Blood Red Read Free

weak in the legs, and
anchors herself with one hand upon the cool sheets. She peers
closely at Susanna’s face.
    “Susanna?” she whispers, frowning.
    The muted light is emanating from low on her
cheekbone, above her closed mouth. Red-tinted—like a black
light—the luminescence seems to burn through her, as if originating
deep inside her, back behind and above her innermost molars. It
radiates from somewhere underneath Susanna’s surface, like the
light from a flashlight behind the flesh of a palm.
    Rachel pulls back and sees the way the light
spreads itself in an almost imperceptible glow. The ceiling is a
soft shade of crimson in the dark room.
    She discovers that she’s trembling. She
shifts position, and her elbow gives. She collapses next to
Susanna, jostling the bed, and a groan escapes her stepmother’s
lips. The red illumination on her cheek stays precisely in place,
but now Rachel can see it softly escaping her nostrils and slightly
parted mouth.
    “Susanna!” she calls loudly, almost directly
into her stepmother’s ear.
    No response.
    What the hell?
    Tentatively, she brings her hand up. She
reaches over to Susanna’s face until her fingers are barely
illuminated by the strange glow. She can feel vague heat. Startled,
Rachel darts her hand back protectively against her own chest,
where she can feel the strong, rapid thump of her heart.
    She takes a deep breath and reaches over
again, this time placing her palm directly against Susanna’s
cheek.
    The same odd heat.
    Suddenly her vision begins to blur, and she
takes her hand back. When focus doesn’t return, she whimpers
faintly, shaking her head. No, no, no , she cries inwardly,
blinking savagely and rubbing her eyes. Only slowly do her
surroundings regain their clarity.
    And only then does Rachel discover what the
light has done to her hand.
    She recoils from the first unclouded glimpse
of the pale skin, looks away from it as she pushes off the bed and
backs awkwardly out of the bedroom. Her hip makes jarring contact
with the back of the living-room sofa, and she stops moving,
staring back into the dark master bedroom at Susanna’s unmoving
shape, at the red illumination emanating from her cheek.
    She pulls her glare back and lets her chin
fall to her chest. Then, reluctantly, she pulls her hand out in
front of her. Her palm is pale and dry, looking weathered,
sun-bleached. When she makes a light fist and her fingers move
across the palm, white flakes drift off it, falling silently to the
carpet. She brings up her other hand and clamps it to her mouth to
stifle her scream.
    With effort, she staggers back toward
Susanna. She practically screams her name, her voice warbling. She
touches Susanna’s naked shoulder, shakes it. Her body moves loosely
back and forth in unconsciousness.
    “Susanna, wake up!”
    Nothing.
    This is absurd! I mean, what the fuck is
happening?
    Boldly, she moves close to her stepmother’s
side, gathers a fistful of cloth, and presses it lightly to the
luminescence. The glow is blotted out, and a strange emotion
bubbles up in Rachel, releases itself like a cough, and immediately
quiets when she chokes it down. She presses the cloth more
forcefully against Susanna’s cheek.
    Rachel feels as if she’s not even inhabiting
her own body; she’s not in control of her actions. She pushes the
cloth still harder, angling the wad of sheets over Susanna’s mouth
and nose, pressing, pressing.
    Go away! she screams inwardly.
    Susanna coughs and opens her eyes. Turned up
in their sockets, the eyes show only white. Rachel recoils,
scrambling away across the bed. Susanna’s mouth opens and a fine
mist of blood sprays out like a sneeze, dotting her own face and
the sheets beyond her head. The red glow seems to strobe almost
imperceptibly, and Susanna’s open mouth emits a long, hollow
sound.
    “ Uuuuuuuhhh ... .”
    Rachel, her breath caught somewhere deep in
her throat, reacts impulsively. She leans forward and presses the
cloth with