her legs are exposed, blood pooling and bloating her feet. There are bruises beneath the pink surface of the water, along her inner thighs. Her wrists, propped up on the sides of the baptistry, look raw. Chafed. From being… tied up? My mind works in overdrive as I note her halo of long, wavy blonde hair, wet and stuck to her scalp, tendrils floating around her, but I can’t really see her face from here, the way her neck is tilted backward. The water is eerily still, and it looks like blood has stained the white interior of the baptistry, smeared along the edges.
What I can see of her is vaguely familiar, but I don’t have a good view and I can’t place her. I take a breath, the scent of decay like a punch to the gut, and I try to breathe in through my mouth, but thetasteis on my tongue.
I retch, bringing my fist to my mouth as I cough, my eyes watering before I drop my hand.
When I lift my gaze to Lucifer, I see he’s angled toward the corpse’s head, staring down at her presumably open eyes. There’s no expression on Lucifer’s face. His hands are in the pockets of his hoodie, and he could be contemplating what he’s going to have for a midnight snack, nothing giving away his thoughts.
