As soon as her mother had the front door open Sienna took the keys to get into Mrs Graham's house. Her mother stood in the doorway watching as she walked away, "Straight in and back. I want you straight home. I'll go over later to check it over."

"Okay Mum." Sienna lifted a hand in response as she crossed the adjoining yards. She was inside the house in less than a minute and had her backpack ready to go, sitting next to the basement door. That's when she paused. Her throat convulsed as she literally forced herself to swallow down her fear. Fear and disgust as she forced herself to grasp the door knob. She held the knob for a moment, waiting to see if it would move by itself this time.

It didn't.

She cautiously twisted the knob and slowly swung the door open. There was no ominous creak. There was no strange scuttling noises or scrapes. The basement was poorly lit as the light was off, yet there was easily enough light coming through the basement windows for Sienna to make her way down the stairs. At the bottom step she reached up and pulled the cord for the bare bulb that hang stationary from the rafter. The light flooded the room with a steady yellow glow, revealing every corner of the unfurnished room.

It also shone on the dark red trail of blood that glistened by Sienna's feet. The sight of her own blood made her feel a little queasy. With a hand clapped over her mouth, she took slow steadying breaths and followed the crimson droplets to their origin; the monster that still lay near the water heater in the corner.

She slowly turned her eyes to the corpse, forcing herself to look at what she had done, to see the creature she had killed. She carefully moved closer to it. As she bent over it she was shocked to see the changes that had happened since their fight. The creatures body was desiccated as though it had been dried out or mummified. Tight leathery skin stretched across the brittle jerky that was all that remained of its sinew and muscle. It appeared as though it had been dead for months. Years even.

Sienna could feel tears burning behind her eyes. It looked like a dog. Sienna loved dogs. A hiccuping sob tore through the silence and Sienna clapped a hand back over her mouth to stifle them. Yes this creature had terrified her, and yes it would have killed her, but still... it looked like a dog. Sienna loved dogs and she'd killed it.

Tears started to spill out as she crouched closer to it. She reached out one hand as though to touch it, but pulled it back, clenching her fist 'til her knuckles turned white, trying to calm the tremors that ran through her. A lump formed in her throat, making it feel like she would choke. A hiccup of a sob broke through and the dam broke. Salty drops now fell freely, several of them landing on the corpse at her feet.

Shock finally broke through her misery and she couldn't tear her eyes away from the dark stains formed by her fallen tears. They appeared to shimmer on the velvet pelt, glistening like ripples of silk. Sienna moved closer, watching in horror as the tiny movements became more pronounced. The flesh beneath the skin seeming almost to be bubbling, undulations becoming more pronounced as though something underneath was coming to a boil.

As the skin writhed, Sienna's stomach clenched and her face drained of colour. The movement put her in mind of a cluster of maggots, squirming as they feasted on the flesh beneath. The mental image caused her to retch as she tried to keep down the sandwich she'd eaten less than 2 hours before. She stepped away and bent forwards; hands on knees bracing herself as she gulped air. She passed several minutes wide eyed and panting as she fought to regain control of herself.

She had almost got her breathing regulated when a soft hissing caught her attention. Not changing her stance Sienna watched as the bubbling finally played out and the pelt stilled before sinking in. Using the back of her hand she absentmindedly wiped drool and tears from her cheeks and chin as she bent over the monsters dead body.

"How- why...?"

She looked at it from several angles, ascertaining exactly what had just happened.

"Was it...?"

Resolve cleared the confused look from her face as she made a decision. She turned and ran up the stairs then started rummaging through the kitchen cupboards. Within minutes she was carefully toting a stock pot of highly salted water down the stairs. There was no hesitation as she walked up to the dusky shape lying inert in the corner. She barely paused before heaving the pot up, sloshing the monster in brine. Immediately it began gurgling and hissing as the body bubbled and writhed, bloating in a grotesque fashion before shrinking and caving in on itself.

Sienna stood by impatiently waiting for it to stop. Tears were still silently dripping from her chin, and the taste of copper flooding her mouth as she bit down on her inner cheek in an attempt to suppress her nausea.

The reaction finally wound down, leaving clumps of the fuzzy hide floating in a puddle of salt water. She took a deep breath, ignoring the scent of mildew in the air, she set to work clearing the evidence. Using the lid of one of the containers, Sienna scraped what she could into the empty pot before grabbing a dust cloth from the table to mop up the water. As she squeezed out the rag a sound caught her attention.

"Sienna, what are you doing?"

Her mother stood at the top of the stairs holding her backpack. Sienna knelt next to the puddle twisting the rag as she stared at her mother like a deer startled by headlights.

"I- I-"

Her gaze shifted between her mother and the mess in front of her as she struggled to find words that could possibly explain what she was doing.

Or at least a plausible lie.

"Sienna Honey, I get that you're worried about Mrs Graham and I know there was probably a bit of a mess, but you should have let me know. I was worried when you didn't come straight back." She looked at her daughter as colour finally started to return to her cheeks. The little girl's shoulders slumped, though whether from guilt or relief her mother couldn't tell. All she could see is that Sienna had been distressed and now, with something productive to do, she seemed to be less anxious. "Come on then I'll give you a hand."

Sienna smiled up at her mother as she grabbed a rag of her own. The two of them set to the task, making quick work of the mess. The tired woman emptied and refilled the pot once more in order to clean the blood trail from the floor and stairs.

It was as the were finishing up that her mother finally spoke again. "Maybe we should have used a bucket instead of a cooking pot?"

Sienna stared straight ahead without replying.

"How did you know to use salt for blood."

"Um..."

Seeing her daughter becoming uncomfortable at the questioning she back tracked. "Never mind. Let's get home. You have school tomorrow."

Sienna had never been more happy about school and the distraction it was providing.