The Stillman House

Jason stood on the broken, cracked concrete steps and closed his eyes. He tilted his head up and took a deep breath of the outside air before he turned around to walk into the horror of this house. He was hoping that his nose was able to trap the sweet smell of fresh air instead of letting the heavy, rotting, coppery smell of blood penetrate. He lowered his head and turned around, opening his eyes and stepped into the house. The hum of the world outside the door ceased to exist, replacing it was the steady buzzing of flies and other bugs. He took his gun off of safety and went further into the house then the entryway.

The smell nearly knocked him on his ass, a sledgehammer of rot, decomposition, blood and death hit him all at once. It was a miracle he did not topple over, he would have to say that the only thing that stopped him from doing that was the condition of the carpet under his feet. It was caked with dried blood, brain matter and other fluids that he could not identify right away, he made a mental note that it was more than likely vomit, at least he was hoping that it was. He could hear the fibers of the carpet seperate with a sick crackling sound as he stepped on the carpet. His breath stopped in his throat when he looked up and was able to see straight into the living room.

About twenty feet in front of Jason was the far wall of the first room of the house, it looked as if the family used it as the living room. The television was positioned so that the screen was immediately visible when you stepped in the house, the couch was up against the wall that was in the front of the house. The far wall looked to be the wall that was used for portraits of the family. Pictures of the kid from the squad were all over the display of frames, along with three other blonde haired, blue eyed girls. Two adults kept recurring in the pictures, pretty easy to tell they were the parents. One thing that Jason noticed right away was that the boy had dark hair and brown eyes, unlike the other children or the parents.

In the middle of the family portraits a gruesome display was arranged, Jason had to turn away for just a second to compose himself. He kept his ears on high alert for any sound other than his own breathing and footsteps making the carpet crackle. He heard nothing and turned back towards the scene that would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life. Jason was looking at the bodies of both parents standing upright against the wall, they were obviously dead. At their feet was a pool of blood that spread out onto the carpet that was at one time a light color, it was now a deep, dark maroon. Both of their hands had been nailed to the wall, their feet were spread apart, their legs had gone slack. Both faces had the eyes hollowed out, their tongues had been removed and lay at their feet, both necks had been slit. Each of them had slash marks across their stomachs and thighs, the woman had two knives sticking out of her breasts, the man had a knife in his crotch. Above each of the bodies were words painted in blood, above the woman was the word SLUT, above the man was the word PIG. Jason immediately thought of Charles Manson and his band of crazies, in the back of his head he could the Beatles "Helter Skelter" playing, it used to be one of his favorite songs.

On the couch was three other bodies, much smaller than the parents, arranged so they were leaning against each other. Judging from the hair that he could see, Jason was able to tell that they were the girls from the pictures on the wall. All of their clothes had been removed, several stab wounds were obvious on the small bodies. Across from them was the broken television set, it had a hole right in the middle of it. As far as he could tell this was the only sign of a gun being shot, everything else was done with knives of some kind.

The person that did this had planned what they were going to do, he knew that he was going to have to read the autopsy report, and he already knew the details would make him sick. On the wall next to the television set, and above it were designs of some kind also painted with blood. The biggest design was three circles overlapping one another, inside of each circle was a hand print. Jason had to look a little longer than he wanted to in order to see that each hand print was a different size than each. He looked back over at the gruesome display of the girls on the couch and at each of thier hands that had been turned up. Each hand hand had been cut deeply, blood was smeared all over the palm. Each girl had signs of sexual mutilation and abuse on them, unfortunately this was something that Jason was able to spot right away, all thanks to fifteen years on the force.

He stepped through the living room with his gun drawn, into the kitchen. From the almost sterile quality of the kitchen he was able to tell that nothing had happened in this room. He went through the kitchen and into the dining room, on the table he saw three unfinished bowls of cereal. He could smell the sour milk, apparently they had been sitting there for quite some time. Flies were buzzing in a circle as he walked into the room, they would gather around the light of the hanging lamp, and then fly against each other, drunk off of the food they had just eaten. They landed back on the table and went back to feeding. Jason continued through the house slowly, letting his ears take in everything. The only sounds he could hear were his breathing and the buzzing of the flies, notghin else. It was this absence of sound that made Jason feel the most uncomfortable of all, that and the images of the bodies in the living room. He checked each room as he passed them in the hallway, the only other thing he had found was a pile of dirty clothes in the bathroom, on the floor. He did not find one other thing throughout his search of the upstairs level or the basement. He went into the attached garage and was able to tell how the killer got into the house without anyone noticing. The small door had been left unlocked and the inside door from the kitchen to the garage was unlocked as well. An easy break in, almost the easiest one he had ever seen. In fact he thought it was alittle too easy. He made a decision that this was a set up, he was supposed to find that and think that was how it was done.

