Project Renovatio by Allison Maruska

house, then to her coworker sitting next to her. “Thanks for the ride home. I’ll return the favor when I get a car.”
    Katelyn laughed. “The way you’re going, that’ll happen next week. Hey, who was that guy who came in tonight?”
    “Oh. He knows me from school. I’ll fill you in later.” She left the car and waved to Katelyn.
    Rana walked up the path to the front door as Katelyn drove away. Fishing her keys from her purse, Rana squinted at the doorknob. Why hadn’t her mother turned on the porch light? She turned to the front window; the interior was equally dark.
    Liz had told her she’d wait up, but maybe she got too tired.
    Rana put her key to the lock and froze when the door pushed into the house. Someone had left it open.
    Her pulse quickened, and she reached for her phone in her pocket. As she debated who to call, she leaned towards the door and listened.
    Silence.
    Reaching her hand into the narrow space between the open door and the frame, Rana flipped both switches inside, turning on the porch light and the lamp in the front room. She poked her head inside, then pulled back to the porch a second later.
    Whoever left the door cracked could still be here.
    But it could be nothing–maybe Walt didn’t close it all the way after checking the mail.
    Rana took a long breath and gently pushed the door open.
    Not seeing anyone, she slowly entered the house. A spray of red on the wall in the front room drew her attention, which moved to the red spots on the carpet.
    Her throat tightened, and she grabbed her phone. At the same moment she opened her recent contacts, something down the hall, lying in the kitchen doorway, stopped her.
    A body. Walt’s body.
    She dropped her phone on the tile, rushed to him, and shook his shoulder. “Walt.” He didn’t respond, so she put both hands on his arm and shook harder. “Walt, wake up.”
    No response.
    She put her fingers on his neck. The beat of his pulse pushed back, but his breathing sounded shallow. There was no blood on or around him, and he didn’t appear wounded. The blood in the front room must have come from someone else.
    Oh, God.
    “Mom?” she called into the silent house.
    She hurried back to her phone. The screen cracked in the fall, but it still functioned. As she ran from room to room in search of her mother, she tapped the first name in her recent contact list. Her heart pounded in her ears.
    ****
    Maggie sat up. “It’s late. Who could that be?”
    Levin stood, retrieved his phone, and checked the ID. “Rana? It’s really late for her to call.” He answered. “Hey.”
    “You have to come home. Quick! Something happened to Mom.”
    “Wait, what? What happened?” Levin turned away from Maggie and leaned against the counter, focusing on Rana’s words.
    “In the living room . . . blood on the wall . . . Mom’s gone . . . Walt won’t wake up . . .”
    He paced. “Okay, Rana, stop. I need you to listen. You need to hang up now and call the police. But first, do you know where Dayla is?”
    “She went to her friend’s house. Alicia.”
    “Okay, I’m on my way. Call 9-1-1.” He disconnected and held his phone in his shaking hand.
    Maggie put her hand on his shoulder. “I’ll drive. You can tell me what she said on the way.”
    Levin wrung his hands and bounced his leg during the twenty-minute ride. What would they find there? What had Rana seen?
    Police cars crowded the street in front of his mother’s house. An ambulance sat double-parked, and paramedics loaded Walt into it.
    Levin ran to them before they left. “Excuse me, can you tell me what happened to him?”
    The young man assessed Levin before responding. “Who are you?”
    “Levin. Walt’s my stepdad. What’s wrong with him?”
    “We don’t know yet. It looks like someone drugged him. He has weak vital signs, but he should recover. We’re taking him to the hospital for some tests. Is the girl inside the house your sister?”
    “Yeah. Is she okay?”
    “You should