TheUnknownAuthor Posted July 21, 2022 Share Posted July 21, 2022 Welcome! This is a story about being dead, fun, right?! The plan is for there to be an overarching main story, set up here in the prologue, but each chapter will be focused on an individual that comes to our protagonist through her job while I drip feed the main story throughout. The hope is that this will be a story that, eventually, makes you feel good despite literally everyone in it being dead. #ghostsarepeopletoo Anyway, if you like what you see here and want more let me know in the comments and like the story, if you don't, let me know in the comments and don't like the story, if you're just here for reading and not interacting, that's cool, I hope you enjoy my work regardless. On with the show! Cause Of Death: Embarrassment By: The Unknown Author Prologue Excerpt from D.E.A.T.H. new caseworker orientation “Death is the great mystery of humankind, specifically, what happens after a person dies. Different religions have different theories, beliefs that drive their members to be “good” people with the promise of a paradise beyond their mortal life and warn them of being “bad” for fear of ending up tortured and suffering in the afterlife. Some believe that there is no afterlife, that they’ll be reincarnated into another living thing once their life is over, others believe that there is merely nothing after someone dies, you just die and stop being aware of anything else as the empty void swallows your consciousness. The truth of it all is that when someone dies their “soul” comes here to the Department of Expiration and Afterlife Tallying in the Hereafter or D.E.A.T.H., when a person arrives at D.E.A.T.H., they are paired with a caseworker that goes over the defining moments of their life and the circumstances surrounding their death with the goal of bringing about acceptance of said demise to avoid said person becoming a ghost. As a caseworker, you will be given a file for each new arrival and will be expected to greet them when they arrive with a warm and welcoming tone as the transition process from the living realm to this one will leave them disoriented, fragments of knowledge about their situation may exist, but it is your chief goal to keep them calm and listening to you and not let them take control of the conversation. They will ask questions about why they are where they are and it will be your duty to reassure them, providing their file indicates they’ll be moving on to a better place, that their being with you is merely a formality and you’re working to expedite their transition as quickly and efficiently as possible. Should they be heading to a worse place, you’re to keep that information from them until you’ve completed your duty of setting up their transfer to avoid a vengeful spirit returning to the living realm. Performing well as a caseworker will provide you with the opportunity to advance within the organization. There are many different career paths available to those with an aptitude for handling the affairs of the dead such as: Reaping Accounting Unborn Soul Caretaking Training New Caseworkers And so many more! Some of you may be wondering why you were chosen for this role and the answer is simple, you and every other caseworker is uniquely qualified to be an important part of this organization and have been granted knowledge beyond your own life and time to allow you to aid others in their journey forward. Welcome to D.E.A.T.H.! ********* Working at D.E.A.T.H. is a lot like when you eat popcorn and get a hull stuck in your tooth that no matter how much you tongue it it just sticks there and you resign yourself to that being your life but then when it finally dislodges you feel such immense relief that you praise yourself for enduring such a hardship for those four and a half minutes that felt like weeks. Time, as a concept, doesn’t exist in our business, the living experience days and weeks but we have an eternal stretch of routine. The powers that be have blessed us with “time off” from our jobs in the form of the chronological equivalent to the blink of an eye, but we make due with what we’re given the best we can and then we’re instantly back at our desk again. That said, if “Monday’s” existed in the afterlife, this new assignment I’ve been given would be the equivalent of an eternity of Monday’s all stacked up on top of each other. “You’re not listening to me!” the woman seated in the chair in front of my desk shouted as she slammed her hands down on the desk, her entire form rippling and distorting briefly, signaling to me that she was headed for a vengeful spirit meltdown. I stood up calmly and walked around my desk to be at her side, putting my arm around her, “Hey, Samantha,” I said in a soothing tone, “I’m listening, but I need you to also listen to me, okay?” I asked. She was silent, her form stable once more. “Okay.” I said, taking my arm from her and kneeling down beside her, “Now, we’re in a bit of disagreement about how you died, right?” I asked. She glared at me, “No, you’re just wrong!” she spat. I sighed softly and reached up to retrieve the folder from my desk and opened it and scanned the document within until I found the part I was looking for, “It says that you experienced an event so humiliating that your soul left your body.” I told her. She smacked the file out of my hand, “Do you know how stupid that sounds?!” she shouted, her form rippling and writhing wildly once more. I picked the folder up and stood, “Okay, let’s see what happened then.” I said, going to the small table against the wall that held a television and remote on it. I turned the TV on and the image of Samantha appeared on the screen. Her form shuddered as she looked down at the ground, “Please, don’t make me watch it.” she pleaded. I ignored her, focusing on driving the point that she was wrong home to shut her up and get her out of my hair once and for all, “You don’t have to watch, but I am going to narrate what I see.” I told her. The image on the screen was basically a CCTV recording of Samantha’s kitchen, the recording being done from somewhere above and away from the circular table in the kitchen. Samantha was seated in a larger than normal highchair, her blonde hair tied up into adorable pigtails, her long legs dangling above the floor, swinging back and forth as she scooped a handful of chocolate pudding up from the little pink bowl on the tray locked in place in front of her and brought it to her mouth, slathering her cheeks and chin in the process and dripping some onto not just the bib around her neck, but also the very pretty dress she was wearing. I looked over at her where she sat in front of my desk and smiled at her, though her eyes were still cast to the floor and thus couldn’t see me looking at her. “Your dress is very pretty.” I told her. She was still wearing the lavender party dress, the frills beneath made her look like a flower turned upside down where she sat. She looked up at me and immediately back down to the floor when she saw me smiling, “Th-thank you.” she stammered. The pudding spots remained on the bib she still wore, a frilly pink number with “Daddy’s Messy Eater” written in elegant flowing cursive, and her cheeks and chin were still marred with the remnants of the treat, making me impressed with myself for not laughing at her when she tried to assert herself and overpower me in this situation. The man in the recording set down his paper and looked at his watch and then at the Samantha, sighing as he got up from the kitchen table, “Did you enjoy your pudding, baby?” he asked, gently stroking her hair with one hand. She looked up at him and nodded, “Yes, Daddy, it was very nummy!” she chirped. He bent forward so his face was level with hers, “Daddy put an extra special something into it to prepare you for your surprise.” he told her. Samantha furrowed her brow, “What-” she started to say before she stopped speaking, her face looking shocked as she looked from the bowl of pudding and back up at him. Taking a step back from her, he chuckled, “Pathetic.” he sneered. The sound of a doorbell ringing made me turn my attention back to the TV, noting that Samantha winced at the sound, her form shuddering once more, but not angrily this time. In the highchair, Samantha had stopped swinging her legs and enjoying her dessert, and had frozen in place as she looked to the sound of the doorbell, leaning this way and that to try and see something off screen. Her face contorted into abject terror as she shook her head vehemently and squirmed in the highchair, her cries of “No.” repeating over and over again, growing more frantic and panicked as a man and woman appeared from where the doorbell had rang. “Please.” Samantha said quietly. I paused the video. “Please, what?” I asked. She looked up at me, her eyes wide and pleading, “Don’t make me watch it.” she begged. “What happened?” I asked. She shook her head. I plucked the document from the folder, “Samantha Walters, age thirty four, was engaged in an Adult Baby play session with her husband and Daddy, William Walters, eating pudding that, unbeknownst to her, contained sedatives to limit her ability to fight against him, in her highchair when he excused himself for a moment to answer the door.” I read, eyeing the shaking woman seated before me above the paper briefly before continuing, “A short time after he excused himself, William returned with his-” I stopped reading aloud and read with just my eyes for a bit before stopping and lowering the paper to look at Samantha. She wasn’t able to cry, but the shudder of her form told me she was performing the spiritual equivalent of a sobbing emotional breakdown. I closed the distance between us and knelt down in front of her, hooking my finger beneath her chin and lifting it gently so she was looking at me, though her eyes tried to look anywhere but into mine. “What he did to you was awful.” I said sympathetically. She nodded, “I trusted him and let myself be truly vulnerable.” she whispered sullenly. I nodded, “I know, honey, but, I can’t change any of what happened, I just need you to accept that the humiliation of what he did was what ultimately, and tragically, ended your life so that you can move on.” I told her. She looked down at the floor, “To Heaven?” she asked, her demeanor and tone changing to something more akin to the age she was dressed as rather than her chronological age. I nodded, “According to your file, you’ve got a happy afterlife ahead of you.” I said, “But only if you let go of your hurt and anger.” I added. “If you hold onto that then you’ll be an angry ghost for a really long time and all you’ll feel is pain and hatred until you eventually forget why it is you’re so hurt and angry and you just disappear.” I explained, slipping into a tone more suitable for a young child. She nodded softly, “Is Heaven nice?” she asked. I sighed and shrugged, “Honestly, honey, I’ve never been, but I’m sure it’s great.” I told her. She looked over at the paused screen and then down at her outfit, “I felt really cute.” she confessed. “Like, my outside self matched my inside self for real for the first time and I wasn’t just pretending and playing dress up.” she continued. “Then he spoiled everything.” she pouted. I stroked her cheek softly, “He didn’t deserve a little girl as pretty and sweet as you, honey.” I told her. She smiled and threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly, “I’m sorry I got angry and yelled at you.” she said quietly. I hugged her back, rubbing her back and patting it softly, “It’s okay, I know how hard and scary it is dealing with all of this stuff suddenly.” I told her, “But I know that there’s nothing but happiness in your future and no one will ever hurt you again.” I added. She broke our embrace and nodded softly, “I’m ready.” she said before her form shuddered one final time as she accepted her fate and she began to glow brightly and then was gone from where she sat. I rose slowly and smiled, “Good girl.” I praised to the now empty office, turning my attention back to the TV to finish watching the recording. The man and woman that had entered were holding hands, the woman laughing at Samantha as her head lolled to the side to look at them from her place in the highchair. “Wow, you weren’t kidding, she’s adorable!” the woman cooed as she let go of the man’s hand and went to the highchair. The man chuckled, “Yeah, until you have to change her shitty diapers.” he cruelly joked. The woman looked over at him and knelt down, reaching up to push the wad of frills away to peek at Samantha’s diaper, effortlessly batting the girls legs away as she weakly struggled against her pervy intruder, her hands covering her face as she rose and looked at the woman, “Such pretty diapers!” she cooed, “Mommy can’t wait to see you fill them up for her!” she added, patting Samantha’s head as the woman in the highchair lazily pulled her head away to escape the touch before she trotted back over to the man and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Who she, Willm?” Samantha asked drunkenly, her words slurred and more akin to baby talk then she realized. William grabbed a handful of the woman’s ass and pulled her close to him, kissing her deeply before he lifted her up and spun around to set her onto the counter behind him. “This is Kiki, baby, and she is going to be your new Mommy, Sammy.” he said, kissing the Auburn haired woman’s neck as his hand groped her breast through her blouse. “Your Daddy needs a real woman, sweetheart.” Kiki teased, “When he puts you down for your little nappy naps in your crib, I’m who he calls to come keep him company.” she said, “When you’re filling your diapers, he’s looking at the pictures I send him of what a real woman looks like.” she teased. Samantha was crying now and awkwardly batted the bowl of pudding off the tray of the highchair, a gesture meant to be powerful and show them how angry she was, but simply made her look like a clumsy baby having a tantrum, “Oo cheeding bassad.” she slurred. William and Kiki ignored her outburst, William kneeling down to slide Kiki’s panties off her, “See these?” he asked his wife as he held up the lacy red garment, “These are damp with desire for me,” he said, walking over to the highchair and shoving the panties into Samantha’s face, “not with piss because you can’t control yourself.” he spat. Samantha whimpered and tried to pull her head away, but found herself too weak and slow to do more than sob into the panties that William held against her face, the smell of the other woman’s arousal and the indignity she was suffering making her blood boil, “I divose oo.” she squeaked. William glanced over at his wife and snorted, “How?” he asked, turning back to her, “I can keep you sedated and locked up in your crib until the day you die and no one will even know you’re gone.” he hissed, walking back to her slowly, “You have no friends,” he said raising his index finger and counting it, “no family,” he counted on his middle finger, “no job,” he counted on his ring finger, “and no kids.” he counted on his pinkie as he reached the highchair. “You’re nothing but a helpless and worthless freak, and you will accept your role as the baby of this house and Kiki as your Mommy even if I have to beat every last atom of adulthood and independence out of you.” he threatened. “Now, apologize to Mommy and Daddy for being naughty and pushing your pudding onto the floor.” he commanded. The gears in Samantha’s mind slowly turned at how malicious and aggressive her husband was being, how a man that had shown her nothing but love and care as a Daddy was now threatening her with physical violence not only broke her heart, but left her a blubbering mess of rage with no way to express it, of hurt with no ability to say anything to change it. Kiki walked over, her high heels clicking on the floor of the kitchen as she took her spot beside her man and looked at the pathetic example of a woman before her, “You better apologize, baby girl.” she warned. Samantha looked up at the pair with tears streaming down her cheeks, her life was ruined, her marriage was over, her adulthood was being rescinded, and she was strapped into a highchair in her once favorite dress, her hair done into pigtails by Daddy after he’d gotten her changed and dressed. She sobbed at the memory of feeling so cute, the embodiment of the little version of her that lived inside, that sweet little girl that loved her Daddy and felt safe in his arms crushed by the cruel reality of the world, snuffed out by a hateful man with selfishness and malice in his heart. Her head throbbed and her vision blurred, “I-” she started to say before she felt a pop in her head and then nothing. I watched her slump forward in the highchair, the embolism in her brain ending her life instantly, and watched as William and Kiki panicked and argued about what to do, and turned the TV off when they started talking about burying the body somewhere. I returned to my desk and brought up William’s file. Time doesn’t move the same in the afterlife, so, while Samantha had just appeared in my office and moved on with my help, Earth was at a different point entirely. William and Kiki had decided to bury Samantha in the backyard, and did so without issue, but Kiki, overcome with guilt over what had happened, had begun pestering William with notions of coming clean and accepting whatever may happen to them. William, ever serving his own self interests, did to Kiki what he’d threatened Samantha with, drugging the woman and keeping her locked up in the nursery his late wife had once occupied. I skimmed the document on the screen and stopped when I got to the end, smiling with morbid satisfaction. William had slipped in the shower and become paralyzed but alive, though he’d landed on the drain and effectively plugged it with his body and lived his last agonizing minutes watching the water level in the tub rise until he drowned. Meanwhile, Kiki, drugged and shackled in the crib, starved to death but suffered greatly thanks to a severe case of diaper rash caused by William failing to change her for several days. I checked the final location for both and nodded approvingly at their appointment to somewhere very unpleasant for the duration of eternity and closed the file. I mentioned that today was the first day of my new appointment, but I failed to share what that appointment was. I am “Head of Embarrassment Induced Life Termination”, which is a fancy way of saying that when someone “dies of embarrassment” it’s not hyperbolic, they may have physically had a heart attack or stroke or something, but the sheer humiliation they endured led to their demise and I get to explain that to them and make them accept what happened to them, neat, right? Also, even though I’m “Head” of that field, I am the only person handling those cases, why, you might ask, well, because of who my boss is. ********* “How did your first case go?” She asked, her fingers tented on her much larger than my own desk in her much larger than my own office. I nodded, “Fine.” I said. “Samantha Walters transitioned successfully.” I added. “I understand you continued watching her video after she transitioned and looked into the fate of her husband and his mistress.” she said, her lips pursing as she stared at me above her glasses. “Is that not allowed?” I asked. She stood and folded her arms behind her back, looking out the window at the infinite sea of cubicles below, “Ella, when a spirit dwells on what happened to them for too long, what happens?” she asked me without turning around. I sighed, “A spirit returns to Earth as a ghost when they refuse to accept their fate.” I said flatly. She turned and nodded, “And if an agent of D.E.A.T.H. were, let’s just say, to take too great of an interest in the affairs of the living or recently deceased?” she asked. I scoffed, “Are we really going to have this conversation again?” I snapped. She raised an eyebrow, “Watch your tone.” she warned. “I’m justifiably concerned about your attachment to the living.” she reminded. “You’re not to go any further than is necessary in the course of your duties, am I understood?” she asked. If I still had blood, it would’ve rushed to my face, “Is that an order from my boss or from my overbearing big sister?” I sneered. She sighed and took a seat on the edge of her desk in front of me, “As your boss, I’m warning you to do your job and not linger on your cases any more than is necessary.” she said calmly before she leaned in so she was face to face with me, “As your older sister, I’m telling you that if you sass me again, I’ll make sure your next post is even less desirable than your current one.” she said softly. