MOTHER, TURNED

She owes me. Not the help she had provided, but vengeance. I had killed almost everyone she knew.

“Ludicrous! All of the people she killed were vampires?” The state attorney scoffed, understandably.

Yet, here I was in an asylum.

I summoned my enemy, Bess. She did not seem surprised to hear from me.

“It's for the best.” Extending her talons to slice through my window, she entered to make me her kind.

Together, we floated out. The hunger was niggling, not sharp, like in the movies. I drew my tongue over my teeth, drawing blood. Instinctively, I spit, but then savored the taste.

I could tell I would grow to like it.

Relief flooded through me. My family was safe, at least from Bess, who would not attack the kin of her pack mate. I would visit my daughters tonight, after my husband put them to bed.

They would grow, with me as their guardian angel. When they were old, I would make the decision to stay and care for their children, or take a stake to my heart.

Nothing forbade me heaven. I believed I still had a soul. I just had a more flexible lifeline.

I might even confess to a priest, daily, if need be, to keep my soul unstained. I planned to be aware, but if I met an unexpected end, I wanted salvation.

News of my escape was surely out, in Tweets and newspaper app alerts.

I had time to observe, and I would find the cruel and psychotic - the ones with the auras of gray and black. Those are the ones I would feed on. To the others, I would be kind. I felt hopeful and optimistic.

This is Not Hitchhiker's Guide: Don't Panic Picture Prompt: April 18th

This is Not Hitchhiker's Guide: Don't Panic Picture Prompt: April 18th

GHOST BOAT

“Mom, I told you. I like puzzles with a lot of colors.”

Angie sighed. She knew her daughter, recovering from leg surgery, was bored and cranky. There just wasn't much money.

Probably not many people in Mason county, where the old plantation homes were newly renovated, considered jigsaw puzzles expensive. Of course, most of the women worked no jobs, not two and a half like Angie did.

“Baby, it's brand new, with the plastic still on the box. The muted colors make it more challenging.” Angie had been delighted to find the puzzle at a garage sale for three dollars, although she wasn't going to tell her daughter that. Let her think it came from Barnes and Noble.

Jana, seated with her leg propped up, frowned. “You know, Mom, that ship is haunted.”

“Looks that way.” Oh good, Angie thought to herself. Maybe she’s getting interested in it.

“No, I mean it really is. Don't you recognize it? Shasta told us about this boat. It was used to move slaves up the Mississippi. Some of them died, and their spirits never left.”

Angie’s forehead wrinkled. Shasta was Jana’s friend from next door, a scrawny boy, mixed race. Green eyes like a jungle cat. Unsettling.

“Honey, how would Shasta know that?”

“Because he was there.” Jana fiddled with her phone. “Look, there he is.”

Angie walked over. Her daughter showed her an old photograph. It certainly did look like Shasta standing next to the paddle boat in the puzzle.

“It’s from the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana. Shasta said the owner hired him out to work along the riverside, loading and unloading cargo. He hated that particular boat because there were always slaves being shipped north, to Greenville and Memphis. There was a market nearby, and half of them, newly sold, would be wailing like banshees.” Jana frowned. “What are banshees, anyway?”

“Female spirits in Irish mythology. Something to do with death.” Angie sat at the table. “Say, honey, Shasta's pulling your leg. He saw the photo online and made up the story.”

Jana gave her a funny look. “No, he didn't. He was there. He’s been alive for 160 years. Well, I guess more like 172. He looks about twelve in the photo, and he was still able to be out in the daylight.”

“Jana, what on earth are you talking about?”

“I told you, Mom. He's a vampire. His whole family is.”

Jana cleared the picture off the phone. “I'm going to text him to come over tonight to work.on this puzzle. Boy, will he get a kick out of it.”