October 25th

True overslept. No one saw her awake until 12:45 this afternoon. I don't blame her for sleeping in. If I had beheaded my mother the night before, I would've done a fair share of sleeping myself. Then again, I'm not sure I could have slept after a thing like that. 'Course, that wasn't really True's mother, or so she told me later. After knowing what really happened, True sleeping soundly without regret makes a great deal of sense to me now.

Before True woke up, we were all busy cleaning. Michael dug a grave out front in the woods. With my help, he rolled Gloria's body (and head) up in plastic sheeting, and loaded it into a wheelbarrow. I hope that's the last body I help dispose of for a long damn time.

While Michael was finishing his task, Louise was cleaning up their bedroom. I wiped up the blood from the hallway and went to see if I could help her further. I was surprised she and Michael were up and about. Digging must hurt when a good bit when skin is missing from your arm. As for Louise, walking in general can't be fun.

Michael patched her up, but I saw the wounds before he put gauze over them. One inner thigh looked as though a can opener had run across it, creating a jagged seam. The wound is about three inches long. Long enough to need stitches, which is what Michael did for her later. That was something I didn't want to see. Instead, I rinsed the katana off and put it back on its cradle on the wall in the living room. Through all the craziness, no one had heard True come downstairs and grab it. Glad she did.

There's no disputing that she saved all of our lives. But why, and why was it necessary? These are only a few of the questions I heard Louise pressing to Michael as she rinsed out bloody rags in the kitchen sink.

"Even though that girl saved us, she could be a problem later on."

"What do you mean?" Michael asked.

"We don't know how much her mother messed her up. God, and how could we because the girl won't say a fucking word!"

"Shh, calm down."

"I don't care." It was odd to hear Louise say these things. Usually, Michael was the voice of dissent. Louise wasn't after mere dissent, though, she was after a lot more than that when she said "I saw you two, you know."

Michael started to choke on whatever he'd been drinking. "What?"

"Don't play dumb. We've been through this before. And I thought we had passed it. But when I saw you and Gloria in the pool, I knew we weren't past it. Then, I saw you push her away, and...well, there might be hope for you yet." Michael didn't say anything. "But we can talk about that later. Right now we should finish talking about True."

"Okay. What else do you have to say?"

"We have this relatively safe house, but I don't think I can sleep in it anymore with True down the hall. She beheaded her own mother; how expendable are we, strangers to her?"

Music from the sitting room stopped their conversation. True was awake.

I poked my head into the kitchen and mouthed, "I got it."