Even in his unconsciousness, he had heard his family’s screams. They were shrill, terrified cries of panic and seemed to last forever. But when the hammer came down to strike them, they silenced instantly, like turning off a loud movie.
Calvin Durant, fatigued and dizzy, sat up slowly. His eyes were stubborn to open, as if they knew about the disturbing scene they were due to witness. When he could finally see, however, there was nothing short of panic.
In his hand lay a hammer, a thick coat of blood dripping from the once shiny claw. It had trickled down the grip, covering his hand like a scarlet glove. Calvin looked down at his feet, still adjusting to his sleepy, dreamlike state.
But this was no dream.
His mouth widened in an O of horror, a soundless scream frozen on his face. Across the kitchen from where he lay clutching the murder weapon was Sadie—the Good Wife Sadie. Everything You Could Ever Ask for in a Woman Sadie. Everything, presumably, save for a pulse.
“Honey?” Calvin croaked, dropping the hammer and crawling across the floor. “Sadie, honey, speak to me.”
Curled up in a fetal position in the doorway, her back facing him, Sadie remained motionless. There was blood in her hair—he could see that now—and he could feel his world turning upside down as he observed the trauma to her skull.
Calvin was on her now, wrapping an arm around her and holding her like he used to do in bed. How did this happen? This wasn’t me. He glanced across the kitchen at the hammer, then at the blood on his hands. This couldn’t have been me… I could never have… Could I?
He turned then, and something even worse caught his eye.
“Oh no. No, it can’t…” Calvin didn’t want to look, but he simply couldn’t help himself. Once more he began to crawl, careful not to further harm the lifeless body of his high school sweetheart, and maneuvered into the hallway.
It was exactly as he had feared.
Emma Durant, five years old and full of love, seemed to have suffered the same fate. Try as he might, Calvin couldn’t get his head around why somebody would want to do something so awful to such a sweet, young girl. In spite of appearances, he just couldn’t imagine that he had been the one to do this.
But then, what had really happened?
All he could remember was arguing with Sadie—something stupid about money, as usual—and then the briefest memory of her turning her back on him. After that, he had stumbled to the floor, and Sadie had turned to help him. Was that the order of things?
Calvin turned and looked around at the kitchen. Was his brain making up for his state of unconsciousness? Had he really done this? He didn’t think so—he loved his family more than anything else in the world.
Suddenly, the front door burst open, and three people swarmed in. Calvin looked up and, although still dizzy, could just about recognize one of the men as his neighbor, Steve. In the past, they had occasionally played poker together and fed each other’s cats when one of them was on vacation. But now was a different story. Now, Steve was pinning him down, and a woman behind him was saying, “Police, please.”
That was all Calvin could remember before he blacked out again. And in the closing moments before his life changed forever, he could see Sadie’s smile, Emma riding her bike with the pink training wheels.
And then he heard the sirens.