Catspeaksart

Okay, who can guess what this is a satire of? 

Okay, I have to admit… I like to write drama more then comedy. 

Arnold kicked a rock with the toe of his sneaker. It bounced across the hard-packed tan dirt and landed in a puddle of mucky water.
“Why do we need to leave?” A.J., Arnold’s younger sister asked again. She still didn’t understand.
“‘Cause, it’s not safe here nomore.” Arnold explained for the fifth time.
“But what about my toys, and my friends, and our house?” She pulled at the hem of his shirt, and asked into his face.
“We gotta leave those behind A.J..” Arnold shook his head, and took his six-year-old sister’s hand.
“Come on, I left the car running.” He said as he scooped her up into his arms and began to walk towards the driveway. A.J. watched over her brother’s shoulder as they made their way towards the red pickup truck parked in front of the hose.
The weapon had contaminated the entire state of New Mexico when it went off. The government had been attempting to create something that would be frightening enough to put an end to war all together. It would scare other countries into obeying commands, and holding their fire. The government had succeeded. Why was it though, that a person intelligent enough to create such a weapon could neglect to remember that the other side could have the very same weapon? When the United States loosed their new killing machine on the boarder of Mexico, they were astounded to find themselves face to face with their own mass-murder formula.
None of this occupied Arnold’s thoughts as he buckled A.J. into her seat, and rolled down the driveway and into the street. The one thing that rocked back and forth in Arnold’s brain right now was what his mother had said before she died.
“Life is the most important thing. Whether it be better off living, or dead, life is the most important thing.” Arnold had no idea what his mother had meant when she said these words. He had been so distraught by the events taking place around him, that he hadn’t even asked for further clarification. Arnold’s mother had been close to the border when the weapon went off. She was safe for the first explosion, but when Mexico’s weapon went off in retaliation to America’s, she wasn’t far enough away. Arnold had been allowed to visit her once before they put her down. She was in so much pain. The vapors of the weapon had coated her skin, and breathed into her lungs. It was literally eating her from the inside out. Arnold remembered those few hurried moments, the barrier of diamond shield that kept him from touching his mother. Diamond was the only thing that wasn’t porous enough to be eaten through by the weapon, which was a genetic manipulation of the leprosy disease.
Arnold sucked in a heavy breath as he recounted this memory, and a tear squeezed out of the corner of his eye. This wasn’t a sad tear – all of his sadness had been used up already. This was an angry tear. The anger and hate for the inventor of the weapon, for the US government, and for anything else that had taken his mother away from him.
“Where will we live now?” A.J. broke the silence with a question.
“Don’t know A.J..” Arnold said in a voice rougher then he usually used with his sister.
“What about school?” A.J. continued to ask questions that her brother didn’t know how to answer.
“We’ll find out when we cross the border.” He said through a mouth set in a tight line. Arnold and his sister had lived in Las Cruces, and they had a long drive ahead of them before they reached Denver Colorado, which is where the vapors had dispersed enough to live safely. The station of detoxification was in Colorado Springs, and Arnold had heard that is was slightly painful. The intention of the process was to remove all traces of the state they had just left, and that included the air that they had breathed. Arnold hoped that his sister would make it through okay.
“You sleepy A.J.?” Arnold asked as he watched his sister’s head loll to the side, and her eyelids droop.
“No.” She mumbled as her eyes slid shut. Arnold was happy when she finally went to sleep, he didn’t like her to see the things happening around her.
“Hey!” Arnold shouted as he swerved the truck to the side in an attempt to avoid hitting a person standing in the road. His breath came out unevenly as Arnold put his hands on the wheel and looked stared ahead of him with wide eyes. The sun had gone down, making it difficult to see, but Arnold could just barely make out the form of the woman approaching his window. He deliberated rolling it down to talk, people had become dangerous after the repercussions of the explosion, and the thought of being mugged for food, or something worse, made him cautious.
The face of the woman appeared behind the glass, and Arnold relaxed a little. She was nonthreatening when she lifted her hands to the sides of her head, to show that she was unarmed.
“Hey?” Arnold said, as he rolled down two inches of the glass. He left it mostly up, just in case.
“I need a ride.” The woman said simply. She didn’t need to further evaluate the situation, Arnold knew that if she said she needed a ride, it meant she would die if she didn’t get one. Without a word he unlocked the door, and she wound around the vehicle to the passenger side.
Humanity in New Mexico had been divided into two portions. The first one was the mass majority that had reduced to looting, and robbing for survival. They didn’t trust, or rely on anyone, and they were what had made Arnold so cautious when he saw the woman approach his window. The second side was made up of people like Arnold. They knew that their survival depended on the strength of human compassion, and gave whatever they were able. The first half was all about mine, the second was all about us.
“So where you from cowgirl?” Arnold asked as the woman situated herself on the bench seat with the still-sleeping A.J.. She lifted her cattle-hand hat off of her head, and let it drop in her lap. It was the only thing that she carried, outside of the clothes on her back, and a tiny brown bag slung over her shoulder.
“Rosewell.” She answered.
“You been walking the whole way?” Arnold stared down at her tattered brown sandals.
“Yeah.” She answered.
“You know where you’re staying when you get to Denver?”
“No.” Arnold nodded and looked through the windshield. It seemed that he had just collected a companion.

