Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:35:51 -0600
From: Michael Yost <myost@charter.net>
Subject: Real World Chapter 44

"I don't know who told me to give Tabby a bath.  She's gone," Ace cried.

Going over to turn off the water,  Pete screamed.

Laying in the bottom was a  little girl, her blond hair snaking about her blue
bloated face.  Her  white dress floating above her prone body.  Her eyes stared
up at him.

Scooping his hands in to pull her out, all Pete's searching hands could touch
was the bottom of the tub.  The body way gone.

"Josh!  Josh!" Pete screamed.

"What's the matter. What's going on!" Josh said, coming into the bathroom,
surprised to find both his kids crying.

"I didn't mean to hurt Tabby," Ace wailed.

Wrapping Tabby in a towel, Josh leaned back before Pete collided into him.

"I told him, I told him, I told him I wasn't  having nightmares.   This house is
haunted," Pete muttered, running into the living room, picking up the phone,
dialing Father Devon's number, "Devon  remember the conversation we had ?  I
insist that you please come over!"

"I telling   you daddy the girl I  saw is gone.. She wanted to be my friend,"
Ace insisted.

Josh took Tabby's and Ace's hands, going into the living room.

"I saw her too," Pete said, putting the phone down, "Josh it was different this
time. I didn't see a woman. This time it was a child.  Josh, she was dead, I
mean in the tub, I could tell she was dead."

"All right, I believe you this time," Josh cried "I, I."

Putting Tabby down Josh felt a hand on his shoulder. Pete gasped.

A woman with flaxen hair tied back and  frigid blue eyes whispered, "God
condemns what you're doing.  He wants your children dead. It's the only way to
save them.  He sent me to them. I'll be a mother to them  Don't worry. I'll kill
the evil you installed  in them.  I will love them after they are dead and kill
the evil in their souls with love."

"Mother,  it didn't work," the chid  said, appearing to Pete, Josh, and their
children.  She bounced a rubber ball, "Drowning her didn't work.   Are you sure
she isn't already a good little girl?"

"This will work," the woman said, throwing a candle from the entertainment
center.

The candle  landed on Ace's lap.  The wind from her breath fanned the small
flame to roar engulfing the child's flesh and hair. She and her daughter
disappeared.

"Damn!"  Josh yelled wrapping his screaming three year old in a rug.  Running
out the door, Pete pulled the hose inside, dousing Ace with water.  With
reluctance the flames died.

"What the hell is going on?" Christov said,  coming into the house along with
Father Devon..

"Pete, you haven't been the only one to confide in me about sightings," Father
Devon said, "Christov saw her first  in Chicago."

Peeling the rug off the burned  child, Josh sliced  his   wrist, rubbing his
blood into Ace' s burns, Pete handed Ace a rat to kill.   The crying child bit
with his small fangs into the kicking rat's artery.

"This is all my fault," Christov said remorsefully, "I shouldn't have talked  to
her. She lied to me. She told me she was Marie Glapion, a voodum queen."

"She isn't," David said glumly, "She appeared to Christov in a shape she thought
Christov would be impressed with.  His having a conversation with her opened the
doors she needed to be more of a presence  in this world.    Pete, Josh tell me
about any conversation she had with you."

Quickly, they informed Father Devon of her words and what they saw

"She wants to save your children by being a mother to them," Father Devon said
thoughtfully.

"What is she some sort of whacked out ghost of a social worker from child
protective services!" Christov said angrily.

"In a sense yes she is," Father Devon said, "Even through  I'm no longer with
the Roman Catholic Church, I still keep my hand on the pulse of the spirit
world.  Christov when you told me about your sightings, and Pete when you told
me about seeing a ghost I went into the library to look though the   files of
back issues of the Chicago Times.  I looked through the obituaries to see who
had died the week Christov first saw her.   A mother drowned her nine year old
daughter, Arabelle,  in the bath tub.  She did it to save her."

"To save her?' Josh cried.

"She knew the father was sexually abusing their  daughter.  This woman  had a
long history of mental problems.   Her husband was divorcing her because he
could no longer live with her  or live  their Christian fundamentalist life
style. He confessed the truth to her."

The truth?' Pete said in a  faint voice, while he comforted Ace.

"That he was gay. When she found out  her already weak mind  was pathetically
destroyed.  She believed he would make her daughter as dammed and as evil he was
if he was granted visitation rights or full custody.  She drowned her daughter
and waited for him to come home intending to shoot him.  They fought for the
gun, and he ended up accidentally killing her."

 A Hot Wheel car flew though the air slamming itself into David's face. Soon a
host of Ace's toy cars went zinging through the room, pelting Father Devon.  A
child's laughter lurked into the room.

"Listen you," Christov yelled, "We talked before! Calm your child  down. We know
your a good mother,  let's talk this out!"

The child's laughter was put out.   The cars stopped their assault.

"You refused to go to purgatory! You refused to realize what you have done in
killing your daughter and trying to kill your husband was wrong," Father Devon
cried, "You feel  God is being unfair to you.  So you stay away from the light
because you fear God will be unjust.   How can you as a so called good Christian
keep your daughter at your side lost in the spirit world? You have to take her
and yourself into the light.  Leave these people be  spirit.  You're a liar,
you're on no mission from God!"

