She’s watching me now.
I can’t see her, but I know. I feel it, like a thin waterfall of cold slime sliding over me. I want to find out where she’s hiding, but I can’t look at her either.
Her eyes have gone…bad…with a light behind them that shouldn’t be there. I think she bound herself to the dark thing that serves her.
Then me.
The rain doesn’t help my mood in this big, claustrophobic house. In fact, it brings back the unpleasant memory of why, despite my fear, I have to stay.
********************
Lilli Beth’s mother came home with lots of groceries. The rainy evening made her petulant. Her hair and clothes were soaked despite the short distance from the driveway to the house, so I went out to help.
I put away the groceries for her while she went in the bathroom to towel off and change clothes. She invited me to dinner to wait out the storm.
I accepted, going back into the living room to finish my work for tomorrow’s class.
Breaking my concentration, she called in an exasperated voice: “Where’s the meat cleaver, Allison? Were you making anything that needed the cleaver?”
“No, ma’am. I don’t have it. I just sent Lilli Beth to her room while I was doing my school work. I didn’t see her take the cleaver. I don’t see why she would.”
Lilli Beth’s mother went to the bottom of the stairs and called her name, about three or four times, but there was no answer. She went back to the kitchen.
Her mood was rubbing off on me, and I was getting annoyed.
Though it was getting dark, and the chill in the early autumn air was more prominent now, I decided not to wait for dinner; I’d go home, settle into my own space, and finish my work there uninterrupted.
I packed my books, then went to the kitchen doorway. Lilli Beth’s mother had her ingredients spread out, and was looking at the wooden block with the knife set as if the cleaver would suddenly appear.
She looked genuinely puzzled.
“Did you leave it in one of the cabinets, ma’am? Maybe the dishwasher?”
“No. No…I checked everything.” Sighing, she snapped out of the distraction, and chose one of the knives for her cutting.
“Ma’am, I have a morning class, so I have to be on campus early. May I go now? I’ll have dinner at home.”
“What? Oh, yes. That’s fine, Allison. Just go look in on her and see if she’s okay.”
I thought she could have went upstairs and checked on the girl herself, instead of yelling for her at the bottom of the stairs, but I wanted to get paid so I didn’t say it.
“All right.” A quick look, and I’d be on my way.
As I went up I had a growing sense of dread, but didn’t know why.
When I got to the top, I called her name again.
“Lilli Beth! Lilli Beth! Come downstairs, please. Your mother wants to speak to you!”
Silence. She wasn’t one to nap, but she was quiet when playing with her dolls and tea set, with no chatter the way some little girls did to imaginary friends.
The more I thought about it, I guess I liked her because she was quiet, and simply didn’t do much. She wasn’t sullen, but when she asked me to have tea with her, it seemed like she was going through the motions, distracted.
She also had a disturbing way of looking up at things that weren’t there, but then she’d be back in the moment, not saying anything.
“Lilli Beth?”
I walked toward her bedroom, put my ear to the door, and heard her softly talking. I felt a chill when I heard what she said, and it deepened when I realized she wasn’t alone.
*******************
“I want a new mommy.”
“Why?” Another voice, deeper, but childlike. I shivered. No one had come to visit.
“Mommy doesn’t care. Allison takes care of me. I like Allison. She’s better than mommy.”
“Are you sure, Lilli Beth? Are you sure you want me to do this?”
“Yes. I’m sure. Mommy doesn’t care, and I want Allison to be my new mommy.”
“All right. Get ready.”
I was about to call her again when I heard a thump.
Pushing open the door, I saw Lilli Beth’s body on the floor, an alabaster mist covering her, moving over her body, a vaporous cloud roiling in on itself. When it stopped, it hovered for a long moment, then seeped into her as if she were a sponge.
I wanted to run to her, but I couldn’t move.
The room was freezing, and what I was watching was so surreal that I didn’t even scream.
“Allison, is she up there?”
Lilli Beth turned to look at me, and I began backing out of the room.
“Hi, mommy.”
“L-L-Lilli Beth…?”
She got up, holding the cleaver in her right hand; she was pale and her dress was filthy, as if she’d come out of a grave. And then I saw it for the first time, the light in her eyes that shouldn’t have been there.
“Will you be my new mommy, Allison?”
Her smile made every hair on my neck and arms stand on edge, and her pupils went bright red.
I found I just wanted to live. “Y-yes, yes, darling. Wha-whatever you want.”
“Allison!”
Lilli Beth walked past me, still smiling, and walked down the hall toward the staircase, hefting the meat cleaver for a better grip.
“Don’t yell, mommy. I was sleeping, and Allison woke me up.
“I’m coming downstairs now.”
I heard her descend. I counted the steps, knowing I should stop her, but I just sat against the wall, shivering. Helpless, useless, I just covered my ears, and someone was going to die because of my cowardice.
Lilli Beth was downstairs, and after I long moment, I heard her old mommy start to scream, and scream, growing softer with every blow as Lilli Beth butchered her.
**************
She’s watching me now. I can’t see her, but I know.
Her eyes have gone…bad.
Nightshade Stories 