Page 60 of Matteo

I let his words eat up the air. Our parents were an extremely touchy subject even though the five of us remained close.

Mason finally cleared his throat, shattering the small silence that had grown.

“I’m gonna grab you some sheets and blankets from upstairs. Carmine said there were actually some fresh things in the linen closet.”

He climbed the stairs, and I continued to walk around the basement finding different things I hadn’t laid my eyes on in years. Dusty boxes were piled in corners. There were a bunch of photo albums but I just didn’t have the heart to start looking through them.

Mason returned with clean sheets and a comforter only to find me staring at a huge family portrait, one with both my parents and all my brothers.

Augustus Matteo Zacharra Sr. was actually smiling in the picture looking lovingly at his wife, my mother. She was staring at all of us, her own smile sad. The necklace that she’d worn every day of her life, a double helix with a crescent moon, had even been painted into the photo.

“I don’t think Carmine could bear to let this shit hole go,” Mason whispered from behind me.

“Really?”

“He remembers things differently than we do,” Mason offered.

We fixed the couch up for me to sleep on and when it was finished, I sat down with my racing thoughts.

“Before I forget,” Mason reached into his back pocket. “Burner phone. All our numbers are in there. Keep it close.”

Nodding, I took the iPhone from my brother’s hands. I knew he needed to get back to his woman. He’d been worried the entire time, and I knew a lot of it was because of Nora.

“I’ll call you if anything happens,” I nodded.

“This is just for the night,” Mason nodded. “Tomorrow I’ll have a new plan in place.”

I nodded.

Mason was a planner.

He was good at this. He would often go off the grid and live quietly for a few weeks and I’d always wondered how.

I liked noise.

Noise could keep the demons at bay.

He departed a little while later and I lay there, my body finally settling. The Glock was on the arm of the old couch offering me safety.

The second I closed my eyes the creaking started again…

“Mom,” I remembered calling out to her and receiving no answer. My voice seemed to bounce around the kitchen.

The feeling wouldn’t go away no matter how hard I tried. Something eerie was climbing all over my skin like a spider crawling through its own web. Part of me wanted to stay in that kitchen forever, knowing it was safe there. My eyes had scanned the counter top, there were knives if I needed one for protection. Grab a Capri Sun and some fruit and wait for her to get home from the lab.

She was a geneticist… she knew more about DNA than anybody…

The creaking and moaning became relentless, gnawing at me until I couldn’t take another second of it.

My body trembled as I edged forward, the creaking growing louder with each aching step.

My heart had started to pound in my ears and my chest had become tight.

The front door was right in front of me, and I could see that it was locked. I had inched closer and closer until I found the source of the sound.

My mother’s lifeless body, with a noose of her own making…

Her body was the source of the noise.

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