"It's  all a misunderstanding," she whispered, appearing before him,  "Father
Devon it's all wrong.  God is mistaken.  There is no need for me to go to
purgatory.  There is no need for me to ask forgiveness, to be sorry for anything
I have done.  Arabella would have gone to hell for  having such a father.  He
would have gone to hell to if he consummated any more acts of sexual profanity
with men.  I loved my husband!  Once all three of us were dead we would be able
to stay being a family!  I would have led them on the path of goodness and we
would have been happy! You are like him.  You have  all have chosen to be
dammed.  You chosen your  children to be damned.  Soon you will touch your
children as lovers.  You're tainted perverted! "

"Haunt your stupid husband than.  Come on, go where ever he's at and burn him,"
Christov yelled.

"I cannot bear to see him.  He's with his lover.  Damn him to hell, I cannot
save him.  But the children," she cried,  "God will come around and understand
my intentions are good once they are dead.  We'll all be angels, not souls in
purgatory. He cannot misjudge their killings as a selfish act as He misjudged by
killing of Arabella.  He thought I was jealous of the love my husband and
daughter had for each other  God was wrong so, so wrong.""

"God doesn't want you  because you do not want anything to do with  Him," Pete
cried.

"Nor do you, Look at  at you. Unnatural, I can fix things, make it all right,"
she cried. Embodying herself, she became Pete's spitting image, "Father Devon,
you're lonely, I now what you want. Even through I look as I do, I'm still a
woman. We can give our children Arabella, Tabby, and Ace  a normal life.  A
family nature intended.  Father Devon kill the beasts."

Horrified, Father Devon's mind strayed from his sanity into his desires.  The
ghost embraced him, giving him searching out kisses.  Passionately the ghost
cupped Father Devon between the legs, stroking him.

"Father Devon?' Pete whispered.

Flinging himself at Pete,  Father Devon took out a knife Father Devon  sent
flames out at Pete  Fire started to eat at Pete's clothes.

Christov pulled Father Devon back by his shoulders, breaking Father Devon's
concentration. The flames flew upwards, starting to fan on the ceiling instead.

Pete scrambled  to Father Devon, taking the knife  Father Devon   dropped In a
split second Pete thrust the knife into Tabby's chest.  Blood seeped through the
cloth, "It's a mortal sin to kill her," Pete yelled.

"No, your saving her. You're  rescuing her. You would  teach her all kinds of
immorality if you didn't show her the mercy you're showing her now.  You're
saving her by killing her!" the ghost wildly  approved.

Stabbing Tabby's small body again, Pete yelled, "You're  not innocent.   Killing
her is a mortal sin."

"She can't sin once she's dead. Her thighs will never be played with by you,
monster.   What she would be taught by you she's now  incapable of doing.   You
are good man after all!  Kill her." the ghost gloated.

"But mother" Arabella said confused, "You said that man was a demon, a devil!
And that's why we had to kill Tabby. How can a devil  do an act of goodness?
You told me to kill Tabby. He's a devil  and he's killing Tabby.  Did you lie to
me?  Am I devil like him?"


"You're killing her didn't' work," her mother insisted, "because your an angel."

"I could of killed  her by setting her  on fire.  Mother you taught me violence,
you taught me hate, you taught me sin, not father!" Arabella cried.

"But I,"  her mother stammered.

"You taught me how to be mean. You taught me how to hurt people That man you
kissed wasn't daddy!"   Arabella accused her mother.

"Death broke all ties between me and or father, " she cried.

"I miss my father," Araballe  said in a low voice.

"Listen Arebella, you don't  have to listen to your mother.  She didn't make
you into a good little girl by killing you.  You already were good," Pete cried
seeping his blood into Tabby's wound, "I'm sorry I hurt Tabby. I'm sorry you
hurt Tabby too, and  I'm sorry your mother hurt you.  Your mother isn't sorry
she hurt you.  Listen to me. You don't have to listen to a mother  who  hurts
you to make you into a good little girl!  You don't have to hate people the
people she hates to be good. You're mother didn't she once teach you it's bad to
hurt people before  she and your father broke up?"

"Yes," Arbella said confused.

"It is," Pete said firmly, "It is bad for mortals to hurt other mortals. Go into
the light without your mother."

"'Ill miss her."

"If your mother loves you, she'll go into the light with you," Pete insisted,
rocking a crying Tabby, "You're the  only one who  can help your mother. You can
teach her what she did to you and what she tried to do to  your father was
wrong, it was wrong."

"I love her," Araballe wept.

"Other's love you too," Josh said quietly, "Don't be afraid. Remember how afraid
you were when she held you  down in the water.  Remember how you struggled?  How
you couldn't breathe."

"Arabella don't listen to them  Don't.   I love you, I love you,' she said,
falling to her knees, embracing the child. "You may be no angel of God, but
you're my angel.  My pure, little angel. I saved you."

"Mother, you're cold! You're so cold!!" Arabella screamed

Pulling away from her mother, Arabella  yelled "It hurt I couldn't breath. I
wanted you to help me. To stop!  You kept on hurting me till I died.   You made
me to the same thing to Tabby you did to me. I'm not good."

"No, no you're good," the ghost wept, "You were helping Tabby like  I helped
you.  I did help you!  You have to understand I did help you."

"Run,  run into the light," Josh yelled.


Disappearing from her mother's side, Arabella was gone.

tbc