Author's Note: Sexual assault and abuse, victim-blaming, and murder are present in this chapter. This chapter was a little hard to write because it involves rape. I did not go into detail, but it's still very unpleasant regardless...


Night

An emotionally drained Eliza sewed Rayne's teddy bear back together in silence while the latter slept. Focusing on sewing helped Eliza to block out the memories of her rape and of Rayne's monstrous transformation earlier that afternoon. Eliza was going to have Rayne stay home from school tomorrow on the pretense of her not feeling well so that she wouldn't have to run into those two little bitches on the playground. With tomorrow being Friday and summer vacation starting soon, a lot of students would be playing hooky, and Rayne would be one of them. Eliza could take Rayne out somewhere nice tomorrow like Central Park, the AMNH (American Museum of Natural History), or Coney Island, places that would cheer Rayne up and give her weekend a positive early kickoff.

Perhaps Arthur could join them tomorrow? Eliza froze with the needle halfway through the second to last loop of the teddy bear's mending. She pinched the needle between the tips of her thumb and forefinger. Guilt over lying to Arthur about her past had sprouted within Eliza's heart. Today's distressing events had reopened some old wounds, and Eliza felt compelled to tell her beau the truth; relationships should be built on honesty, not lies.

And yet Eliza was afraid to lose Arthur. What if he thought she was a loose woman? A whore? A bad girl? Worst of all, what if Arthur started treating Rayne differently after learning that she was the byproduct of rape?

Her needle hovering over the bear, Eliza forced her fears down to finish sewing the stuffed toy. Taking some pleasure with her handiwork, Eliza snipped the thread with her scissors and quietly returned the repaired teddy bear to Rayne's room. Rayne was curled up in a fetal position under the covers, but this time, instead of crying, Rayne was sleeping both soundly and peacefully. Eliza carefully laid the bear down next to Rayne facing her. Smiling softly at the innocent scene, Eliza kissed Rayne on her head one more time before tiptoeing out of the bedroom and closing the door behind her.

Packing away her sewing kit and throwing out the snipped excess thread, Eliza initiated her bedtime routine. She performed this routine mechanically and quickly, and Eliza was pulling the covers up over her before she even realized she was in bed. Turning off her bedside lamp allowed the glow of NYC's electric lights to enter her bedroom. Lying in her bed, Eliza's eyes were drawn to her window to see the moon that was hanging over the city. It was going to be full in a couple of days and the moonlight was getting brighter with each passing night.

The moon was nearing its fullness on the night Eliza was attacked nine years ago... Staring at the moon turned back the pages of time to that painful chapter in her life. A chapter that Eliza had been trying so very hard to bury all this time. But tonight, she was going to relive it all again. Rayne's frightening resemblance to her father brought the memories back in full force.


It happened one night early in the fall of 1914. The moon that night was nearing complete fullness and was shining brightly over the landscape of rural New York State. The Great War had been going on for over two months by then and the religious citizens of Longhouse Bend had Europe in their prayers and shared that continent's hope that the conflict would be over by Christmas. Local Civil War veterans like Eliza's grandfather Joseph on the other hand were more cynical and knew better, for they remembered sharing a similar hope during the first eight months of the Civil War in 1861 that never materialized.

"People'd said that the Civil War would be over by Christmas just like they are now about the war over in Europe. What a load of bull that turned out to be! Damn thing lasted for four years and killed God knows how many good young men be they Union or Confederate. Oh no, Lizzie, this war in Europe ain't gonna be over by Christmas. It's gonna last awhile, maybe four years like ours or more, but it's safe to say that things are gonna be grim over in Europe for quite some time..."

It was funny how Eliza remembered her grandfather saying that after so many years, but it had stuck with her, not to mention how Joseph's prediction of the Great War lasting for four years proved to be correct. Meanwhile, Americans did not overly concern themselves too much about Europe's debacle, and they continued on with their daily lives without a care in the world. That fateful fall night started off so normally and pleasantly for Eliza, who was only eighteen then. She had gone out to the local dance hall with some friends of hers for a good time and to help raise funds to repair the roof of the local school. The night was a blast, the music was great, and everyone was grinning from ear to ear as they twirled and moved about on the dance floor.

