Infinity House by Shane McKenzie Read Free Book Online Page A

continued to play out on the surface of these growths, then turned to iridescence as the bumps sprouted wings. As the flies launched themselves into the air, more sprouted from the pictures and the thunderous cackling rattled Mike’s brain.
    The flies filled the air like a buzzing hailstorm. He squeezed his lips shut, squinted as he swatted his way toward the doors that he could no longer see through the thickness of the bugs.
    The old man’s face peered out of the pictures, each one laughing, all staring at Mike with their empty eye-pits. As the laughter grew louder, the flies multiplied. With an adrenaline-fuelled lunge, Mike’s hands found the door handles. He yanked them, struggled to open the doors against the chaos of the flies, then stumbled into the hallway and fell face-first into the maggots. They crawled into his mouth, pulsed on his tongue, tried burrowing into the corners of his eyes, into his nostrils.
    He whimpered as he jumped to his feet, dry heaved and spat and clawed at his body. A final booming cackle slammed the double doors shut behind him.
    His eyes shot down the hall, the direction from which he had come, and the children were there, watching him. So many of them, all black and brown skinned.
    Kids from the Oak, he thought. All of the missing children. He recognized some of the faces from the photos. They smiled at him, every one, and he knew at least one of the little motherfuckers knew where James was.
    “Hey!” Mike waded through the knee-high flood toward them. “Where the fuck is my brother?”
    The children laughed like they were playing tag, ran around each other in playful pandemonium. As Mike stomped toward them, they went back into their rooms, slammed their doors, and cackled from the other side.
    But Mike was done playing games. All his years in the Oak, all his years fighting for his life, for James’s life, not knowing if they would eat on any given night, not knowing if they’d be murdered by some fucking crackhead or gun-toting thug. The sight of Mama’s beaten body, naked, torn up and left in front of their house like roadkill.
    And now this fucking place, this Infinity House, swallowed his brother whole and refused to give him back. Enticed them with illusions of a better life, trapped them like flies in a spider web.
    Mike saw red. He flexed his fingers before curling them into fists, clenched his teeth until his jaw hurt. Burning hatred and anger rushed through his veins like venom, and Mike couldn’t hold it back.
    He thrust open the first door he came to and rushed inside. The chubby girl with long beaded braids had no time to react as Mike dove on top of her and pummeled her face in with a storm of fists. The room was pink, coated with flies, and littered with dolls like miniature corpses. Mike kept punching, and as the girl’s face folded in on itself, the larvae pulsed and repaired her, and all the while she laughed and laughed.
    Mike roared as he flew from that room to the one across the hall, turned the little Mexican boy inside into a pile of quivering meat. Maggots scurried from his mouth as he said over and over again, “Quieres jugar conmigo?”
    Mike panted as he criss-crossed from one side of the hall to the other, entering every room and bashing the inhabitants until they were unrecognizable. But no matter how hard he hit, no matter how mutilated the children became, they still laughed, still wanted to play. Mike’s knuckles were torn raw, his arms stained with dark red and black fluid from his fingertips to his elbows.
    He stood in the hall, panting, sucking for oxygen, but only getting the thick tainted air of the house. A high-pitched shriek erupted from his belly as he fell to his hands and knees. The maggots crawled over him, started to engulf him, but he didn’t stop them this time. They climbed him, bit at him, dug into him, and Mike only watched.
    You failed him. How could you let this happen?
    “I’m sorry…”
    Just down the hall was a face,