My Other Mother Ch. 13

"Eyes always on you, Mum."

"See to it. Let's go."

Maureen answered the door, as I kind of expected. Bleary eyed and stunned, her expression seemed to reach a breaking point when she saw me, but changed to startled awe when she saw Marie's daughter. Before the care worker could say anything, Mum started in a commiserative, reassuring tone.

"I'm sorry, but your name is Maureen, am I correct?"

"Yes," she managed with a nod.

"My name is Kathleen. I'm so sorry to hear about Audrey."

The mention of her deceased coworker's name brought Maureen's eyes to Mum's and that was that, Mum capturing her even before her next blink. Obviously, she'd been practicing.

" ... Maureen, I know what's been happening here, and we both know you do, too. As well as poor Audrey knew. Don't you?"

"Yes, Kathleen," Maureen sniffed.

"I'm going to put a stop to all of it tonight, baby. Okay?"

"(sob) Yeess."

"I'm going to make it all go away. You want that, don't you?"

"Oh, yes, Ka- (sob) --Kathlee-een!"

"You can trust me implicitly, Maureen."

"I- I trust y- you im- (sob!) --plii- Kathlee- (sob!)

"I know, baby, I know. But, now I need you to be a brave woman for just a little longer, alright, Maureen?"

"Ye- yeesss."

"Good girl, shhh- shhh- shhh," she comforted, stroking the side of the woman's tear stained face now. "I know; it's been awful, hasn't it?"

"Ye-aah. (sniff)"

"Maureen, we're going to see Marie. All I want from you for now is to go find any log entries, or any other official documentation that proves Steven was ever here. Then just wait here at the door for us until we come back."

"Yes, K- Kathleen."

Marie's night time caregiver turned, leaving the door open for us, and went inside the kitchen. There were no residents around that I could see and I wondered if they were all in bed as I stepped in behind Mum's entrance, both of us now walking funny thanks to the pain in my ribs.

"Take me to her room," she directed tersely. "You go in first, no eyes on her, I follow. Walk right up to her, within a few feet, and then step aside."

"Yes, Mum," I acknowledged.

I was nervous as hell leading her down the ground floor hall to Marie's room, wondering again why there were no residents about. It was only just after nine and still twilight. Reaching Marie's door, I had a crazy feeling that this was Marie's doing in expectation of my visit and that I should have asked Mum for some of her vodka before we left home.

Turning back to her, she silently encouraged me to proceed, so I grabbed the knob, twisted it and swung the door open for us, briskly leading the way to the old woman's bed where she lay and stopping within a few feet of her.

Her face held a tricky relief at seeing me, but an underlying expression of suspicion over the person hidden behind me turned to surprise, shock and fear when I abruptly stepped aside as directed.

With my eyes on Mum, peripheral covering Marie, I watched the younger blonde's expression turn to one of grinning, dangerous satisfaction as she stepped forward, pulling her hood back from her head.

"Why hello, Mother."

" ... Kathleeeen!"

With her unmistakable vocal recognition, she whipped her crazy eyes to me and accused, "You betrayed me, you little bastard!"

Then she raised her hands to her face, turned away from us and held a very animated, hissing conversation with herself while peeking back a few times to make sure we weren't listening.

"God, how that always gave me the creeps," Mum noted, indirectly watching this with amused disgust. "Now, it seems more pathetic and comical."

Marie chose to ignore those comments if she heard them at all, finishing her whispered conversation and then looking back at Mum with a bright, welcoming smile, saying, "I'm really glad you've come, sweetie pie!"

"Oh, 'sweetie pie', is it?" Mum asked with a raised brow as I watched her eyes moving around Marie's general form. "Back in the old days, it was usually 'whore'. Or, 'little whore'. Then, there was 'tramp', 'slut', 'twat', 'pig', 'prostitute', so on and so forth. I'm sure you remember the good old days, eh Mum?"

"But you know I always loved you like myself," Marie countered sweetly. "And now it's so important that we're together because... We're in danger!" she finished with a fearful whisper.

Mum laughed out loud at this as though it were a good joke.

