the smell of alcohol and blood mixed together saturates the air as soon as we step through the entrance. Not drinking alcohol exactly, more like the kind you use to clean out wounds. But who was hurt? I quickly send the two younger girls upstairs, and cross the room to the bathroom off the kitchen. Not bothering to knock, I throw open the door making it, accidentally, hit the wall with a thud. 
Amber leans against the sink, breathing heavily, she looks pale-more than usual. She doesn't look up at me, instead she concentrates on something I can't see. 
"Amber?" I call, reaching out a hand to touch her shoulder, but before I can she flinches away. 
She looks at me now directly, but at the same time it feels as though she's staring straight through me. "Rose?" Her voice breaks, tears threaten to spill down her unmade face. "Ro." She cries. Amber closes what little distance was between us, and wraps her arms tightly around my neck. 
I hold her against me, a position we'd been in so many times before. "AJ, what happened?" I ask softly, peering over her shoulder into the sink. Blood resides at its base, a bottle of rubbing alcohol lying on the sink's edge. "What'd you do?" 
"Um... There was a broken vase on the kitchen floor when I got home. So I went to collect the pieces, and clean the blood splatter underneath." She pauses, detaching herself from me, and going to sit at the bathtub's edge-the same bathtub not even a month ago rained hot blood down on me. "I must have cut myself on one of the pieces, but I didn't notice until I came to wash my hands. You see, I thought the blood on my hands was from the floor."
My sister looks down at her right palm where a gash ran from her pinky to her wrist below her thumb, crimson liquid practically pulsing out from the seams. "It just won't quit."
I sit in front of her on the cool tile. "How long since the cut?" I question, cradling her hand in mine. 
"An hour or so." She replies, pushing back some hair. "I've tried everything I could think of. Peroxide wouldn't quit bubbling so I tried alcohol, but I ran out so I went into Phillip's bathroom to get more,"-She gestures to the bottle-"but that one is already empty." Her cries had ceased, but I could tell the wound hurt.  
"Empty, you say?" I let go of her hand only long enough to grab the container. "We'll see about that."
With one hand, I force the cap off, and turn the bottle upside down, shaking it up and down. "Hit the bottle for me, would ya?" 
AJ smacks the bottle, making almost fall out of my hand. We both smile as a soaking wet strip of paper lightly hits the tile. "Another note?" Amber say with a frown. "What's it say?"
I drop the rubbing alcohol, and hand her the paper.
"Dear Rose and Amber, I would like to start out by saying this has been fun," She begins to read aloud. "But like all things, this too must come to an end. We're ready to finish this if you are. The asylum seemed like a nice place to meet so we'll convene there again, sound good? Doesn't matter either way we meet there." She pauses. "The asylum?" 
"Long story. Go on." I rush out, eager for her to continue as though she were reading a bedtime story. 
Amber scrunches her nose, but continues nevertheless. "It'll be good to properly meet face to face after playing this game with you for a little of a month now. In actuality this game has been playing out for so much longer that. Don't worry about the cut AJ it's just a little scratch compared to tonight. Be there nine o'clock Pineworth Asylum. Can't wait!" Amber finishes and ginger lays the note beside her on the sill. 
She stands-pulling me with her-and goes back to the mirror. "If we are to die tonight can we not die with the terrible dye job Phillip did on you?" Amber jokes, not wanting to speak on the advents at hand. 
"If it'll make you feel better, AJ, then I guess so." I shrug, placing a bandage over the gash.
Amber claps her hands together excitedly, immediately wincing afterwards. "Oh goody." 

****

After Amber finishes rinsing out the purple from my hair, she goes to call Lip and Johnny telling them to come quick. She reenters shortly after and curls up on the couch with me, pulling me to her. "Make this stop, Rosie." She says quietly, sounding almost childlike. 
"The blood and pain?" I inquire, bringing her injured to my mouth and kissing it softly. 
Amber giggles. "Do I look like a two year old to you?" She asks, sarcastically.
"Well let me think..." I trail off.
She playfully shoves me. "Shut it."
I stick my tongue out at her. "Why should I?" 
"Because," She pauses a second. "Because you still have to tell me what the note meant." 
I groan. "Can't we watch a movie instead?" 
"Fine, but after this is all over you are telling me." With that she goes to the DVD player and puts in a disk. The movie starts, and I realize pretty quickly that we're watching Psycho.
The boys arrive just as the movie ends, and we start to devise a plan. 

One more chapter.