• It was 7:06 when the killings started. He had just organized that days papers when he received a call from the police.
    “Mr. Martin, you had better come down to your house right away…” The policeman had said with a quivering voice. Rodney did not question him. He grabbed his coat, and rushed out of his cubicle, knocking his chair onto the floor behind him. Rodney had never given the police a reason to call him. He was a small man of thirty-four years, and he walked with a slight hunch that no one really noticed. He wore thick spectacles and always seemed to be wearing a mask that added bags under his eyes, making him look about ten years older than what he actually was. He constantly washed his hands and carried a pocket-sized bottle of hand sanitizer around with him wherever he went. But inside his soul was tortured, and he knew it. He felt incomplete and did not like life. This is not to say that he did not like living, for he very much appreciated his ability to live. He did not like the way life was. Even before the accident. He wore the expression of one who was forever hiding his feelings and emotions from everyone. He always appeared to be apathetic about whatever it was he was talking about.
    His car door slammed shut, and the necklace that hung from the rear-view mirror of his white, 1984 Oldsmobile Delta 88 swayed slightly and then settled back into its resting position. He adjusted every one of his mirrors as habit whenever he entered his car. He then looked at an old sepia-toned picture of him, his deceased wife Margaret, and his niece Dani who lived with him now that her parents were victims of a homicide. The killer had been a man named Guthrey Stone. He pulled a large shotgun out of his coat at the Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin where Rodney now took up residence. When the police arrived on the scene he shot himself with a small pistol. Rodneys older brother, Kyle Martin had been married to his wife Abbie for 17 years. They were both 46 when they died. His brother was seventeen years older than he, who had been the byproduct of his father’s second marriage. Dani was a happy girl who didn’t seem to understand quite how the real world worked. This made her a very outgoing and optimistic person. Her eyes sparkled and beamed at her uncle whenever Rodney would ask her about her day, and she would go on and on. She enjoyed talking with people a bit too much. Rodney shook these thoughts out of his mind now, and he shifted the car into reverse and cautiously pulled out of the parking lot.

    ////////////////// \\\\\\\\

    His house was small and homey, and the neighborhood he lived in was filled with the elderly, and some other younger couples who were not as well to do. It was about 15 minutes away from “Codemonkeys” the office complex in which Rodney worked. The house was pure white, and featured a tiny garden with various hanging pots of flowers, and petite statues of geese or garden gnomes, depending on the season. A large oak grew up from the center of the front yard, surrounded by thick ivy. Its leaves were colored a brilliant red, and the branches rocked gently with the autumn breeze back and forth. Every day after work Rodney would pull up into his driveway, with a sigh of relief as the days tensions were lifted from him. But no comfort did he find upon arriving at his home this particular afternoon. As he turned the corner onto Wayfield Drive, lights flashed in his face, and a crowd of ten or twelve people surrounded his house. He parked by the curb of his house, flung open his window and looked for the nearest official.
    “What’s going on? Is everything alright!?” He shouted as he pushed his way through the other people. A police officer detained him from entering his property.
    “Easy there, guy.” He said calmly as he fought off Rodney.
    “Th-This is my house, I live here, let me through!” Rodney managed to spit the words out through the cold air.
    “Look, buddy, you don’t want to go in there.” The officer insisted.
    “For God’s sake, let me through! Let me through!” He pushed through him and began towards his front door.
    The police officer watched him as he ducked under the yellow caution tape.
    “You’ll wish you hadn’t done that.” He muttered to himself.
    As he walked inside, two other policemen conversed. One carried a notepad and the other tucked his thumbs under his belt. The notepad officer was older than Rodney, and reminded him of the universal cops who always delivered the main character the news that would make the turning point in any story. The other man, older still, was larger. He had a bulky second chin, and his stomach was obviously putting strain on his button up shirt. Notepad police officer turned to Rodney, looked back at his notepad, and quickly looked up to him again. He approached him as the other police officer looked towards the floor.
    “Mr. Martin?” He asked
    “Yes.” Rodney said, quietly.
    “I’m sorry… I… I have some bad news for you…” He began. Rodney began to breathe heavier.
    “Your niece…Dani, she…she’s dead. I’m so sorry”
    “I…h-how?” He stuttered.
    “We have a specialist in right now, she’s taking a look as to what may have been the cause. I don’t know anything at the moment. I’m sorry.” He just kept apologizing.
    “Where is she?” He asked.
    The officer pointed down Rodney’s hallway.
    “I don’t know if it would be the best idea to show you right now, but if you want to, take a look.”
    The floorboards creaked as he stepped slowly to the end of his hall. His house looked exactly as it was when he had left it this morning. His living room, to the left before the hallway started was dusty, and his parrot Sam squeaked on the far side of the room as he shimmied his way around the side of his cage. His hallway looked so much longer than it actually was now, and Rodney looked straight down at his feet, too afraid to look forward. He passed the portly police officer -who avoided Rodney’s face, and said nothing. Yellow and red flooded his vision from the sides of his eyes, and he felt dizzy, and short of breath. His heart pounded and he could feel his blood racing in every vein of his body. He put his hand on the wall for balance and knelt on the floor to regain his sight. When he finally staggered back into an upright position he looked at the floor. Blood created a grotesque trail around the corner to the right into the bathroom. A flash of white light shone from around the corner, and Rodney turned into his bathroom.
    A woman was kneeling beside the bathtub with a camera in her left hand. Without turning around she said:
    “Don’t touch anything”
    Rodney’s bathroom –unlike his living room, was different. Blood was spattered up and down the walls, and even a bit on the ceiling. The entire floor was a puddle of blood. He began to whimper, as he looked at the mirror. The shower was running, a stream of hot water shooting out of it creating steam. The mirror was completely fogged, except for the words:

    TOD - 7:06

    “Tod, seven O’Six” His lips formed the words.
    As he slowly peered over the woman into the shower, he turned and vomited. It was Dani, the girl who he had come to think of as his daughter. She was pale, and her clothing was stained with blood. The blood had been completely drained out of her, and was now running through the water pipes of Rodney’s home. Her face was contorted and her jaw was slack. Her eyes had been gouged out –the eyes themselves rested on the drainpipe. Her eyelids had been sewn shut with thick black leather strands, which were tied into a bow at the ends. Her tongue was completely removed and unlike her eyes, were nowhere in sight. She had a gash across the center of her neck that almost went halfway through her entire throat, but there was no blood to seep out of this wound. The whole torso was bitten and cut all over, as was the limbs on the left side of her body. Her right arm was missing a hand, which was also nowhere to be found. Her right leg was charred and looked like it was encased in burnt flesh, and the letters TOD was branded all over her right arm. As he tried to look back his stomach heaved again.