The sun glared through the glass of the car windows, and Arnold lifted his head sleepily. He had pulled over to rest at around midnight the night before, and had fallen asleep within moments. His head swiveled on to the side, and he stared at the still-sleeping bodies of his companions. A.J. had been asleep since the moment the sun had gone down the previous day, and had yet to meet her new travel-buddy. This didn’t stop her from curling her tiny baby hands around the shirt of the woman she slept beside, in a childish dependence. Arnold had seen her do the same to their mother, and this made him curious as to the face of the woman that his sister had become attached to.
She was young, maybe in her mid twenties, with hair that looked as though it had once been a vibrant shade of red, but had been bleached out by the sun to a pale shade of strawberry blond. Her cheeks were slim, and her chin pointed, and her eyes were closed, but Arnold could see that they were small, and squinted. Her skin was dark pink from repeated sun burns, but Arnold could clearly make out the signs of a person coated with freckles. All together, it was a plain face that was used to hard work, and going without. Arnold stared at his sister’s olive toned fingers as they gripped the white t-shirt of the stomach her black head of hair was cradled on.
The woman stirred slightly in her sleep, then her brown eyes blinked open. Arnold started the truck, and drove off of the side of the road onto the black tar of the street.
“Good morning.” The woman mumbled as she rubbed a sleepy hand over her eyes.
“Morning.” Arnold said, glancing to the side to see that his sister was just waking up.
“Looks like I’ve made a friend.” The woman said as A.J. lifted her head to stare at the stranger.
“Arnold, who is that?” A.J. asked as she backed up slightly.
“This is a new friend. She’s going to travel with us.” Arnold told his sister.
“I’m Sal.” The woman told A.J. with a smile.
“I’m A.J..” A.J. said hesitantly. “And that’s my big brother, Arnold.”
“Nice to meet you A.J..” Sal nodded her head.
“Were you here when the weapon went off?” A.J. asked Sal.
“Yeah.” Sal nodded.
“Did you see it?”
“As well as anyone else in New Mexico.”
“I saw it too.” A.J. nodded with a sigh. “But not as well as my mama. She was right inside of it.” Sal’s expression turned to a frown, and she glanced up at Arnold for a second. His face was contorted with memories, and he flicked the radio dial on. It didn’t work, as the local station was no longer operating, and the scratchy fuzz that filled the vehicle was deafening. Arnold flicked the dial off, and turned back to the road.
“Do you know where we’re going?” A.J. contined to question her new favorite stranger.
“Denver.” Sal told her.
“Is there school, and toys in Denver?” A.J. asked.
“Yes.” Sal nodded.
“I hope my mama will be in Denver.” A.J. said to herself. Arnold’s expression tightened, and his eyes stared forward like stones in a pool of water. The car was caught in an unbearable silence as they drove across the hellish landscape of a destroyed culture.