It was late by the time the dance ended and everyone filed out of the hall to go home or elsewhere. Eliza was bushed from dancing the night away, but she refused a friend's offer of a lift home, a decision that she would soon come to deeply regret. But Eliza did not turn down her friend's offer without reason or out of stupidity. That friend was going to drive out of town to an isolated farmhouse to pick up a family member who was staying there before dropping off Eliza and their other friends at their homes. Eliza wanted to go straight home; her house was located less than a mile away from the dance hall, and Eliza had walked from home with her friends, and she was going to walk back there on her own.

Eliza and her friends parted ways after saying good-bye, and she made her way out of town for home with a kerosene lamp in hand. The darkness of night and silvery moonlight obscured the changing color of the leaves, but the autumn chill had replaced the past summer's balminess. Yes, it had been getting chillier in recent days, but not as chilly as it had become by the time Eliza was a half a mile away from her house. She had shivered and drawn her shawl tightly around her for warmth, the heat Eliza had generated during the dance earlier had been fading away. Light from a car's headlights fell upon Eliza and illuminated her surroundings at some point first before she heard moving tires on the dirt road.

Stepping off to the side of the road and turning around, Eliza came face to face with a rather lovely and new maroon and black Model-T Ford. But instead of passing Eliza, the Ford stopped behind her with her still under the glare of its headlights.

"Hello?" Eliza had called out when the door behind the front passenger seat opened and someone stepped out. Blinding light obscured Eliza's vision of the figure, but once they were standing in front of her blocking one of the headlights, she got a better look at them. The figure was a man, a very tall man whose powerful build was evident beneath his neatly assembled outfit. Being in the presence of a lady, the man removed his pork-pie hat and held it over his chest.

Without his hat on, Eliza could see that the man had short dark hair, and he also had a well-groomed goatee. The moonlight lit up his silvery eyes, or were those eyes glowing on their own? He appeared to be middle-aged, about forty-four or forty-five at least. The man smiled at Eliza as he greeted her.

"Good evening, Miss. What's a fine young lady like you doing out here all by yourself?"

He spoke so well, his voice husky and gentlemanly. His words put Eliza at ease. Her first impressions of the Man were positive at first before she learned that he was a monster, something which she learned not long after that nocturnal meeting on the side of a lonely moonlit country road. Eliza told the Man that she was walking home from the local dance hall, a walk she had done many times in the past.

"But my dear, the night air is so frigid now that autumn has arrived. You'll catch a cold if you keep walking out here. Why don't you let us take you home?"

Eliza, whose arms were crossed over her shawl, answered without a second thought.

"You don't mind, sir?"

"Of course not. I would not have offered if I did. And how could I mind the presence of another beautiful lady in my midst?"

Eliza blushed. The Man smirked to himself in pleasure. He was smooth. Placing his hat back on his head, the Man walked over to the other side of the car, gesturing Eliza to follow him wherein he opened the passenger side door behind the driver's seat and waved Eliza inside. What a gentleman this man was!

The seats were made of leather and were smooth and shiny. Eliza made herself comfortable after blowing out her lamp, and she laid her eyes on the driver and other passenger in the front seat. The driver looked to be a short and skinny man, but that was all Eliza could see from behind. The passenger, the other "beautiful lady" that the Man had mentioned, was dressed strangely. She looked to be wearing clothes that Eliza had seen her mother and grandmother dressed in from photographs dated from around the time she and Charles were born, which was in the mid to late 1890s.

Strangest of all, the woman appeared to be wearing a mourning veil over her head. Were these people on their way home from a funeral? The Woman must have felt Eliza's eyes on her, for she turned around to face the young woman. The Woman's face was completely concealed by the black veil and Eliza could not see her features. The Woman's appearance reminded Eliza of the Angel of Death. Eliza did not realize she was gawking until she felt the Man's hand on her shoulder.

"Everything all right, Miss? Were you two talking?"

"Uh... What?"

The Man smiled at the startled Eliza. That smile made her feel better again.

"Never mind, Miss. How far away is your house from here?"

"Less than half a mile from here. It will be second on the right past St. Mark's Catholic Church. They are the first two buildings up the road here."