"No!" Marie urgently, cagily hissed, "Sweetie pie, you don't understand! Somebody's been messing around in our heads and-"

"Yes, it was you," Mum interrupted with a dangerously understated anger now in her tone. "Using my own son to get to me, crawling into my head at night and playing your little games again after all these years. Something else I remember about the good old days, your little games. Hey, Mum, remember 'Monsters in the Basement'? Yeah, that's actually one of my earliest memories. People tend not to forget about stuff like that, no matter how little they were."

"Oh, Kathleen, honey, I was only trying to teach you-"

"How to have fun?" my mother interrupted again. "That's what you told us at the time; when you'd finally let us out. That it was all in good fun. Yeah, you can't imagine the terrifying fun Sheila and I had down there, waiting in the pitch dark for you to call from that lit space under the door at the top of the basement stairs, asking if the monsters had eaten our arms yet."

Mum gestured me to the side of the bed as she moved closer to its head. Marie seemed at a momentary loss, but Mum had more to say anyway.

"Yeah, you and your little games..." Mum reminisced with a hard smile as she gently removed one of the pillows from under her mother's head. "Hey, you remember 'Peekaboo', right? Oh, I can see you do. That was your very favourite game for a little while, wasn't it? Ever since the first night we played it, that Sunday so long ago when Sheila and I were confirmed at church. Dad was so proud of us... he took us all out for ice cream, a special double scoop for me and Sheila. Then you came to visit us that night with your brand new little game. As I recall, it went something like this."

She suddenly covered Marie's ever more fearful face with the pillow, holding it down firmly at the edges. Marie's arms flew up, scrabbling franticly at it, then Mum's hands and forearms while her muted screams filled the fluffy head support.

"Hold her arms," Mum calmly ordered. No bruising."

I did exactly as she told me despite my hammering heart. Keeping my eyes on Mum, I soon felt Marie's struggles begin to weaken and, a moment later, the pillow was removed from her face allowing her to suck wind into her old lungs, her eyes bulging wide.

"Peekaboo!" Mum cheerily sang out.

"I... see y- ... you." Her mother managed.

"You do remember! Oh, Mum, it's just like the good old days again, isn't it?"

Looking up to find my eyes still on her like she'd instructed, Mum filled me in with that smile, explaining, "See, the game was that when the pillow lifted, she'd say, "Peekaboo!" and we'd have to be able to say, 'I see you', on our very first breath. If not? Well..."

To demonstrate, she covered Marie's face with the pillow again. She was clearly enjoying this more than a little.

"Yeap, aaalll kinds of fun back in the good old days!"

Again, Marie's struggles began to slow, somewhat faster this time, before Mum removed the pillow, merrily calling, "Peekaboo, Mum!"

I watched Marie struggle to play her part of the game that she obviously did know so well as my mother's ear lowered to her gasping mouth. Their likeness was astounding, the only real difference was Marie's age, her thinner face and bright blue eyes.

"Ahh... ssiyu..."

"Wow, the crazy old bag's pretty good at this," Mum chuckled, practically in my terrified grandmother's face. "Ohhh, Mum... I've dreamt about this moment, fantasized about it so many times over the years... I always envisioned myself with a paring knife, especially after those horrid dreams, but I must admit... this is way better."

Marie was now trembling violently, managing to croak, "Mau-een!"

"Oooh, I think poor Maureen's had enough of you," The dangerous blonde informed with mock regret. "She hates and fears you almost as much as Sheila and I ever did. Oh yes, I found her to be very fertile ground. You know what I mean. Like the games you've been playing with her? She and Audrey? Yeah, that was quite a stunt with poor Audrey, huh?"

"N- noo-oo!?" the old woman whined pathetically.

"Yup," her daughter irrefutably confirmed. "Just you and me, like that day we were home alone and you pushed me down the back steps. I broke my arm and smashed my face on the sidewalk! I cried and you FUCKIN' LAUGHED!!" Mum roared in sudden fury.

The pillow was again pushed down on Marie's face, Mum sneering hatefully, murderously as she used all her weight, but once again removing it when Marie's struggles had almost ceased. The senior woman was a quaking mess, her fear having overridden any control her parasite may have had on account of her insanity's inability to cope with a very real, very dangerous situation that was completely out of her control. She gulped and grunted last pleas that stopped abruptly when Mum grabbed her chin, fixing the devil's own glare to those wild and crazy blue eyes that were... caught!

"Give it to me," Mum seethed into Marie's eyes, spittle flying past her hateful, twisted lips. "Gimmie everything!"

