I went there by myself, in the dead of night.

I hummed to myself as I sat below the back window. The house was nice. It was large, two story, a fenced in backyard and all white.

My physical body was left below me. The world was in all black and white. I wished to myself that it had film grain, that it looked soft and romantic. But it did not, and it never would.

I walked through the house. It was quiet and empty downstairs. There were scarcely even afterimages of insects.

I went upstairs. There was a closed bedroom door. Blood seeped out from under it.

My body felt cold. I took a deep breath. This was normal, aftershocks. Like a Dario Argento dream sequence.

The walls were soaked in it. Blood that was black like oil. The bodies- what was left of them- lay shredded on the bed.

There were no ghosts. Beyond being torn to pieces, they had been devoured. This room was useless for finding traces of it.

I left, walking down the hall. Live Laugh Love signs and family photos. A boring, normal family with too much money.

There was an empty guest bedroom, and another. A hall closet.

The next door had a sign hanging off of it, with a cutesy pattern. It said "Evie" in clunky cartoon letters.

The cold aftershock was stronger here.

I stepped through the door. The room inside was white.

A figure stood in front of a crib. My connection rapidly became unstable, shaken. It turned to look at me. The blood went up all at once, all around me, falling through me, like a geyser to the ceiling. I snapped back awake.

Sitting under the window.

A man was shaking my shoulder. The sun was coming up over fence. It was cold.

" Can you explain what you're doing here, sir?" the man asked, deathly serious. He had a uniform on.

" Damn, I must've went through time dilation," I mumbled, getting up. At the very least, my physical body wasn't covered in blood.

The officer grabbed my arm and somewhat roughly dragged me around to the front of the house.

The caution tape was up, and the place was swarming with officers.

" Hey, I found some guy sleeping under the back window," he said, joining the throng of activity like a diligent ant.

A blackhaired, handsome officer looked up.

" Hey, you're that pervert from the movie theatre," he said.

" I'm not a pervert," I said defensively. I was still drained.

" What should I do with him?" the officer holding me asked.

" He was literally at the station when this happened, he didn't do it," the blackhaired officer said, waving him off. " Leave him with me and go back to looking over the backyard."

I was immediately suspicious.

" Why are you covering for me?" I asked.

He leaned against a patrol car, sipping coffee.

" They were killed during the movie," he said. " And you were at the station after. Plus, you don't have blood on your clothes. Double plus, all the doors and windows were still locked when we got here. We checked that one from the inside."

The blonde officer, Xiaolong, came out of the house, taking gloves off of his hands.

" What the fuck is that guy doing here?" he snapped.

The blackhaired officer shrugged.

" Only he knows that," he said. " Morris found him sleeping under the back window. Can you take him back to the station for questioning?"

" Why do I have to?"

" Because he likes you."

He shot me a murderous look.

" Shouldn't you take this a little bit more seriously yourself?" I asked. " After all, a baby is dead."

They both looked at me very strangely.

" The baby isn't dead," Xiaolong said.

>>