Sing, us a song.
Without hesitation, he opened the door to the basement. For at the time, he wasn't looking for Edward. He was looking for Edward's little sister.
A once-beautiful girl was standing in the corner of the stairway, writing on the wall. Her red hair had grown long and unkept, reaching her waist. She was wearing a soiled summer dress, which poorly covered her emaciated body. At the sound of the door opening, she turned to look at him. Her eyes were changed from when he last saw them, the blue riddled with dark holes. But she was still human, physically at least.
"Danielle ..."
He couldn't think of anything else to say. Asking her 'are you okay?' would be like playing a game where the rules didn't apply anymore. At his voice she shrank back against the wall, away from the red light that fell down the steps. She shook all over, and her eyes filled with tears. And later he would say that this was the moment that broke him. Even with all he had been through, seeing Danielle, who was once so vibrant and kind and caring and outgoing ...
She spoke, faintly, her voice shot with the hours she spent sceaming. "Christ...opher..."
They grew up together, the three of them. Christopher and Danielle always took care of Edward. Edward was never very bright, and always managed to get himself into trouble. Christopher still remembered, vividly, when the three of them would go out walking, they would walk for hours, just exploring, playing games, picking up pieces of broken sticks and having sword fights. "ON GUARD!" Edward would say, laughing. "I will be the dark prince, and you the prince of light, yes! And I have captured the princess, princess.. er. Danielle! And you have to come and get her from me!" In the end, Edward would always die tragically.
One late summer they had been out all day, and had lost one another in a game of hide-and-seek. Danielle and Christopher managed to get home, but Edward ... It grew dark, and as it did, Danielle became more and more worried, until unable to stand it any longer, ran out into the night to find him. Their mother had an absolute fit, and sent their father after them. Hours later, he came back with Danielle, but Edward seemingly disappeared. Danielle was locked into her bedroom so she wouldn't go out to search for her brother, but she climbed out the window and went after him anyway. In the morning, the two of them were sleeping on the front porch, their arms wrapped around one another to keep out the cold.
It was the following winter that Edward got sick. And it was Christopher and Danielle that would stay by his bed, fetch him things from the ocean that time they went to the beach, give blood to him, smiling, smiling, always smiling when Edward got pale and feverish. Assuring him with a smile, "Everything is going to be fine."
"Christopher ...!" Danielle began to sob, running up the stairs to hold him. "I was ... nightmare ... Is it over? Am I ... awake? N-now?"
"Dani," Christopher said. In a second he made a decision. He slid his hands up along her pencil-thin arms, and took her neck between his palms. Her bird-like pulse was pounding against his trembling hands. He fed himself some strength and his fingers curved, and tightened. She began to choke, and grabbed him by the wrists to try to pry him off of her.
"Dani ... I love you. I always ... Everything is going to be fine. This is going to be over soon."
(He still sees her face in dreams: A single tear trickling down her right cheek, her eyes half closed as if to say, 'If this is what you want.')
To make sure she didn't come back to life, he cut off her head with his machete, and then set the house on fire. He watched it collapse in on itself from the field across the street. And in the flames he could see visions. Of Danielle skipping down the stairs, singing and dancing, and dragging her brother into the middle of the floor. "Dance with me, Ed!" Of Edward lying on the couch surrounded by birthday presents he was too exhausted to open. Of that time, when the doctor said that Edward was going to be okay and the family invited Chrisptopher over for dinner to celebrate. After dinner Edward said he was going to lie down for a few minutes. Christopher had gone upstairs to see him half an hour later, to coax him down for ice cream, when he realised that Edward was dead.
"No, no, no, no, no ..."
Stuffing the photos of Edward into his pocket (he had found them under Danielle's pillow), he decided on his mission: He was going to kill everyone he had ever loved, and make sure they were actually dead.