An Angry Mother

We hid my father's corpse in a tree. I admit that's a rather odd hiding place, but who would think to look there? To clarify, we didn't just chuck the thing up in the branches or something. We sort of opened up the tree and then closed it around the body, or fused the body with it. I don't know. Actually, it wasn't us who did it. Isabelle did it all by herself. She made it seem exceptionally easy. That's classic Isabelle for you. It brings back memories of the first time I met her. I was five, so it must have been just a year ago. Wow, it seems like it was much longer than that.1

Anyway, I was on the beach, and I found a very pretty rock that was clear. My dad's friend's son, Barty, was supposed to be watching me, because my dad was so sad after my mom died that I had to live with his friend's family for a little while. He was 16 and a grade A dick wad, and when he saw me with that rock he ran over and took it from me because he thought it was broken glass. I cried because I was really stupid back then. Really stupid, like carrying a backpack with a TV character on it to school stupid. That's beside the point. Isabelle must have heard me because she ran over and melted Barty's face off right down to the bone. She just looked at him, and it just started dripping right on down to the ground. I remember him trying to scream, but some of the melted skin and muscle and blood flooded into his mouth and muffled it. Isabelle has been my best friend since that day. We've had some crazy times.2

In my humble opinion, Isabelle is the most beautiful woman on Earth. She has this long blonde hair and blue-gray eyes, and she's tall, and her white skin has just a hint of peach to it, and she doesn't have any scars or anything. She's just like, perfect, you know? She's insanely smart too. She taught me everything I know. I was such a moron when I met her, and she said, "Come. Drink of me," and opened her breast to me, and as the salty milk fell down my throat I could feel my brain just absorbing the world. It was so confusing at first that it hurt, she'd make me keep going long after I wanted to quit, and she'd only stop me right before I was sure the blood in my brain was going to start boiling. But as we did it more I got a hold of it and began understanding what was coming to me. We just had to do it five times to get me as smart as I am today.3

It's great. It really is. Sometimes I wish we had just stopped at the fourth time though. I wouldn't have minded being just a little bit dumb. Plus it was only after the fifth time that I started turning into Andrew. If it wasn't for Andrew we wouldn't have had to hide my father's body in a tree. I just, I really hate Andrew. He's only five-foot-four, which is pretty short for a grown man, but he's still bigger than me so he destroys my clothes when I turn into him, and he's hairy everywhere except his head, and the scratches on his belly always bleed, and he has these really long metal spikes stuck through his wrists, but he can't get them out because the skin's grown around them. Not that he would want them out. He uses those to hurt and kill all his victims. And while I'm Andrew I can still see everything and hear all his thoughts, but the things he thinks are the only things left in the world that I can't understand even a little. He's always angry, but happy to be angry, and he imagines women without there clothes on all the time.4

He remembers being in a place that's dark, cold, and blue. He met Isabelle there, when she was crying and on fire, but she was also soaking wet. I don't get it either. I don't think he likes Isabelle, but he does what she says because he has to. I think he blames her for the scratches and the spikes. Andrew has killed nine people, and he enjoyed each one of them. When he is killing is the only time Andrew gets to be free anymore. I'm pretty sure he used to be an artist, but nobody loved his art, so he ended up homeless and drunk. When he's killing he can be as artistic as he wants, and Isabelle always loves him for it. He carves into his victims' flesh, he stabs things through them, he mixes together their fluids to create new colors, and he turns their screams into songs. He can try whatever he likes, and Isabelle is pleased no matter what. With my dad he dripped hot wax into his ears and pulled the skin off his belly to leave his muscles showing. Then he poured a bag of salt over the wound and chopped off my dad's arms.5

I think I cried the most I've ever cried in my life that night. Isabelle said it had to happen though, and that only Andrew and I could do it for her. She told me my father and all the others we had killed had sent her to the Blue Place, and that people from the Blue Place were powerless against those who had sent them there. It makes me so angry, but I guess she's right. My father and his friends were jerks to Isabelle, and if you're a jerk that means you have to pay the price. Plus, now that my old family is dead, I can have a new one. Just Isabelle, Andrew, and I.6

***7

Dr. Harne walked in from the back room as Walter set down the book with a disgusted look on his face.8

"Ah, I see you've found the journal of Courtney Snow," Dr. Harne observed, "One of my more disturbing artifacts if I do say so myself. It's the first hand account of a young girl who not only encountered two spirits that had been condemned to a demonic realm, she was actually possessed by one."9

Walter looked at him, "So you mean that was all true."10

"Well, that's hard to prove, but I wouldn't keep it here unless I suspected its authenticity," Dr. Harne paused thinking over his words as he sat down next to Walter. "While I was researching it I came across reports of one Andrew Bryman. He seemed to be a homeless drunk who was nailed down to the floor of an abandoned house with large spikes and then cut into. It seemed very much like a demonic sacrifice. Oddly enough, almost six months after his murder, what looked like a naked man with spikes through his wrist was seen fleeing a murder scene. Very possibly one of the nine Courtney mentioned. Then there is the strange case of Isabelle Bestler. Her daughter, Nina Bestler, drowned in the ocean very shortly before the murder of Andrew Bryman, and in the same town. Then two night's after Andrew's death, Isabelle was found burnt to death on the beach with a child in her arms. I have a theory if you'd like to hear it."11

"Oh, I'd like nothing better, doctor," Walter replied.12

"Okay, then," started Dr. Harne, "After Nina drowned, her grief-stricken mother Isabelle somehow found a demonic force that would return her daughter to life. Isabelle ritualistically sacrificed the homeless artist Andrew Bryman to this force, which damned him to the realm Courtney called the Blue Place. Somehow, at least nine residents of the town found out what she did, and confronted her at the beach as Nina returned from the waters. The townspeople burned the mother and daughter, which thus sent Isabelle to the Blue Place because of the deal she had made with the force that controlled it. However, since Nina had no place in the sacrifice, she was spared that fate. Now as Courtney said, those in the Blue Place are powerless against those who sent them there, meaning Isabelle had control over Andrew. I believe that Isabelle saw the death of Mrs. Snow as an opportunity to get revenge. She befriended Courtney and then used her as a vessel for her relative slave Andrew, who she then forced to brutally murder those who had killed her and her daughter. What do you think?"13

"Seems like a plot to the movies I watched when I was a kid, and let me just say, the young me had terrible taste," commented Walter. "It's an interesting theory though, but just exactly how did Isabelle find out about Mrs. Snow's death here on Earth if she was in the Blue Place, and how do you propose she and Andrew escaped said Blue Place."14

"That befuddled me as well, Walter," Dr. Harne stood up, "I really don't know how they would do it. All I know is I wouldn't put anything past an angry mother."15

Walter rolled his eyes and reached for another book on the table as Dr. Harne returned to the back room.16