I run frantically back into the house. My thoughts and my libido racing out of control.  The hammer.  I must find it quickly.  That voice.  Sounding so forceful.  So hypnotic.  It slowly begins to consumes me. 

There it is.  Still laying beside that grandfather clock.  What's left of it.   

Tick tock now ****. 

The thought of how I smashed it into splintery pieces makes me laugh, my mind giving itself up to insanity and letting it take over.  Wow! Mankind and his wonderful ability to alter states with the popping of a few happy pills. 

I could have sworn I heard the entire house laughing with me.

I pause to listen.  Sounds as if the laughter was bouncing off the bare walls.  Echoing through the halls, followed by screaming.  Then silence.  I pick up the hammer and begin to make my way through the living room....

.....and notice the picture on the wall again.  The one the Preacher was looking so fondly at.  The one of Elizabeth at the lake house.  Only now she is not there.  Just the lake.  I gaze at the picture through glazed eyes, the eyes of one who is throughly stoned and a surrended prisoner to gluttonal madness.   

Quit looking at that damn picture and get out of here!!  There is work to be done!!  Remember the neighbor, the boy!!  

I notice that the picture begins to move.  Come to life.  The waves of the lake start to ripple.  Slow flowing waves. I begin to feel the heat of the sun illuminating from the picture onto my face. 

Andrew, come on! I'm warning you!!

I become completely immersed, focusing only on the picture.  I notice that there are birds flying in the sky.  One becomes ten.  Ten becomes a hundred.  A hundred becomes thousands.  The sky in the picture becomes dark very quickly.  The birds are moving as if running away from something.  As if something is in their mist.  Something unwelcoming. 

I glance back down to the lake in the picture and notice something coming up out of the water.  Elizabeth.  Not just her.  This time Chloe is with her.  They move in a very slow motion.  I watched hynotized as their heads came out of the water followed by the rest of thier bodies.  They were both whithered away, to nothing.  Nothing but skin, bone, and decaying flesh.   Elizabeth was missing one eye. With her remaining eye I felt her looking straight into my soul.  They were leaning on one another as if they needed each others support to stand. 

I watched them come up out of the lake, hands extended, beckoning me to come to them.

Both their heads were sunken and caved in.  As if they had been killed with a blunt object.  

A hammer maybe....

"Come and purge us again daddy.  Rid of us these demons.  Release them from us daddy.  You thought you had but they are still here.  You killed us and the demons are still here...."   

I shake my head violently. Remember, damnit, remember!  My memory tries to force itself to the forefront of my mind, my thoughts. 

Ok, enough of this. 

I see my arm swing up towards my head with the hammer and miss it by inches.  This jolts me back to reality. 

You fool!  Get back over there!  Now!   

I begin to run.  I make my way towards the door, turning the corner of my living room by the broken staircase-

-and trip over something laying on the floor.  I fall face first into a floor caked with blood and broken teeth.   The blood had begun to congeal.

Elizabeth. 

I jump to my feet in horror.  I wiped my hands crazily down my face, shirt, pants.  Trying to get that sticky wet feeling far away from me. 

And she begins to slide across the floor.  One side of her skull is pushed in, unrecognizable.  From the fall.  The sound of her long dead body dragging across the floor makes me scream out without even being aware of it.  Blood trickles from the corners of her mouth.  She moves very slowly and reaches a hand out to me to help her. 

Fresh scents of urine, blood and fear overwhelms me once again. 

"Its because of you we are dead Andrew, Elizabeth speaks.  Why did you do this to us?  Why did you invite death into our home? Why, why whyyyyyyyy......"

I run frantically back out the house with hammer in hand and slam the door shut. I'm mumbling and shaking uncontrollably. I look down at my hands and clothing expecting to see myself looking like I just committed a fresh kill.  The blood is not there anymore.  It is gone.  No signs of anything.  My clothes are completely clean. I slide down the door to the ground and cry into my lap loud, shaking convulsively. 

Get up you **** crybaby!!  Get up and move your ****!!

Why can't I remember?   Why can't I remember!

Quit your whining!  Your just as worse as that disrespectful little boy!  Trust me, you will remember soon enough, but first things first.  For now remember how beautiful Charlotte is.  Remember the arousal.  Remember the way that snotnose looked at you, suspected you.  These things are important for now."

I get up and make my way back over towards her house. My thoughts begin to forget about the things that just took place and start to focus on the things that will. 

Let me guide you.

I try the door.  In her haste to leave she forgot to lock it.

I feel myself becoming very excited again.  It is time yet again for something fresh.  Something that I am in desperate need of. 

And you shall have it.

I make my way inside and wait anxiously for them to return......