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?” I whined. She rolled her eyes, “Ever the sniveling brat, aren’t you?” she asked rhetorically before sighing heavily, “I can’t leave you alone because it’s my job to account for the activities of my subordinates.” she reminded me, her tone authoritative but calm, “Also, because not all that long ago we had quite the issue with you and your,” she paused, searching for the word she wanted to use, “fascination” she said with a smug smirk, “with the living.” she said. “Oh, I’m sorry that I chose to come up here and have you lecture me about pointless shit, Mira.” I spat. “How rude it was of me to interrupt your busy schedule of smelling your own farts and congratulating yourself for being the daughter that died with dignity.” I snapped, folding my arms across my chest petulantly. “That’s not fair and you know it.” she said, her eyes narrowing as she looked at me. She stood and returned to her seat, “You’re dismissed.” she said coldly, “But know that I’m monitoring your work going forward and if I see any warning signs, I’m pulling you from the floor.” she warned. I stood and made a theatrical bowing gesture, “Adieu, your highness.” I sneered before storming out of her office and slamming the door behind me. ********* “Everything alright?” a small voice asked from the doorway of my office some time later. I looked up from my monitor and smiled, “Yeah.” I said. “Just Mira being Mira.” I added. The little girl at the door crossed the threshold and hoisted herself up and into the chair in front of my desk. Lucy was perpetually four years old, and was the head of the children’s division of Reapers, her job is exactly as depressing as it sounds, but Lucy is sweet and amazing at her job and makes sure every client is happy and at peace when she brings them in. We can dress however we want, but Lucy leans into the four year old she looks like and wears cute little overalls with snaps up the inseam and crotch and these little Velcro shoes that light up and squeak when she walks and she has the most adorable little Afro that makes me want to scoop her up and snuggle her to pieces until I remember that she’s hundreds of years old at this point and hates being talked down to and treated like a child. “What’s got her knickers in a twist now?” Lucy asked. I sighed, “She’s worried that I’m going to go ghost because I watched a client’s video after they transitioned and looked up the husband and his mistress afterward.” I explained. “Are you?” she asked. I looked at her quizzically, “Am I what?” I asked. “Gonna go spook?” she asked. “No!” I said a little louder than I meant to, “This woman died of embarrassment because her dick hole husband slash Daddy drugged her against her will and brought his mistress over during highchair pudding time and proceeded to threaten her with a life of captivity and abuse if she didn’t accept her role as baby of the house.” I explained, “I was curious to see everything unfold and wanted a resolution to the story.” I clarified. Lucy nodded slowly, “Sounds like another Allison situation.” she said. I closed my eyes for a moment and saw a flash of Allison before opening my eyes, “We agreed never to mention her.” I reminded her. She smiled at me and nodded, though her smile did little to mask her worry, “We did agree to that, because it’s natural to have feelings like that.” she said. “I still struggle when I have to bring in a kid that drowned.” she told me. “It’s just not healthy to focus so hard on them that you go ghost.” she added. I nodded, “I know, and I’m fine.” I said flatly. “Thank you for checking on me though.” I added, smiling at her. She returned my smile, “Wanna hang out after work?” she asked as she slid off the chair and headed to the door. “Do you mind?” I asked. She shook her head, “Babysitting is fun.” she teased, sticking her tongue out at me and giggling as she slipped out the door, the squeak of her shoes making me smile. ********* I don’t know how Heaven and Hell, or whatever they’re called by whoever ends up there operate, but at D.E.A.T.H., because the work floor is an infinite labyrinth of cubicles and offices, we kind of just appear where we want or need to be at any given time, so after stepping out of my office, I’m instantly stepping into what is basically my living quarters, an oxymoron to be sure, but it is what it is. The thought is that if we have an outlet outside of our work that we won’t fall into the dangerous behavior like spending all our time coveting the living’s lives and filling ourselves with resentment and longing that causes us to turn into vengeful spirits that head to the living world to wreak havoc. Anything we want can be conjured, for lack of a better word, into our living quarters, some people have tables with puzzles in various states of completion, others have an entire orchestra’s worth of instruments to play, while some just watch TV. My living area has changed many times in the hundred plus years since I died and came here, but recently it’s changed to reflect the interests I’ve collected from my time working with the recently deceased, the “Allison” that Lucy had mentioned was the cause of the current setup, and the reason that Mira was so concerned about me. “If she’s so concerned about me becoming obsessed to the point that I turn ghost, why put me on the job she put me on?” I asked Lucy later that evening. Lucy shrugged her shoulders softly, “Exposure therapy?” she offered uncertainly, “Maybe she feels that showing you how things like this have caused people to die will make you not romanticize it.” she added as she twisted the cap on the baby bottle she had filled and brought it over to where I sat on the floor, holding it out for me to take with my outstretched hands. We don’t eat or drink, so nursing a bottle of milk is as useless as the diaper I wore but couldn’t use, it was all pantomime, theater for my senses to trick my brain into feeling like I was experiencing the things they did. “If humiliation were a deterrent, don’t you think I’d be doing this at my own place alone?” I asked between sucks of the bottle’s nipple. Lucy shrugged once more and lowered herself to the floor beside me, stroking my hair gently, “She loves you and just wants to make sure you don’t get into trouble.” she reminded me. I nodded softly and pulled the bottle from my mouth, “If she loved me then she’d let me see her.” I said bitterly. Lucy gently pushed the nipple back into my mouth, “I thought you were coming over to have some baby time, not to bitch and moan about Mira and how unfair things are for you.” she teased, her lips curling into a wicked little smile, “Unless you’re secretly looking for me to take you to Mira for a spanking.” she said, covering her mouth to stifle a soft giggle at my expense. I glared up at her and gave protesting grunt before I closed my eyes and drank my bottle like a good baby. “You know that she probably knows about you and I getting together to play, right?” she asked once the bottle was empty and set aside to be replaced with my pacifier. I shook my head, “She’s evil, but she still respects my privacy off the clock.” I said, pacifier bobbing as my garbled words came out around the sizable teat. Lucy stood and stretched, her overalls dissolving into pink footed pajamas, “We have some time left if you want to cuddle in the crib.” she offered. I nodded and willed my outfit to match hers, the bottom of my pajamas bulging around my diaper where hers were smooth and taught against her body. “Why don’t you ever wear diapers with me?” I asked as I crawled beside her to the nursery she had set up in the other room. Climbing up the little step stool in front of it, she worked the latch of the crib with her little hands and lowered the side, “I mean, diapers like what you’re wearing didn’t exist when I was alive and I’m not super interested in a giant wad of fabric under my clothes.” she answered as she waited for me to climb into the crib and lay down. “Then why bother with the snap crotch overalls and the overall toddler aesthetic?” I asked, watching her climb in and pull the side of the crib up before she snuggled up next to me. She kissed my forehead, “Because I was a cute ass baby and sadly I’m stuck being cute for the rest of eternity, but I can’t use a diaper anyway, so why not just skip it?” she asked. I giggled, “You are super cute.” I agreed, hugging her tightly like she was my own living, breathing stuffed animal. “You’re pretty cute yourself.” she said, “A little silly looking given your adult proportions, but I’d still pinch your cheeks and fawn over you.” she added. I pulled my pacifier out of my mouth and kissed her forehead, “I love you, Lucy.” I said, “I wish you were my sister instead of Mira.” I added before slipping my pacifier back in and closing my eyes. She sighed softly, “I love you too, baby sister.” she cooed in a soft whisper. ********* Mira watched the pair cuddling in the crib for a moment on her computer, the camera in the stuffed bear atop the changing table allowing her to see and hear everything happening in the nursery and made a disgusted groan as she turned the monitor off and sat back in her chair to contemplate the best course of action for dealing with her sister’s behavior. To Be Continued... 4 Link to comment
Kaleros Posted July 21, 2022 Share Posted July 21, 2022 Interesting take on the afterlife and I like the witty dialogue. Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted July 22, 2022 Author Share Posted July 22, 2022 On 7/21/2022 at 11:16 AM, Guilend said: Very interesting Thank you! On 7/21/2022 at 12:28 PM, Kaleros said: Interesting take on the afterlife and I like the witty dialogue. I wanted this to be character focused and try some different things out that I didn't feel would be feasible in the "real world", but I do admit that as of this comment, the things I have written regarding the situations that ultimately brought about the person's demise are far less realistic but designed to be absurd because reasons. Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted July 27, 2022 Author Share Posted July 27, 2022 One “Gavin Altmier 2002-2022” When you die, your file comes to someone like me. Said file contains everything about you, and I mean everything. Gavin Altmier, the man seated in the chair in front of my desk in his absolutely precious onesie designed to make him look like a cuddly little teddy bear, complete with a hood adorned with tiny little round ears on top all in a lovely shade of “Lightly Spanked Bottom” pink, doesn’t know that I know about the booger wall he kept when he was ages nine through twelve, nor does he know that I know that his first masturbatory experience was to a female cartoon rabbit that played basketball, and he certainly doesn’t know that I know all about the things he’d do in his crib after his loving mother put him to bed every night at seven thirty on the dot. “Gavin, I’d like you to tell me what you think is happening right now.” I said calmly. He shrugged, the motion losing a lot of its rebellious intent with his shoulder up near his ears and his chin practically embedded in his chest, “I think I died.” he said softly. I nodded, “Sadly, you did, honey.” I said with total sincerity. “How?” he asked. “Well, I handle cases where someone passes away due to embarrassment.” I responded, watching him closely for any sign that he was going to turn emotional on me. He nodded, “Makes sense.” he said, his hands moving up and down on either side of his body as if to call attention to his outfit, as if such a thing was required. “Would you like to tell me what happened?” I asked. “Don’t you already know?” he snottily shot back. I nodded, “I do, but I find that it helps the people in your position to accept the truth and gravity of their situation if they share their recollection with me.” I explained. “But, I do have video and it says in your file, so we can watch together, or I can read it to you, or you can tell me in your own words so I can compare your account to the information I have.” I added. He sighed, his fingers absently fiddling with the bulb of the pacifier clipped to the chest of his onesie, “I flunked out of college about a year ago,” he said without looking up at me, “I had nowhere to live and no job, so I moved back into my mom’s house and-” he stopped and looked up at me, “This is too hard, you do it.” he said, slumping in his chair in defeat. I stood up from my chair, file in hand and got an idea, “Would it make it easier if I read it to you like a bedtime story?” I asked him, my voice slipping into my patent pending sweet babysitter that all the little ones love tone. He looked up at me in surprise and then back down as he nodded, his shame practically radiating off of him. I willed a great big rocking chair into existence in the corner behind him and gently took his hand in mine as I helped him to his feet and led him over to it, taking my seat before gently pulling him onto my lap, his thick diaper squishing against my thigh as I moved him into a comfortable position, his back nestled against my shoulder and my arm around his middle, my hand savoring the soft fur of his onesie as I took his pacifier and raised it to his lips, smiling as he took it into his mouth without resistance, I opened the file and thought for a moment how I wanted to approach this for maximum success. “Once upon a time, there was a handsome young prince that lived with his very protective mother, the queen.” I began in my babysitter voice, “The queen loved the prince very much, but never saw him as anything but her sweet baby, even when he became a man and went away to college far away from the castle he grew up in.” I read, feeling him relax against me as he softly nursed his pacifier. “When the queen would talk to the prince on the telephone, she would sew seeds of doubt in his mind about whether he was grown up enough to handle life away from her, and the prince didn’t realize that all of this talk subconsciously made him doubt himself and lose focus on his studies until he failed out of college and believed that the queen had been right all along.” I read. I felt him squirm but he made no effort to speak or leave his spot on my lap. “When the prince moved back into the queen’s castle, he found that all the stress and worry about failing out of school and disappointing the queen made him wet the bed, first once every nights, then nightly, and then he found himself wetting during the day as well.” I read, the rustle of his diaper as he squirmed filling the space around us, “The queen berated the prince, calling him names like ‘baby’ and ‘sissy’, threatening him with diapers rather than helping him deal with his problem by taking him to a doctor or someone he could talk to about what he was feeling.” I read, gently hugging him as I began to softly rock the chair. “What the prince didn’t know, was that the queen had been sneaking into his room at night and placing his hand in warm water until he wet, and that the stress of wetting the bed in addition to everything else he was dealing with made his bladder quite overactive, leading to his daytime accidents.” I told him. He was quiet except for the soft sound of his mouth working the pacifier, but his aura was fluttering softly. “Gavin, do you want me to keep going?” I asked. He nodded softly, his aura calming when I spoke to him. I nodded softly and gently rubbed his stomach as I continued, “The queen told the prince that since he was such a great failure at adulthood, so much so that he couldn’t even manage to keep his bed and pants dry, that she was going to reclaim him as her baby and protect him from the big scary world outside of her castle.” I read. He shuddered softly, the rhythmic bobbing of his pacifier between his lips increasing. I hugged him with the arm I was holding him with, “I know, honey.” I said softly, smiling as he rested his head against me so that the top of his head was resting under my chin. “The queen wasted no time in transforming the prince’s room into a nursery like the one he’d spent his infancy in, she replaced every stitch of clothing he owned with babyish outfits of various types, but the prince was surprised to find that not a single article of the clothing she purchased was, in his opinion, meant for a boy, but rather his closet was stuffed with dresses of varying degrees of frill and femininity and pastel pinks and purples and yellows with flowers and butterflies and fairies on them.” I read. “Ma’am?” he asked in a voice so small it actually shocked me to hear it. I shifted to help him sit up so he could look at me, “Yes, Gavin?” I asked. His aura fluttered softly once more, but not in a way I expected it would, I’ve seen agitated auras, there’s a flow to it that lets you know the person is upset, like a brightly colored animal warns you of its venomous threat, Gavin’s aura was almost calm, the flow like an elegant dance around him as he looked up at me, “Does the story say what I was thinking?” he asked timidly. I nodded softly, “It does, but if you’d like to tell me what you were thinking I’d be happy to listen to you.” I told him sincerely. He nodded softly, not really in agreement with my statement, but more to himself to give permission to open up to me. “I was really scared that Mommy,” he hesitated but didn’t try and correct himself, “that she was really mad at me for failing at school and being a disappointment and stuff, but when I saw the nursery and all the clothes I knew that she still loved me and wanted to take care of me and help me.” he explained. My heart ached for him, even in death he was still buying into his mother’s manipulation and distortion of reality. “So you were okay with all the baby girl clothes and not being a grownup anymore?” I asked. He nodded softly, this time to confirm the truth of my statement. “I know I’m a boy, but when she held up the first outfit she showed me, her face was happier than I’d seen her in a long time and I figured that they’re just clothes so it shouldn’t matter if they’re meant for a boy or a girl, all that mattered was she loved me and wasn’t mad.” he explained. “So you agreed to be her baby again and to be a girl instead of a boy?” I asked. He nodded, a small smile sneaking across his lips. “When she was done making all my big boy hair go away and got me into a diaper and dressed up in my new clothes, she stood me in front of the mirror and told me what a pretty little girl I was and how happy she was to have such an adorable daughter.” he explained. “And that made you very happy, didn’t it?” I asked. He nodded, “Yes, ma’am.” he answered politely. “Do you want to tell me more about what happened after that, or