Marie didn't have much struggle left and I had to remind myself to keep eyes on Mum, not on Marie as the older woman's throat started to keen louder and louder. Mum's slow, yet deliberate hand covered it while she held her great enemy, her lifetime arch nemesis right where she wanted her.

Less than fifteen seconds after her mouth was covered, Marie's muted keening had turned to muffled screams. These soon turned to the kind of sounds people make when they're experiencing the kind of fright they never would have dared imagine. Whatever Mum was doing to her, it was much worse than 'Peekaboo' and probably even worse than 'Monsters in the Basement'. It scared even me just for seeing the old hag go through it.

After approximately five seconds of some unimaginable terror, Marie's body began convulsing. She choked violently, then slowly, lifelessly relaxed in Mum's Jedi stare, dead with that look of frozen horror etched in her features.

Mum slowly removed her hand and straightened up, saying almost softly, "You can let go now, sweetie pie. You did well. ... Come on... we can leave this behind now."

This time she led as I followed, tearing my eyes from Marie only to look back at her a few times until we left the room, headed down the hall towards the back door where Maureen waited. I was in a stupor, realizing I was an accessory to murder and seeing my mother (other or no) in yet another whole different light. She was a lot easier on the head when she was happy enough to act like a slut, that was for sure.

"This is it, Kathleen," a much more 'together' Maureen reported. "Just this logbook. Would you like me to show you the entries?"

"What you've done is already more than enough, baby," Mum answered, picking up Maureen's eyes again while taking the black book from the care worker. "You're sure there's nothing else that documents Steven's visits here in any way?"

"Yes, Kathleen, I'm sure."

"Good. This log book seems to have gone missing, Maureen. You have no clue as to what could've happened to it."

"Oh, god... I've got to find that!" she said anxiously, already believing it.

"Maureen, honey, the main thing for you is to call Mark, Bill and Kevin. Tell them you never want to see them again. You don't want to see them again. You'll carry on with your wonderful husband. None of what happened is your fault and you'll soon get over it and Audrey's death."

"Yes, Kathleen. That's exactly... yes..."

"You're going to be happy."

"I'm going to be happy."

"You'll check on Marie in the morning and find she's passed away overnight."

"Yes, Kathleen," Maureen agreed, a smile reaching the corners of her mouth.

"You will never tell anyone we were here tonight."

"No, never."

"We're leaving now and you'll never see either one of us again. Be well, Maureen."

"I will, I really will," she assured as we were moving out the door, adding, "Thank you so much, Kathleen. I- I'll always love you."

The door closed behind us and Mum stopped, handing me the logbook in the orangey glow of the overhead floodlight before pulling her hood back up. Digging out her cigarettes, I noticed her hands shaking just a little as she lit one and inhaled gratefully, then exhaled with obvious relief.

"God, that was good."

And then she was off, me following like the good son that I was very well motivated to be at that point. Once out at the street, she paused to look back at the front of the building for a moment before turning to me.

"Now... You're going to take me to Pastor Marx's home."

In its own way, this was even scarier than taking her to Shoreline Residential, but I nodded, giving her the proper verbal reply before we started off.

Again, she wanted all the particulars on the way, including whether or not I was attracted to the Pastor. I told her everything, including her transgression in Ontario, and that I thought her to be attractive, although I'd never thought of her in 'that way'.

I stressed a brick out my ass when we entered Marci's building, lumping my oppressive guilt over Audrey in with that which I had for the Pastor, feeling the weight of my responsibility for the disasters I'd created in these good people's lives. How would I ever face up to her, especially after she'd made it so clear about how she felt about me?

It turned out that I needn't have been worried about that because, when I showed Mum Pastor Marx's door, she took a fistful of my shirt just below the collar and gently pushed me up against the wall right beside it.

"You stay quiet and don't move."

I nodded as her knuckles begged entrance. A minute later, the door opened and I heard Marci's heavy, depressed voice.

"May I- Oh, God, no!?" she fearfully moaned, of course seeing Marie's younger face on Mum.

"My name is Kathleen," Mum introduced in her caring, motherly fashion, "and I'm here to help you, Marci."

" ... Oh... Yes. Of course you are."

I watched Mum looking straight ahead as she entered the apartment without invitation, the door shutting quietly behind her.