“She alseep?” Arnold asked Sal after the sun had gone down.
“Yes.” Sal nodded, and stared down at the sleeping face of the girl in her lap.
“Good.” He nodded and stared out at the road.
“How old is she?” Sal asked.
“Six.” Arnold replied.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
“Are you her father.”
“She don’t have a father.” A long pause followed this conversation before Sal broke the silence for a second time.
“Does she know?” She didn’t need to say the word for Arnold to know that she was referring to his mother.
“No.”
Sal stared out at the landscape as it rushed by in a blur. There was no need to obey the speed limit, and Arnold drove as fast as he was comfortable – the sooner they got to Denver the better.
“Stop the car.” Sal said flatly. Arnold didn’t hesitate to brake the vehicle to a halt, then watched Sal as she flung her door open, and lifted the flap off of her brown bag. She walked with determination towards a deer lying in the road. It didn’t move as it would have if it were healthy, instead it lay limply on the boarder of black tar, and lolled its head from side to side. Sal pulled something out of her bag, and Arnold’s eyes widened as she aimed the gun, and pulled the trigger at the animal. An explosion sounded through the air, and A.J. whimpered in her sleep. Arnold flung his door open and ran towards Sal, as she turned to walk back to the car.
“What the hell did you just do!” He shouted at her.
“I put an end to hell, that’s what I just did.” She said without looking at him.
“You just killed something – you took its life! Life is the most important thing!” Arnold shouted.
“Of course it is.” Sal looked at his face. “That’s why I did that.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Arnold demanded.
“You said that life is the most important thing. You got that right, but you forgot the other half.” Sal told him.
“There is no other half, that’s it – no questions asked.” Arnold pointed his finger to the ground and stomped to stand closer to Sal.
“Yes there is, life is a thing just like anything else, and sometimes it’s better off when it’s taken away.” Sal told him.
“And what gives you permission to take away life? You like to play god? What now, you gonna g build a fancy bomb to blow the world to smithereens because you can? Huh?” Arnold paced back and forth in front of Sal, but she remained where she was.
“Of course not Arnold.” She said.
“Well, you’re on the right track – that’s for sure!” Arnold waved his hand through the air, and stared hard at Sal. She took a step forward, and began to speak.
“Sometimes bad things happen, and it’s too late to do anything about it. But working with what you have is better then doing nothing at all. I’m just trying to make things better then they are – even if better then they are is nowhere near being something good.” She frowned and moved towards the truck. Arnold remained where he was for a few moments longer then she did, but eventually went to take his seat in the driver’s chair. A.J. was still sleeping on the front bench, and Sal slid her over to sit down.
“I miss my mom.” Arnold said to no one. “I can’t make that better.”
“Yeah you can.” Sal said without looking at him.
“How.” The word was a question, but Arnold said it like a statement.
“Look at her.” Sal said with her hand on A.J.’s head. “Even destruction leaves behind hope. And it’s sitting right next to you.” Arnold’s frown increased, but his mouth relaxed.
Life is the most important thing. And life was sitting right next to him.

This one was taken from actual experiences. Not. Even. Kidding. Enjoy.

Mom’s footsteps clomped down the stairs as she charged through the house to the kitchen.
“No one answers the phone in this house!” She shouted to anyone within hearing distance. Four heads lifted, and four sets of eyes stared vacantly around the room.
“That’s because it’s never for us.” Unice mumbled as she returned her attention to the computer screen in front of her.
“Hello!” Mom said forcefully into the phone – slightly out of breath. “Oh yes…” Her voice relaxed as she spoke to the individual on the other end of the line.
“Yes, that would be fine… Oh, I’m sure they’d just love that… Okay, we can do that. Alright, I’ll see you, goodbye.”
“Who was it?” Ken didn’t look up from book he was engrossed in when he asked.
“That was Ms. Topkins. She needs us to pet sit while she visits her nephew and his family. Three groans echoed around the room in perfect harmony.
“Noooo…” Matt sat back in his chair and rubbed his hands over his eyes.
“What?” Mom looked around the room with a question mark on her face.
“She has four hundred animals – and her house smells like a men’s locker room.” Ken informed his mother with a tired groan in his voice.
“Wait – who’s house?” Sadie looked up from her math homework and stared around the room.
“Weren’t you listening?” Unice raised an eyebrow at her younger sister with a shake of her head.
“We never answer the phone in this house?” Sadie repeated the last segment of conversation that she could recall.
“We have to watch Ms. Topkins’s zoo while she’s away.” Ken looked pointedly at Sadie, his younger sister.
“No freaking way.” Sadie said without missing a beat.
“Alright, that’s enough.” Mom said with authority. “You only have to watch for two days, and you can use the money for whatever you want.” She directed her arched eyebrow around the room, before turning to leave.

