Dark Absolution: Prologue

The young girl found herself once again curled up on the back steps of her house all alone. She shivered involuntarily as her breath puffed out of her small body in soft, white clouds. The cold, night air nipped at her through her pink, unicorn pajamas, causing her teeth to chatter slightly and chilling the salty tears that ran down her too pale face. As on most nights like this, her only comfort from the raised voices that carried from inside the kitchen was the well-worn, well-loved teddy bear she desperately clutched to her chest.

"I want her out of this house, Jacob! I don't want her around my children! There's something wrong with her! She has evil in her!"

The girl sniffled and squeezed her bear tighter. Every angry, hate-filled word seemed to go right through her and pierce her heart. They lodged there, festering, reminding her that she was different, that she wasn't welcome. She no longer belonged here. Her piece no longer fit into the puzzle. She had become an outsider in the space of a heartbeat. All she had left were the memories of what life had been like before everything had changed and her fuzzy, stuffed companion to get her through the lonesome solitude her childhood had become.

"Marla, please..." The man in the kitchen gave an exasperated sigh. "She's just an eight-year old, little girl. She isn't evil. There's nothing wrong with her. She's…different. She has a very active imagination, that's all. If it bothers you that much I'll talk to her..."

"No!" The woman could be heard slamming both of her hands down on the kitchen counter. The sound echoed hollowly through the room. "I don't want you to talk to her! I want her gone! I'll not have her, her...ungodliness around our children!"

"Ungodliness?" The man, Jacob, snorted. "Will you listen to yourself, Marla? She's just a child for heaven's sake! This is completely insane..."

It seemed that these arguments between her father and step-mother were becoming more and more frequent. It pained the girl to know that, more often than not, she was the sole cause of their disagreements. Even at her young age, she could clearly see the toll it was having on her father. Where he was once loving and attentive towards her, he was now distant and detached. His face, once full of youthful vigor, was now tight and drawn. There was a tension in his posture that never seemed to leave when she was around. His exuberance and lust for life seemed dampened by both Marla's constant demands and his uncertainly about what to do with his eldest child. The past three years had definitely taken their toll on the man.

Three years…it didn't seem that long in the big scheme of things but three years was forever in the life of a little girl. It had been forever since her mother had gone to Heaven to live with the angels. It had been forever since Marla had descended upon their home and wormed her way into her father's life. It had been forever since she had felt the warmth and security a real, loving family was supposed to provide. Instead, she lived these three years in a sort of perpetual limbo, unsure if what little bit of comfort she had been afforded would be suddenly snatched from her as her mother had been.

The girl sighed sadly into the bear's soft, plush fur as the argument inside continued. She hadn't meant to make Marla angry. She never meant to make Marla angry. She couldn't help what happened. Sometimes it all just got to be too much for her to handle. Sometimes the voices in her head got so loud, so insistent, that she couldn't ignore them any longer like her father told her to. Since Marla had come into their lives, her father had told her time and again that she was supposed to keep those sorts of things to herself. She wasn't supposed to share the things she could see and hear, especially around Marla. Father didn't understand her, not like her mother had. Her mother had known she was much, much too small to hold such big things inside. Her mother had known that it hurt sometimes and that the best thing to do was to let it out.

"No, Jacob." The girl could clearly see Marla in her mind's eye, fingering the crucifix that always hung around her neck. "What's insane is that you can't see what's right in front of your face! This goes against God! You plainly see what she is, what she does, and yet you still continue to endanger your wife and children to harbor that abomination!"

"What abomination?" Jacob grit his teeth together. "She's my daughter!"

"And I'm your wife!" The woman's voice dropped as if issuing a challenge. "If that means anything to you at all you'll listen to me now because I'm not saying this again. This is the last time. I will not...WILL NOT...allow this to continue. Not in my house."

"Marla, she's just a child. She's a baby. She doesn't know any better. She can't help it." The man's voice took on a pleading tone. "She doesn't know what she's doing. Please, Marla, don't make me do this. Don't make me choose..."

"Listen to me good, Jacob." The woman ignored her husband's pain as she continued. "I will not live like this. I cannot, I will not, allow our children to be influenced by whatever darkness it is that lives inside of her. I'll not have her warping their minds with her blasphemy and tales of fantasy and perversion. I'll leave, Jacob. I'll take the boys and I'll go. Do you understand me?"

"Marla..." There was the sound of one of the kitchen barstools being pulled out and a great weight collapsing on top of it. The girl could envision her father running his fingers through his sandy hair in the worried manner that he had. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want that monster gone."

Fat, salty tears rolled down the girl's face as the words sank in. Her real mother had never thought her a monster. On the contrary, her mother had told her that she possessed a unique gift. It was a gift, she had told her, a wonderful gift to be able to look inside someone and see their inner most workings, to feel their thoughts, to hear the voice of their subconscious and be able to divine what the future held for them. It was a gift that needed to be wielded with caution, her mother had insisted, but a gift nevertheless.

