Asiya listened to the soft jazz that came out of her CD player, as she soaked in the bath tub. Her father's warning for her to get out of her house haunted her, and she couldn't shake the thought. What if he was right? What would happen if she continued to live there? Would she really turn into her mother?

Even if she wanted to leave the house, she didn't know where she could live. She didn't have any family besides her sister, and the thought of living in NewYork frightened her. She had never been out of Mississipi, and didn't dream of going anywhere else.

She closed her eyes, and layed her head back on the rim of the tub letting the warm water soothe her soul, and calm her mind.

"Asiya." She heard a faint whisper.

Her eyes popped open, and she quickly sat up in the tub trying to determine where the voice came from.

"Who's there?" Asiya asked covering her bare breast with her arms.

She waited a few moments for a response, but only silence followed.

She chuckled to herself thinking of how she was imagining voices.

"Lord now I'm going crazy." She laughed and relaxed in the tub.

"Asiya." She heard the faint whisper again.

This time she knew she wasn't crazy, she jumped out the tub as fast as she could and tied her robe around herself.

She jetted out of the bathroom, and ran into her room locking the door. She didn't know who was out there but she was sure someone said her name.

"You can run...but you can't hide from your mamma." She heard the voice say from behind.

Her heart felt like it skipped twelve beats, as she slowly turned around. She fell backwards into the door, and began rubbing her eyes trying to get the image that she saw out of her head.

"It's me chile." It said.

"It can't be you because your dead." Asiya said. "This must be some kinda dream!"

Asiya looked at the woman that looked just like her mother sitting on her bed. She still looked sickly, as if she still had the cancer in her body, and she was wearing the same night gown she died in.

"This ain't no dream so stop rubbing them eyes of yours." Mother demanded. "I am dead and all but I've come to tell you some things."

"Some things like what?" Asiya asked with her back pressed firmly against the door. She didn't want to go anywhere near her mother, the mere sight of her scared Asiya.

"I know your daddy came here." She said. "He says I'm the devil...you believe him?"

Asiya didn't know what to believe about her mother anymore. After reading the stories of all those family members she killed, she didn't know what to think.

"No." Asiya said.

"Bad things are going to happen if your father continues to come around." She said. "He's more evil than you will ever know."

Asiya didn't say anything she just looked away.

"If you don't kill him he's going to kill you...mark my words." She said.

Asiya couldn't believe her father would actually kill her, he would have no reason to.

"Mamma why would he kill me?" Asiya asked.

"Because he thinks your like me...which you are." She answered. "He thinks your the devil because you got that special power that I gave you. And since I'm dead he wants you to be dead to. Why you think he stayed away all these years?"

Asiya shrugged her shoulders.

"You see he knew he wasn't strong enough to kill me so he didn't even try, but now that I'm dead he knows he can get to you." She said. "If you don't kill him he will kill you Asiya."

"I can't kill my own father." Asiya reasoned.

"Why not?...You killed me!" Her mother hissed. 

"Because you made me!" Asiya yelled. "You made me do it! Made me feel guilty about it. You wanted to die. You killed yourself."

That was the first time Asiya verbally challenged her mother, and it felt good to her. She was tired of being her mother's sheep, and doing all her dirty work. Her mother would make her write horrible stories about people she didn't like, and she wouldn't do it anymore.

A smile made it's way across her mother's face as she rose from the bed.

"You ain't got no choice but to kill your father...I wrote it for you." She said.

"And I burned what you wrote without reading it!" Asiya said stepping closer to her mother.

She was tired of being afraid of her, she needed to stand up for herself.

"You did what!?!" Her mother yelled.

"I burned it!" Asiya said with force. "Right out there in the fire place! God's going to get you for what you done to all them people...he's going to get you!" She yelled.

Asiya watched her mother shake her head from side to side in dissappointment, as her image slowly began to fade away.

"I curse you child!" Mother said pointing towards her. "I curse you forever!"

Asiya stood there quietly until she couldn't see her mother anymore.

She didn't know what just happened, or how it happened but she knew she needed to get out of that house. Her father was right, there was something evil lurking around the house, and Asiya needed to escape it.