Free Blood Fugue by Joseph D'Lacey Page B

voice was hollow and pathetic in all that gloom. It sounded weak, fearful.
    He went to the kitchen first, the old boards of the house complaining beneath his soles. When he flicked the kitchen light he found that it was out too. Oddly, there was a smell of cooking, maybe a pot roast or something. He stood for a while smelling the food and feeling no hunger at all. Surely they would come back at any moment. Maybe they were out buying a new fuse. That had to be it.
    He walked out to their bedroom. In the old days they’d slept upstairs just as he had, but when Burt’s legs began to let him down, they made a new bedroom in the old living room and converted part of the hallway into a downstairs bathroom. They didn’t alter the room much. The only major change was moving their bed in there. It looked strange and out of place with a sofa stuck at the end of it and an ancient TV beyond that. Everywhere the shelves were stacked with old books and papers and the walls were decorated with paintings by unknown artists from who knew when.
    There was no one in there.
    The darkness was almost total by then. Kerrigan began to panic, his heart so loud in his ears he was afraid he wouldn’t hear an intruder until it was too late to act. He had to find some light.
    He prayed the fuse for the upstairs circuit hadn’t blown too. The staircase was wooden just like everything else inside the house and it creaked worse than the floorboards. Every step he took telegraphed that he was on his way up and he cursed the place for giving him away so easily.
    The stairs bent back on themselves at a small square landing and there was a set of switches there. When they worked, flooding the upstairs with an unhealthy yellow light from low wattage bulbs covered by thick light shades, Kerrigan was delighted. He sighed and felt his heart rate settle down a little. He could wait upstairs until they got back. Or he could probably see well enough to call Maggie on the hallway phone downstairs to see if she knew where they were.
    It was as he placed his foot on the final step that he heard the rumbling growl. It was up there with him. He froze, his right hand gripping the stair rail. His left hand instinctively went to his chest and held onto the binder. He waited, unable to move.
    Eventually, he edged forward. The sound was coming from his old bedroom. It was dark in there and the door was half open. He had no weapon on him and even if he had he wouldn’t have entered the bedroom. He was stuck there listening to that sound; the last sound Burt and Kath would have heard. The idea made him want to weep.
    The growling stopped and he heard movement; a scratching, sliding sound. Something dragging itself across the floor. Whining. He saw a black nose poke out from the darkness and into the upstairs hallway.
    ‘Dingbat?’
    The crazy mongrel scampered out of the bedroom when he heard Kerrigan’s voice and started to jump up at him, whining with fear and relief all the same time.
    ‘Shit, Dingbat, you had me scared half to death, you stupid mutt.’
    He ruffled the shaggy fur on Dingbat’s head.
    ‘Is anyone up here, you hairy son of a bitch?’
    They checked the rest of the rooms, Dingbat sticking with him until he was satisfied the place was completely uninhabited.
    ‘Where’d they go, boy? Where’s Burt, huh? Where’s Kath?’
    At the mention of their names Dingbat tilted his head to one side.
    ‘Come on, let’s make a phone call.’
    Down in the hallway not much light penetrated from upstairs but he could make out the buttons on the phone well enough and was able to read Kath’s neat schoolmarm handwriting. Maggie’s phone rang for a long time but she didn’t answer.
    As he replaced the phone onto its base, the snarling began again. Dingbat was backed away from the front door, the hair along his spine rising into spikes. His lips drew back from his teeth and he shrunk into a tight crouch, ready to launch himself. Kerrigan could see the outline of