"I see." The Man nodded in thanks before facing the driver. "Pedro, you heard the lady. Drive."

"Si, senor." the chauffeur replied obediently in Spanish.

"Miss," the Man began as Pedro changed the car out of park and resumed driving up the road, "forgive me for not asking earlier, but what is your name?"

"Eliza."

The Man nodded slightly. "A lovely name for a lovely lady."

Eliza blushed again and chuckled.

"Why thank you, and you, sir, are a gentleman. May I ask what your name is?"

The Man's answer was a chloroform-soaked handkerchief pressed up against Eliza's nose and mouth. Caught off-guard, Eliza breathed in the chemical scent that was redolent on the white fabric. She soon lost all consciousness and the world faded to black. The glowing moon and stars were the first things Eliza saw when she came to. Something black was caught in her peripheral vision, and Eliza came face to face with the Woman.

The Woman had pulled her veil up, revealing a fair heart-shaped face, aquiline nose, and thin lips that were stretched into a cruel, taunting grin. Eliza noticed the Woman's glowing cornflower blue eyes and fangs before her sense of touch came back. She felt the Woman's powerful hands pinning her arms down to the ground, her sharp nails were digging into Eliza's skin, and there was some great weight upon Eliza's body. That weight belonged to the Man. Seeing him kneeling over her lower torso forcefully keeping her legs spread out brought Eliza back to reality very quickly. Terror rapidly surged through Eliza's brain.

She was now aware that she was completely naked. There was something in her mouth, something woolen which later turned out to have been a scrap torn from her shawl, that was keeping Eliza from screaming out loud. Eliza and her tormentors were alone in a forest clearing; the location of Pedro the driver was unknown and totally unimportant to Eliza. The Man, now the Monster, was grinning evilly at Eliza, his eyes glowing as red as embers and his fangs glistening in his mouth as he raped her... And there was pain of course, so much pain...

The memory of the attack brought Eliza halfway back to the present in the spring of 1923 with a choking sob. Covering her mouth in response to the rise of bile, Eliza flung off her blanket and made a mad dash for the bathroom she shared with Rayne in the hallway. Flipping on the light with one quick movement, Eliza all but collapsed in front of the toilet where she vomited. Eliza heaved and sobbed, her hands clutching her head and rubbing down her anguished face. God, she could remember all of it.

Eliza remembered the pain most of all, that and the fear, revulsion, humiliation, helplessness, and finally despair when she realized that there would be no deliverance from that nightmare. All she could do was sob as those monsters hurt her just as she was doing now in the bathroom. Eliza slowly sank onto the tiled floor. Phantom pain emanated from between her legs, and Eliza closed her thighs together tightly in response, bringing her hands to rest above them. She whimpered and cried some more as she relived the terror in her mind.

"You have pretty hair, Eliza." The Monster made this comment after defiling the young woman. "You will make a lovely child for me. I don't often get the chance to partake in redheads, and you were marvelous tonight, my dear."

A shellshocked Eliza barely heard these words as she put her clothes back on in a trance. That Woman helped her to redress. It was so strange. When the Monster had finished his obscene act, it was the Woman who removed the gag from the traumatized Eliza's mouth and helped her up, covering her with her shawl and gathering up the rest of Eliza's clothes. The Woman had even fixed Eliza's hair after she was clothed again.

Eliza could not recall the journey back to the car and being dropped off at the end of her lane. She did not even hear the Monster's farewell, and felt no relief as his car drove away into the night. Eliza slowly limped her way back home. Only Sarah, her parents, and Thomas were home since James, Jimmy, and Charlie went to see a movie in another town, but it was only Sarah that Eliza wanted to see. She stumbled up the porch steps, fumbled with the doorknob of the front door, and cried out for her mother as soon as she stepped into the foyer.

Sarah came running and Eliza fell into her arms wailing. She was home. She was safe. Mother was here. A horrified Sarah helped her daughter upstairs to her room, leaving Eliza to be attended to by her grandmother, and she rushed back downstairs to the phone to call a doctor.

