Angel, Demons Pt. 06

"Your sister?" she asked. The girl nodded, looking from the picture to her and back.

"Burn it," the woman said. The girl didn't move. She took her shoulders in both hands, bringing her face closer. "No memories I said, remember? No nothing. It's just more pain, more sadness.

"Now burn it."

She turned the girl in the direction of the roaring fire, pushing her softly. It caused her to walk until she stopped at the drum, thinking nothing.

"Burn it," the woman repeated from the door.

And she did.

After dropping the picture into the fire, she turned around and walked back into the house, passing the woman without a word or a glance. Soon she came out again with an arm full of photo albums.

Within half an hour not a shred of evidence that she ever lived here was left in the house. She - no longer the girl that lived there - watched the fat smoke rise through the leaved branches of the trees. There were blackened fragments flying up with the ghostly smoke. They looked like bats, flapping through sparks of fire.

The girl closed her eyes and listened. She heard nothing.

Nothing at all.

In the car, returning to the woman's place, she'd been quiet all the way - curling up into a far corner, wrapping a blanket tightly around her. At the apartment, she retired into her cage as soon as she'd undressed and oiled her skin.

She'd rested her head on the dog's soft pelt and fallen asleep at once.

***

The next morning the woman found her at the foot of her bed, hardly covered by a tip of the blanket. She pulled her up to her and warmed the cold body with her own - kissing her sleepy face.

"Good morning, honey cunt," she said, smiling. The girl hugged her desperately, whispering "thank you."

"For what, little slut?" the woman asked. "Shouldn't I be thanking you?"

Staring down into the wide, dark eyes, she chuckled.

"Time for another present," she said.

***