Page 14 - The Grotesque Children's Book

Santi’s rooms were some twenty minutes away, beyond the poultry markets, near the
parish of S. Pietro Buonconsiglio; perhaps you know where that is. The door was slightly ajar.
Aurelio rapped at it with his knuckles, but heard no answer. He rapped again. When he heard no
sound coming from within, Aurelio pushed the door open and stepped in.

Santi’s rooms were a terrible crime scene. There was blood in the floor, long deep
scratches where the bed had been dragged for several feet, and Santi’s belongings strewn all over
the room; drawers emptied, chests overturned, dishes smashed, pots of paint spilled, a mess from
wall to wall. And Santi’s father lay on the bed, his eyes unstaringly focused on the ceiling, dead.

Aurelio became violently ill, running back outside just in time before vomiting on the
stoop. He kept running all the way back home, where once again he saw the illustrated folio.
Clearly Santi had put this folio on Aurelio’s doorstep. Had Santi known he was about to be
killed, and had left this folio for Aurelio for some reason? Or was there a chance that Santi had
gotten away miraculously and he was alive somewhere, having left the folio behind as, what, as a
warning? As a message to his whereabouts? Where had Santi gone? Or, who had killed him
and his father, and why?

Maybe the demon would tell him. Aurelio picked up the folio, bolted his door, and began
to read.

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