Eliza was later able to give the police descriptions of her attackers, but nothing ever came of the investigation. The vile trio had seemingly vanished into thin air. Maddeningly enough, the police seemed to be silently judging Eliza. She had been dancing that night with men, walked home alone in the dark on an empty road, accepted a ride from a man she did not know. In the law's eyes, Eliza was partially guilty for her own predicament.

Many dark days followed in the aftermath of her rape. Eliza recalled spending those days in a daze mostly confined to her bedroom in the dark. She wept often, hardly ate or drank, and spent many hours in the bathtub furiously trying to scrub herself "clean" even after the bathwater went cold. But no matter how long or how hard she scrubbed, Eliza could not get rid of the overwhelming sense of "filth" that seemed to cover her entire body. The Monster had robbed Eliza of her self-confidence, her self-worth, her sense of security, her carefreeness, her innocence; the world was now a dark and evil place for Eliza, a world where devils hid behind disarming smiles and preyed on unsuspecting women.

Eliza's relatives were devastated over what had happened and it tore at their hearts to see her suffer. Her father, Jimmy, and Charlie all blamed themselves for not being home to accompany Eliza to and from the dance hall to keep her safe. Grandpa Joseph wanted to find the bastard who hurt his granddaughter and blow him away with his hunting rifle. Theresa and Harold drove over to the Baker-Malloye Farm from NYC as soon as they heard about Eliza's rape to comfort her and their distressed family members. Chalmer and his youngest nephew Tommy were both lost to the depressing morass their family was stuck in, and Ellen tried to make time for her son and grandson between attending to her distraught daughter and traumatized granddaughter.

A good deal of support was offered to the Baker-Malloye's by the townsfolk of Longhouse Bend after word of the rape spread and the identity of the victim was discovered to be Eliza. People came over to Sarah, James Sr, or their other children at their home or when they were out in public to offer their sympathy for Eliza's plight and to say that she was in their prayers. Men came up to James Sr telling him that if his daughter's rapist was ever caught, they would be more than happy to form a lynch mob to string up the son-of-a-bitch for what he had done. But of course, there were those in town who shared the police's victim-blaming stance. Whispering behind upraised hands and sideways glances directed at the Baker-Malloye's could be seen around town whenever the family was out in public after Eliza's rape.

"What sane woman gets into a car with a man she doesn't know? She was asking for trouble right there."

"It had to be one of the boys from the dance hall that night. My son was there, and he danced with Eliza. He told me that she danced with other men that night too. She probably tempted one of them and he followed her home."

"My daughter said she saw Eliza kiss a boy at the dance. Never pegged Eliza as being the flirty type, but you never know. It's probably what led to her getting attacked."

Being a small town, these awful rumors spread like wildfire. Some people kept this vileness to themselves, but of course there were those who couldn't keep their mean little mouths shut and what they said got back to the Baker-Malloye's. Sadly, Eliza overheard some of the horrible rumors her upset family was discussing, and the thought that the people she had known all her life were talking behind her back hurt her even more than her rape did. How could people blame her for what had happened?

Why was she incurring all this judgement and not her rapist? What happened to her was not her fault! How could people be so cruel?

Eliza's mental health was already teetering on the brink when she learned that she was pregnant with Rayne sometime after her rape. The revelation that she was carrying her rapist's baby was the straw that broke the camel's back for Eliza. She became hostile and mercurial towards her own family. Eliza would snap at her relatives over the slightest things, curse at them, throw things, and rant and rave over how she had a "demon growing inside her". She had left out the glowing eyes and long fangs of her rapist and his accomplice from the police during her initial interview, but Eliza revealed them during her mental breakdown, confusing and horrifying her family.

Desperate to help their daughter, James and Sarah had her committed to Pleasant Brook Insane Asylum in Southern New York close to the New Jersey border. Eliza stayed at Pleasant Brook for over two months. Contrary to the institution's name, Pleasant Brook was anything but pleasant. It was a crowded and depressing place where society's rejects and misfits were dumped off to be forgotten. The halls echoed with the sounds of patients crying, muttering, shouting, or laughing to the tune of whatever demon plagued their mind.

