Free Depraved 2 by Bryan Smith Page A

had moved on to better things even before the army cleansing of Hopkins Bend, but she remembered well how it was to live without electricity and modern conveniences. She would have no problem tolerating an extended stay in this place. And, hell, if worse came to worse and Arlene sent her on her way, she could sleep in the woods. She had done it before and could do it again.
    But hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
    She called out to her cousin again. “Arlene! It’s Sienna. I need to talk to you!”
    At first there was only more of that maddening silence. Moments later, however, a faint groan emanated from somewhere indeterminate.
    Sienna raised her voice. “Arlene, is that you? Let me know where you are and I’ll come help.”
    The groan came again, marginally louder this time. Sienna turned her head in the direction of the shadowy spiral staircase that led to the second floor. The sound had come from up there, she was pretty sure.
    Carrying her backpack by a strap, she started up the winding staircase, wincing at the way the rotting wood groaned beneath her footsteps. Some in her family believed this place should have been demolished long ago. At times like this, it was hard not to agree with that sentiment. She hoped like hell she wouldn’t fall through the goddamn stairs. That would put a serious crimp in her plans, in addition to maybe killing her. One of the steps bowed so deeply when she put her foot on it she had to hop over it. She nearly stumbled when she did this and reached out in panic to grab the banister. The way the bannister wobbled when she seized it indicated it wouldn’t take much more pressure for the slats to crack and give way.
    An impulse to turn around and get the fuck out of this place came and went. She was always saying how she wasn’t afraid of death. To the contrary, she was fascinated by it and spent many hours every day fixating on the subject. While this assertion wasn’t without some basis in fact, she often said such things just to freak people out. The truth was she reveled in her weirdo image. And in order to keep buying into her own image, she couldn’t let a little thing like fear of grievous bodily injury sway her from doing what she had come here to do.
    So, once she had steadied herself, she carefully released her grip on the brittle banister and continued up the stairs, holding her breath until she reached the second floor landing. Warped floorboards creaked beneath her feet as she started down the long hallway. Arlene groaned again upon hearing the creaks. There was a distinct tinge of suffering in the sound, a suggestion of something direr than simple discomfort. Sienna wondered how long it had been since Delmont had last checked on Arlene. It did seem as if he’d been spending more and more time at Jodi’s house in recent months, almost to the point of being an unofficial resident.
    The smell hit Sienna before she had taken more than a half dozen steps. Her nose crinkled against the foul odor, an apparent intermingling of piss, shit, and vomit. By the time she reached the hallway’s halfway point, it was making her eyes water. She had another impulse to turn and flee. Taking up residence in a decaying house was one thing, but she had serious doubts about her ability to cope with the human mess that was about to confront her.
    The doors to most of the second floor rooms stood open. There was no furniture in any of the rooms she passed. They had been stripped bare decades ago, the items that had survived the war looting having been sold off to pawnshops and antique dealers. Most of the windows she saw were boarded. The one room that was still furnished and occupied was at the very end of the hallway, which struck Sienna as awfully damned inconvenient for an invalid.
    Sienna entered the room and gasped as she saw the wasted form of her cousin sprawled across the sagging mattress of a very old four-poster bed. The sheets were soiled with stains of varying colors, the