do you want me to continue the story?” I asked. He snuggled back against me and returned his pacifier to his mouth, “You tell it for a bit, please and thank you.” he mumbled quietly. I kissed the top of his head and resumed the rocking as I picked up where he’d left off in the story. “The new little princess found that she was quite happy being the queen’s baby doll and fell quickly and obediently into her new role, following the queen’s rules without resistance, but the queen soon discovered that the princess was engaging in naughty, adult activities in her crib after she was put to bed and took steps to ensure the princess would no longer be able to enjoy such activities going forward.” I read. His hands absently moved to his crotch as I read. “The queen began to notice that the princess was frequently fussy after being placed in chastity, but she reassured the princess that good girls that behaved themselves were rewarded, and the princess resolved to be on her best behavior going forward in the hopes that her reward would be the release she was now so cruelly denied.” I continued, noting the agitation in his aura, “Everything okay?” I asked. He shook his head softly, “This is the bad part.” he said quietly. I nodded, “We can take a break if you need to.” I offered. He shook his head, “Mommy says it’s best to rip the Band-aid off quick so it’s only hurty for a little bit.” he explained. I smiled at his bravery, but knew it wasn’t going to help him. “The day the princess had waited for finally came, and the queen gave her a special bottle to put her into a deep sleep, and when the princess woke up she found that there were at least half a dozen grown up princesses standing around her crib looking down at her, giggling softly and cooing at her as she woke up.” I read. “Not princesses.” he said grumpily. “What’s that?” I asked. “They weren’t princesses, they were girls I knew in high school, some I dated and some I wanted to date but didn’t.” he explained, “Mommy called them all up and told them all about what a well behaved baby girl I’d been and asked if they’d like to come over for a playdate and reward me for being a good girl all week.” he added. I set the file down and helped him lay to the side so he was looking up at me, his head resting on my arm and his legs over the arm of the rocking chair, a proper cradling to prepare for the very painful memory he was about to relive, “Take your time, honey.” I said softly as I rocked him. He closed his eyes for a moment and then decided open was better, the crystal blue orbs looking up at me with something like affection hiding in them. “Mommy told me who the girls were and why they were there and then she unlocked my chastity cage and left the room.” he said, his expression growing more and more troubled as he remained silent. I didn’t want to interrupt him, he needed to reach the finish line on his own, but I knew that I could at least make him feel safe and loved in my arms while he endured the pain of recounting his final moments alive, so I began gently rubbing his tummy through the soft fur of his onesie as we rocked together. “They stripped me naked and laughed and took pictures of my peepee.” he said, wanting to use a more adult word but still believing he shouldn’t, “Then they all pulled out big peepee toys from their purses, the one’s big girl’s strap onto themselves and they all spread out in a circle and made me crawl to each of them and kiss and lick them and some forced me to suck on them and I threw up because they pushed too far back and then they told me I was naughty for making a mess and-” he shut his eyes tightly and shook his head, his aura rippling wildly as it grew darker in shade. I reached up and gently stroked his cheek, “You weren’t a naughty girl, honey, they were just too rough with you for your first time doing that.” I reassured him. His eyes opened slowly, his aura relaxing little by little and brightening bit by bit, as he nodded. “One of the girls had set her phone up to record everything but I didn’t know it until the other girl’s phones started going off and they all laughed as they checked them and told me that the girl recording everything was livestreaming what was happening and she had thousands of people watching and I started crying and begging them to stop but then the recording girl said they were gonna put on a fashion show for all my fans.” he explained, saying the words quickly as though they were burning his mouth begging to get out. “Almost done, sweetie.” I reassured him, smiling warmly down at him. He nodded once and smiled back at me before closing his eyes, “They dressed me in my prettiest princess diapers and then put this onesie on me and made me do the teapot song and tell everyone what a pretty baby girl I was and I was crying and they were laughing and reading the comments people were posting, asking me if I wanted to meet the guys that were saying naughty things they wanted to do to me and I got scared that Mommy would think I wanted to be naughty and wanted to do those things, that it had been my idea to make the video and I couldn’t breathe too good and I got dizzy and I lost my balance and fell forward and the last thing I remember seeing was one of the peepees coming toward my face as I fell.” he explained. I nodded softly and leaned down to kiss his forehead, “I’m very proud of you for being so brave and telling that story.” I said, smiling warmly at him. “You know what happened was an accident, right?” I asked. He nodded. “Nobody knew I was gonna fall down like that.” he said, “But they didn’t hafta be so mean to me.” he added, his aura remaining calm. I smiled sympathetically, “I know, but sometimes when people are in a group like that it can be hard to speak up and calm everyone down so that nobody gets hurt like you did.” I told him. “What happened when I fell?” he asked. I hesitated for a moment, “You bumped your head, angel.” I lied, sparing the boy the gruesome details about what really happened to him, “But, everyone was very sad and sorry for what happened.” I told him. “Mommy was real sad, huh?” he asked. I nodded softly, my heart aching once more for him. “She was, but you know what?” I asked him. He shook his head. I plucked the pacifier from where it lay between us and gently guided it into his mouth, stroking his cheek one final time as we rocked, “You were such a good girl on Earth that you get to go to a very happy place forever and ever.” I told him. “Will Mommy be there with me?” he asked. “Before you know it, princess.” I lied. He closed his eyes and began to glow brightly in my arms before he vanished in a flash of light, leaving me rocking alone in my office with an emptiness in me that I hadn’t felt for a long time. ********** “Got a minute?” came the little voice of Lucy from the doorway of my office. I shook my head, “Mira summoned me.” I said, the annoyance in my tone barely contained. She nodded softly and looked over at the rocking chair in the corner, “Redecorating?” she asked. “I needed it for a case.” I told her, bustling to shut down my computer and gather my things before I left for my meeting. I really looked at her for the first time since she’d first spoken and I knew something was wrong, “Bad day?” I asked her. She nodded absently and shuffled over to the rocking chair, placing her hand on one of the arms and giving it a tentative rock, “You’re busy.” she reminded me. I stopped what I was doing and went around my desk to her, kneeling beside her and gently taking her little hand in mine, “I have to go to a meeting real quick, but as soon as I’m done we can have this chair in your living room and you can cuddle with me in it and tell me what happened, okay?” I asked her. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t have to, the strong facade she was putting up cracked at the mere mention of cuddling and she became every bit the little girl she looked like, the decades of knowledge and experience being a reaper melting away in an instant to leave a distressed toddler in need of comfort standing before me. I leaned forward and kissed the top of her head before standing up and going back to my desk to retrieve my things, taking her hand again to lead her from my office, shutting my door behind us, “Be ready for cuddles, okay?” I asked, hugging her tightly and feeling her apprehension when the it came time for the hug to end. “See you soon.” she said glumly, driving a hot knife through my heart at having to make her wait for me for Mira of all things. ********* “Make it quick, Mira.” I said dismissively as I entered her office and took my all too familiar seat in front of her desk. She was standing at the window looking out at the infinite span of cubicles and offices, her shapely figure poured into the severe and professional black dress she wore, the thin red stripe down the side making me think of a black widow spider waiting to bite as she slowly turned, her face contorted into something I hadn’t seen from her in longer than I could remember, a smile. “What’s the rush, little sister?” she asked, her tone dripping with what had to be mock sincerity. “Lucy needs me.” I told her, doing my best to skip past the preamble and get to the point of whatever she’d called the meeting for. She nodded, “So many little one’s need you, don’t they?” she asked. I rolled my eyes, “Look, I didn’t do anything wrong with my case today if that’s what you’re talking about.” I sneered. “True.” she said, pulling out her chair and taking a seat in it, her eyes transfixed on me as she sat back in her seat, “The boy died shockingly bad.” she said. I nodded, “Is there a good way to die?” I asked. “Fair,” she said, thoughtfully nodding, “but ocular impalement with a sex toy?” she said quizzically before shuddering as though it was grotesque to think about, something my hard hearted sister would never do with sincerity. “What. Is. Your. Fucking. Point. Mira?” I asked, speaking each word with purpose and venom as my impatience and need to tend to Lucy filled me with more and more anger and less and less fucks to give. She clucked her tongue softly, “Language, young lady.” she teasingly warned. “Are you drunk?” I asked, knowing she couldn’t be, but genuinely wanting to know what was making her behave so out of character. She pushed her chair back and stood, her heels clicking on the floor as she walked around her desk and came around behind me, placing her hands on my shoulders, a gentle but firm squeeze being applied before she leaned down and whispered into my ear, “You’re such a mystery to me.” she said, “Not quite ready to be a responsible adult, but unwilling to give up playing baby, and yet, today you showed such compassion and sincerity with that boy that I actually saw you as a mother.” she said. I shuddered involuntarily as she spoke, her soft voice in my ear making my non existent blood run cold as I clenched my teeth, “It’s called being a decent human being, Mira, it’s not hard to do, maybe give it a try if you ever manage to pull the stick out of your ass.” I hissed. She stood back up and headed back to her desk, “You were probably a year or so old when we had the blizzard,” she said, “I remember mother and father doing everything they could to keep the house warm, practically smothering us with furs in the bed.” she continued, sitting back in her chair. I sighed, “I really don’t have time for-” I started to argue before she barreled over me by continuing her story. “At one point, they had to tend to the roof because the weight of the snow had collapsed it and the house was already freezing, but that hole made it almost unbearable.” she continued, “While they were doing that, I was there in the bed with you and I held you to me like mother did and tried to keep you warm, nestled under all those furs with you like a pair of bunnies in a burrow.” she said, a smile on her lips as she fondly recalled the memory. “My point,” she said suddenly, her focus shifting to me, “is that I know how to care for a baby and do everything in your power to protect it and keep it safe, so please remember that the next time you feel like insulting me.” she said calmly. I sighed, “I’m sorry, I’m just really focused on Lucy right now and-” she cut me off with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Run along to your little playmate.” she said, “I just wanted to let you know I was proud of you today.” she added. I let her belittling comment slide as I stood up and headed for the door. “Oh, Ella?” she called from behind me. I looked back. “Don’t mistake my sisterly love and praise for professional approval, I may be proud of you as your older sister, but as your boss, I’m still very concerned about your ability to do this job.” she said. I flashed a fake smile, “Noted.” I sneered before leaving. ********* “Two years old and nobody noticed she was in the pool for three hours.” Lucy said between sobs. The little girl had gotten into her pajamas and was curled up on my lap clutching to me like a sad little barnacle as I rocked the chair we sat in together and rubbed her back. Lucy had been four when she’d died, her inattentive older sisters forgetting her at the small swimming hole down the trail from the little tar paper shake her family had lived in when picking berries sounded like a more fun task. “I know how hard it is for you to get drowning deaths.” I said soothingly. She nodded, “I just don’t understand how you can create a life but care so little about it that you don’t notice it’s not around and don’t immediately investigate why that is.” she said, sighing heavily, “At least this one was accidental.” she added, shuddering at the memory of the countless drowned little lives snuffed out in her time as a reaper. “You’re very brave for doing the job you do.” I told her, “I can’t imagine how hard it is to see the things you see every day and still manage to be such a sweet and caring woman.” I added. She looked up at me, “You said ‘woman’.” she said. I nodded, “You’re over a hundred years old.” I said. She smiled, “Yeah, but you usually call me a little girl.” she said, “It’s just nice to know that you see me as more than that.” she added. I slowed the rocking, “Hey, if it makes you feel uncomfortable to be called a little girl or to have me baby you or expect you to dress like a baby-” I started to say. She shook her head and nuzzled her cheek against my chest, “Ella, I’m four.” she said, “Yeah, I’ve been around for over a hundred years, and yeah, I know as much as someone that age, but I’m four and that means that it’s nice to be treated and seen like an adult sometimes, but at the end of the day a cuddle with a loved one and cozy jammies before bed is going to make everything okay.” she explained. I resumed the rocking and shifted her in my arms so I could kiss her cheek as she closed her eyes, Mira’s words echoing in my mind, “Do you think I’m good at being an adult?” I asked. She snorted and opened one eye like a little sleeping dragon eyeing some thieving goblins near her treasure pile, “When you’re doing this or working, yeah.” she said, “When you’re on your back on my living room floor in a diaper, not so much.” she added. “Fair, but would you say I’d make a good mother?” I asked. She shrugged, “You’re dead, why would you even care whether or not you’d be good at something you can never do?” she asked, closing her eye. “Mira said she was proud of how I handled my case today and that she saw me as a mother.” I explained, “I was just curious if she was blowing smoke up my ass or if she was being sincere.” I added. Lucy shifted to a sitting position, her pajamas fading away, replaced with a onesie and a thick diaper straining against the snaps between her legs as she threw her little arms around my neck and bounced happily in my lap, “Mommy, baby Wucy wuvs yoo dis much!” she burbled excitedly. I passively sat as she hugged me and bounced on my lap, my head spinning at the sudden departure from normalcy that her demeanor had taken, my arms slowly, almost mechanically moving around her to hug her before her outfit returned to what it had been and she pulled away to sit on my lap looking at me. “Yeah, not a mother.” she said, arms folded with a smug smile on her face. “You caught me off guard!” I stammered. She nodded, “Because that’s not you.” she said, “Look, you’ve thought this about yourself before, without Mira’s interference, and how did that turn out?” she asked. I pushed the painful memory away, “I thought maybe that time-” I started to say. “We’re dead, Ella, time means nothing for us anymore, you’re not going to grow and change into a responsible parent anymore than I’m going to develop boobs.” she said. She scooted forward and kissed my forehead, “You’re a loving and sweet woman that has the ability to make little ones feel calm and happy, but that’s because you’re little inside and know what makes little one’s tick.” she explained, “Stay in your lane and be yourself.” she added. I nodded softly, more than a little hurt about the bluntness of her assessment of me and dismissal of my feelings. She slipped off my lap and headed toward the nursery, “Get dressed for bed and come help me get the crib side down.” she said, more a gentle command than a suggestion. I stood up slowly and willed the rocking chair away, “I’m actually just going to go home.” I said quietly, “I hope you’re feeling better.” I said, heading to the door. “Ella-” she called out as I opened the door and slipped out, shutting it behind me. To Be Continued... 5 Link to comment