Eliza cried during her first night at Pleasant Brook, and her agitation grew with each passing day. She was short-tempered with the nurses, begged to be released, and had to be restrained whenever her doctor examined her because Eliza tried to keep this strange man from touching her. The medical staff at Pleasant Brook began sedating Eliza to keep her calm and pliant, moderating the dosage to protect her unborn child. But Eliza had no intention of keeping the fetus safe, and on one foggy fall morning, she threw herself down a flight of stairs in a desperate attempt to terminate her pregnancy. Miraculously, Eliza's pregnancy was not aborted, but she sustained both a concussion and a broken shoulder from her fall in addition to being bruised all over.

Eliza was secured in a straight-jacket and placed into a padded room to keep both her and her baby safe. It was in that room that Eliza screamed and cried in frustration over her situation, and she truly began to languish at Pleasant Brook. She lost weight, her eyes became sunken and dark, and Eliza felt as if all hope was lost. James and Sarah wept whenever they saw their youngest daughter when they visited her, and they felt they were losing Eliza. And yet, it was at Pleasant Brook where Eliza would turn a new leaf.

This miracle took place in the female ward's common room. Eliza had been brought there by a nurse (could she have been Greta Stouffer's aunt?) two weeks after being locked in the padded room. Bright autumn sunshine flooded through the windows, and one of the patients was sitting in a chair with her back to the windows with an easel in front of her. Eliza had never seen anyone paint before in the common room, and she had the nurse wheel her over to the artist. The young woman who was painting looked up when Eliza and her nurse approached, and she gave permission for Eliza to observe her as she worked.

The painting the patient was working on was beautiful and surreal. To the right side of the canvas was a vertical dark gray wall with a dark open window. A large flock of butterflies of various species were flying out of that window towards a verdant, sunny landscape. A woman was seated by the window watching the butterflies fly out, her face obscured by the kaleidoscopic wings, and Eliza did not see her at first due to her focus on the butterflies. Eliza could recognize Monarchs and Yellow Swallowtails from the painting; she didn't have a clue what the other ones were.

"That's beautiful." Eliza had commented as she watched the patient work. "What is the building the butterflies are flying out of?"

The patient paused to answer with her brush still on the canvas.

"Here. The building is Pleasant Brook. The patients are the butterflies."

"I see." Eliza replied softly. How she wished she could fly out of here, and no doubt she was not the only one who felt that way at Pleasant Brook. Gazing at all the different kinds of butterflies, Eliza asked what they were, and the patient answered. The woman had an encyclopedic memory of all the butterfly names, but Eliza could only recall two of them: Xerces Blue and Red Admiral.

The patient's name was easier to remember after she introduced herself – Pearl Oliver. That name sounded familiar to Eliza, but she could not recall where she had heard it. She noticed scarring on Pearl's left wrist when she reached for a glass of water on a nearby table, her sleeve lifting from her wrist in the process. Raised lines of healed cuts crisscrossed like weave on Pearl's skin and the sight of it made Eliza pause.

"What happened to your wrist?"

"I hurt myself." Pearl answered casually as if she had said that she had a good, uneventful day at school.

"Why?"

"To counter the pain my father caused whenever he hurt me." Pearl turned to face Eliza, her gray eyes fixing her peer with an ambivalent gaze from which danger subtly radiated from. "You were hurt by a man too, weren't you?"

"Y-yes..." Eliza stammered, shocked by Pearl's perception. "How did you know that?"

Pearl smirked and turned to face her painting. "Gossip from the nurses. They were talking about your fall two weeks ago."

Silence prevailed between the two women for about a minute until Pearl spoke again.

"Don't kill your baby, Eliza. She doesn't deserve to die. She didn't choose to be born."

Eliza glared at Pearl angrily. How was her pregnancy any of Pearl's business? And yet, what Pearl was saying somehow made sense.

"Why do you say that?" asked the wary but intrigued Eliza.

"No reason." Pearl answered with a shrug. "Babies are beautiful and innocent like butterflies and you shouldn't kill beautiful, innocent things. But that's just my opinion."

Beautiful and innocent. That was one way of looking at it. Eliza looked down at her belly. She was about a month and a half along, so she wasn't showing yet, but the child was there regardless. Pearl turned to look at Eliza again and saw her looking down at her belly. She pointed the end of her brush at Eliza's belly like a teacher pointing at something on a blackboard.

