House of the Angels

“Did you get a good look at their faces?” Hillary chortled as she and her companions made their way back to Mason Noir.

“Oh no don’t kill us, don’t kill us.” Mallory joked, mocking the voices of the children.

At last they returned to the house, eager to tell Sally what they had just accomplished. They laughed and boasted of the accomplishment, barely caring who heard it or who would be shocked.

“Mother!” Hillary called. “Oh mother we’re home!”

Sally descended the stairs with an irritated look in her eyes. She already knew what Hillary had done. Words weren’t needed to describe how annoyed she was with her own daughter. Instead she held her head high and decided it would be best to play dumb.

“And where, might I ask, have you been my dear?” she said with poisonous curiosity.

“Oh nowhere.” Hillary replied nonchalantly. “Killed four kids down at Belle’s Grove. You should’ve seen their faces when they begged for mercy.”

“Really?” Sally said flatly. “Let me guess…these children were of the age of thirteen and out riding their bikes when you decided to use them for your own amusement?”

“Yeah.” Hillary answered with a sickening chuckle. “They were choking like fish out of water.”

Sally smirked before she violently struck her daughter across the face. “Idiot.” She snarled. “Was that the best you could do?”

“Hey they were there for the pickings.” Hillary replied freshly. “Besides, it was all Brutus’s idea.”

“I don’t care whose idea it was.” Sally snapped. And then to the others she said, “If it pleases the six of you, I’d like to speak to my daughter alone.”

Hillary’s six companions left the living room and went back up to their respective rooms upstairs, leaving Hillary at the mercy of her mother.

“I don’t think you realize just how much trouble you’ve gotten us into young lady.” She hissed as soon as everyone was out of earshot. “Once again we are in danger because of your stupid shenanigans.”

“My shenanigans?!” exclaimed Hillary.

“Yes your shenanigans.” Snarled Sally. “Time and again our enemies have knocked us down, peg by peg, until we hit the bottom of the barrel. Well now, you’ve really done it.”

“Oh so all of this is my fault Mother?” Hillary questioned.

“Damn right it’s your fault!” Sally growled. “You have no idea whose children you’ve just killed do you?”

“They were just a bunch of run-of-the-mill kids from the bayou. Nobody’ll notice.”

“Nobody will notice?” Sally said acidly. “Oh people will notice. They’ll know.”

“Who?” Hillary enquired. “Who will be stupid enough to notice?”

“Sybilla, Anne, those brats of theirs.” Sally snided, listing them all off. “They’ll all notice what you did.”

“So?” Hillary questioned as she played with her fingernails. “What’s the worst they could do?”

Sally scoffed, an irritated smirk playing with her features. “You really are stupider than I thought.” She said. “Sybilla’s voodoo spells are what almost sent us all back to Hell in the first place. She knew the parents of those children personally. So thank you, dearest, darling daughter for putting our lives at risk once more.”

“Oh please.” Hillary spat. “As if she had the power to send back to that stinkpit.”

She rudely turned her back on her mother, strutting out of the room and up the stairs to her domain where she could brood without being disturbed.

Stupid, fool of a daughter….Sally thought as she watched her daughter storm up to her room. If any of her plans were to work, she had to do several things. The first was to avoid Sybilla, Anne and their lot at all costs. The second was to make sure the police didn’t come knocking on the doors of Mason Noir and if they did she decided to pin the blame on her daughter. The third was to find a way to get her brat of a daughter under control. Oh yes….her plans would work….and Miss Sally Caulfield would make damn sure of it.