Donnie
I looked at Dug. WE had both heard the struggle down below. “I am going down. I want you to stay here, Dug.” I told him.
“Will you come back for me?” He asked. The fear coming off him was palpable.
I took his hand in mine. “Of course I will.” I hugged him tight. "I won’t ever leave you behind."
I opened the attic and put the ladder down. I headed into unknown territory.
I walked into a nightmare. My mother was there. She looked like a ghost from a horror movie. She was wrapped in a sheet, there were bloodstains on it and she didn’t have a right hand. It was gone. It was surreal. Her other hand was wrapped up, but was dripping blood on the floor. The warm yellow kitchen had turned into a slaughterhouse. I stood there, frozen in shock at her appearance. I wanted to wake up. I looked around the kitchen. Ness was lying in a pool of blood.
“Mom?”
She turned and looked at me. “Get out of here.”
The man who took her laughed. “The golden child has come to witness his mother’s death.”
Adam started walking toward my mother. There was no fear in his eyes. No emotion at all. He was going to kill us all if something didn’t happen. I couldn’t even believe my mother was still standing.
How in the world had she gotten out of that cellar?
I took a step into the kitchen and stood by my mother. When Adam took another step, I went around him and to the table. I grabbed one of the kitchen chairs and hit him with all my might over the head. He looked at me with surprise, blood dripping down his forehead and fell to floor. I went to my mother and hugged her.
“I am so sorry Mom. I’m sorry I was a terrible son,” I told her and started to cry.
She held me tight and began to cry. “I’m sorry I’m not the best mom in the world. I let you down.”
We hugged a moment longer. She took my hand and ran to Ness. She checked her pulse. It was weak.
“Take care of my Dug,” Ness whispered. “He is a good boy.”
I took her hand. Mom lifted her head and put it in her lap. “I will, Ness. You know we will. We love him and you. Please hold on.”
Tears were falling down my mom’s cheeks. I heard a noise behind me and saw Dug standing there. “Ma!” he hollered and ran to her side. “Oh Ma, this is not tidy. No it isn’t.”
Ness smiled at Dug. “No son, it isn’t. I love you.”
“Ma, I sure love you too. I sure do. I love you to the moon and back. Yes sir. More than the moon, the stars, the sun and the rain, isn’t that right, Donnie?”
I wiped the snot and tears on my shirt. “It sure is, Dug.”
Dug squeezed between them and lay down next to Ness. He didn’t care that he was lying in her blood. He spooned her and held her close. He began to hum “Amazing Grace” in her ear. He was still humming to her when she let out her last dying breath.
In exhaustion, my mother lay on the floor. I lay by her, holding her close. She was sobbing and repeating weakly: "Miles to go before I sleep."
When the cops finally made it, we were lying on the floor, a tableau of mother’s and sons. We were washed in the blood of our mother’s; a painting that would never leave our minds. A masterpiece of horror.