A chorus of footsteps drummed across the sidewalk as the four siblings tromped through the snow to Ms. Topkins’s house.
“Give me one of your corn chips.” Matt said to Unice, reaching to put his hand in her bag of chips.
“No way.” Unice pulled away and the bag crinkled in her hand.
“I hope they don’t poop on the floor. I hate it when they poop on the floor.” Sadie, the youngest of the group said with a hopeless expression crumpled on her face.
“Alright, if they poop on the floor then we’ll have to draw straws for who picks it up.” Matt said with his hands in his pockets.
“Deal.” The other three said in unison.
The sound of dogs barking, birds squawking, and fish… blooping, erupted from the house like a symphony with mismatched sheet music.
“Okay, where to start?” Ken said with his hands resting on the base of his waist.
“Let the dogs out.” Unice crossed the floor, and vaulted over the baby-gate that kept the five dogs from leaving the kitchen. She turned the knob of the backdoor and the five-some of quadrupeds barked their way out of the house.
“Next?” Matt poked around in the kitchen cabinets.
“You do birds, Ken, you do cats, I’ll take the fish, and Sadie, you handle the reptiles.” The oldest of the group took authority, and everyone followed Unice’s instructions.
“Uuuummmm…” Someone said from the back of the house.
“What?” Unice raised her head with a tired sigh.
“Wasn’t there supposed to be two iguanas in here?” Sadie said with a nervous tremor.
“Yeah…” Unice’s eyes squinted as she walked through the hallway to where her sister was supposed to be feeding crickets to lizards, and changing the bedding of snake’s cages.
“There’s only one.” Sadie said simply.
“Oh god.” Unice’s eye widened to the size of DVDs as she stared into the empty cage.
“Okay, you take the basement, I’ll take the bedrooms. We need to find that iguana.” The sisters nodded their heads, and charged off to find the missing reptile.
Not five minutes after Unice and Sadie had discovered the mystery of the missing iguana, a yell echoed throughout the house.
“EEEWWWWW!” Matt shouted as he stared at the cat chewing on the corpse of a mouse.
“What?” Three alarmed faces poked around the doorway, and stared at the revolting sight.
“Oh no! Those where supposed to be for the snakes!” Unice charged across the floor and picked the feline up under her arm. The mouse dropped from her mouth, and lay in a dead heap on the carpet.
“Ugh.” Unice blinked her eyes and turned her head to the side. “Someone get me wet wipe.” She said, through gritted teeth. Matt escaped to the bathroom, and returned holding a damp white cloth. Unice took the wipe, and dropped the cat that was still hanging in her arm. She plucked the mouse off of the floor, and covered her mouth and nose with her hand as she charged out the door into the reptile room. She deposited the corpse in the snake cage, and turned her head to the side with revulsion riveting through her face.
“Okay.” She said stepping out of the room and into the hallway. “Next.”
Sadie returned to the reptile room, and lifted the lid of the mesh cage that contained the crickets for feeding the lizards.
“Wha!” A swarm of tiny chirps, and elastic legs flew in a could around her face as Sadie reached her hand into the cage.
“Sadie! You were supposed to put the cage into the lizard tank before you took the top off!” Matt reprimanded his younger sister.
“I just – I didn’t – ” Sadie’s arms flapped around for added emphasis to her confusion.
“Just help me get them into the tank!” Matt told her with a roll of his eyes. Sadie sadly complied, and the siblings where on their hands and knees as they plucked crickets out of the air like a game of Jacks gone wild.
“Okay, that’s all the ones I can see.” Matt said with his hands on his hips.
“Alright.” Sadie stood, and picked the mesh cage up off of the floor. She crossed the carpet to the glass tank, and lifted the heat lamp off of the top before setting the mesh square in the center of the tank and lifting the lid. The crickets jumped merrily to their death, and Sadie and Matt left the room.
