Chapter 2
Rose stands in front of her new house, shifting her weight excitedly. Rose pushes up her rose-colored glasses up on her nose and pulls out the keys from her front pocket. She jingles them as she walks to the door. Rose slips the house key into the lock. She giggles as she listens to the door unlock and pushes the door open.
Rose enters her new home and spins in a few circles as soon as she gets into the middle of the closest room. This room will be her living room. Rose runs to each room and spins around, laughing. Her first home and it is all hers. She gets to her bedroom and collapses on the floor. Rose felt dizzy from all the spinning. She lies on the soft gray carpet and stares at the ceiling, still laughing.
Rose stretches out her hands to feel the carpet. It is soft but… She pulls her hand back when she feels something wet and sticky. Sitting up, Rose looks down at her hand, everything blurry. Her glass has slipped off when she had laid down. Not having her glasses, her world to becoming nothing but a blur. Using her other hand, she picks up her glasses and sets them on her face. But now her glasses and face feel wet.
Rose looks down at her hand to see dark red smudges then looks around her. Blood splatters on the carpet in almost every direction. Her eyes follow each trail to the bedroom walls. Blood is splattered on quiet a few spaces. But where did the blood come from?
Rose scrambles to her feet when she hears the sounds of someone honking outside her house. Backing out of her room, Rose can’t take her eyes off the blood on the walls. Her heart pounds against her chest. Outside, the van honks again. Pulling herself away from her room, she hurries outside to find the small moving van waiting for her.
Rose glances back over her shoulder before she runs to the passenger side of the van. The window rolls down and Tom leans out. He grins at her, not noticing the bewildered Rose.
“Hey, Rose! Beautiful house,” Tom says as he looks at the house.
“Thanks, Tom. You and Jean are ready to help me make this house into a home? All you have to do is bring my stuff inside.” She glances behind her, then looks at Tom. “I… Wh…” she closes her mouth, unable to say anything else. Didn’t she already say this before?
Jean leans over. “You bet we are, Rose.” He turns the truck off, hops out, and disappears to the back. He opens the back of the truck and waits.
Rose feels her body move to the back of the truck. Jean follows at her heal. She can’t stop herself. Soon, her house is full and the boy’s comment about her furniture, then leaves.
“What is going on?” Rose looks around before she inches her way back to her bedroom.
She pushes the door open and slips the light on, the ceiling light blinding her for a moment. Even though she, Tom, and Jean had been in the room earlier, she couldn’t point out the blood spots. Something stopped her. Tom and Jean acted as if they couldn’t even see them. Thye kept commenting about how nice and big the room was, but not once said anything about the blood on the walls or the trails across the carpet.
Now Rose stands in her room, staring at the blood splatters on the wall and carpet. Deciding to clean up the mess, she turns to go to the kitchen to grab some rags. Her foot slips on something she doesn’t see, and she falls forward. She screams when the side of the door looms in front of her eyes, coming quickly at her. Rose feels her head slam against the wall, then sees red.
Rose crawls back to her bed, feeling blood dropping on the carpet. She leans up against her bed, closing her eyes as the world spins around her.