"Your womb is your baby's chrysalis. She may help you to fly away from your pain, Eliza. Perhaps Pleasant Brook itself is your own chrysalis. One day you will emerge from here and spread your wings."

Eliza glanced up at Pearl with a confused look. Philosophy was not Eliza's strong suit, but she appreciated her new friend's words, nonetheless. Pearl then directed Eliza's attention to two Red Admiral butterflies – a big one and a little one – that were flying towards the painted sun on the canvas.

"Those two butterflies are you and your baby. All these butterflies represent a patient here in this ward."

"Really? Where is your butterfly?" asked Eliza, who was touched by Pearl's thoughtfulness and creativity. Pearl smiled sadly at Eliza.

"I don't have one. I'm the woman sitting by the window. I'm already free."

"What do you mean?" asked a bemused Eliza, who finally noticed the woman in the painting. Pearl was as mysterious as she was interesting. A riddle contained within another riddle. Pearl's smile rose into one that seemed childishly naughty.

"Do you want to know why I am here?"

Eliza shook her head.

"I killed my father."

Eliza blinked and sat back reflexively in response to Pearl's straightforward confession. True to form, Pearl laughed at Eliza's reaction.

"Don't worry, Eliza, I don't have a straight razor on me. Besides, I like you."

"That's reassuring..." Eliza squeaked uneasily. "You killed your father with a straight razor?"

"Yep. Snuck up behind him while he was reading his morning paper at the kitchen table." Pearl pantomimed how she killed her own father by drawing her paintbrush across her throat. "One slice and it was all over. His blood splattered all over his newspaper!" Pearl giggled like a little girl who had just shared a secret.

Eliza gaped at Pearl in shock, and it all came back to her right then and there. Pearl Oliver was in the papers about a year or two ago for killing her own father when she was only seventeen years old. The newspapers had called Pearl a "giggling young murderess" for how she acted after her arrest, giggling and smiling even though she had committed patricide. Eliza recalled her parents and grandparents talking about Pearl and her crime. Pearl had been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, and the Widow Oliver had pled to the judge to have her daughter sent to a regular asylum instead of one for the criminally insane. And Eliza was now sitting next to and having a conversation with the Giggling Young Murderess.

Pearl noticed Eliza's expression and she hardened her own. "My father deserved to die, Eliza. He had hurt me earlier that morning. I was going to cut myself afterwards with that same straight razor, but I decided to use it on my father instead. Mother was away visiting a friend of hers at the time; thank God she was not home to witness what I did."

"Does anyone visit you? Eliza asked hesitantly. Pearl nodded.

"Just my mother. Everyone else in my family has written me off. Some of them think I seduced my own father. They can't accept the fact that he was simply a bastard. Mother always apologizes during our visits for not protecting me from him..."

"I am so sorry to hear that...," said an empathetic Eliza. "Quite a few people back home believe that I had tempted the man who raped me. It hurts so much to know that they think I brought this on myself..."

"At least your family hasn't disowned you." Pearl replied. "You and I are pretty much the only two patients here in this ward who receive regular visitors. I've seen you with your parents and heard you talk about the rest of your family. Count your blessings. Some of the women here haven't had a visitor in years if ever."

"I do." Eliza said while nodding. She was blessed to have the family that she had. She could feel her heart lifting throughout her chat with Pearl. Speaking of which, Pearl was not done talking.

"Pardon the pun, but Pleasant Brook is my oyster."

"Pun?" Eliza asked before realizing what Pearl had done. Clever. Pearl laughed good-naturedly at Eliza's slip-up.

"I don't wish to leave here. This is my home now and I am safe and content." Pearl finally finished her painting and relaxed in her chair to look it over. It was beautiful, colorful, and fantastic.

"But you don't belong here, Eliza. You should be out living with your family and your baby. An ugly act may have made your child, but you can make something beautiful with her after she's born. Like I said earlier, Pleasant Brook is your chrysalis. Cast aside your pain and become something beautiful, you and your baby both."

Eliza smiled gratefully at Pearl. Quirky and obsessive as she was, Pearl was ultimately a friendly, talented, and insightful young woman. She took Pearl's words to heart. Eliza looked down at her belly again, this time rubbing it and smiling at it for the first time. Her shattered mind began to mend itself from there on.