Of course, Marla didn't see it that way. She saw only a threat to her strong religious convictions, a threat to the very souls of her children. In Marla's eyes, she was a devil, an abomination that needed to be banished for the sanity and greater good of the family. The Holy and the Profane could not coexist, Marla would often insist as she quoted scripture to her father. It wasn't possible. God wouldn't allow it. There was nothing special about her as her real mother had insisted. She was abnormal, an aberration, a crime against God.

The child allowed a heart-wrenching sob to escape from her small body. She didn't need the cacophony of voices in her head to tell her what was going to happen next. Marla would get her way. Marla always got her way. If her father had to choose, she knew he'd choose them over her. Not that she could blame him. She knew he father didn't understand her and that it frightened him. He didn't know how to handle her, how to talk to her. As it was, she was simply a burden to her father, an obstacle in the path to happiness and she knew it.

'You? A burden? Never. The only happiness that matters is your own. Now, tell me what it is that has you so upset so that I may remedy it.'

A soothing presence filled the girl's entire being and the other voices raging inside her head quieted to make room for a new presence. She suddenly felt as if she had been wrapped up securely in a pair of powerful, comforting arms. The child's breathing hitched and she pulled back slightly to look at the teddy bear she held in a death grip. "B-buttons?"

'Yes, love...' The bear seemed to sigh ever so slightly. 'Buttons.'

"Buttons..." A sob wracked the girl's tiny frame and she buried her face in the teddy's soft fur.

'Please, stop crying, little one. It hurts me when you cry...'

The child sniffled as she tried to get control of herself. She pulled back to look into the glittering black buttons that made the bear's eyes and thus earned him his name. "I'm s-sorry."

'No, sweetheart, don't be sorry. Never be sorry. You have nothing to apologize for.'

She hiccupped and cuddled the teddy close again. The deep, accented voice that filled her mind calmed her and distracted her from outside worries. Nothing else mattered at the moment, just Buttons. "I missed you talking to me. It's lonely here when you go away."

The bear seemed to hug her back. 'You can have no idea how much I've missed you. I dislike being away from you, as well. That is something we will need to take care of soon. Now, tell me what has happened to put you in such bad spirits.'

The young girl frowned. "Daddy and Marla are fighting."

The bear's eyes seemed to glow with understanding. 'I am sorry, little one. Adults, unfortunately, do not always get along...'

The girl shook her head as her eyes welled back up with tears. "It's all my fault. They're fighting about me. Marla wants to send me away. She said she'd take my brothers and leave if he doesn't do something about me. Daddy loves them. He won't let them leave if he can help it. He knows Marla's right even if he won't say it. There's something wrong with me."

The bear seemed to stiffen in anger. 'Who has told you such lies? There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, love. Never believe you are anything less than perfect. If I could, I would take you away from those who have filled your head with such nonsense. I can do nothing but protect what rightly belongs to me but you are young, sivamet, so very young..."

The girl straightened defiantly, throwing back her small shoulders and tipping up her chin. "I'll be nine next month."

The bear chuckled inside the girl's head, the tension relaxing ever so slightly. 'As I am all too painfully aware. You'll be a woman before you even realize it.' The bear sighed. 'I pray for that day to come swiftly.'

The young girl caught the slightest bit of sadness in the voice as it spoke. The bear projected a sense of urgency and she worried for her stuffed friend. "Buttons?"

'Yes, precious?'

She swallowed thickly as fresh tears gathered in her eyes. "Are you alright? Is something wrong?"

'Nothing you need to worry about, love. It's just the grumblings of an old bear.' The teddy seemed to smile up at her once again. 'When you've waited so long for someone as important as I have, a few more years are merely the blink of an eye. We shall have all the time in the world to know one another as we should.'

The girl cocked her head to one side. "But, we already know each other..."

'As well as we can under the present circumstances.' The bear seemed to reach out to her, soothing her concern. 'Worry not for me, little one. I have much to live for. We shall talk of these things when you are older.'

The girl smiled through her tears at the warm feeling of affection that was projected into her head to drown out the feelings of despair. "You always say that."

'And you would do best to learn to listen when I speak.'

"Silly bear," The girl hugged the teddy back to her chest. "I do listen."

"Amanda?"

Startled, the young girl spun around where she sat to see her weary-looking father gazing down at her with a concerned expression on his scruffy face. She had been too caught up in her conversation with Buttons to even register the sound of the back porch door opening and closing. The uneasy look in the man's eye told her that he had been standing there for quite a while and had most likely overheard her jabbering to her beloved toy. It was yet another reason for him to be concerned. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. "Daddy?"

"I'm so sorry, baby." Jacob cast a disdainful look at the bear his daughter held protectively. "This needs to stop. It's going to stop. It's going to stop right now."

To be continued...

Thanks to everyone for reading! Think it's worth continuing?