kerry Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 An interesting and well-written take on an ABDL afterlife. I'm going to enjoy reading this one. Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted July 28, 2022 Author Share Posted July 28, 2022 10 hours ago, kerry said: An interesting and well-written take on an ABDL afterlife. I'm going to enjoy reading this one. Thank you, I really hope you do! Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted August 4, 2022 Author Share Posted August 4, 2022 Chapter Two “Karen Twill 1970-2022” Everyone handles being dead differently, much the same way that everyone handles living their lives differently, I suppose. In my time as a case worker for D.E.A.T.H. I’d the full spectrum of emotions and handled them in a professional manner as I was expected to, but Karen Twill had genuinely surprised me with the sheer force of her namesake’s power was embedded into her immortal soul. The fifty two year old former accounting manager glared at me through narrowed eyes above her antique looking librarian glasses, her mouth puckered into a permanent sour asshole of rage that only opened long enough to spew the hateful shit she came up with or empty threats she didn’t even understand were ridiculous and hollow. She’d begun our meeting with a slew of racist and homophobic jabs about my appearance, despite my being as pale of complexion as her and with zero evidence that I was gay beyond what she referred to as a “fugly, butchy dyke haircut”, which is insane because my hair is stunning and I look like an enchanted fucking pixie that radiates beauty and grace. After her opening salvo, I tried to calm her down and was silenced by that condescending open palm bullshit that women that are such See You Next Tuesday’s that they think everyone in a five mile radius can be silenced by the mere raising of their hand do before she asked to speak to my manager, giving me the final space on my “Twat Bingo” card. “Ms. Twill, there isn’t a managerial structure like the one that exists in the world of the living.” I informed her, politely but clearly fighting every urge to make her somehow deader than she was, “In this office, I AM the manager, and if you don’t like that, I am sorry, but nothing is going to change that circumstance.” I explained. Her aura was dark when she arrived, shriveled and full of unchecked aggression and insecurity, the kind of dried plum looking thing that made me pity anyone with the misfortune of knowing her, but now it was writhing with vitriol the likes of which I’d yet to see in all my time doing this job. “All you need to do is send me back so I can fix everything.” she said simply, “Surely that’s not too difficult a task, even for someone as simple as you, dear.” she said with a gross kind of sweetness in her voice. I smiled at her and stood up slowly, looking at her as I did, drinking in the sight of her. “Karen,” I began. “Ms. Twill will be fine.” she sneered. I flashed my teeth with my next smile, “Karen,” I repeated pleasantly, “do you know what I see when I look at you?” I asked rhetorically as I stepped around my desk and sat on the edge of it, fully aware that I was aping Mira’s own authoritative mannerisms, “I see a woman that failed.” I told her. “I see a woman that failed to give in to temptation and decided to cut corners to better herself by using her position to steal from the company she worked at under the guise of some misguided sense of being owed for years of service without recognition.” I said, rising from the desk to walk alongside of her, “I see a woman that failed to be any better a criminal than she was a worker resulting in her being, quite easily, caught.” I said, running my index finger along her bare shoulder. She shuddered and stomped her foot, though without shoes and socks, she merely slapped the linoleum of my office in a comically childish display of her immaturity, “I will not sit here and-” she started. “You will!” I snapped, pressing her back down into the chair with ease as she angrily rose. “I see a woman that was such a failure at socialization that she missed all the red flags when the pretty little intern struck up a sudden friendship with her completely out of the blue almost immediately after you started siphoning money from the company.” I continued, my hands lightly resting on her shoulders as I bent down as Mira had done with me and whispered into her ear, “I see a woman so weak willed that she allowed a girl half her age to reduce her to nothing more than a petulant toddler in a matter of days.” I softly hissed, feeling a sense of satisfaction when Karen Twill’s aura shrank, cowering around her in the face of the truth I was speaking about her. “She tricked me!” she whined, her facade broken under my assault. I stood and walked around the other side of her clucking my tongue softly, “Pathetic.” I said simply as I shook my head at her, “All that girl did was pretend to like you.” I told her, “Do you know that she told the secretarial pool all about what a sad, lonely old woman you were?” I asked, “Her words.” I added. Karen kept her eyes glued to the floor as her aura diminished further. I lifted her chin with a crooked finger so she was looking up at me, “I know that you wanted her.” I told her, delighting in how wide her eyes went. “I-I-I-” she stammered. I pressed my finger to her lips and made a shushing sound, “It’s alright, Karen, being gay is a beautiful thing.” I told her. “You say such evil and hateful things about the people of the LGBTQ+ community and other races and religions and creeds, yet you spent every night alone imagining this, admittedly, very hot little Latina girl being the dominant force in your love making.” I said. “You can’t know that!” she whined. I scoffed, “Can’t I?” I asked. “I know that eleven year old Karen got beat so hard with her Daddy’s belt for kissing the little Black boy down the street that she cracked a tooth biting down so hard from the pain.” I told her, “I know that nineteen year old Karen got drunk and went down on a Muslim girl and thought she might be in love until her clique of Beige Becky’s decided to target the poor girl for wearing a Hijab and pathetic, weak willed Karen joined in.” I continued. “Stop!” she shouted. “No!” I snapped, “You have lived a life of weakness, following the narrow minded crowd because it was easier than standing up for yourself and your feelings! You’ve immersed yourself in willing ignorance and backwards thinking for so long that you genuinely agree with ideals that would set women and minorities and gay rights back hundreds of years, and for what?!” I screamed. She was shaking, her aura barely a sliver around her, “It’s not like that!” she whined. I grabbed her by the arm and hauled her up from the chair as I materialized a full length mirror beside us, turning her to face it, “What do you see?” I spat. She tried to turn away but I held her in place by her arms, whispering into her ear once more. “I see a woman that got what she truly wanted.” I hissed, “I see a woman that tore down other women and sided with ideals about their subservience to men, that accepted the belief that women were weaker creatures and allowed herself to be infantilized because she believed it’s what she deserved for having a uterus.” I said, stepping away from her and looking at her in the mirror’s reflection with disgust, “The fact that all the way until she pulled out the diaper bag you made excuses for why it was completely acceptable for her to command you to strip down in a conference room is laughably sad, but the fact that all it took was a weak spanking to cow you into becoming,” I gestured head to toe in her direction, “this.” I said with disgust. Her aura flickered and vanished, signaling that I’d broken her spirit completely. “You lived a life tearing others down and being an entitled brat and I only wish you hadn’t died today because having to live the rest of your life knowing how pathetic you are and how easily you were brought to heel would’ve been very satisfying to have seen.” I told her. “You’re going to a very bad place, Karen, somewhere filled with people as ugly inside as you and with things as ugly outside as you are inside.” I added. She looked up at me in the mirror, “There’s nothing I can do to not go there?” she asked. I shook my head, “All you can do is conduct yourself with more dignity than you had in life and accept your fate and take your medicine.” I told her, using the words of her abusive father. She nodded softly, “I’m sorry.” she said. I shrugged, “Too little, too late.” I told her coldly. “I know, but if any of this goes on record, I am sorry for how I lived my life.” she said before she was unceremoniously swallowed into the floor. I sighed and sent the mirror away before returning to my desk, the feelings inside me not at all pleasant. ********* Mira looked at me disapprovingly. “I know, alright.” I said, arms folded in front of my chest in the most rebellious teenager pose I could manage. “Oh, you know that you broke a dozen rules with Karen Twill?” she asked. “Or do you know that the ice you’re on is so thin I could read the transcript of the appalling things you said to that woman through it?” she asked. I sat up in a huff, “Look, she wouldn’t have accepted anything the way she was acting, all I did was break her will and send her on her way, what’s the problem?” I asked. Mira sighed and sat back in her chair, “You understand the concept of how the hierarchy of this place works, right?” she asked, “Spirit comes to you, you sort them out so they don’t go back to Earth as a ghost, I sign off on the report to certify that you followed protocol and that report continues up the chain until The Powers That Be see it and sign off on it.” she explained, “If you bully and harass a spirit into submission, that’s not acceptance, that’s obedience and goes against their free will.” she added. I rolled my eyes, “And?” I scoffed, “What, is Karen Twill going to get a second chance at life because of me?” I asked incredulously. Mira said nothing but merely looked at me for a moment, “She’s being reincarnated as a way of apologizing for your handling of her case.” she said flatly. I stood up and slammed my hands on the desk, “Are you fucking kidding me?!” I shouted. The room grew darker and colder as Mira slowly rose to her feet, somehow enormous seeming in her stature as she looked down at me, “Sit.” she said simply. I didn’t realize I was backing up until the backs of my knees hit the chair I’d been sitting in and I plopped down onto it, unable to take my eyes off my now supremely imposing sister. Her heels didn’t click as she moved around the desk, she seemed to float past it and into the space in front of me, looking down on me like an angry parent would a disobedient child, “The Powers That Be have decided, and I agree, that in light of your recent attitude and handling of your cases, you’re to be suspended from case work duty until such time as you are able to successfully prove you’re able to do your job in accordance with the rules.” she explained. I stared up at her in disbelief, “Suspension?” I asked. She nodded. “We’ve arranged for your spirit to be placed into a new life on Earth.” she said, “That life will end in three and a half years on Earth, you have until the date of expiration to prove you’re able to do this job without breaking the rules.” she explained. “What if I can’t?” I asked timidly, my mind reeling from the insanity of the situation. She knelt down in front of me and placed her hands on my thighs gently, her eyes locked on mine, the dark brown of them seeming almost black and appearing to swirl with power and authority I’d never seen in her, “If you can’t, then your spirit will be voided out in the transfer and you’ll cease to exist.” she said. The room lightened and her eyes returned to normal, “Don’t let that happen.” she said, her tone changing to one of sympathy and sincerity before she stood up, “Your new body will be born in two days, you have until then to say whatever goodbyes you need to and clean out your living area and office.” she added. “Mira, please, there has to be some-” I started, stopping when she turned back around halfway back to her chair. “No.” she said, her voice tinged with sadness, “I tried to tell you you weren’t doing things right, I tried being tough with you and you bucked, I tried praising you when you did well and you were preoccupied and dismissive, I’ve tried to get you to understand that I’m not your enemy, but you have such a chip on your shoulder because of what happened between us in life that you can’t see that we’re not those people anymore.” she explained. “Just give me another chance, I promise I can do this, you’ve seen me do it!” I pleaded. She shook her head, “It’s out of my hands now.” she said sadly, “If you can’t do this and this is the last time we talk, know that I love you and take no pleasure in seeing this happen to you.” she said, going to the window to look out, “Good luck, Ella.” she said, her voice breaking before she managed to finish. ********* I sat in my empty living space after I numbly left Mira’s office, the benefits of being able to make things appear and disappear at will made cleaning out the space nearly instantaneous. I found a corner and sat in it with my knees pulled up to my chest, hugging my legs as I softly rocked to keep myself from having a full blown breakdown. Lucy was in front of me without me noticing she’d come in, her little hands on my shoulders, her chocolate eyes looking at me pityingly, “I came as soon as I heard.” she said softly. I stared into her eyes absently, “Who told you?” I asked. She lowered herself to her knees, “Word travels fast.” she said. “Is there anything I can do?” she asked. I shook my head, “Mira said it’s done.” I told her. I explained everything to her, stopping frequently to think about what was going to happen to me, scared for the first time since I’d died, the feeling foreign and almost new to me given the amount of time since I’d last experienced it. Lucy did what she did best, hugged me and listened when I spoke and doted on me when I didn’t. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay, alright?” she asked. “I can visit you as often as I can and keep you focused on what you need to do.” she explained. I looked up into her eyes, closing mine after a moment of contact, “I’m scared, Lucy.” I confessed. I felt her lips on my forehead and her fingers running through my hair, “I know, honey, but you can do this.” she whispered, “You’re the strongest woman I know.” she added, smiling at me when I opened my eyes. “I’m not strong, Lucy,” I said sadly, the fight drained from me before a sudden fit of laughter escaped me, startling the little girl holding my head in her lap, “I’m gonna be a baby again.” I said between fits of nearly hysterical giggles, “How fucking ironic is that?” I asked. She was quiet, letting me work through the bout of inappropriate laughter as she stroked my hair, “Think of it as the vacation you’ve always wanted but never had the chance to take.” she offered. “Don’t forget about me, okay?” I asked her after a long stretch of silence between the two of us. She smiled at me and kissed my forehead once more, “I could never forget you, Ella.” she said, sadness clinging to her words, “All I need you to do is stay focused and do what you need to do to so you can come back to me and I can smother you with all the kisses and cuddles a little sister could ask for.” she said, her voice quavering. I nodded softly and smiled up at her weakly, opening my mouth to say something but closing it again after a moment, my eyes meeting with hers and saying what I couldn’t manage to with my words. She nodded, “I know, honey.” she said, “I know.” she repeated, her little arms wrapping around me to hug me tightly. To Be Continued… 5 Link to comment
WBDaddy Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 Well THAT escalated quickly... Link to comment
Flyingsquirrel Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 Wow another wonderfully different story from you. Mira and Ella have one heck of an explosive relationship. To be honest I am a bit worried about Lucy being okay. I am really curious how the suspension is going to work. Can't wait for the adventure to really begin! Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted August 4, 2022 Author Share Posted August 4, 2022 9 hours ago, WBDaddy said: Well THAT escalated quickly... Yeah, we're going both feet into the deep end, no half measures here! 7 hours ago, Flyingsquirrel said: Wow another wonderfully different story from you. Mira and Ella have one heck of an explosive relationship. To be honest I am a bit worried about Lucy being okay. I am really curious how the suspension is going to work. Can't wait for the adventure to really begin! Thank you! I'm really excited about what I've got planned with this one! We'll see a lot more of Lucy, and learn more about Ella and Mira's past and maybe get a better understanding of why those two are so adverse to one another, specifically, why Mira is so dang hard on Ella. Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted August 11, 2022 Author Share Posted August 11, 2022 Chapter Three “Ella Smith 1870-1907” “Hello, Ms. Smith.” the slightly pudgy woman with the rosy cheeks and broad smile that looked like it might actually be causing her physical pain with how wide it was chirped happily from behind her desk, “My name is Franny Feldstein and I will be your case worker.” she explained. I stared at her dumbly for a moment, “I’m sorry, case worker for what, Ma’am?” I asked. She made a pitying head tilt and pout, “Oh, I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, honey, but you’re no longer living.” she said, her bright demeanor dimming to something closer to reverence before shifting back to bright and perky, “But, on the bright side, if we can get you to come to terms with your passing, you’re eligible to be a case worker like me!” she explained. I looked down at myself and yelped, my arm moving to cover my bare breasts and my hand shooting between my thighs to cover the rest of my indecency, “Why am I nude?!” I exclaimed, the last word coming out in a whisper in case anyone else were around to hear that I couldn’t see. “Well, what’s the last thing you remember?” she asked me. My memory was fuzzy, images swirling in my head with no rhyme or reason to them, but when I closed my eyes they became clearer. “I was at the-” I hesitated. “Dear, I already know everything that happened, so there’s no reason to be shy.” I heard her say, the smile in her voice like a warm hug that also kind of made you feel ill at ease. I nodded, “I was at the brothel.” I told her, feeling no shame or embarrassment in revealing the truth freely, no hotness in my ears or cheeks and no chewing of my lower lip. “I’m at the brothel at least once a week.” I continued, hearing the clacking of typewriter keys and agreeable noises from Franny. “What do you do at the brothel?” she asked. “Delilah works at the brothel.” I said, the fiery redhead filling my mental image. “She and I have known each other for a number of years and we have a sort of,” I couldn’t quite decide, now that I had to put a word to it, what Delilah and I actually were to one another, “unique relationship.” I finally decided. More clacking. “What were you and Delilah doing at the brothel?” her cheerfully toothy grinned words asked. Again, the lack of apprehension and shame I was feeling was thrilling to me, “I was nursing from her breasts.” I said. “She works at the brothel, but she was with child and hasn’t gotten back to work quite yet, but the manager of the brothel wouldn’t let her keep the baby and she was complaining about her breasts aching on account of how full they were with milk.” I explained. “We started playing a game where I was her baby and she was holding my head in her arms and letting me drink her milk.” I continued. The rapid fire clacking of the typewriter continued. “I’d emptied one breast and was working on the other when she started touching me in my lower parts and, as I said, she and I have a unique relationship, so I spread my legs to give her better space to work her magic,” I explained, and then my mental image shifted and nothing happy or good was happening, “I knocked the table with the oil lamp on it with my leg when she hit a particularly good spot and then the room was filled with smoke and fire.” I said, my voice catching in my throat as the image of Delilah yanking me from her breast and shoving me away from her so she could hurry to the door, the force of her shove sending me sprawling to the floor inches from the flames. “Ella.” Franny said softly, her hand on my shoulder, “You don’t need to relive the pain, honey.” she said softly, her eyes looking into mine with sympathy when I opened them. “Did Delilah get out safely?” I asked. Franny smiled, less so than she had been, but still a patented Franny Feldstein smile, “That’s not something you need to worry about, dear, all you need to do is tell me honestly that you accept your passing on and feel no need to concern yourself with your life as it was or the people in it.” she said, almost sounding like she was reading the words she was saying aloud with how practiced and polished they were. I was silent for a moment, thinking about what she wanted of me and nodded my agreement, “I accept that I’m dead, Ms. Feldstein, and I have no concern about my life or the people in it.” I lied. ********* I didn’t think my lie would work, I thought the ever chipper and sweet Franny would know immediately and chastise me and tell me I’d blown my chance to be a case worker like her, but she didn’t and I was whisked away to orientation for new case workers where I got a mental upgrade so I knew everything that had happened in the span of human history up to the date of my