A Persistent Nightmare

Neither Mama nor Sven upon his return were happy about what had just happened, while I sat crouched in a corner, wiping away tears.

"I know I told you to be snappy about it," Mama hissed as she jabbed a finger into his abdomen, "but this was a little too impulsive, Hector."

The man remained silent as he clenched his jaw. With the limit of my blurred vision, I looked at Sven, who seemed to be keeping himself together with a single thread, otherwise it looked like he was about to drop out cold at any moment. 

"The whole house stinks like the dead!" Mama cried, jabbing a finger into Hector's abdomen once, twice, thrice… 

"Even the neighborhood," Sven muttered as he leaned weakly against a wall.