“I’m going to regret this. I just know it.”
“Nah, you’ll be grateful for the peace of mind,” Cole chuckled, copying what Adam had done previously and throwing his arm around my neck. This time, there was a slight tightening before he caught himself. “I still hate you, though, and fully intend to kick your ass.”
Pulling the keys out of my pocket, I unlocked the door and gestured for them to come in.
“I’m going to get a beer and sit outside while you do it. Don’t touch my shit, don’t break anything, don’t knock down any walls, and”—I glared at Cole—“don’t drink out of the toilet.”
He gasped and glared at me but wisely said nothing. I had to figure his excitement and anticipation about what they were doing was too much for him to ignore, and getting kicked out of my house would mean he wouldn’t get to see the Luminol results.
I doubted they’d find anything, if I was being honest, because it was unlikely there’d been an undocumented murder in there, which was what the chemical had been designed for.
With beer in hand, I settled in the backyard and took in how different it looked now that the lawn had been cut and most of the weeds were gone. It looked tame, normal… almost quaint. Well, for a potential porn palace.
I couldn’t wait for Layla to see it.
The shouting from inside the house snapped me out of the happy place I’d gone to once I’d finished my beer.
Getting up, I poked my head around the door, making sure not to let it touch my face. I had no idea how you’d get bodily fluids that high, but I wasn’t risking it.
“No, no fucking way. That’s not right! God, I need a shower.”
“Maybe you mixed the Luminol up incorrectly? Did you follow the instructions?” Tom asked, running to catch up with Adam, who was storming toward me.
My brother’s mouth was tightly pinched, and he looked almost pale. “I didn’t mix it, Cole and Luke did.”
Tom stopped and bellowed over his shoulder, “Yo, Cole, did you follow the directions on the Luminol?”
The sound of feet walking quickly followed, and then Luke and Cole appeared, both of them wiping their arms with wipes.
“Yeah, of course I did.”
“Well, are you sure it’s Luminol? I’m not sure it’s meant to do that,” Tom pressed.
“I got it from the normal guy, Tom, and… and…” Cole’s mouth opened and closed, and then he did a full body shudder.
Confused, I waited for one of them to tell me what they’d found, but they just stared blindly into space. “Wait, what did you see?”
“I don’t- I can’t- We….” Luke swallowed loudly as he sagged against one of the kitchen countertops and then moved like he’d been burned when he realized he was touching something in the house.
Walking to the fridge, Tom pulled out four beers and gestured to where I’d been sitting outside. “I recognize that garden set from your parent’s place, so we’re safe to sit on it. Why don’t we go out there, and I’ll fill you in.”
After we’d all filed out and taken a seat, Tom pulled off his cap and detached the GoPro from it.
“The recording on this one uses my cellphone data to go to a cloud storage place, so I can show you on my phone what we saw. You might want to brace yourself.”
After he turned the screen to face me, I watched as they joked around while they closed the curtains and began spraying the surfaces. Once they were done in the first room, two of them left to spray another room, leaving only who I assumed were Tom and Adam from the sounds of it.
What fucked my mind up was when they turned the black light on, and I could see random areas glowing. It was gross but not as bad as I’d thought.
“That’s it?” What a bunch of drama queens.
“Wait for it,” Cole mumbled, taking a healthy mouthful from his bottle and swilling it around his mouth. “I feel dirty.”
They moved through each room, and bit by bit, areas were lit up and here and there.
“This is really disappointing,” Luke sighed on the screen.
Luke in real life whacked his head repeatedly. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”