death and kept learning new things as they happened in the mortal world. I was given a living space far larger than the room I died in, the room that I secretly shared with Delilah and slipped out the window of before the man running the brothel came to rouse the women. I knew I could furnish the living area any way I wanted, but I lacked inspiration, and my room was little more than a ratty mattress and a candle on a stand in a basin of water for however long it was until Mira showed up at my door. ********** “Don’t look so shocked.” was all she said as she clicked past me into my living area. “God, isn’t this depressing.” she said as she surveyed my bare room. “When did you-” I started to ask, “I mean, how did you-” I tried again. She sighed, “None of your concern.” she said flatly, “I’m here because I’ve been appointed Overseer of Grid Eight Thousand Four Hundred and Twelve, and that makes me your boss.” she continued, “When I learned that you were one of my caseworkers, I looked at your file and decided I’d come directly to the source for answers to the questions I have.” she said. “Questions about what?” I asked. “Well, since I had little information aside from the fact that you died in a fire in a brothel, I wanted to know more and learned that you were romantically involved with a whore there.” she said, her eyes staring at me intently. “Don’t call her that.” I said petulantly. She smirked, “What should I call a woman that commits carnal acts with men for money?” she asked. I knew what I called her, but that never made it into the report because I’d only thought it but never said it out loud, “Delilah will be fine.” I said coldly. She shook her head, “I blame myself for your behavior, you know.” she said, “Mother dying when you were barely three, and then that horrible business with Father.” she added. “You were broken for such a long time and I didn’t do enough to snap you out of it and it stained you and turned you into a deviant.” she explained. I gritted my teeth, “I wasn’t a deviant, I was lonely.” I hissed. She almost looked sympathetic, “Lonely because you wanted what no one in their right mind would give you.” she said bluntly, “Admit it, some part of you wanted to go back to that period of time after Father died when you had me taking care of your every need.” she commanded. I shook my head, “No, I wanted to be loved and you-” I stopped. “Say it.” she ordered. I sighed, “You gave up on me and left me with people that didn’t care about me, didn’t love me, and treated me like there was something wrong with me.” I said wearily. “A grown woman incapable of caring for herself is a woman with something wrong with her.” she said, “You were a burden, and it pains me to say that, but your constant need to be looked after and cared for was smothering me and I needed to get away and find a life of my own and thrive.” she explained. “Did you?” I asked. She nodded, “I married and had three children.” she told me. I forced a smile, “I died in a brothel fire because a woman I loved and called ‘Mama’ pleasured me so well with her fingers while I sucked the milk from her tits that I accidentally kicked over the table with the oil lamp on it.” I said sadly, “I guess we both lived exciting lives.” I added. “That’s what I mean, Ella, you needed a mother and I wasn’t able to be that for you.” she said, “I tried my best, but caring for an eleven year old that wets and soils herself and refuses to stop sucking her thumb, that cries for everything rather than speak is exhausting.” she explained. I nodded and swallowed my rage down, “You remember what made me that way, you only saw Father for a moment after he fell off the roof,” I started, hating the feeling of wanting and needing to cry but being unable to, “he landed a foot away from me, his blood sprayed out onto my face and dress and I had to listen to his dying breath croak out of the side of his neck as my brain tried to come to terms that my Father looked like a snail with no shell all curled up on himself with his head turned the wrong way around and his eyes staring at me but not seeing me.” I said, “So, I am forever apologetic that my traumatic experience wasn’t part of your grand design for a happy life, but fuck you, Mira.” I spat. She cleared her throat, “You’ve been doing excellent work, Ella.” she said, moving past me toward the door with hurried clicks of her heels, “I do have concerns that you’re slightly more attached to your clients than you should be, but you’re still doing an excellent job.” she added before she opened the door and slipped through it, shutting it gently behind her. ********* After Mira’s first visit, I redecorated, her visit inspiring me to explore the limitless potential the ability to create something from nothing could afford. The more I thought about my past and my relationship with Delilah, and Mira herself, the younger the furniture and decoration became until the space was suitable for an infant my size and shape to make me feel small when I lay in the crib or the pram or the playpen, and I made sure that I was securely pinned into enough layers of toweling diapers to make walking an awkward waddle until I gave up and merely crawled everywhere in my living space. Work continued normally, cases resolving without issue and downtime spent in a blissful baby paradise of my own making, and then I met Lucy and discovered the one thing I’d been missing, the key ingredient in my otherwise perfect afterlife, a playmate. ********* D.E.A.T.H. has a regular competition for the case workers and reapers to build morale and foster interdepartmental teamwork where the case worker with the highest successful close rate and the reaper with the highest successful transition rate get to meet and spend some time together, and Lucy and I just happened to be the winners shortly after I’d decided that my afterlife was going to be far more focused on the little side of me that had always been there but had never truly been nurtured. Lucy had shown up to the meeting in an adorable sun dress, white with little daisies adorning it her little feet encased in frilly white ankle socks and black, patent leather shoes secured with a strap over top of her feet. She was wearing her hair in tight braids at that time, the top of her head sprouting dozens of the lovely looking strands of woven hair. I adored her the moment I saw her, and inadvertently came off kind of crazy. “Oh, my goodness, aren’t you just precious!” I gushed, reaching out to feel the thin, soft fabric of the sleeve of her dress. “How old are you, sweetie?” I asked in the tone one reserves for small children you may not expect to be able to accurately answer the question. She shifted her weight to one side to pull her sleeve free of me and looked up with annoyance, “Well, I was four when I died, but that was about sixty years ago, so, old enough for you to not talk to me like that.” she said. I was mortified, deathly afraid that I’d ruined a potential friendship in a matter of seconds, “I am so sorry, I meant no disrespect, I-” I started to stammer out an apology before a smile broke out on her face. “I’m joking.” she said simply. “I mean, I don’t like it when people just assume I’m a child because I look like one and dress like one, but I’ve gotten it enough in my time to understand the reaction.” she explained. I sighed in relief, “I really am sorry, I just love the fact that you’re comfortable dressing that way.” I said. She gave a non committal shrug, “This is how girls my age dress.” she said simply, “I tried the whole ‘business ready’ thing, but I do not look this cute in a dress meant for women in the secretary pool.” she explained. “It just feels more right to me to dress like a four year old.” she added. I was so jealous I thought for sure she’d ask why my eyes were green all of a sudden, “Do you wear diapers?” I blurted out suddenly, too slow of brain to keep the words from erupting from my mouth. She raised an eyebrow, “Never gotten that one before.” she said, “No.” she quickly added, “Do you?” she asked, a small smirk on her face. We’re free to be open and honest about who we are in the afterlife, there aren’t societal standards and biases to navigate, there’s no pressure to hide your weirdness if you don’t want to because everyone is what they are and everyone is dead and no one cares because the job is the only thing you have going on, so I pushed my will to change my modest, professional attire to match Lucy’s, but with a thick diaper pinned around my waist peeking out beneath the hem of my new dress. Lucy’s eyes went wide and her smile seemed to grow in slow motion as she looked me up and down and lifted the hem of my dress to see my diapers, “Well, you’re not as cute as me, but damn if you don’t have a natural cuteness.” she said. “It’s not silly looking?” I asked. She shook her head, her braids softly swaying and lightly pattering against her head, “Did I expect to see a grown woman dressed identically to me but with great big diapers on today?” she asked, “No.” she answered, “But that doesn’t mean that you’re not really cute dressed like that.” she added. “Thank you.” I said softly. “I was,” I started to say, “When I was alive I had a woman that I had feelings for and I didn’t realize that the way I felt when I was with her was less about her and more about me and who I am, now that I have the ability to dress however I want and have anything I want, I’ve been exploring that part of me.” I explained. Lucy listened to me and nodded, “When I was alive I was just a kid, I didn’t think about life and death and stuff, just having fun with my sisters and being a good girl for my mama,” she said, her voice somber, “being here gives you insight into everything that comes with living a life and it’s up to you if you want to be resentful on missing out on it or embrace it in any way you can and try and be happy.” she explained. I smiled at her, “I have dolls if you’d like to come to my place and play.” I offered. She giggled and nodded, “You know, I was worried about who I was going to meet today.” she said, “I was sure I was going to have to fake my way through an awkward get together and go back to my normal routine with nothing to show for it.” she explained. “But?” I pushed, my smile growing. She took a spot beside me and interlocked her little hand in mine, “But, I think maybe I’ve made my first friend in this place.” she said, looking up at me with a smile to match my own. ********* Lucy and I became best friends quite quickly after that meeting, we played with my dolls back at my place and she admired my nursery and insisted I show her all my outfits and, as it turns out, she got some ideas for new outfits of her own based on some of the things I showed her, confessing that she hadn’t considered dressing younger than her apparent four years, but was in love with how much cuter the rompers and toddler dresses made her look. As time went on, the world of the living advanced and invented, and because we at D.E.A.T.H. need to be knowledgeable about the world of the living to deal with the arriving dead, I became aware of disposable diapers and replaced my collection of cloth ones with them. The sound they made when I crawled around was intoxicating, the subtle rustle of plastic filling my ears made me wish I wasn’t dead so I could more appropriately explore the feelings I had but that had evaporated when my heart stopped beating. It was the 80’s on Earth, and I had a case, a lovely old lady that calmly accepted her passing, sharing sweet anecdotes about being with her husband again, the usual everyday circumstances I experienced, but we’d gotten some new technology to use that allowed us to see the world of the living, a way to show the recently deceased how their family and friends were handling their death should the need arise, and the old woman had mentioned that she was worried about her granddaughter, Allison, so we peeked in on her to allay her fears and she passed on shortly after, leaving me with a front row seat to Allison’s life. Allison had hair like a waterfall on fire and skin so pale she seemed like a China doll rather than a living breathing person, and I fell instantly in love with her despite my best intentions. The rule given to us when we got the upgraded technology was that we weren’t to use it for anything but an individual case, but I couldn’t help myself, this young woman was so perfect and beautiful that I found myself sitting and staring at her as she went about her normal daily routine. When Allison went grocery shopping, I was on the aisle with her, imagining conversations about cereal as I slipped my hand in her back pocket and she put her arm around me, when she was alone in her bed at night I imagined sneaking below the covers to gently wake her with kisses and soft licks to her most delicate flesh. I imagined fantasy scenarios where she was a caregiver to me as Delilah had been, my lips around her perfect, pink nipples as she lightly caressed the front of my diaper, urging me to use it for her, I imagined scenarios where she replaced Lucy as my playmate and we crawled around in our diapers giggling like silly babies before the realization that we were women in love suddenly struck us and we ravaged one another on the floor beside our used and discarded diapers. Allison eventually found a boyfriend, and I toyed with the fantasy of being in my crib while she and him had sex in her room, but it didn’t bring me the same happiness as the fantasy of being with her myself did. Mira snapping her fingers in my face brought me out of one of my daydreams one day in her office, she tended to be more theatrical than I cared for, so while she sat and built ambiance or dread in me or whatever she was doing it for, I was imagining a bath with Allison that was leaning toward making us more dirty than clean, “I assume you’re thinking of that girl you’ve been spying on.” Mira said disapprovingly. I snapped to attention and gawked up at her stupidly. “Did you really think you could log,” she went to her desk and picked up a paper, read it and looked up at me in disgust, “Seventeen thousand hours, Ella!” she shouted, slamming the paper down, “Seventeen thousand hours watching this woman!” she repeated, “What possible reason could you have for spending that much time watching a living woman?” she asked. “She’s beautiful.” I said softly, my eyes on the floor like a chastised child. “Look at me when you speak to me, Ella!” she snapped. My head shot up and I looked at her as she asked, “She’s beautiful and I love her!” I yelled. Mira sighed heavily and massaged the non existent headache in her temples, “Here’s what’s going to happen,” she said calmly, “you’re going to stop watching her, and forget she exists, am I understood?” she asked. “No!” I snapped, “What harm am I doing by watching her?!” I shouted. “It’s not like she knows I’m watching her!” I added. Mira shook her head, “Why are you such a shortsighted child?!” she growled in frustration. “You falling in love with her makes you want to be with her, right?” she asked. I nodded sheepishly. “Okay, so if you’re dead and she’s not then that’s a pretty big wedge between you, right?” she asked. As far as relationship hurdles go, that was a big one. I nodded again. “So, your options become, she dies so you’re with her here, or you become a ghost to be with her there, and neither of those things are healthy to strive for.” she explained. I opened my mouth to argue. “No!” she snapped. My mouth closed instantly. “Repeat after me,” she commanded firmly, “I, Ella Smith,” she said. I sighed, “I, Ella Smith,” I repeated joylessly. “Will listen to my boss and older sister, Mira,” she continued. “Will listen to my boss and older sister, Mira,” I repeated after a moment of hesitation. “and promise to stop watching Allison Jefferson and forget about her and never, ever, do something as stupid and reckless as what I’ve been doing.” she concluded, looking at me expectantly with her arms folded across her chest. “and promise to stop watching Allison Jefferson and forget about her and never, ever, do something as stupid and reckless as what I’ve been doing.” I repeated, my spirit withering like a flower in the desert as the words left my lips. Mira’s heels clicked on the floor as she came to me and knelt down, her hands going up to my cheeks to hold them softly, “I know how hard it is to be lonely here.” she said softly, “I know how frustrating it is to not be able to,” she hesitated, looking uncharacteristically embarrassed, “I miss my husband and being able to enjoy his touch.” she said, pivoting to a more palatable way of saying she was horned up as much as her degenerate sister, “This thing with Allison is not the way to make those feeling go away for you, sweetheart.” she said, her tone changing to one I hadn’t heard since I was a young girl, a tone of sisterly love. I looked into her eyes, wishing crying was something I could do, “Why can’t you be this nice to me all the time?” I asked quietly. She sighed softly and kissed my forehead before she stood up and adjusted her outfit to be smooth and professional looking once more, “Because it’s my job here to make sure you do your job,” she said, clip clopping back to her seat, “not be your mother and baby you.” she said coldly. I scoffed and stood up, “For the record,” I said softly, “All I wanted was for you to be a compassionate fucking human being, Mira, blood aside, just go five fucking minutes without being an icy bitch to me.” I snapped before leaving her office. To Be Continued… 5 1 Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted August 19, 2022 Author Share Posted August 19, 2022 Chapter Four “Sibling Rivalry” The light blinded me and I angrily hurled obscenities at whoever was in charge of the lighting to turn it down, but all that came out was the high, weak wails of a newborn, and my spirit aligned with my new body and all the fight drained out of me as I was passed from one giant set of hands to another, my delicate little body rubbed down with a cloth, a suction in my nose and then warmth as I moved around and came to rest in my new mother’s arms. We don’t remember our birth because the sights and sounds are absolutely the most intense and traumatic experience imaginable. One second you’re floating in a warm bath of amniotic fluid, the muffled sounds of the outside world almost lulling you to sleep, and the next you’re cold and naked and it’s bright and terrifying and no one can understand you, but I had consciousness this time around so I got to experience all of it in glorious high definition. “He’s perfect, isn’t he?” the woman holding me asked. “He’s got your nose.” a man above me responded. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the ‘he’ in question was me, and I silently cursed Mira for not having enough consideration to at least put me in a female body, but then I remembered that this was designed to be a punishment and what better way to twist the dagger than to potentially give me body dismorphia and gender identity issues while I was stuck here? Sleep came and went without my control, I was in my new mother’s arms and then in a plastic bin surrounded by crying babies, then nursing from my new mother’s breast, then back in the crying room, then in a carrier in the backseat of a car and then in a bassinet looking up at Lucy. “Hey, kiddo.” she said with a bright smile. My body wiggled a little and I made a soft murmur through the pacifier I was powerless to keep from nursing. She pointed to her head, “I can hear you in here.” she said. “Oh, thank the swans!” I thought, earning another smile from Lucy. “I thought I was going to lose my mind not being able to talk.” I mentally confessed. She leaned in and kissed my forehead, “I would’ve come to see you before you got out of the hospital, but Mira made a sweet suggestion to my boss about managing my schedule to keep me from sticking around before and after I do my job, so I’ve had to get creative.” she explained. “Wait, Mira knew you were going to visit me?” I asked. Lucy nodded, “My boss pushed back against her, but he doesn’t want anyone upstairs to come down on him, so he’s kind of turning a blind eye to me for a bit.” she explained. “Did Mira talk to you?” I asked. She shook her head, “The fact that she knows that I was planning to visit you means that she was at least listening in on us though.” she said grimly. “Well I-” I stopped. Lucy looked at me expectantly, “You, what?” she asked. After an afterlife of wearing diapers and being unable to use them, the feeling of a pool of liquid excrement pressed against my butt was more than a little jarring to me, “I think I shit myself.” I thought. Lucy covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. “It’s not funny!” I thought. “It kinda is though.” she said, “I mean, you get the whole experience now, right?” she asked. How do you explain to the spirit of a four year old with the mind of a grown adult that choosing to use a diaper and realizing you have without being aware of it are two completely different things? “Eww, it’s awful, Lucy!” I mentally whined before my mouth opened and I began to wail uncontrollably. The light beside the bed turned on a moment later and my new mother sat up groggily and tended to me as Lucy looked on. “She’s a good mother.” she said. Once I was changed into a clean diaper I was put to her breast and quietly nursed as I continued talking to Lucy. “Mira said I had three and a half years to prove I can do my job without breaking the rules.” I explained, realizing my new diaper was already warming with pee as I swallowed milk. “Did she give you any information on how you could do that?” she asked. “No!” I whined, “It feels like she dumped me here so I wouldn’t cause her anymore trouble and then when this body dies I’ll just disappear.” I told her. Lucy sighed, “Alright, let me do some digging and see if I can’t find out what you’re supposed to do here.” she told me. “What do I do in the meantime?” I asked as my mother shifted me to her other breast. Lucy shrugged, “Try and stay sane.” she said, “Don’t let your brain turn to mush here.” she added. Her little hand took mine in it and her thumb lightly stroked the back of it, “I love you, Ella.” she said. “I love you too, Lucy.” I thought sadly as the gas built up in my stomach and my body began to fuss and squirm without my control. ********* “Okay, here’s what I found out.” Lucy said some time later as I was being bathed in the little basin in the kitchen sink. She was sitting on the counter beside the sink looking straight ahead in some oddly sweet symbol of respecting my privacy, “Mira has it out for you.” she said bluntly. My mother gasped and moved the washcloth she was holding over my nether regions as I involuntarily peed, chuckling softly and making babytalk sounds at me. “Out, how?” I asked. “Well, I have this friend, Darla, in data entry, and she said that your name came up in the termination queue the day before this you was born.” Lucy explained. “Wait, termination queue?” I asked. “When people finish their term as a case worker and ‘retire’ to the great beyond.” she explained, “Active case workers never end up on that list.” she added. “So, she’s expecting me to fail.” I thought. “No, she’s guaranteeing you’re going to fail.” Lucy corrected. “Darla did more digging, and there’s no record of you being here in this body.” she explained. “Aaron Hernandez, the boy you’re living in, he’s scheduled to die in three and a half years, but there’s zero mention of your spirit being placed in his body.” she continued. My mother dried me off and got me diapered and dressed and put me down in the bassinet for a nap while my mind ran through all the terrible possibilities that lay ahead of me. “You nap, Ella, I have to get back to work anyway.” She said, kissing my forehead softly, “We’ll figure this out and fix it, I promise.” she said before she left. ********* Time for a baby is measured in changes and feedings, though a baby has no concept of time, they just know that food makes a happy tummy and changes make the icky feeling down below go away. As an adult in a newborn body, I began to develop cabin fever in my own consciousness. I tried to enjoy being a baby, I did, but the ‘adult’ part of ‘adult baby’ is what I love, the willing submission to infantile behaviors and urges was so enticing because it was out of character, the helplessness of actually being a baby was the worst thing imaginable for me in the moment. I did grow to appreciate the woman that was my mother though, and the man that was my father was equally loving and gentle with me, something my original father had not been when I was growing up. Did I love the Hernandez family? No, not really, but they took good care of me and loved me, and that helped when Lucy didn’t come back the next day, or the day after that. When Lucy did finally show back up, I was being dressed for my first birthday party and tried to pretend I’d lost my adult mind to scare her. “I can hear everything you’re thinking, Ella, I know you’re pretending.” she chided, “Also, pretty sure babies don’t actually think the words ‘goo goo’ and ‘ga ga’.” she added. “Where the fuck have you been?!” I mentally screamed, taking some small satisfaction in her visibly jumping in surprise at the volume and intensity of my mental voice. “I’m sorry, okay!” she apologized, “Mira is out of control.” she said. “What now?” I asked as the little sailor suit outfit was adjusted and my mother picked me up from the changing table to carry me out to the living room where all the decorations for my party were waiting. Lucy sighed, “Darla was relocated to the tadpole tank.” she said. We call unborn spirits ‘tadpoles’ because they literally just wiggle around aimlessly in the ether of limbo and being tasked with ‘supervising’ them is the absolute shittiest job you can get assigned to. “Why?” I asked. “Because she helped me.” she said glumly. “There’s more though.” she added. My mother set me in my carrier and gave me a pacifier while she bustled about putting the finishing touches on things, “Lucy, I need you to talk to me, okay?” I pleaded. Another sigh, “I’ve been temporarily reassigned from reaping.” she said. “Reassigned where?” I asked. She took a seat crisscross applesauce in front of me, chin rested in her hand as she absently rocked the carrier I was laid in, “Mira’s secretary.” she said. “That’s good though, right?” I asked, “I mean, you can get more info right from the source!” I exclaimed. She shook her head, “It’s a title she gave me, that’s all.” she said, “She set up her closet to be my “office”, and my job is basically to sit in there all day and color pictures for her like a “good little girl”.” she explained, her voice dripping with disdain. I was soiling my fresh diaper and on the verge of tears, “How are you here now then?” I asked. “After hours and a friend is letting me tag along on his job.” she said, “I’m sorry, Ella, but I don’t know how to help you out here.” she said sadly, “Mira has already threatened to demote me for arguing with her about the bullshit assignment she cooked up for me, and she’s all but isolated me during work hours, it’s only a matter of time before she’s got me on lockdown after work too.” she explained. “What’s lower than picture coloring closet secretary?” I asked. She shrugged, “I don’t know, but she’s evil enough to find something worse, I’m sure.” she said. “What about her boss?” I asked. She scoffed, “Yeah, lemme just get God on the phone and see if she’s got any input on what we can do here.” she said, a bit snottier than I appreciated. I was bawling and being lifted out of the carrier as Lucy got up and started to leave, “If I can, I’ll come back and see you again.” she said sadly. I protested, but she was gone again, leaving me to stew in the new information she’d given me which, on the plus side, gave me something to focus on to keep me from going crazy. ********* “Wake up.” Mira commanded. My eyes opened and I looked up at her standing at the side of my crib looking down at me, Lucy stood beside her looking at me through the bars, Mira’s hand gently stroking and patting her head. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “Just checking on your progress.” Mira said, her voice almost happy sounding. “Why are you doing this to me?” I asked. Mira turned and knelt down, picking Lucy up and setting the little girl on her hip, bouncing her softly, the unmistakable crinkle of a diaper filling my ears. In the dimness of the nightlight on the other side of the room, I could see that Lucy had a pacifier in her mouth and was looking at me sadly as she lay her head on Mira’s shoulder, “Your little spy finally came to her senses.” she said coldly, “The threat of being sent back to her body was a strong motivator, wasn’t it, Lulu?” she asked the little girl. If Lucy was sent back to her body, her spirit would be tied to what remained of her bones, leaving her a wraith tethered to one spot alone and unable to interact with anyone. I felt a bout of wailing welling up inside me but felt it subside as Mira pushed my own pacifier into my mouth, “Now now,” she chided, “if you’re a noisy baby you won’t learn anything.” she said. My mouth sucked the pacifier and I focused my attention on Lucy, “Fight her, Lucy!” I pleaded. Mira smiled, her red lips parting to reveal her perfect white teeth as she hooked her finger into the ring of Lucy’s pacifier and pulled it free of the girl’s mouth, “Tell her.” she commanded calmly but firmly. “Lucy is Mama Mira’s baby now.” Lucy said softly, greedily taking the pacifier back into her mouth when Mira offered it. Mira sighed, “This is the best case scenario, honestly.” she said as she went to the rocking chair across the room and sat down with Lucy on her lap, holding the girl like a doll, “See, you were never in any kind of trouble, Ella, I made all that up because you were doing such a good job that The Powers That Be were considering you as my replacement.” she explained, “Obviously I couldn’t stand for my silly baby sister taking my job, so I pushed you out, pulled some strings and tucked you away in little Aaron’s body until you go poof when he dies.” she continued. “You’re a fucking monster!” I snapped. Mira smirked, “Lulu here was the one kink in my perfect plan, but she was easy enough to deal with once I convinced her boss that she’d snapped from the pressure of her job and regressed thanks to your terrible influence encouraging her to act like a baby in her free time.” she explained. “Now she’s a sweet, docile little baby for her new Mama, aren’t you, Lulu?” she asked the little girl. Lucy nodded softly, “Yes, Mama.” she responded obediently. Mira chuckled softly, “I get a daughter like I had when I was living, I’m rid of you once and for all, and I’m free to run my team how I see fit because I’m such a great manager.” she gloated. “Why do you hate me so much?” I asked her, my heart aching from such betrayal. Mira was out of the chair and beside the crib in an instant, “Because you ruined everything!” she screamed, her spirit flashing brightly, causing the nightlight to flicker and burst, leaving us in the dark. “Mother wasn’t your fault, but Father fell off that roof because he was distracted by you playing in the garden, and when he was gone I had no one to help me and love me, just an eleven year old girl that stopped talking and doing anything for herself.” she hissed. “You robbed me of a happy life with your regressive bullshit, and then I finally rid myself of you and have a happy life and here comes the bad penny turning up again in my job.” she sneered. “I never meant to-” I started to argue. “Shut your fucking mouth!” she screamed, another flash of rage making me see spots, “You never mean for anything, do you, Ella?” she asked rhetorically, “You never meant to be a pants pissing and shitting burden for me to clean up after, you never meant to disgrace yourself by dying in a brothel so I had to deal with the looks and the whispers about my relation to a degenerate, you never meant to do your job so well that you were on track to take mine from me, everything just seems to happen around you while you float along obliviously.” she snapped. “That’s not fair!” I argued. Mira sighed, “No, you wouldn’t think it was, would you?” she asked, “Mother loved you and protected you, Father loved you and protected you, I loved you and protected you, but all you did was take and take and take until everyone around you either died to get away from you or abandoned you because of what a pathetic burden you are.” she said. The pacifier fell from my mouth and my wails filled the room. Mira scoffed, “Typical.” she sneered. “Say goodbye to the pathetic baby.” she commanded Lucy. Lucy looked down at me pityingly, “Goodbye, pathetic baby.” she said sadly, her words saying what she was ordered to say, but her tone letting me know how sorry she was and how much she loved me. “Enjoy what little time you have left.” Mira said before she and Lucy vanished. To Be Continued... 2 1 Link to comment
Flyingsquirrel Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 Finally got around to catching up on the last two chapters. Woof that last one got my heart going. What a lovely sister... As usual you are writing a fantastically unique story that is a treat to read. Thank you for sharing. Link to comment
kerry Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 Yet another story that I had lost track of in my cruise/Covid-induced down time. But OMG is this a great one! Mira's attitude and actions in it are a bit too Voldemortish, but OK: she's an evil bitch so we'll roll from there. Given that Ella actually does a super job at her work and was in place long before Mira died, I'm a bit confused about how she so easily and quickly became Ella's boss. But again: OK. All we can hope for now, I guess, is that God is indeed all-knowing and figures out what is happening in her offices! Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted August 30, 2022 Author Share Posted August 30, 2022 On 8/28/2022 at 9:00 AM, Flyingsquirrel said: Finally got around to catching up on the last two chapters. Woof that last one got my heart going. What a lovely sister... As usual you are writing a fantastically unique story that is a treat to read. Thank you for sharing. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it, I'm so appreciative of not only that but for you taking the time to share your thoughts! The story has shifted gears a lot in the writing process, and I'm pretty sure I'm being reckless with it, but we'll see I suppose, hopefully the fantastic uniqueness holds up! On 8/28/2022 at 2:10 PM, kerry said: Yet another story that I had lost track of in my cruise/Covid-induced down time. But OMG is this a great one! Mira's attitude and actions in it are a bit too Voldemortish, but OK: she's an evil bitch so we'll roll from there. Given that Ella actually does a super job at her work and was in place long before Mira died, I'm a bit confused about how she so easily and quickly became Ella's boss. But again: OK. All we can hope for now, I guess, is that God is indeed all-knowing and figures out what is happening in her offices! I hope all is well with you and you're recovering or all better! I'm glad you got a chance to read this. As for your concerns, - I may be the only person that's never read the Harry Potter books or watched the movies, so I'm assuming that Mira is comically villainous given the circumstances BUT maybe everything isn't what it seems... - Without spoiling anything, I will say that ♀️power is kind of really important going forward. So, let's see if this is the chapter that derails everything! Chapter Five “Mira Smith 1864-1910” I prayed every day of my life once I learned what praying was. I taught my sister how to pray, I taught my husband how to pray, and I taught my sons and daughter how to pray and did the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven open for me and bathe me in their light and love? No, no they did not. Rather than a reward for my devotion and a place in eternity with my family, I was once again saddled with the burden of looking after my sister, and it did not sit well with me. When I died, God was my caseworker. He sat on a chair trimmed with gold, the opulent maroon cushioning looking regal and comfortable as he crossed one leg over the other and folded His hands in His lap, His smile reaching the very core of my spirit. He talked while I listened, the story of Ella destroying the sanctity of the afterlife with her usual shortsighted selfishness was on brand for my sister, so when He finished and offered me a job as her boss I of course agreed. I kept my role as Ella’s boss a secret for a while, long enough to get a firsthand look at her work and make a cursory assessment of the threat that God saw her to be, and then I met with her in her living space. I thought that if I could remind her of her past with me that I could trigger her to fall back into her submissive ways and do as she was told, but my sister is a stubborn little thing and all she did was view me as the villain and set about to butting heads with me as often as possible. ********* “Mama?” Lucy’s little voice asked from beside me, bringing me out of my thoughts. I turned my chair to face her and smiled at her warmly. I’d dressed her in a simply darling gingham pinafore, something my youngest daughter had worn quite often when I’d been alive. The darling little Black girl stood sheepishly beside me, looking down at her bare feet, the little tufts of hair bunched on either side of the top of her head making her look every bit the toddler she was. Leaning forward, I lifted her up and onto my lap, sitting her down with an audible rustle from beneath her dress. “What can Mama do for her baby girl?” I cooed as I rubbed her back softly. She was nervous, the poor thing would probably be soaking her diaper in my presence if her body still functioned, but she merely looked down at her hands as she absently fiddled with them, “Could we visit Ella today?” she asked timidly. The devotion that Lucy had for my sister was annoyingly complete, my efforts to break the girl of it had yet to bear fruit, but I knew it wouldn’t matter after much longer, “Is Ella your imaginary friend, baby?” I asked, subtly reminding her that my sister no longer existed. She chewed her bottom lip as her spirit diminished, a sign that I was breaking her down further, “I meant Aaron.” she corrected. I sighed contentedly, “Well, that depends,” I said, laying her back gently, cradling her in my arms, “have you been a good girl today?” I asked. She nodded, her lovely brown eyes looking up at me hopefully, “Yes, Mama.” she said. “Baby Lucy colored so many pictures for you.” she explained. Her clothing melted away at my bidding, leaving her naked save for her diaper, and the top of my blouse faded away to expose my breasts to her which she obediently latched onto without any input from me thanks to the training I’d put her through since demoting her back to infancy. “Aaron is too little to know we’re visiting, baby.” I told her as I held her head to my breast, memories of my biological children nursing from me playing out behind my closed eyes as we played make believe together. She wanted to argue, wanted to fight me, but she knew how it would go for her and that I could always make things worse and