He went through the garage and found his men in the back yard, he told them to go back to the front and meet up with him by the squad. He walked around the house and found his four men waiting patiently for him. They seemed a little upset when he wouldn't share with them the details of what he found. He had to remind himself that they were young and they were eager, he was glad that they were not in there with him. He told them to basically set up crowd control and make room for the crime scene guys. He walked over to the ar and opened the back door once again. The kid was sitting up and slid all the way over to the other side of the car once the door opened up. He was visibly scared and shaken, Jason was surprised that the kid had not collapsed into a fit of hysterics.

"Hey, kid, relax. See the uniform? I'm the good guys. Calm down alright. I just want to ask you some questions, but not here, ok?"

The kid stared at him for a second and then jus tnodded his head and looked out the window next to his face. Jason watched the stilted, jerky movements of this boy and immediately felt sadness for him. Even though it was bad, Jason hoped that the kid had walked in and found everyone like that, not that he witnessed anything that happened in there. Jason closed the door and went around to the dirvers side. He waited behind the wheel of the car until the M.E. came up to him.

Johann leaned onto the window and started talking to Jason, "What should I know about him?" He was motioning towards the boy who was satring out of his window scanning the street. It seemed to Johann that he was looking for something, or someone, coming down the street.

Jason looked over at the boy and felt a deep sadness for him knowing that he will never be the same after all of this. Looking at the scene on the inside of the house Jason knew that this little boy's childhood was done. "I'm taking him down to the station and waiting for Billie. I think she's puttin's ome overtime in on this one."

"Alright Jason, keep an ear out for my page. As soon as I get everything together we'll go over the findings. How many should I bring?"

Jason leaned out of the window and whispered to Johann, who had squatted next to the window now, "At least two others and you, but make sure they have strong stomachs. From the smell I would say that they have been in there at least a day or more. It is grisly Johnny, really grisly."

"Thanks Jason, watch for my page," he stood up and tapped the top of the car letting Jason know it was safe to go. Jason watched the sides of the road as he left with the boy and they started to drive towards headquarters. At first he thought that he would not get anything out of the boy.

"Hey kid, you thirsty? Want some water? I have some right here," he reached next to him on the seat and handed a cold bottle to the boy. He took it and opened it up and drank it all in one motion. He covered the empty bottle back up and held onto it.

For the first time since passing out Jason heard the boy talk. He simply said, "Thanks." His voice sounded much better than the last time he used it. It was deeper than Jason thought it would be, his eyes seemed to take on a different look then as well. The further away from the scene they got the more he relaxed, the less he twitched and shook. Jason tried a little further with the kid.

"Do you know where we're going?"

The kid turned and looked at Jason, a slight smile on his face. He seemed to become human once they were away from his street. He was looking right at Jason when he said, "I'm not deaf. I heard you talking to the other cop. We are going down to the office to wait for Billie."

Jason was a little more than shocked to see the change in the kid llike this. It was as if he was replaced by someone completely different. Not only was he talking, but he was also joking, smiling even. "Wasn't sure if you had registered anything around you for a minute there kid, so sorry."

They drove down the road a little bit before the kid opened his mouth again, "Jackson."

Jason was caught off guard by this, he jumped just a little because the kid had become so quiet again. He was lost in thought and was pulled right back into reality by this. "Christ kid! What did you say?"

"Jackson, my name is Jackson. You had asked me that a while ago. I thought I should answer you. Sorry it took me so long." He had his hand out, offering a handshake.

Jason looked at him for a moment. It surprised him that the kid had his hand out for a hand shake. It also surprised him that, after everything that kid must have been through in the house, here he was using enough of his wits to wait until they were at a stop light to make his introduction. All of this was making Jason really uneasy. Something was just nor right with this kid, he hoped that Billie would be able to make sense of it all.