Sapphire Storms

Chapter Three
The three arrived at Katiral's home shortly after six in the afternoon. She knew her 
mother would be fast asleep after having her daily booze. The plan was to keep Adam 
outside, while she went in to get the potions, she didn't want him to see inside the dump 
she lived him. He'd ridicule her, she was sure of it.
But, as she quietly opened the door and allowed Taja to scamper in, she felt something 
strange, that something wasn't right. There was a silence in the air that was unnerving, 
she glanced at Taja, to see if she felt the same thing, the old wise cat nodded, and 
indicated that she would check it out. She scampered off. Katiral fingered the hilt of one 
of her Katanas lightly.
"Hey, like, what's going on?" Adam poked his head through the door and looked at her, 
with her hand on her sword hilt, "Hey, didn't I, like, tell you 'no more of the sword stuf-"
His face suddenly twisted in a disgusted expression, "Peeeeyuuuuuue! What's that like, 
frigging smell?"
"What smell?" She asked curiously, sniffing the air.
"Uuggghhh, that smell, can't you like, get a whiff of it or anything? It's so groooossss!"
Katiral shook her head, no.
Adam wrinkled his nose, "I must have the 'gift of smell' or something," he said drily, 
"Yuck,"
The young martial artist shrugged.
"Mer-ooooow!"
She looked sharply at the city boy, his eyes were covered with shades again, but she 
could see one of his eyebrows lift questioningly. The two hurried towards the sound of 
Taja's screech, a small bedroom at the side of the shack, they burst through the door.
And slipped.
Katiral's hand met the floor, to cushion her fall. She hit the ground with a quiet thump, 
something warm and wet smudged against her body, she got up and looked at her 
hands, they were covered in a warm red substance, she sniffed.
Blood. 
Looking down, she realized she was covered in it, her arms and legs smeared with the 
warm liquid. She found herself standing in a deep puddle, the blood squished between 
her toes. 
Katiral felt her stomach churn. She felt like being sick. But forcing the bile back down her 
throat, she walked over to Adam, who lay staring at his blood smeared hands like he 
was about to throw up. She wasn't about to give him the pleasure. They needed to see 
what was going on. Grabbing his arm, she yanked him up, her hands slipped a bit, from 
the blood, but she managed to help the trainer to his feet. 
The two stared, horrified, around the room. Everything was covered in blood, the bed 
sheets were soaked with it, the floor, the desk, even he walls were splattered with blood, 
as if someone, with their arteries cut had twirled around the room, like a sprinkler, their 
blood covering everything it touched as it gushed out.
"Holy Mo-o-other-Fu-u-ucker!" Adam murmured beside her, staring around the room. 
Katiral said nothing, she concentrated on her breathing, which came out ragged and 
fast. With one hand clutching her stomach and the other on a sword hilt, she crossed the 
room, searching for her old friend.
She suspected what had happened, but refused to believe, and continued to search 
frantically for Taja.
There! The curl of a tail behind the door of an opened cupboard, she pushed it closed.
Adam wandered around the room, it smelled really awful, like something dead was 
decaying, but it seemed that he was the only one who could smell it. He couldn't stop 
wandering what had happened here, it was sick. Plain and utterly sick. He didn't want to 
think about it, but he did. The room, he suspected was Katiral's mother's, or father's or 
whatever, and something very bad had happened. Stopping at a small bedside table, he 
examined a framed, blood splattered photograph of what he assumed to be Katiral's 
family. She and her mother stood at the front, he could see it was a photo taken at a 
much earlier date, perhaps two years ago, Katiral looked much younger, twelve or 
thirteen, beside her, an arm wrapped around her daughter's shoulder was her mother. 
She was beautiful, but specked with blood. Adam wiped it away, with almond eyes bluer 
than the ocean, her jet black hair wrapping around her shoulders, she smiled warmly into 
the camera. Behind them stood two males, an older man, with black calculating almond 
eyes, short cropped black hair and a wide grin, beside him was what the Pokemon 
Trainer could only assume was Katiral's older brother, though he looked nothing like the 
rest of his family. Dark violet hair and bright green eyes, he smiled into the camera, a 
spinarak on his shoulder. There was something about the guy, Adam disliked, his fake 
smile perhaps, or was it his cold eyes which seemed to radiate a cold light. He didn't 
know, all he knew was that he immediately hated the man.
His thoughts were cut off by Katiral's sudden scream. He spun around sharply, he saw 
her shaking uncontrollably, sobs racked her chest and giant tears spewed like torrents 
down her cheeks. Her fists clenched and unclenched. He ran to her, immediately 
worried, dropping photograph onto the floor. 
"Hey, what's the mat-" He stopped himself mid sentence and looked down at the cold 
body strewn with blood. He recognized her as the beautiful woman in the photograph, 
Katiral's Mom.
"Oh Frig,"
Her lifeless eyes stared up at them, empty. Her hair had been cut raggedly and was 
matted with blood against the side of her face. Her skin was very pale, with no blood in 
them, her mouth parted slightly. She sat, propped up in the corner, her arms limply by 
her side. But it was her wrists that attracted his attention the most. They were slashed, 
her arms and dress were blood soaked, and dripped whatever was remaining of her 
blood onto the red covered floor. 
Drip, drip, drip.
But it was the flies that horrified him to the point of collapse, there were hundreds of 
them, crowding around her open wounds and upon her dress, feasting. He spotted one 
suddenly fly out of Ceres's open mouth. Shaking, he backed away, unable to tear his 
eyes from the awful sight. 
"Where's the cat?" He murmured softly.
Between quiet, sobs, the girl replied, "Ta-j-a-a-a'sss.....be-eh-h-i-nd-d...me,"
He turned suddenly and pushed the two out of the room. He became panicked, hurrying 
them outside quickly, afraid that the corpse might suddenly spring up and chase after 
them. 
Katiral gasped fresh air, bent down onto her hands and knees and was sick. She kept 
like this for a couple of minutes, she could hear that Adam was in the same state as she. 
After she had finished she coughed and wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve, 
she stumbled away from her vomit and collapsed onto the ground. Taja padded wearily 
over to her and snuggled against Katiral's shoulder, and  promptly fell asleep.
After a few retching noises, the pokemon trainer came over and joined her. 
"Man, that's some frigged up shit,"
Katiral closed her tired eyes.
"Y'know, we'll like, have to call the police,"
She nodded, eyes still closed.
"I'm sorry,"
Giant crystal tears burst from her closed eyelids, and flooded down her cheeks. She 
sobbed, her eyes still closed, burying her face into her hands. She wept and wept and 
wept. She didn't think she'd ever be able to stop crying.