I was left alone with the logbook in the hallway, relieved not to have had to go in, relieved that Mum was away from me for the time being. It began to sink in, what had just happened, that I really was an accessory to murder, that I'd just helped my mother to kill hers, my own grandmother. Yes, I could see the reasons why it had to be done, why it was in the best interests of everyone who came into contact with the monster, but it was still one hell of a thing.

So was Mum. The speed at which she could catch people, using the charm and charisma she was already so used to effectively wielding over them to ingratiate or impress in just the needed way was incredible. To say nothing of her speed and abilities once she was 'in'. I could use the Jedi stare to question people, even to instruct them, but Mum seemed able to pick information right out of people's heads, not to mention personally destroying, or scaring them literally to death if she chose.

Of course, it was the booze. She'd admitted that the parasite liked the stuff, seemed to absorb and feed on it as Marie absorbed her meds, but it was more than that, too. It was also our experimenting with each other, the first accidental experiment in front of Joe seeming to be the catalyst, a jumpstart of sorts from Mum that set it off in me, allowing me to accidently catch Audrey with it soon after. The effect for Mum was to immediately destroy Joe. Not like she destroyed Marie, though.

I closed my eyes against the image of my grandmother's last expression in life, the death face so horrifyingly like Mums in my memory, sweeping it out of my mind, the imagined picture of Audrey leaping from a bridge taking its place until I could sweep that out, too.

How Mum had prevailed against Marie, despite my assumptions of the old woman's superior strength, was really no mystery, especially to someone like my mother and I. Like the authorities did to us back home, Mum broke Marie down to feeling like a target. She may have been stronger than my mother in regards to her parasite, but Mum held all the other cards and played them well, exploiting her own mother's physical and psychological limitations until there was too much chaos within her adversary to make possible any resistance. I had to admire the dark strategy, the capability to carry out such a thing to such an end while making such efforts to help others. I only wished I'd told her in time so that she could have helped Audrey.

I remembered Mum's last words to Marie, a vicious, uncompromising demand for 'everything'. I'd told her that I was after information, answers that Marie's experience with the parasite, crazy or not, may have had to offer. I found it hard to believe that Mum wouldn't have taken the time she'd had to grill her, torture her for whatever secrets she may have held. The 'reasonable' explanation, if the word even counted for anything at that point, was that she wouldn't have trusted anything that came out of the abusive old fart's mouth. Knowing Mum like I did, and after receiving a more complete education on Marie's idea of child rearing, she would have taken the sure route. Mum had raped her of the information, doing god knows what as she mercilessly tore it from Marie's grasp.

It was pretty clear that I'd have to re-evaluate my mother very soon. As far as my promise went, now I had two opposing ones. In theory, they each cancelled out the other, and this left me the freedom to make a choice. I'd stick to my original promise, now more than ever. Mum and I needed to slow down. I knew that as I waited for her in that hallway. Beyond all her rationalizations, it had to happen before we lost ourselves and now I would take advantage of the open approach.

Because it was true, what she said about who my mother was and the woman I'd made that promise to, true that she was probably more like the woman who'd raised me than the one I'd indebted myself to, but she herself had mentioned balance and that's what I was shooting for. I just had to get her off the booze as soon as possible and allow time to do what I hoped it would. There seemed little else to do as far as saving her (and me) from herself in any case.

Finally, she came back through the door and into the hall, closing it softly behind her. Looking at me a bit strangely, she gestured for me to follow and we quietly left the building. Outside, we walked for a minute in further silence before I hesitantly broke it.

"(ahem) uhh... Is she-"

"Marci will be fine," Mum answered in a cool tone.

Another silence followed her words as we walked a route I began to remember. Sure enough, she turned down the same dark alley and I really wasn't surprised that she'd know about this place.

Leaving me in the middle of the narrow lane, she descended the shallow, concrete staircase and rapped her knuckles on the basement door, totally hidden in shadow by the small, A framed wooden awning above it.

The door opened and Arlene's inquisitive expression mellowed to a daze in less than one second. After some brief, low spoken words from Mum, the dyke nodded and allowed her access, leading the confident blonde inside. The loud music reached the open door and spilled into the darkness around me at a somewhat diminished volume before it went dead in the middle of a song a minute later. There were soon sounds of a scuffle, a shout, then silence. Utter silence.