We Live Here Now

Perhaps he will not fear the house so much now that there is life and heat in it. How strange. “Is this the nail?” Freddie’s crouched. “How did it get in upside down?” The sharp metal tip shines under the overhead light, but it seems smaller now and has only a couple of drops of rusty red around it. The snow hasn’t arrived and the darkness is crisply silent. He doesn’t answer at first, the noise so alien and not part of this new universe of him and rotting Sally and the stench and his madness, but finally he does.