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All Chapters of House of Sighs: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40
152 Chapters
Seventy-Four
House of Sighs/Crystal Lake Publishing
SEVENTY-FOURArthritis throbbed as Wes Frost sifted feed among the chickens. The birds looked up at him between their frantic pecking with absent, dispassionate eyes.Food, those black peepers said. Nothing else. Food.He rounded up their eggs, placed them in a basket and whisked them inside. He returned with a butcher’s knife.The Rottweiler growled and barked at the end of its chain, furthered its arc in the dirt as it skidded back and forth. “Shut up, dog,” he said.Wes set his eye on one of the fatter hens and upended her. A single brown feather lodged under the collar of his shirt. He stretched her neck against the cinderblock and envied the bird its simple thoughts, its lack of fear.Severed the head. Set the bird to run blind. Watched it fall.Wes plucked it bare.He cleaned his hands in the upstairs bathroom, whilst listening to the record playing down the hall. Wes looked at himself in the mirror, drew a single feather from his collar and set it beside his razor.Down
Last Updated : 2021-09-09Seventy-Three
House of Sighs/Crystal Lake Publishing
SEVENTY-THREEIt wasn’t a well-traveled road they pummeled down; the stretch grew more treacherous with each proceeding turn. As though to spite danger, their speed didn’t decrease—if anything, the odometer climbed. Yes, the 243 to town had strayed far from its route and wound deep into the valley.Within the bus, Jack bit his thumb, a habit he’d had since school, biting his nails down to the quick as he waited for a teacher to ask him questions he didn’t know the answers to. Not much had changed since then; there were few solutions within reach now, either.Peter saw the oncoming car. Perhaps his prayers had been answered. He swore to himself that he would get out of this alive and trusted his God to shield him. Sitting there in the heat, he knew that when the time came to run, there would be a fleet of angels protecting him. Their strong, white wings would be his armor.His mother’s voice in his ear. I’m proud of you, she said, breath thick with the stench of liquor. This is a te
Last Updated : 2021-09-09Seventy-Two
House of Sighs/Crystal Lake Publishing
SEVENTY-TWOThe bus came to a stop.Jack pulled himself up off the floor. This is it, the voice in his head told him. He poised himself to run.Sarah wanted to grab this hot-headed young man and hold him. She pitied him for his machismo. They weren’t going to survive if one of them made a martyr of themselves. With every death, the group would come more unhinged. They were welded together now by tragedy, and a risk by one was a risk to all. Why can’t he see that? she wondered. Oh, Bill, please make him stop.The bus shifted into reverse. “What the fuck?” Jack said.Michael glanced up at the ceiling escape hatch, which was open a crack to allow airflow into the bus. He imagined himself getting up and forcing it open the rest of the way, but he was frozen in place. Terrified. The driver was alert now. Were he to attempt escape there would be the eventual bang! And in a flash his entire history would be wiped clean, all the problems, hopes and dreams that stitched him together—ripped
Last Updated : 2021-09-09Seventy-One
House of Sighs/Crystal Lake Publishing
SEVENTY-ONEAnd that light was brilliantly white, warm. Trees unclasped their knots, peeling away on either side of the windshield as they entered a wide-open space.Hands fell from ears and eyes opened. The passengers took in their surroundings.They were in a large yard. In front and to the left stood a huge, decrepit shed, a pickup truck parked next to it. The bus drew closer to a house flanked by faded Christmas cutouts. The property sat in the middle of this clearing, and beyond it, Sarah noted trees standing guard, the flash of a clothesline. The words slipped out of her: “No neighbors.”Julia stepped away from the window. Dread filled her. “This is it,” she said. “This is it this is it. This is it.”She’s about to kill us.Diana went to her sister and eased her into their original seat, and whilst the grip on her arm remained relaxed, her shouts to shut the hell up were nothing short of intense.“YOU ALL BE QUIET!” the driver said. She glared them all. Her shoulders rose
Last Updated : 2021-09-09Seventy:
House of Sighs/Crystal Lake Publishing
