3 year later……Ghost wanders downstairs to find her mother sitting in the lemon kitchen rocking back and forth in a slightly padded kitchen chair. Ghost wondered what would make her mother react in such an odd way, not that she had ever been able to understand average human emotion. She lived through her dolls and once her dolls got boring she began to make her own out of paper. She made all sorts of interesting situations with them, kidnappings, and murders, all the things that her father listened to on the news every night. She even began to beg for comic books and not just normal ones featuring men in tights and capes but horror comics. She was advanced after all she was only almost 5 years old and could read so why not give into her few demands. Her father bought her whatever she wanted. Her mother on the other hand mostly looked at her like there was something wrong with her, something frightening. Perhaps it was her lack of compassion and normal emotions. She didn't waste much energy on it. But today her mothers behavior seemed very odd. Ghost went up to her tentatively, "Mother. Is there something wrong? You seem funny." Liana stopped rocking and focused on her child looking at her like it was the first time she had laid eyes on her. She had blonde hair that fell straight around her pale face to her shoulders and large blue eyes. She almost looked like a fairy child, as a matter of fact when she had first been born and the doctor had commented on how different she looked compared to her dark hair and skinned parents she had considered it might be plausible. Then there were her behaviors, she couldn't seem to understand basic emotion. She didn't cry when her pet bunny got lose and got ran over by the neighbors lawn mower. As a matter of fact she had shrugged and went back to playing with her paper dolls on the porch. The neighbor had assumed it was from shock and told them to let the child grieve in her own way. Then there was the way her husband acted with her, like no one existed but her when she was in the room. He only had eyes for his daughter, and his daughter played it up to an extreme. She jumped on his lap at the slightest provocation and hugged him more times in one day than Liana could remember in her Childs almost 4 year life. Then there were the fires, they were small. A matchbook found under the fridge and Ghost lit every candle in the dining room playing with the flames like they were toys looking at them like rare looks of art. Liana had taken away the matches saying fire isn't a toy and is dangerous. Ghost had because very angry and refused to speak to her for weeks.
Liana had taken to counting the fireplace matches and any others in the house, of course she had caught Ghost in a few lies. She had went to some neighbors houses asking if she could have a match or two because their fire had went out. She couldn't tell why this thought was occupying her mind to much lately especially today but the shook herself out of her revere. "Today daughter we are having our portrait drawn in charcoal for father. He wants a picture of the two most important women in his life to hang above the fireplace so that when he reads he can look at us and feel warmer." Ghost grinned and went to her room to pick out the perfect cloths to wear to make her father happy. She had a knack for that, she knew exactly what color and what style would make him the most proud of his offspring. Liana went upstairs after she was sure her daughter was preoccupied and put on her finest white dress….a mock copy of her wedding dress. She had came into this marriage wearing it and she planned to go out of it wearing it as well. She hid 7 fireplace matches in the bodice of her down next to her heart. She prayed for forgiveness for what she felt she must to and was answered with silence as she expected.
The artist came at half past twelve and decided that the beautiful child must sit in a chair with her mother standing lovingly next to her. Liana agreed that the best spot for a child during a painstaking project like a charcoal portrait would be in a chair. Liana set her only daughter in a ornate oak chair with burgundy cushions. Ghosts white dress and black patent leather shoes seemed to blend just right with the chair. The portrait took almost 6 hours mostly because the artist kept telling Liana to smile and look adoringly at her daughter. Eventually he gave up and used the situation he had put before him. When he was finished Ghost looked lovely and serene, a perfect child in an old fashioned dress even though it was the 1990s. Liana looked like a matron from another century as well but it's the look of fear and sadness in her eyes that James evidentially couldn't take. Seeing her in a dress that so resembled the day they were wed overjoyed James so much he didn't even notice how sad she looked in the picture. James tucked Ghost in early that night and told her to sleep well. After that he went into the bedroom he shared with his wife and shared their love for the last time.
After Ghost was sure they were asleep they got up. She went down to look at the portrait again. She looked perfect, innocent, sweet, and almost on the verge of laughter. Liana looked different, Ghost tilted her head trying to figure out just why her mother looked so sad when she looked at her. Other mothers loved their daughters why couldn't hers? Other children have play dates and went to school but she was locked up in the house with her mother and BB when she visited. Was there something so wrong with her that she couldn't be a normal child? She stood asking herself these questions when she heard a noise behind her. She turned around to see her mother standing in the dress from the portrait smiling invitingly at her. "Come to mommy honey. I want to tell you how much I love you." Ghost went to her mother with tears in her eyes and wrapped her arms around her mothers waist crying into the silky fabric. "Don't cry darling soon enough we wont feel pain anymore ever again. We will go to god and he will judge us and decide where we go." Ghost let go of her mother and took a step back, "What do you mean you only go to god when you die why are you saying that we go to go tonight?" Liana smiled and took a lighter match out of her bodice and struck it on the back of the chair Ghost had sat in only hours ago. "Its gods will love. You're so young you don't know what you do. You lie, and steal, you are unnatural. You are to knowledgeable for your age. You manipulate….you have to be a seed of Satan and its all my fault. I allowed myself to be tempted." The chairs cushion was completely engulfed in orange and red flames now they were crawling down the legs and onto the oriental carpet. Liana pulled another match from her bodice and lit the curtains in the lemon kitchen on fire along with the couch in the living room. Ghost swallowed hard, "But what about father? He's is still sleeping upstairs we have to wake him up!" Liana laughed for the first time in years, "Love he will not feel that pain our sin will make us feel. I made sure he will never awaken again. He is with god. I put a pillow on his head after we consummated our marriage for the last time." The living room was starting to fill with smoke and she took pillows and blankets and threw them into the fires to make them glow brighter. The air began to choke and burn in their throats, "But mother why me? I've been such a good daughter I haven't done anything to you!" Liana stood in front of their portrait and lit it on fire making the paper burn away where Ghosts face was. She knelt in front of her child and sighed. "I know that you have stolen matches from others. I know that you have been looking into the flames. it's the Devil in the flames that calls to you love. Don't you understand. He wants you to go on and make him an army. The hounds of hell will be upon us if I cant stop you from reaching your destiny." At that Liana stood up and took her last match out of the bodice. She lit it and set the hem of her skirt on fire and reached for Ghost in one last embrace. That's the last thing Ghost remembered of the night. The next thing she knew she was in a hospital with BB standing over her crying. Before anyone could tell her she knew both of her parents were dead, and she knew it was her job to listen to a higher power for the rest of her life. She smiled a real smile and rolled over and went back to sleep. BB crossed her heart and backed out of the room…..wondering.