“Hey!” Matt shouted as he opened the door to the backyard. “Get back in here!” A cat jumped through the doorway and made dark holes in the snow with her paws.
“Quick, someone help me get the cat!” Matt shouted over his shoulder as he dashed out the door. Sadie ran through the doorway her coat flying, to help her brother with the escaped feline.
“She’s in the tree!” Matt shouted with a finger pointing into the leafless branches of a hibernating tree. The orange fur of the animal was just barely visible at the uppermost branches.
“Someone has to climb it.” Sadie said at the base of the trunk.
“I’m not climbing it!” Matt said hurriedly. “That thing is as tall as a T-Rex!”
“We have to get her down somehow.” Sadie said under her breath.
“Here make some snowballs!” Sadie reached down and pulled a fist of white powder into a ball.
“What?” Matt looked at her with an arched brow.
“If we just throw the snowballs at her, then she’ll get scared and come right down.” Sadie explained her suggestion. Matt figured it was worth a shot, so he followed his younger sister’s example and plucked up a ball of snow to throw at the cat. Unfortunately the animal was out of reach of their aim, and the snowballs fell uselessly to pop like soap bubbles at the kids’ feet.
“It’s not working.” Matt said.
“Well what do you suggest?” Sadie grouched at him.
“We need to climb it.” He said determinedly.
“How will we get all the way to the top?”
“Here, you stand on my shoulders, and reach up as high as you can.” Matt bent down for his sister, and she shuffled onto his shoulders before he rose to a stand.
“Okay, now reach up and call to her.” Matt said from between Sadie’s knees.
“Here kitty kitty kitty!” Sadie called up to the orange spot of fur. The cat mewed twice, then climbed higher.
“I think she’s stuck.” Sadie said with alarm.
“She can’t be stuck she’s a cat!” Matt said, straining against the extra weight on his shoulders.
“She’s about as stuck as a cat can be stuck.” Sadie said decidedly.
“Fine. Climb up higher, stand on my shoulders now.” Matt said with an exhausted tone. Sadie held onto the tree trunk for support as she rose to a stand on her brother’s shoulders.
“Here kitty kitty kitty!” She called louder.
“Oh no.” Matt said through gritted teeth.
“What?” Sadie looked down just in time to watch her brother’s knees buckle, and the two collapsed to the ground. A second after they fell, the orange blur of fur came within view of their faces, and padded through the snow to the back door.
“Mew.” The cat said simply.
“Uh. Stupid cat.” Sadie mumbled under her breath as she stood to shake snow off of her coat. The siblings let the cat in, and followed it through the kitchen and into the hallway.
“Um, guys?” Unice said from the back room.
“Yeah?” Matt and Sadie replied nervously.
“I think this fish is… dead.” The two looked at each other before Matt and Sadie crossed the hallway and walked through the doorway of the back room.
“Ew.” Sadie said as she stared into the glass tank at the corpse of a tropical fish.
“What did you do to it?” Matt asked with his eyes squinting.
“Nothing, I just fed it a corn chip!” Unice declared.
“Um, Unice?” Sadie said hesitantly.
“What?” Unice demanded.
“I think you killed it.” She finished hurriedly.
“How did I kill it?” Unice demanded another answer.
“The corn chip exploded in its little bitty belly.” Sadie pinched her fingers in the air for added emphasis. Unice’s eyes bulged and she swung her head to look back into the tank.
“Oh my god, you’re right.” She said with alarm. “What are we going to do?”
“Quick.” Matt said, as he crossed the floor. “Get the fish out of there before the others see it – it could damage their little brains.” The siblings retrieved a tiny green net from the cabinet under the fish tank, and scooped the corpse into the empty corn chip bag.