SEVENTY:HomeSarah watched the peak of the house grow taller through the windshield. Jack stepped up next to her and whispered, “Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen fast.”She didn’t reply, just continued staring. Never in her life had she known what it felt like to be paralyzed, rooted to the spot with fear. Did terror numb her body or was her body numbing itself to the terror? Sarah didn’t know. And perhaps she didn’t want to, either.The bus rolled over crunching earth.Julia apologized to her sister, who now rubbed her back and held her close. “It’s okay. It’s a-a-all right. Once she s-stops the bus s-she’ll let us off.”Diana shut her eyes.Astoria, Oregon. Her mother’s funeral.She opened them. There was still the dark house out there, so she pinched her eyes again—that same reflex was the one that said yank your hand out from under the water for fear of being scolded; distrust that man walking behind you on the empty street. Pure elemental instinct. Survive wh
Last Updated : 2021-09-09Sixty-Nine
House of Sighs/Crystal Lake Publishing
SIXTY-NINEThey parked in the middle of the front yard. Positioned at the intersection between house, shed, and driveway. Nothing moved except for the thick towers of clouds upon clouds above them.Inside the bus, the passengers watched their driver stand and look through the windshield. Searching.Sarah and Diana poised for action. Jack took Julia’s pen and gripped it tight, ready to stab.The engine ticked.Liz’s eyes moved from the shed she associated with her brother to her home. Stillness there. She leaned forward and took the gun from its place on the seat cover.The fan blades spun a final time, and then came to a grating halt.Jack didn’t breathe. Couldn’t. She’ll open the door, he predicted, taking pride in his calculation, and when she does, we’ll pounce. But we have to wait until she’s down the first step.Catch the cunt on uneven ground.Liz flicked the door release switch. It clattered open. Heat rolled into the cabin, up over her exposed legs, drafted through her
Last Updated : 2021-09-09Sixty-Eight
House of Sighs/Crystal Lake Publishing
SIXTY-EIGHTIt was bright outside, just like it must have been in the beginning. Born again. Peter felt grateful. So scared he almost forgot what he was running for or towards. No direction. Every direction. The important thing was just to run. He was born to do this, not to write. His pounding feet against the dust were the only poetic rhythms in his life now. He trusted the light around him.
Last Updated : 2021-09-09Sixty-Seven
House of Sighs/Crystal Lake Publishing
SIXTY-SEVENMichael jumped across the aisle to the opposite window. He passed Jack as he dropped his pen. It rolled across the floor.The passengers scrambled from side to side, confused.Should they run or should they stay?Jack stumbled to the dead body between him and the door. A small blowfly landed on the nose of the corpse. He didn’t know why it scared him but it did. In his ear, someone quiet grew loud.Kill the fly, said the voice. It was the voice of a familiar man.If you run to that door, Jack-o, you will die and you know it.Jack shook his head.Stay here and kill the fly.The insect rubbed its dirty legs together. Jack brought the heel of his foot down on the nose of the corpse. An atrocious crack. A splash across his face.Good boy, Jack-o.
Last Updated : 2021-09-09Sixty-Six
House of Sighs/Crystal Lake Publishing
SIXTY-SIXThe kid ran for the trees closest to the house near the Christmas cutouts. Jed followed every foolish movement with the gun. These people had destroyed his sister, and worse, invaded his private property. His home. They must have forced Liz to drive them here. It was unforgivable; he had every right to pull the trigger.
Last Updated : 2021-09-09Sixty-Five
House of Sighs/Crystal Lake Publishing
SIXTY-FIVEA tin-can whistle near his ear. Around him, a landmine of dirt blew into the sky. Peter breathed it in and coughed hard. He continued running.To the right.To the left.Straight.Trees.Another sound. It wasn’t him, but in him. Wetness in his ear, sloshing around. Peter touched the place where his ear should have been. Blood ran down his neck, the fibers of his shirt soaking it up.Sarah screamed at the boy. “Run and never stop!”She squinted; saw the blood running down his head in spurting jets. “Oh my God, he’s been shot.” Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh, sweet Jesus.”“Do we run? Do we go for it?” Julia asked her sister. “Do we go now?”Michael toppled back into his seat. “Shut up! Shut up!”In the aisle, Jack stepped over the body, his heel covered in brain matter. He watched the stupid kid running in circles dodging bullets. It was like a cartoon. Jack laughed, veins sticking out of his forehead. He’d planned on using the kid as a distraction for his own esc
Last Updated : 2021-09-09