resigned herself to obeying her Mama and being a good baby, in that way, Lucy was so much smarter than Ella. ********* Ella’s wails roused me from sleep, the smell of another accident filling my nose as I woke up and felt the warm wetness between us in the bed we shared. “Ella!” I shouted in her face, silencing her briefly before she launched into a new, frightened cry. I sighed and got up, lighting the lamp beside the bed and carrying it over to the other side to kneel down beside her and gently stroke her hair. “I’m sorry I yelled, baby.” I apologized, forcing a smile in the flickering light as my eleven year old sister calmed herself by stuffing her thumb into her mouth. Father had died six months earlier, and Ella hadn’t had a dry or clean day or night in that time, nor had she spoken a word more complex than ‘Mama’, her new name for me, and it was all wearing very thin for me. I loved my sister, but it was hard enough keeping myself together in the face of being an orphan and burying your father beside your mother while your younger sister behaved a decade less than her age. I resented Ella every time I had to care for her, resented the smell of her messes assaulting my nose, resented her for not helping me move her so I could strip the bed or her clothes, resented her for not being there to talk to when I needed her, but most of all I secretly resented her for having someone to look after her. I wasn’t a baby like her, but Father had doted on me quite a lot before his untimely death, something we kept from Ella because Father was sure she would be jealous. We’d done everything together before he died, he’d sat behind me on the horse he’d taught me to ride, he’d sat in the kitchen smoking his pipe while I prepared dinner, after Ella was asleep we’d stay up together and share his bottle of homemade liquor until I was a giggly mess and he’d pull me onto his lap and tell me how much he loved me and what a good job I was doing keeping house and caring for him and Ella. Another smell brought me back to the present, his kisses on my neck replaced with a stink of Ella’s shameful helplessness as she looked up at me in the candlelight and whimpered behind her thumb, “I was happy with Father and you ruined it all.” I thought as I hefted my burden from the bed and carried her to the washroom to clean her up. ********* God and I had regular meetings about Ella’s comings and goings, His insight on my reports showed me how greatly I was underestimating my sister, pointing out things I’d missed or seen as something of little consequence. Ella’s relationship with Lucy was one of the things I’d skimmed over, but His thought was that Ella’s ability to corrupt another and bring her into her activities was clearly a threat that I now saw and focused my attentions on, the separation of the pair being a way to dismantle Ella before she could rise further and cause the trouble He’d spoken to me about. ********* I’d spent weeks altering every stitch of fabric in the house into something for Ella to wear to keep her messes contained, destroying every article of clothing of both Mother and Father to swaddle the simple minded girl like an infant, and the resentment built as I watched her defecate into an assortment of Father’s shirts. He’d worn those to build the house we lived in, worn them to provide for us by hunting and farming, and all Ella could do was fill them with her mess. The first time I slapped her came when she began bawling after soiling his shirts, and the first time I left her alone to cry came after that slap. I didn’t cry because I’d struck her, I cried because his memory was fading in me, Ella pushing him out day by day and try as I might I couldn’t get a moment’s peace long enough to recall the color of his eyes or the smell of his skin. I missed him, and every day made his image hazier than the last, and I needed to do something to preserve his memory. I packed the wagon and all of Ella’s clothes and loaded everything up while she napped and lulled her back to sleep on the wagon before I drove us into town. The church was silent when we arrived late in the night, Ella was thankfully asleep once more, her swaddling clothes damp as she slept, but I hefted her into my arms and lay her down on the steps of the church wrapped tightly in furs to keep her from leaving the spot. “This is best for both of us.” I told the sleeping girl, considering for a moment kissing her forehead before rising to my feet without doing so, “I hate you.” I whispered. “You took everything from me, even his memory, and I hope you’re happy with what you’ve become.” I said. “Goodbye forever, Ella.” I added as I hurried back to the wagon and drove away as Ella’s wails began to fill the silent night air. ********* “Incest is quite the sin.” God had said to me when I first arrived in His presence. “That was some time ago.” I told Him quietly. He nodded, “Yes, and I know that it was your Father that initiated it.” He said. I nodded, “Yes, but I was a willing participant, and I have prayed for forgiveness for my actions and-” I hesitated, “desires.” I finally managed to say. He smiled and rose from his throne, walking over to where I sat, “Love thy Father and thy Mother.” he mused, “Fairly vague, is it not?” he asked. “I’m not sure, my Lord.” I admitted. He was behind me, His hands on my shoulders as he leaned down and whispered into my ear, “What I’m saying, child, is that there’s a gray area for all things, and what we do in the shade of that gray area is of little consequence.” I turned and looked up at him in surprise, “Are you saying that I didn’t sin?” I asked in disbelief. He shrugged nonchalantly, “Who’s to say that the alcohol he fed you wasn’t too strong for a young woman to handle?” he offered, “Who’s to say that your ability to be a wife and mother confused him in his drunken state and you being the obedient daughter would never disobey your father’s wishes?” he continued, coming around the chair to kneel in front of me and take my hands in his, “All I’m saying is that you’re exactly the person I need to fix the problem I have inside D.E.A.T.H., and something as trivial as a lapse of judgment in the living realm shouldn’t have any bearing on your ability to do what is required, right?” he asked. I nodded vehemently, eager to unburden myself of the stain that I’d carried for years in life, the secret I’d taken to my grave, “Yes, my Lord.” I agreed. His hand reached up and gently stroked my cheek, “Good.” he said warmly, “Your sister is going to destroy the afterlife with her selfishness and childish antics, and I think you’re just the person to bring her to heel.” he explained. “How do I do that?” I asked. He explained the loophole that would allow Ella’s spirit to be placed into a living body and what would happen to her should that body expire with her in it, “All you need to do is break her will down enough that she won’t see an exit when the time comes, and you’ll be rid of her for good and I’ll be free of the damage she’ll do.” he said, “Can I count on you, Mira?” he asked. I nodded and dropped from the chair to my knees, “Yes, my Lord, I will see to it that Ella is handled.” I told him. He approached me and lay his hand on the top of my head, “You’ll be greatly rewarded for this should you succeed.” he told me. “I do this for you, my Lord, as atonement for my sins.” I said. His will brought me to my feet as he approached, his arms moving around my waist, “You could be my Queen.” he said softly before his lips were on mine and my spirit was engulfed in pleasure. ********* My husband passed two years before I did, and I spent my last two years desperately clinging to my children to occupy my mind to keep from dwelling on his absence. Our two oldest were off at school, but our youngest was still at home, and he became my world. “Mama, I don’t want to do this, it’s silly!” he’d whined when I’d begun dressing him. “Hush now, Lydia.” I’d said, using his new name. “My name is Joshua, Mama!” he argued. I brushed his hair, the length had been something my husband and I had argued over, but with him gone, I was free to keep it the way I wanted, “Lydia was supposed to be your sister, but God chose to take her to his side before she was born.” I explained as I tied his hair into pigtails with the lovely satin ribbons I’d saved from when our eldest daughter was little. I stepped back to admire my handiwork, my independent eleven year old son replaced with a darling little girl that still needed her mother to pin her diapers on and look after her. “Aren’t you just the most darling little thing?” I cooed, delighting in the rosiness of my daughter’s little cheeks. “I’m not wearing this any longer, Mama!” he shouted as he started to move to undress himself. In one fluid motion, I’d swept the little girl off her feet and over to the bed where I draped her across my lap and delivered my response to her backside, drilling into her what her name was and how old she was until she saw the error of her ways and sobbingly repeated the truth she’d learned. I thought of Ella briefly when the smell of Lydia’s accident filled my nostrils, an errant concern that what I was doing was wrong dancing through my mind before I dismissed it to carry out my motherly duties and change my baby. My treatment of Joshua in the two years after his father’s passing was what roused him from bed the night of my death. My forcing him to become the daughter I’d lost before she drew breath was what put the ax in his hand. My robbing him of his identity and autonomy brought the ax down onto me as I slept, but deep down I knew that Ella was to blame for tainting my mind with her sickness and making me yearn for someone to look after. To Be Continued… 1 Link to comment
kerry Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Um... Oh my... So, not only is Mira a selfish, murderous, obscene prick, but God is as well? I did NOT see that coming. How did God manage to create a well-ordered afterlife if he can be so disdainful and hateful and hypocritical? There was empirical evidence earlier that showed Ella as an exemplary afterlife worker and Lucy as one also, yet here is Mira acting with God's explicit approval to destroy them both? Hell might actually be a better place. Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted August 31, 2022 Author Share Posted August 31, 2022 4 hours ago, kerry said: Um... Oh my... So, not only is Mira a selfish, murderous, obscene prick, but God is as well? I did NOT see that coming. How did God manage to create a well-ordered afterlife if he can be so disdainful and hateful and hypocritical? There was empirical evidence earlier that showed Ella as an exemplary afterlife worker and Lucy as one also, yet here is Mira acting with God's explicit approval to destroy them both? Hell might actually be a better place. ...God is a woman though...;) Link to comment
Flyingsquirrel Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 Maybe God is actually the devil here and trying to use Mira's corrupt ideals and motiviations of revenge to bring the whole thing down? The jumps between memory and the present keep the tension going high, this is fun. My thoughts are this is going to go the devil direction or Ella vs God kaiju match. Either way I feel so bad for Ella and Lucy Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted September 1, 2022 Author Share Posted September 1, 2022 On 8/31/2022 at 1:11 AM, Flyingsquirrel said: Maybe God is actually the devil here and trying to use Mira's corrupt ideals and motiviations of revenge to bring the whole thing down? The jumps between memory and the present keep the tension going high, this is fun. My thoughts are this is going to go the devil direction or Ella vs God kaiju match. Either way I feel so bad for Ella and Lucy ...now I wish I'd written an "Ella vs God kaiju match"... Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted September 8, 2022 Author Share Posted September 8, 2022 Chapter Six “Aaron Hernandez 2022-2025” Lucy and Mira never came back after that night, and with nothing but time to think, I stewed on my sister’s words and let them dig into my mind with their sharp barbs and embed themselves. She’d convinced me that she was right, that I was a selfish burden that had no one left to care about me and was better off giving up and accepting my fate. The clarity I achieved allowed me to let the Hernandez family into my heart, discarding as much of the Ella I was in favor of becoming more of the Aaron they saw. My first word was ‘Mama’, my first steps carried me to Daddy’s open arms, and little by little and day by day, I forgot about Mira and Lucy and bought into the reality that I was Aaron Hernandez, a boy days away from turning two that was loved and happy. “Hijo, Mommy needs you to eat, okay?” Mommy cooed as she picked up her buzzing phone and set it between her shoulder and ear, “Hola, mi amor.” she greeted as she pointed to the cut up hot dogs in the small plastic dish before me. I was learning Spanish a little at a time, I was ‘Hijo’, which meant ‘son’, and ‘mi amor’ was what she and Daddy said to each other, so that probably meant Mommy or Daddy depending on who was saying it. I reached out and grabbed a slice of hot dog and giggled as I clumsily threw it at her, my abilities at throwing making the piece of food sail wide of her onto the table. She groaned into the phone, “Your son won’t eat his lunch so he can have an N-A-P, and I’m already behind for the party preparations.” she said, spelling out the word that would otherwise cause me to launch into a tantrum if heard, but was inert in its spelled out form. She smiled and pulled the phone away, tapping the screen and turning it toward me to show Daddy on it. “Mijo, you need to eat your lunch, okay?” Daddy requested. I shook my head, “Nah hungee.” I told him as I pushed the plastic dish forward. “Well, if you eat your lunch then Daddy will let you have ice cream when he gets home.” he offered. The mere mention of ice cream quelled my rebellion instantly and a handful of three hot dog bites was palmed into my mouth with my little hand as they both laughed. Mommy returned the phone to her shoulder, “Gracias, Papi.” she said sweetly, “See you soon?” she asked, “Alright, love you.” she said a moment later, setting down her phone. Bits of chewed up hot dog tumbled from my mouth and onto the highchair tray as I hurried to gobble up the newly enticing food. “Slow down, Mijo, you’re going to make yourself sick.” Mommy chided as she picked the sippy cup of juice from the tray and held it up to my lips for me to take a drink to wash my mouthful of food down. I sucked down the juice and swallowed my mouthful of hot dogs, belching when she pulled the sippy cup from my lips. “What do we say?” she asked. “Scooze me.” I responded. “Excuse me.” she corrected, slowly speaking the correct pronunciation. I repeated her example and she smiled and kissed my forehead, praising me in Spanish. “All done?” she asked when I looked into the empty plastic dish. I nodded, “Ice cweam!” I exclaimed excitedly. She removed my bib and gently cleaned my mouth before unlocking the tray and setting it aside so she could unbuckle me and pick me up, setting me on her hip as she put the bib on the counter, “When Daddy gets home, baby.” she reminded me. “Let’s try and use the potty, okay?” she asked, setting me down on my feet on the ground and taking my hand in hers as we headed to the bathroom. Nothing remains of my former life, except for my desire to wear diapers. Over the last year I’ve submitted to Aaron’s personality and life, becoming the two year’s old tomorrow little boy in body and mind. See, Mira was wrong about one thing, she assumed that my spirit was taking the place of Aaron’s, but it wasn’t, my older and stronger spirit was just more dominant, until I gave up. Submitting to Aaron’s consciousness was like a warm blanket of ignorance wrapping me up, swaddling me and keeping thoughts and questions beyond the basic needs and wants of a baby from troubling me, Ella went away and the only sliver of her existence is Aaron’s love for his diapers. Mommy and Daddy started trying potty training a few months earlier, their goal being to have me in underwear by my second birthday. I obviously threw a tantrum over losing my diapers, but the little piece of Ella made it clear that I could just keep going potty in my pants and eventually the diapers would come back. Sometimes I forget to go in my pants and use the potty like Mommy and Daddy want me to, and they give me treats and heap praise on me and it feels good, but then bedtime comes and I get to have a diaper again and I remember why I’m trying to fail potty training. Today is a day that I remember my mission, walking alongside Mommy to the bathroom the warmth begins to spread in my pull up as I look up at her while she tells me how proud of me she is and what a big boy I am for wearing pull ups. I feel bad as the last dribble of tinkle comes out in my pants, but keep my focus on the goal and stop walking with her, almost falling forward when she doesn’t immediately stop with me. “C’mon, honey, we’re almost there.” she says, her tone tinged with concern as she sees me squat down and begin to grunt softly, sighing as she lets go of my hand and quietly speaks Spanish to herself. The deed done, I reach up to take her hand once more and feel a swell of accomplishment as we pass by the bathroom, the little blue plastic potty inside sitting unused as we head to my room. “It’s okay, Niño.” she says as she lifts me up and lays me down on the changing table, sighing once again as she gathers the supplies needed to change me, “You’ll get it when you’re ready, right?” she asks rhetorically. Ella made it so that when I potty my pants I feel very relaxed and happy, and so, even if I wanted to answer Mommy, my thumb has entered my mouth and my eyes have closed while I softly suck on it. Mommy cleans me up and tapes a diaper on me before she lays me down in my bed and tucks me in, gently pulling my thumb from my mouth and replacing it with a pacifier as she tucks my stuffed rabbit, Manchas with his white and brown speckled fur into my arms. “Mommy loves you, Niño.” she whispers before kissing my forehead and leaving me to fall quickly to sleep. ********* The dreams started up just before my third birthday. The first one was a few flashes of images without context, a garden, a man on a roof, a girl in a window looking out at me, but as the day of my birth got closer, the flashes stopped being stationary, they started moving and then had sound and emotional weight to them. The night of my third birthday brought all of it together and I played in the garden, knowing that the vegetables I was picking would make Mira happy, though I didn’t know who Mira was, I guessed her to be the girl in the window. The man on the roof smiled down at me and waved and I waved back, but then I saw something I hadn’t noticed before. A shadow isn’t alive, its only form is the one created by light and whatever the shadow belongs to, but something dark enough to be a shadow was crouched behind the man on the roof, its thin frame almost hidden behind him if not for the angle I was at, looking upward I could clearly see it huddled behind him through his legs. I opened my mouth to call to him, to tell him to turn around, but the shadow rose with alarming quickness, its spindly, gnarled fingers around his waist in an instant, lifting and tossing him in an effortless motion from the roof. The man’s scream was cut off a moment later by a squelching crack as he struck the Earth, his wide eyes facing the sky despite the front of his body facing the Earth. His back had contorted so that his legs sprawled