Chapter 56

Blood on the floor. There’s blood on the floor. There’s a scent in the air that is familiar, but my mind is too foggy to place it.

My mind keeps flashing back to that night. My uncle’s house keeps changing to my parents’. His body becomes theirs. I keep going back and forth, the edges of reality blurring. I stop moving and close my eyes. I work overtime trying to calm my erratic breathing. I’m trying to be in the present, not get muddled down in the past.

I imagine what the front room of my uncle’s house looks like. I recall the scents of my aunt, uncle, and mates surrounding me this afternoon. I imagine the rooms in this house so I can be tied to reality.

Eventually, the fuzziness goes away. My mind stops jumping back and forth. There’s the unmistakable scent of metal in the air. He’s definitely bleeding, and I’m worried. I focus my hearing, and there’s a faint