Hide and Seek

The room was circular, roughly, about twelve feet in diameter. Its

walls were high, at least fifteen feet or more. In its center lay a

wide pool of stagnant water, gray, cloudy-looking. Water bled off the

ceiling and dripped back into ita steady, sharp echo.

The floor was strewn with bones.

Hundreds of them, many cracked and broken.

There were so many it made them hard to identify. Piles, scattered

everywhere. I saw fish heads, crab shells, the thin delicate skulls of

birds. Others were a whole lot larger. Dogs? Maybe. I remembered

that day long ago when we'd peered into the house and watched the

carcasses come out one by one. It was possible they were dogs.

It was also possible they were bigger game.

"What is all this?" whispered Steven.

"I don't know."

We stepped carefully into the room. It was a relief to be able to

stand upright. A dozen bluebottle flies rose up to greet us. We

swatted at them.

I bent down for a closer look. I picked up one of the bigger bones.

Something had been at them. There were teeth marks. Something

I broke one in my hands. It was old and brittle. I felt a measure of

relief at that. It was easy to hope they all went back to the days

before Ben and Mary abandoned the house- some sort of burial