toward his head, the white of bone in various places of his broken body seemed like teeth that shouldn’t exist smiling when they weren’t supposed to. I felt a warm wetness on my face and touched it, pulling back the sticky red liquid that had once been inside of him, and as I looked up to the roof, the sight of the shadow figure smiling at me brought a new warm wetness cascading down my legs to the Earth below. The girl in the window was screaming as she ran out of the house and threw her arms around me, the sound of her shrieks and sobs and words seemingly impossibly distant in my ears as I left the ground and was carried inside. ********* Daddy was muttering something when he came into the nursery the morning of my third birthday, it didn’t sound happy, but very little of what Daddy said now did. I was wailing loudly, tears streaming down my cheeks as the images from my dream lingered in my memory, and only when Daddy forced the nipple of a bottle into my mouth did I slowly quiet down. He spoke in Spanish more and more around me now, and his interactions with me were becoming more and more detached. He’d feed me or change me, but it was robotic and his eyes never met mine, when he held me there was always a looseness to it that kept me expecting him to drop me. Since my last birthday I’d achieved my goal of remaining in diapers. Mommy and Daddy had taken me to several doctors and talked about my development, or lack thereof, the angry voices from their bedroom after each visit scared me, but I was usually in my crib or playpen when they happened, so there wasn’t anywhere for me to go to escape them. “Ella.” a woman’s voice said from the rocking chair in the corner while I lay on the changing table for Daddy to clean me up and dress me for the day, my head lolling to the side to look at her. She was gorgeous, tall with grayish white hair down to her hips like a waterfall on a foggy morning, her dark skin was flawless and seemed to emit a glow that was warm and soothing. “Ella went away.” I thought, somehow knowing she’d understand me. She smiled softly, the kind of smile Mommy used to have when she looked at me, “No, honey, she’s just been hiding.” the woman said. I closed my eyes and felt something shift inside me, a wave of knowledge and understanding coming with it, and when I opened my eyes I wasn’t looking through them anymore, rather I was seeing the openings of my eyes and the sights beyond but from behind someone else, like a person standing in front of you at a movie theater. “I still have six months.” the woman’s voice inside my head thought. The woman nodded, “You do, but the way you’re carrying on here, does it really matter?” she asked. There was an apathetic shrug in the woman’s thoughts and a sadness in her voice, “Does anything really matter anymore?” she asked. The woman in the chair sat back and folded her hands in her lap, “Of all the people on Earth, I never expected you to give up so easily.” she said. The woman in my mind scoffed, “Easily?” she asked, “My sister conspired against me and basically sentenced me to death, my best friend has had everything taken from her under threat of a torturous fate, I’d say I’ve had a pretty rough go of it.” she explained. The woman in the chair smiled sympathetically and nodded, “Sadly, I’m afraid you’ve been playing checkers while those that would see you removed have been playing chess.” she said. “The fuck does that even mean?!” the woman in my mind spat. The woman in the chair rose and was instantly beside the changing table, “See what I’ve seen.” she said as she gently placed her index finger to my forehead. ********* When the blinding light faded it was replaced by the warmth and light of the sun and the sound of birds chirping and insects buzzing. The woman and I stood on the dirt road just outside the fence that father had built around the garden, and in said garden eleven year old Ella bent and pulled a carrot from the ground. “I don’t want to see this again.” I said, closing my eyes. Even with my eyes closed, I still saw everything as though my eyes were still open. “We’re not here for that.” the woman said as she walked past the fence and to the house, my feet moving of their own accord to follow her. Inside the house, Mira was at the window waving and smiling, and then I saw him moving up behind her, a man dressed in a suit finer than any I’d ever seen, black as coal with a crimson pocket square tucked into the breast pocket. “I do apologize for what’s about to happen.” he said softly as he was suddenly behind Mira, one arm around her waist and the other at his side, moving upward to pull her hair from in front of her ear. Mira went rigid and seemed to rest against him like she’d had too much to drink and he smiled, his thin mustache and goatee twinging slightly as he whispered into her ear. The woman beside me spoke his words so I could hear them but in her own voice, “Your father is about to die, I’m sorry, but it must happen to set your sister on the path I need her on.” she said. “What path?” Mira dreamily asked, her voice thin sounding and monotone. “Your sister is the only person for a millenia that can change the way I do business, and I simply cannot have that, can I?” the woman said, the predatory tone coming from her making my spirit shudder. “No, my Lord.” Mira agreed obediently. His smile broadened, “Good girl.” he praised. “You’re equally special, Mira, but in a different way.” the woman said, “Where Ella would seek to alter the sanctity of my business with her purity and intelligence, you’re mind is weak and malleable, the perfect place for one of my children to take up residence for a little while to make sure things go as I need them to.” she continued. The man spun Mira around in a quick motion and dipped her back toward the window as he faced her, his lips close to hers as he stared into her eyes. “Give me permission to access your body and I promise that once your time on this Earth is done, you’ll be given power beyond what your simple mind can comprehend.” the woman said. Mira shuddered softly and bit her lip to stifle a moan before she nodded, “Take my body, my Lord, use me as you will.” she practically begged. Another flash and Mira was standing at the window as she had been before the man had shown up, and then father was screaming outside and she slowly looked up to the ceiling and turned to face us, walking toward the door with a smile on her face as the blackness of her eyes faded and her expression turned to panic and fear and she ran out the door. “Are you alright?” the woman asked. “Pretty fucking far from it!” I shouted. She smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder, “Use that feeling as we continue.” she said. ********* The bright light once again faded and I saw we were standing near the front stairs of a church. “Do you remember this place?” the woman asked. I nodded as the sound of a wagon approaching filled the still night air, “That’s Mira on her way to abandon me.” I said bitterly. The figure carrying my eleven year old self was no more Mira than I was a blue whale, its form was lithe and dark in the pitch black beyond the spheres of wavering light cast by the torches on either side of the entrance to the pathway leading to the church steps. “Is that what I saw on the roof?” I asked, an intense nausea filling my spirit without a way to remedy it. The woman nodded, “Your sister was little more than a passenger in her own body after your father died.” she said, “She remembers everything as though she were in control, as though her wants were her own, but she was merely a puppet.” she explained. The dark figure looked at us but didn’t see us as it approached the church steps and gently lay my still sleeping younger self on the wide porch. “How can it walk on church grounds?” I asked. “Aren’t evil and wicked things supposed to burn up or something when the enter a holy place?” I added. She nodded, “Were this a holy place, you’d be right, but, well, you spent a fair amount of time here, do you consider anything or anyone inside to be good and holy?” she asked. Memories of punishments, no, tortures, over the years spent in the building we stood outside washed over me and my spirit shuddered once again, “The worst of what you endured remained out of your memory, a kindness I extended to you to help you through what you had to endure.” the woman explained. I shook my head, “I want this to stop.” I pleaded, “Please, just let me go back to Aaron’s body and wait for the end.” I continued. The woman smiled and knelt in front of me, her hands taking mine into them gently, “Ella, you are a brave and wonderful woman.” she said, “You’re meant for so much more than living the carefree life of an infant until your time is over.” she added. I shook my head again, “No, Mira was right, I’m a burden and I ruined everything and I deserve to disappear forever!” I shouted. ********* The warmth of the room was a drastic change from the night air we were surrounded by a moment earlier. The sounds of drunken conversation and laughter as well as carnal noises both male and female moved through the walls and door of the room we stood in. The air was heavy with the smell of hot wax from the candles all around and kerosene from the lamp on the table, a soft, wet sound found its way through the din accompanied by soft moans stifled only slightly by supple flesh. “Delilah?” I asked sadly, looking into the woman’s eyes rather than turning to confirm what I knew to be the case. She nodded, “She was one of mine.” she said. “While Mira set about to tear you down and weaken your mind to please her dark master, I put Delilah in your path to give you love and compassion in your final moments.” she explained. I slowly turned and felt my spirit swell at the sight of my beloved Delilah cradling my head in her arms as I softly suckled from her ample breast. She was beyond lovely, her large frame built to lift and carry my slight one to any place she saw fit to set me down and attend to my womanly needs. Her shoulder length hair was mussed from our earlier tussle, the fiery tint of her locks always made me think of the flowers in Mama’s garden, memories of Mira holding me on her lap on the porch and telling me about the woman I had no actual memory of making things bittersweet to think about. “I met her when I came to work here after they kicked me out of the,” I hesitated, “whatever that place actually was.” I finished after failing to find a suitable word. I smiled, “She knew the moment she met me that I wasn’t right for this place.” I said, remembering her thick fingers running gently through my hair as she looked me up and down when I first arrived looking for work. The woman’s hands were on my shoulders as she took a spot behind me, “Do you remember the first night you stayed here?” she asked. I nodded softly, “I’d tried to service my first customer, but I’d never seen a cock before and I shrieked when he pulled it out in front of me.” I explained, a giggle rising up in my throat, “Delilah burst into the room and,” my giggling turned into full blown laughter, “she pretended I was her daughter and shouted at the man as she came to the bed and picked me up, holding me to her like a mother would her child, and she walloped the man with his hat while he stumbled about with his pants around his ankles.” I told her. Her thumbs gently stroked my shoulders, “And after she took you from the room?” she asked. The laughter faded from me, “She held me and told me she’d always look after me.” I said sadly. “Then she shoved me down to get out of the room when it caught fire.” I added resentfully. “No, child, look again with my eyes.” the woman urged. The living version of me kicked her leg and knocked the lamp from the table shattering it and splashing burning oil out in front of it, catching the room on fire instantly. I watched as Delilah shifted me from her lap and looked upward as I stood up beside her. Following her gaze, I saw the shadowy figure from the roof gripping the ceiling with impossible talons of darkness, its razor sharp teeth glinting in the fire light as it lashed out an arm and flung an oozy dark blob of itself at me. Delilah turned and shoved me back down onto the couch a second before the blob would’ve struck me, knocking the couch back with the force of its velocity that I assumed was caused by Delilah shoving me. The shadowy thing hissed as Delilah ran to the door, her eyes never leaving it. “Follow me, demon!” Delilah shouted, though the roar of the fire kept me from hearing her. I looked up at the woman that had brought me here, “She saved me?” I asked. She nodded, “That dark mass would’ve corrupted your soul and given you a one way ticket to a very bad place.” she said, “Delilah knew that you needed to be pure when you died, so she pushed you out of the way and led the demon away so that could happen.” she explained. I looked down at the floor, “Did it get her?” I asked. She shook her head, “The instant you died, the demon’s mission was failed and it returned to where it came.” she explained. “So she survived the fire?” I asked. She nodded, “Another thirty years of happy life was her prize for a job well done.” she said, “She named her first daughter Ella in your honor.” she added. My spirit blossomed as my love for Delilah and hers for me filled me up to almost bursting, “Thank you for letting me know.” I said sincerely. She nodded and kissed my forehead to bring one final flash of light over us. ********* As the light dissipated, I saw Aaron’s nursery, the baby boy asleep in his crib with only the nightlight to illuminate the room. “Mira told you that Aaron would die three and a half years after his birth, correct?” the woman asked. I nodded. “She lied.” the woman said, stepping aside and turning me around to see Aaron’s mother and father standing in the shadows, the nightlight at that end of the room showing smaller shadowy creatures clutching onto their backs and whispering into their ears in some indecipherable language. “Help him!” I shouted at the woman. “There’s nothing I can do for him, Ella, this is your test.” she said before she vanished. Aaron’s parents stepped forward and I was no longer standing in the room but rather laying in the crib, a passenger in Aaron’s body once more, the memories of the boy’s third birthday that afternoon seeping into my consciousness as I forced his eyes open, “C’mon, kid, we got problems!” I mentally screamed. Aaron’s mother skittered to the right and effortlessly climbed up the dresser and onto the wall before making her way to the ceiling, the dark figure on her back turning its head completely around to keep watch of Aaron. His father continued his straight line approach, his footfalls on the carpeted floor of the nursery came out as heavy stomps that shook the foundation around us. My mind whirred as I tried to figure out how I was supposed to fight two demon possessed adults in the body of a three year old still groggy and with a load in his diaper, and then I got an idea, if Mira was never in control after our Father died and she was being manipulated into forcing me where the man from the kitchen wanted me to end up, then maybe everything Mira told me was a lie, a trick to keep me from fighting back. “This boy will not die today!” Aaron’s little voice called out as he stood and gripped the crib bars as the thing on his father’s back burrowed its claws into the man’s arm bloodlessly and demonstrated that it now controlled the appendage by effortlessly flinging the changing table across the room like it weighed nothing. A wet drip landed on Aaron’s head and I made the boy look upward to see his mother on the ceiling like a spider, her wicked smile allowing hot, thick drool to drip from her gaping mouth as she made an unsettling hissing sound at her son. “Nothing I said about Karen Twill was wrong, she was a bad person that deserved what she got!” Aaron’s tiny voice shouted. “It was a mistake to become invested in Allison, but I never would’ve done anything to create a problem for her!” he continued, “I missed Delilah, not knowing what happened to her ate at me, at my spirit all these years, but nothing and no one could’ve ever replaced her in my mind, so there was never any risk.” Aaron was breaking down into sobs now as I was in the face of utter hopelessness. “I was a good case worker and if I got a second chance, I’d still do things the exact same way because the people that I work with when they die need someone that’s felt what they felt, that shame and loneliness that comes from dying in a way you wouldn’t want people to see.” he added before falling backward onto the mattress, his little spirit weakened to almost fading. There was a shrill shriek as the dark figures leapt from their transportation and scuttled off to the shadows. Aaron’s father collapsed a foot from the crib while his mother dropped from the ceiling and, like a feather on the breeze, lightly fell to the floor to gently lay beside her husband. “Congratulations, Ella.” the woman said as she reached down into the crib and plucked my spirit from Aaron’s body, the little boy’s own spirit lighting up brightly once he was free of me. Once she set me down I looked up at her, “Are you God?” I asked. She smiled, “Do you think I’m God?” she asked. I nodded, “You’re perfect and kind and have crazy powers, so yeah, you’re probably God.” I said. She chuckled, “Well, I guess I can’t get anything past you, can I?” she asked. I looked back at Aaron and his parents, “Will they be okay?” I asked, “I mean, after he, y’know.” I added. She knelt down to my level and smiled, “They’ll both live to a ripe old age and pass away peacefully and Aaron will be at both of their funerals with his husband and their adopted children and he’ll live to see his granddaughter’s wedding before he has a stroke in his sleep that finally takes him.” she explained. I smiled, “He’s not going to die today?!” I exclaimed. She shook her head. I threw my arms around her and hugged her tightly, “Thank you.” I said quietly. She patted my back gently, “Don’t thank me just yet, we’ve still got a lot of work to do to unseat your sister and get things at D.E.A.T.H. back on track.” she said. To Be Continued... 3 Link to comment
kerry Posted September 8, 2022 Share Posted September 8, 2022 Cool chapter, reversing a lot of what we thought we knew. So Mira has been mind-fucked by the devil! I hope there is some explanation of why God allowed it to happen. Link to comment
TheUnknownAuthor Posted September 10, 2022 Author Share Posted September 10, 2022 On 9/8/2022 at 4:41 PM, kerry said: Cool chapter, reversing a lot of what we thought we knew. So Mira has been mind-fucked by the devil! I hope there is some explanation of why God allowed it to happen. Yeah, I painted myself into a corner pretty early on with Mira but I did some elite writer shit and made it not entirely her fault depending on your stance on literal Devil manipulation. Don't get me wrong, Mira is still a garbage person, but at least she has some kind of motivation for her actions now. I'm fairly confident that no outcome when it comes to my interpretation of God will please anyone, but I'd definitely keep an eye out for the next chapter if you need pointers on how to potentially piss off a lot of people with your silly diaper story. Link to comment
WBDaddy Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 On 9/8/2022 at 5:41 PM, kerry said: Cool chapter, reversing a lot of what we thought we knew. So Mira has been mind-fucked by the devil! I hope there is some explanation of why God allowed it to happen. Because God allowed much worse to happen. Link to comment
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