Plank of Reason

Prologue

The scene is too graphic. It can only be processed in bite-sized chunks.

Zoom in...

Red Splatters on the ceiling. They’re abstract. Like a Jackson Pollock painting.

Pan down...

More splatters on the wall. A framed certificate. The words are obscured by a crimson smear, but Masters in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Awarded to Delores O’ – is still legible.

Delores O’ – is on the floor. Or rather, what remains of her body is. It's only identifiable by the chunky, colourful necklace draped around the neck. Beside the body is a salt lamp, the top of it smashed. A memory bubbles up, unbidden, of a family gathered around a game of Cluedo.

"Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with a candlestick!"

This is not a game.

Zoom out...

The smell is putrid. Reminiscent of a field trip to an abattoir.

And standing at the centre of it all – clothes covered in blood –

Is me.