“Great. Now what?” Unice said to her brother.
“Now, uh… Hold on, I’ll be right back.” He dodged out of the room and returned moments later with a rubber duck from the bathroom.
“What’s that supposed to be for?” Unice looked at the duck with scepticism.
“It was a yellow fish.” Matt said as he pulled a pair of scissors off of the table next to the fish tank. He got to work cutting a shape out of the rubber bath toy, and finished by drawing a black eye at the base of the shape.
“That’s great Matt, you’re a real artist.” Unice grumbled at the completed work.
“Just, work with me okay?” Matt said shaking his head. “Ms. Topkins is like – fifty percent blind. She’ll never know.” Matt stuffed the artistic rendition of a fish into a decorative cave in the tank and stepped back to admire his work.
“Brilliant.” Unice said, with more then slight sarcasm. Sadie shrugged her shoulders up and down.
“I think it looks very realistic.” She said without concern. Matt nodded and let out a sigh.
“Uh, has anyone seen Ken recently?” Sadie asked aloud. Just then a muffled shout reached their ears from the basement. The three siblings took a second to glance at each other before darting out of the room and charging down the stairs.
“We’re coming Ken!” Matt called to him.
“What the – ” Unice froze at the entrance to the basement.
“Hey, great job Ken.” Sadie started. “You found the iguana.”
“Um, I think the iguana found him actually.” Unice said as she stared wide eyed at the three-foot-long reptile.
“So what do we do?” Matt asked as they stared at the miniature dinosaur.
“Oh I don’t know, why don’t you build a knock-off fish out of a rubber duck, and convince Ms. Topkins that it’s her pet.” Unice said argumentatively. Matt scowled and returned his stare to the iguana.
“How did it get down here?” Sadie asked.
“I don’t know.” Said Ken. He was perched on the lid of the washing machine – a bag of cat food clutched in his hands.
“But get it out of here. I can’t leave with it holding me prisoner like this.” He said.
“Okay, um…” Sadie evaluated the situation. A few pellets of cat food dropped out of the bag in Ken’s hands and fell to the floor at the iguana’s feet. It turned it’s head to the side and snapped up the brown cat cookies with its lips. Ken stared and moved the bag to the side. A few more pellets dropped to the ground, and the iguana wasted no haste in snapping up these as well.
“Here, I’ve got an idea.” Unice said as she stepped closer to the lizard. “Ken, toss a few cat foods this way, like in a path. Ken quickly complied, and the iguana slunk closer to the dropped food. He ate up the brown pellets in a path to the stairs, and the minds of all three children clicked an idea into place. Ken slid down off of the washing machine, and stepped very hesitantly around the baby dinosaur. He continued to drop pieces of food, until he got to the foot of the stairs.
“Can iguanas climb stairs?” Ken asked as a few pellets of cat food dropped by his feet. In a heartbeat the iguana was on the second step to snatch up the dropped food. Ken screeched and ran up the stairs.
“I’d say that’s a yes.” Unice said drolly. The iguana continued up the steps behind Ken, as he raced up the stairs and into the kitchen. pellets of cat food dropped every few feet, and this was enough to keep the iguana moving. He stopped at the entrance to the cage and tossed a few pellets of cat food into the center. The lizard continued to walk towards the food, and Ken slammed the cage shut behind it. The iguana in the cage on the opposite side of the room slunk to the side and hissed through the chicken wire.
“I-ee!” Ken shouted and dodged out of the room, cat food flying. The three siblings sighed as the stared at eachother in the hallway.
“Did you feed the dogs?” Unice asked the party.
“Yes.” Ken nodded.
“Scoop the litter?”
“Yes.”
“Feed the birds?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
“Yes.”

