Gloom

Chapter 247

My stomach tightened when, finally, after several minutes standing like a lunatic on the porch, I opened the door to enter the house. The same one in which I had grown up, in which I lived for all these years, in which I shared indelible memories with the people most dear to me... The same one, but it no longer felt like my home .

The ball of matted black fur and carmine eyes—which, by now, was considerably larger than when it was given to me—came running from the far corner and sat down when it got in front of me, wagging its tail happily. The eerie silence of the house let me know that Anthony was not there, something I did not like. I took the puppy in my arms, appreciating the supernatural ardor he emanated, so similar to that radiated by the demons who had given him to me, and I went to the sofa to sit him next to me. A vague thought occurred to me that, if my father had been there, he would have scolded me for putting the dog on the couch.

A stab of pain shot through the center