Eliza's agitation quieted down, and she became calm to the point that she no longer needed to be sedated. Although she still disliked being touched, Eliza was able to swallow her anxiety long enough to let the doctor examine her without needing to be restrained. She became friendlier and more obedient to the nurses. When Eliza felt Rayne's first movements inside her womb near the end of November and the beginning of December, she smiled with both wonder and love at the fluttering sensation, and she caressed her small belly with loving hands. Slowly but surely, parts and pieces of the old Eliza were coming back, a new sense of self filling in the gaps.

Pleasant Brook's doctors and nurses noticed Eliza's change for the better, as did her parents when they came to visit her. James and Sarah had been visiting their daughter on a biweekly basis after she was institutionalized, but they returned the day after they saw their rejuvenated Eliza and discharged her from Pleasant Brook. Eliza came home in time for Christmas. As the family gathered around Eliza in the parlor following her homecoming, Eliza announced her intention to keep her baby and raise it. Her relatives were apprehensive at first, but when James stated that he was going to stand by his youngest daughter, the rest of the family followed suit.

Eliza moved into her sister and brother-in-law's Garment District apartment sometime after New Year's Day 1915, gave birth to Rayne six months later that July, and from then on Eliza worked hard to distance herself from her dark past and move on into the future. Eliza had thought of naming her daughter Pearl instead of Rayne in honor of the woman who had helped her (and who had correctly guessed that Eliza was pregnant with a girl), but thought otherwise, not wanting her daughter to ask why she was named after a patricidal mental patient. Pearl and Eliza did try to maintain a regular correspondence with each other, but sadly, they lost touch soon after Rayne was born. What was Pearl doing now? Was she still painting butterflies and was her mother still visiting her?

"Mommy?"

Eliza looked up from the bathroom floor to see Rayne standing next to the sink looking down at her. She was holding her mended teddy bear. "Why are you on the floor?"

Slightly embarrassed by her situation, Eliza slowly rose from where she was curled up on the floor in front of the toilet. "I wasn't feeling well earlier, honey." Eliza wiped her eyes and her nose with a piece of tissue paper. She smiled softly at her daughter after tossing the soiled tissue away in a wastebasket. "But I'm feeling better now that you're here."

Rayne returned her mother's smile before looking down bashfully at the floor and kicking her feet. "Why are you up, honey?"

"I had a nightmare. Can I sleep with you?"

Eliza nodded.

"Of course, honey, of course."

Getting back onto her feet, Eliza led her daughter out of the bathroom to her bedroom. She let Rayne crawl onto her side of the bed before getting back into bed herself. Pulling the blanket over them both, mother and daughter snuggled together and settled in for the night. Before sleep overtook them, Eliza asked Rayne one more question.

"Do you want to play hooky tomorrow, Raynee?"

Rayne nodded and spoke. "Mommy, I'm sorry for what happened today."

"Don't worry about it, honey. I'm glad you scared Greta. I hope it teaches her and Agnes a lesson."

Rayne burrowed her head into her mother's chest and wrapped her arms around her. Eliza embraced her daughter in turn.

"I love you, mommy."

"I love you too, honey." Eliza kissed the top of Rayne's head. "Very much. My beautiful little red butterfly."

And with that, mother and daughter fell asleep. They would have a peaceful night together.


What has Changed:

1. In the original story, Eliza decided to keep Rayne after she chose not to kill a butterfly that flew into the padded room she was in. The institution she went to was unnamed in Origins.

2. As is already established in the remake, Eliza grew up in the country, whereas they lived in New York City in Origins. Eliza was picked up by Kagan in the city, raped in an abandoned warehouse, and dumped off at her apartment building afterwards.

3. Pearl Oliver is an original character that did not exist in Origins. Her name is associated with healing and peace. Pearls were believed to have healing properties, and Oliver is derived from "olive tree"; olive branches represent peace. Pearl provides both healing and peace to Eliza during her institutionalization. Pearl was originally going to be a male patient named Jason, but that idea was scrapped after realizing that mental hospitals would have been gender segregated during the 1910s. His name also fits in with the healing theme since Jason means "healer" in Greek.