Subhuman chapter 03 "Bloody Knuckles"

     It was this moment that my heart sunk. Jason stood up before me, standing straight. He took my hand and met his eyes with mine which slowly dropped to my holster then reaffirmed with my eyes, this time with a less-kind expression to make his point. Message received. He stood tall, and crunched up his shoulders a little more than usual as he approached the door from which the frantic knock was tolled. I reluctantly stood at a distance, trying to conceal the holster. A single hard knock to the door was dealt as Jason firmly gripped the handle. Without looking back to me, he cracked the door open. I, failing to hide the holster, tie Jason's long sleeved shirt around my waste, blushing with anxiety.

Jason's shoulders dropped and eyes widened as he threw the door open. It slammed against the wall and swung back against his heels, as he was already in the doorway.

"Jason, I'm so sorry, I need your help" Said a familiar voice.

I approached the door, looking over Jason's shoulder.

Jason was in disbelief "A-Andrew!? What's going on? H-how- What are you doing here?" Jason said, swallowing his dry throat.

Andrew is Jason's half brother; younger by 4 years. Despite having the same father, I do not see the resemblance, in fact you'd never guess that they were related if you didn't know them. 

"It's dad." Andrew's eyes struck the doormat. 

Jason withdrew from the doorway, glancing at the vehicle in front of the house, a girl was sitting in the driver's seat, presumably one of Andrew's new girlfriends. She's looking down, crying. Jason's face turns white, his jaw slightly askew as he bites his tongue.

 "Where is he...?" he says with his eyes closed.

Andrew does not answer but rather walks over to the car, Jason following. I stand on the porch for a while before I take a few steps unto the lawn, the manicured grass slightly blemished by small tufts of burr weeds. 

Andrew opens the passenger door, revealing his father reclined in the seat. Jason is taken by surprise to see his father laying there unconscious and leans in to listen to his father's heart. Only a few moments later, the two brothers pry the old man out of the seat and drape his arms over their shoulders. I stared as they trudged through the lawn under the great weight of the large man. 

"Sara! Come on inside." Andrew called out to the girl in the car.

My eyes still fixed on the man. He was very injured, but alive. He must've been knocked out cold. The skin of his knuckles peeled back and blood stained, large blue and yellow bruises on his elbows. My gut twists as his bleeding face flops around as the boys bring him up the steps.

The girl sobs quietly, still emerging from the car; wiping her eyes on her yellow sun dress. She slowly walks up to the door of the house as if I were not standing in the middle of the lawn. I followed her in and closed the door behind us.

The unconscious man was laid out on the couch with a small, decorative pillow beneath his head. Jason standing before him, taking in the situation, his bloody father. His lip twitches, he is angry, I can tell.

"What happened?" Jason says darkly. 

some blood from his father's ear trails down unto the crease of the ornate pillow. 

Andrew doesn't say anything while his eyes are fixed on the black hat in his hands which he was twisting slowly, he looks over to the girl, who started to tear up again.

"We were attacked-" Andrew's voice barley creaked out of his throat.

"You were attacked? By who?" Jason didn't want to assume the worst.

"Some freak! I don't know..." Andrew scratched his head rapidly and threw out his hand which smacked into his lap onto the hat again. "Some weird guy was pervin' on Sara and-"

Sara starts to cry, blushing with a bloody rag clutched in her hand. "He was trying to protect me." She breathes in sharply. I notice the smudges of mascara on her sleeve. 

I approach the motionless body, look at the old man's face. The deep lines in his forehead, contoured with blood and tiny pieces of glass which twinkled. His eyes shut softly within the collar of black and blue, and a piece of bloody glass stuck to  the raspy hairs of his mustache.