The room stank. It stank like a toilet and the monkey-cage at the zoo. Puke, piss, sweat, shit and something else, too. I couldn’t place it, but there was something. Something worse than the rest.

The stink was the first thing I noticed when I entered the room. Before I realized that it was freezing, despite being early September and sixty degrees outside, I noticed the smell. Before I saw my breath exhaled as white clouds and the ice frosted windows, before I saw the wrecked furniture and the brown, crusty stains on the walls, there was that stench. The withered flowers heaped on what was left of the dresser couldn’t hide it. They only added a sweet smell of decay to the odor; that caged animal, fight-or-flight, abattoir/mortuary stench. Then I saw the girl, tied to the bed, her filthy nightgown plastered to her skin with sweat, and I realized where that stink was coming from.

Me, Sarah and The Priest stopped cold as we entered the room. I don’t know what we were expecting, but this was way worse…