The phone rang in the air, unanwered – as usual.
“What is it with people and answering the phone around here?” Mom clamored through the living room to the kitchen to pick the phone up off its bed.
“Hello!” She said forcefully. “Oh, yes hi Ms. Topkins. Did you have a nice visit? … Oh wonderful! … Yes they enjoyed themselves so much, they just love animals…”
“We love money.” Unice corrected her mother from the computer screen. Mom jabbed a threatening finger at her daughter, who shrugged unconcernedly.
“That would be great, thatnks…” Mom continued. “I – what? … I don’t know… Um, let me get back to you on that. Okay, bye.” Mom set the phone down on its bed, and then turned to face the ocupants of the room.
“Who replaced Ms. Topkins’s yellow tank with a chopped up rubber duck?”

I had fun with this one – it’s so melodramatic and over the top. Enjoy. Or not.

“We can’t just leave it here.” The words crackled through the dungeon in a hushed whisper.
“Why not?” A second voice joined her companion, and scraped in the air like rubbing two stones together.
“The smell.” The last voice of the group joined the party, with a sarcastic cackle.
“It won’t stay fresh for long. But what to do with it?” Voice number one braved the air for a second time.
“Burn him?”
“Bury him?”
“Barbecue him?” Suggestions fell idiotically through the air like a drawer of sharp knives dumped beside someone’s foot.
“Stop. You’re hurting me.” The first voice was saturated with contempt. Beatrice stood off of the ground with a dramatic sweep of her long tattered skirts.
“Burn him? And have the whole town asking after the inexplicable raging inferno? Bury him? And have a missing body on our hands? Barbecue him? Well that’s just disgusting.” The sneer on Beatrice’s face was so potent, her sisters could almost taste the ridicule.
“What then?” Agnus straitened her legs to stand, and crossed her arms over her chest.
“It’s time for a spell.” Beatrice poked her head over her shoulder and rose one eyebrow enticingly. In and instant the three women had dove across the floor and were clouded in a puff of dust as they proceeded to rip books of of the ancient black shelves of the mansion.
“A spell!” Lulu squealed with animated delight. “It’s been a decade since we preformed a spell!” Her long black hair draped across her back as Lulu swung her head from side to side with happy daydreams in-between her ears.
“This isn’t going to be a spell spell.” Beatrice tugged at the reigns of excitement with commanding authority.
“Explain.” Agnus paused in her book rifling to squint at her sister in the flickering torchlight.
“It will be painful.” Beatrice said simply.
“Noooo.” Agnus and Lulu let out twin groans of dread when the meaning of their sister’s words penetrated their sculls.
“I don’t want to give away any more of my life. I’m already half mortal as it is!” Agnus shook her head of fiery hair back and forth decidedly.
“Yes, just look at these crow’s feet!” Lulu pressed her index finger against the sides of her eyes to show the barely identifiable signs of an aging woman.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” The knot of her tightly pinned blond bun swiveled from side to side as Beatrice shook her head with a roll of her black eyes.
“If you want to live at all, then you’ll do as I say.” She told her sisters with adamant decision. “Now hand me that book.” Beatrice stabbed a finger at a book the size of a small window frame, and raised an eyebrow at Lulu when she hesitated.
“This is your fault. Now get me that book.” Beatrice’s stare could have punched holes into a mountainside. Lulu hung her head to avoid the pain of her sister’s gaze, and hefted the weighty collection of leather-bound words across the floor to the alter.
“She’s right you know.” Agnus said under her breath.
“You shut your mouth!” Lulu whipped around in a frenzy and glared angry tears at her sister.
“I can still remember the last time that was one of yours!” Lulu jabbed a finger at the body sprawled lifelessly across the floor. Agnus’s lip curled, but she remained silent. Beatrice sliced through the anger with a quick clap of her hands.
“Now.” She said with unquestionable dominance. The sisters crossed the floor to the alter, and stared for half of a second at the spell that was lain out before them. Their heads turned in unison towards the path that lead outside. The three womens’ bare feet slapped across the floor as they crossed the space between themselves and the chalk-drawn circle on the slab of stone that lead out of the dungeon and into the night. The women held hands creating a ring of bodies around the circle and held completely still. No words were uttered, and the silence that encapsulated the arena could have stifled the flame of a candle.
The women let out a jaw-clenched groan of pain as a portion of their life escaped their bodies and slithered in a black snake towards the lifeless body lying on the stone floor of the dungeon. The shapeless black serpent snaked around the corpse and lifted it off the ground to a standing position. It sank sickeningly into his skin and disappeared from view.
Three sighs escaped their lips as the sisters relaxed and dropped each other’s hands.
“I hate it when we have to do that.” Lulu mumbled under her breath.
“Then stop making men fall in love with you.” Beatrice scowled at her sister.
“It wasn’t my fault this time!” Lulu shook her head back and forth exasperatedly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Agnus stared at her with her arms in an X over her chest.
