Blood In The Yolk

From Take Aiden by A.P. Murphy —

We held each other while Viv watched the windows for Aiden. He didn’t come out, and I knew he never would.

I looked down at myself, soaked in water as heavy as blood. Viv wouldn’t leave the road, where she paced back and forth watching the black window, so Hannah and I ran next door for help. It was a big house, high on stilts, with a buzzing generator and warm electric light glowing inside.

We pounded on the door, breathless and desperate, and when it opened, it was onto a golden, peaceful world. My bloody footprints across their threshold told the whole story, marking the boundary line between nightmare and reality.

Inside, a neat, dry family sat at a candlelit table playing board games. No one was swimming for their life, no hidden sea animals slithered between their legs. The children were clean and calm, the house cozy and cool. From here, the storm was no more than rain sliding down windowpanes.

Hannah’s face twitched. It was the tiniest sideways smile that no one else would notice, but I did. She mouthed to me, take Aiden, and my blood turned to ice.