Blood will run forever

Madeleine couldn't sleep. It was a side effect of the withdrawal. She also had a feeling that she was being constantly watched. She didn't know what to make of the voices that seemed to whisper in her ear, over the days and nights becoming increasingly hostile: "Little slut, you should have died years ago!" "You'll stew in hell you whore!" "I'm going to kill your whole family!" "Suffer with us you filthy junkie!" She assumed that these were psychological effects of withdrawal, but they frightened her all the same. Angela had noticed that something was up with her sister, had tried to talk to her... but Madeleine didn't know what to make of it herself, so she brushed it off as a withdrawal episode every time. And then there was the picture found carelessly thrown on her bedroom floor. It depicted a nice-looking, frizzy-haired woman who looked like she was hiding internal pain and suffering, along with her four children. Madeleine swore that the woman and three of the children kept cropping up in her dreams/nightmares. The children obviously were trying to hide some sort of pain behind their shy smiles on camera. There were 2 teenagers and two little children- an attractive, long haired girl, someone who was obviously her younger brother, and 2 little twins, a boy and girl. Madeleine caught herself looking at the teenage boy. There was something very familiar about him... Madeleine's eyes were drawn to the man. He was a big man by the looks of him, a man with Slavic features who was dressed well. All of the occupants seemed to cling onto him, as if to never let him go, like they wanted him to be there. This made Madeleine recall something else- a tape she had found. A video of everyone in the picture except for the man, this time another man took his place. This one was also big, but more round. And the things he was doing to the mother in the video made Madeleine's blood boil with fury. Madeleine figured out that the man in the photo was probably looking to save the family from the monster in the video.

It was 3:33am in the morning when Madeleine started drifting off to sleep. She was just about there when she heard a faint scratching sound coming from her closet.

She wondered if her cat, Mokki, had been accidently locked in there. She crawled out of bed, and opened the cupboard. Sure enough, there was Mokki- torn to pieces. Madeleine stepped back, shock, horror and revulsion pumping through her body. She tried not to scream- but failed as she seen the reason Mokki was dead come bursting out of the closet!

A loud screech accompanied the arrival of a woman- one very fucked-up looking one! All Madeleine saw for a second was a bloody, burnt face and wild eyes framed by tangled black hair before the "thing" made a swipe at her head... with a knife. Madeleine screamed as the thing swiped at her again, kicking it away- it flew to the other end of her bedroom and started crawling up the walls, snarling at Madeleine, hatred etched all over its entire being. Her door was kicked in, and Bruno come bursting in with a pistol, shouting "Maddie, shit are you... WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!!!!" before the thing spotted him and dived for Bruno's head. Firing his handgun, one bullet hit the monster in the head, sending it flying back across the room. The monster reared itself, hissing, like a cat poised to strike. Madeleine, screaming, felt herself pulled to her feet by her sister, Angela, who stared in horror and revulsion at Madeleine's assailant. "Just GO!" Bruno shouted, stopping the thing from grabbing the girls as he wrestled it to the ground, both of them snarling at each other like lions. Angela pulled Madeleine away and both of them started to run down the stairs, running for their lives. Bruno came hurtling down after them, firing at the thing in pursuit over his shoulder, reloading quickly every time. This gave Madeleine time to run to the gun cupboard and pull out a carbine- loading it, she ran back towards the monster and Bruno again wrestling on the floor, screaming and screeching vile abuse and insults at each other. A loud click of the gun to load it snapped the thing's attention back to Madeleine. Snarling, the thing threw Bruno off her, making sure to kick away his gun, and approached Madeleine with the stroll of a gunfighter.

Madeleine felt a new emotion- overwhelming fury at this thing which had dared to invade their home and sanctity. "PUT THE GUN DOWN STUPID WHORE AND GET WHAT'S COMING TO YOU!!!!" the thing screamed, waving a knife. "What the fuck did I ever do to you!!!?" Madeleine yelled, aiming straight at the monster's head. "YOU TOUCHED MY BOY! TOUCHED HIM WITH YOUR FILTHY JUNKIE HANDS! NO-ONE LIKE YOU DARES TO TOUCH MY CHILDREN AND GET AWAY WITH IT!!!!" the thing roared, lunging for Madeleine. Madeleine fired, knocking the monster back, who was quickly held at gunpoint by Bruno. In a lightning move, she kicked Bruno away and started sprinting away... towards the basement.

Madeleine, with new-found courage, sprinted after the thing... the thing looked around, shocked, but Madeleine didn't let up. She didn't care what happened- she was either going to rip this thing apart, or die trying. The thing sprinted down the stairs and- disappeared. "WHERE ARE YOU YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!?" Madeleine screamed, aiming the gun in all directions. A sudden movement caught her eye.

"Ohhhh" Madeleine moaned in horror and shock, falling to her knees. There was the thing, tied against one of the posts, with the 3 children Madeleine saw in her dreams. They were all on fire, struggling against their bonds... and staring straight at Madeleine, pure terror about their faces. The teenage girl, the 2 twins, and the mother, all burning alive. Sobbing, Madeleine ran up the stairs, the pictures now making a lot more sense.

"Maddie!" Angela shrieked, immediately wrapping her arms around her sister. Madeleine was broken; all she could do was sob into her sister's chest, while Bruno looked on helplessly. He was in shock... just what the hell was that thing!? And why did it choose Madeleine as a target?

As the sisters lay on the floor crying together, Bruno knew immediately that they had walked into a living nightmare. A haunted house... and a case he knew very well off too. When he was a kid, his father had been a police officer, a detective assigned to the case. A mother and 3 of her children had been brutally slain, beaten and burnt to death, tied up in the basement and left to die like animals. The father was nowhere to be found. A 14 year old boy, the second child, was arrested and sent to the mental hospital without trial for the crime. The kid had to be kept in the most secure wing because there were so many people who wanted to kill him for it. But amongst the hatred, a small but very noticeable minority had argued that the boy could NOT have been responsible. The facts and evidence just didn't add up, they said, presenting their case to the Supreme Court. Of course, nobody wanted to take the time to find justice for the boy, effectively keeping him imprisoned for a crime he may very well have not committed. The group finally ran out of patience, and one of them, disguised as a cop, had freed the boy after 4 years of captivity, turning him loose. The young man, thankfully, remained unrecognized. Bruno knew that the house had to be looked at, it's demons put to rest. He punched in the number of an old friend.



"Honey?" Lauren Baker called to her husband, Zach. "Yes sweetheart?" Zach shouted from the dining room, immersed in the daily newspaper. "We got a voice message last night... from Bruno" Lauren smiled, kissing her husband on the cheek as a good morning. "Bruno huh? Shit, haven't seen him a while... how's he doing?" "I was just talking to him then and him and his family are sorta very scared outta their wits... he needs you to call him back right away" Lauren said with concern in her voice as she made herself a coffee. Zach Baker's interest was piqued. He decided to call Bruno after breakfast.

Notes

More on Zach in the next chapter