“I didn’t – try this time.” Lulu said uncertainly. The animated corpse mumbled an unintelligible string of words then swayed like a tree in the breeze.
“Take care of him.” Beatrice pointed her finger at the body and looked across the room to Lulu. Lulu nodded her head and took the hand of the lifeless man beside her. He followed like a puppet, always distantly muttering under his breath. Lulu trailed him to the stairs and began tromping up through the floor of the dungeon and into the poorly maintained furnishings of the mansion above. She brought him up a second staircase and lead him to a bedroom on the top floor. The man muttered all the way to the canopy bed in the corner of the room. She lay him down and adjusted the covers over his body – then stood to watch his face as he stared without focus at the space above him.
“Lulu.” Beatrice called from the entrance of the room. Lulu’s head snapped up and she stared at the figure that was held in the frame of the doorway.
“What.” She said.
“It will be morning within a few hours. We’ll do it then. Lulu nodded, and returned her stare to the body on the bed. the door creaked shut as Beatrice exited the room and left Lulu with the dead man.
Lulu sat down on the bed, and took the man’s hand. He shook his head from side to side on the pillow, and the corners of his mouth twitched once. Lulu only watched for a moment before her hands shot through the air to cover her face, and her misery poured salty rivers into her palms.   Lulu’s eyelids peeled apart and she stared at the chest of the body that had consumed the events of last night.
“Good morning dear.” She mumbled tiredly against the cold flat of his skin and let her eyes slide shut.
“Shall I make breakfast, or will you prepare it for me this morning?” Her lips curled in a smile, and Lulu shook her head into the open collar of his shirt.
“Alright I’ll wait. No, you stay here – I want to.” Lulu curled a fist around the fabric of his shirt, and she let her eyes flutter open.
“Let’s spend all day with each other, and all night again. And you’ll brush my hair out this morning, and then tuck it behind my ear, and I’ll tell you to stop teasing me, and that you’re a great silly goose, and that I need you – and I love you – ” Lulu broke off of her invigorated rant, and tears made wet spots on the shirt her cheek rested on.
“My my.” A cold voice pierced the air from the open door across from the bed. Lulu snapped to an upright position, and stared into the black eyes of her sister.
“Agnus – I,”
“Save your breath.” Agnus shook her head and squinted with her mouth twisted into a tight knot. “I’ve seen what I needed to see.” She said to Lulu. Her sister’s face crumpled and she sobbed down into her hands.
“Oh stop.” Beatrice said from where she stood beside Agnus. Lulu’s sobs cut off abruptly, and her eyes flicked back and forth between the faces of her sisters – their expressions contorted with disgust. Her footsteps made hallow taps as Beatrice crossed the floor. Her head tilted to the side and she pinched her fingers underneath Lulu’s chin. She stared hard into her eyes for a second before uttering a single word.
“Green.” She said simply. “You have fallen in love.” She sneered the word as if it were an excrement.
“You will help us today. And then leave.” Beatrice said. Lulu nodded, and shuddered one more sob, then got to her feet and took the hand of her dead lover. He trailed behind her with vacant eyes and lifelessly swaying limbs. The three sisters and the corpse made a path down the stairs and out the door into the cloudy outdoor light.
“We’ll do it at the ledge closest to the village, someone will be sure to see.” Beatrice told her sisters. The four figures crossed the landscape in a parade, and stopped when they had reached their destination. Beatrice and Agnus faded back into the line of foliage that framed the village and watched as their sister lead the corpse to the ledge, and stood for a moment looking into his face. She did not allow herself a second thought as Lulu stepped away from the body, and let it drop off of the edge. Shrieks emenated from the early risers of the town as they watched what seemed to be a horrible accident, or an attempted suicide. Lulu back-stepped into the foliage where her sisters stood, and turned to face them.
“I don’t think so.” Agnus said with a voice like ice. “You belong with them now.” Her finger rose slowly to point in the direction of the crowd collecting to stare at the scene the sisters had recently created.
“Our eyes reflect what we are.” Beatrice began. “The blackness of our hearts is mirrored in the messengers of the mind. You have given up an everlasting life, because you have given yours to someone else. You will age and as an ordinary human, because that is what you are.” Her voice was as smooth as polished stone as Beatrice informed her sister of the unavoidable rejection.
Lulu didn’t think twice as the reality of her situation sunk through her mental scope. She didn’t even nod in acknowledgment when she dashed through the underbrush and dove to her death.

Yours truly, Cat

Hello world.

This is my outlet for public displays of literary creativity. That sounds much more sophisticated then: the place where I post my short stories. I hope you enjoy these random brain-babies, as I am an aspiring author, and it would be helpful if people actually liked what I write…

Yours truly, Cat