The lights were turned off inside Chelsea’s house. Everything was dark as they approached.

“Are you sure this is her house?”

“It’s the address Tristan gave me. This is the one.” Jax pointed to the numbers.

“What if she comes home?”

“She won’t. She stays at that damn spa for at least four hours according to the massage therapist.”

Trying the back door, Jax found it unlocked. The inside of her place smelled heavily of that same perfume Brooke had smelled the other day.

Poison.

But there was another underlying odor. A terrible rotting stench.

Jax flipped a switch and light illuminated the place. Everything was quite neat and organized. If Chelsea had lost it years ago like Tristan claimed, she seemed to be much better now. Looking through her house, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Tasteful modern furniture decorated the place. The floors were hardwood and polished to a shine.

They made their way back into Chelsea’s bedroom where a large king size bed sat in the middle of the room. It was neatly made with a blue and white comforter. A huge bookshelf sat in the corner of the room.

On it was every book Jax had ever written. Inside them there was an inscription from Jax.

“When did you sign a book for her, Jax?”

“I don’t recall. It must’ve been at a public signing. Maybe she bought them online. If you notice, her name isn’t in here. These were probably books I just signed generically.”

The books appeared in pristine condition as if she never read them.

“That’s odd. I know she’s read all my work.”

Brooke shrugged.

“She probably read the ebook version. Maybe these are her collector’s editions.”

After glancing through her closet and not noticing anything out of the ordinary, the couple turned to walk down the hallway.

“This is the most normal looking place I’ve been in. Nothing at all weird.” The couple was surprised.

The strange odor began to get worse. Brooke gagged slightly.

“What the hell is that smell?”

Jax wrinkled his nose.

“It’s terrible.”

Then, as they turned the other way, Brooke noticed a room they hadn’t seen.

She turned the knob, but it appeared stuck.

“What the hell?”

Jax twisted and turned the knob, but it wouldn’t budge. He pushed hard against the door and he fell into the room. Brooke switched the light on. She gasped falling back into the hallway.

“Oh my God,” Brooke cried.

The entire room was wallpapered with pages from books. Jax scrambled to his knees and looked more closely at the pages.

Each page was from one of his books!

They had carefully been lacquered onto the walls. Jax estimated the room to be about 20 x 19. And every single inch was covered with pages from his books.

The lone piece of furniture in the huge room was a small white dresser. It was covered in pictures of Jax.

“Jax, my God, she’s deeply, deeply disturbed.” Brooke walked through the room running her hands over the papered walls.

For a moment, he said nothing. He stood transfixed. Part of him wanted to run screaming out of the room, out of New York, and back to his cozy home. The other part of him couldn’t wait to get to his laptop and begin writing.

The horrifying room was an inspiration.

“I can’t imagine how long this must’ve taken her. Why would she do this?”

“The voices told her to I would imagine.” Jax replied dryly.

“Let’s see if she did the closet too.” Brooke opened the door. The horrid stench was overpowering and struck her in the face. There was a tiny door inside the closet. Brooke turned the knob and nearly fainted.

Her breath sucked in as she staggered back clasping her hand over her mouth. She retched several times and vomited sobbing uncontrollably as she fled the room.

An awful, sickening stench began to fill the room. Immediately, Jax clasped his hand over his nose and mouth. He looked into the closet.

My God, this was…this was…..

Disturbed.

Inside the closet was another doorway. The odor was so intense Jax felt bile rise in his throat. It was the worst thing he’d ever smelled.

As he pushed his way into the secret room, his eyes widened in horror as he saw what had made Brooke vomit.

There inside the tiny room was a double sized bed. Lying in the middle of the bed was a decomposed body. The horror of that coupled with the intensely foul odor caused him to vomit immediately.

Wiping his mouth, he forced himself to look further. The sheets around the body were soaked in a dark fluid. The body appeared to have been there for several months. Above the body on the wall of the room a huge pyramid had been crudely drawn with chalk with the words ‘Who lies beneath the shadow of the pyramid?’

As Jax struggled to comprehend the terrifying scene, his gaze fell to between the body’s legs. There perched upright like a man’s erect cock was a flesh colored dildo. Its’ tip was covered in dried blood.

Shaking uncontrollably, Jax whipped off his shirt to cover his mouth and nose. Something else struck him as odd.

In the space next to the body, there was a clean sheet relatively fresh and untouched from the wretchedness of the corpse. A small pillow with blue flowered print pillowcase was next to the corpse.

As if she’d been sleeping next to it.

Fucking it even.

The room suddenly became stiflingly small. He and the corpse were alone together in this room which had become a tomb.

For the living and the dead.

Suddenly, Jax found his voice and screamed. He raced from the room down the hall out into the living room where he found Brooke.

She was pale and shaken. Her face wet with tears.

“Jax, who the hell is that?” She whispered.

He shook his head.

“I can’t…oh my God, Brooke, I can’t.” He sobbed.

The couple raced from the house outside. They both breathed in the fresh air a moment before speaking.

“We have to call the police now. This has gone….far beyond anything I could’ve ever imagined. She’s more than disturbed, she’s—“

“Evil.” Brooke filled in.

Jax nodded dialing 911.

The stench of death is something that mere soap and water cannot overcome, thought Jax as he scrubbed at his body. It had been a week and he still smelled the horrible stench of that body. Brooke was beside herself and had remained in the hotel room ever since returning from Chelsea’s house.

The phone vibrated as Jax walked back into the bedroom.

“Jax Paulson, this is Detective Colquitt. I was calling to let you know we’ve made a positive identification on the body found in Chelsea Goldstein’s house. It was Sarah Bender.”

Jax felt the phone slip through his hands crashing to the floor. Brooke sat up.

“What is it, Jax?”

He closed his eyes trying to swallow his horror.

“The body….it was Sarah Bender.”