amawitch's blog: "My Book cc/2007"

Melissa whirled on Death/Bob " how dare you chase someone from my house. this is not your place, and you cant tell people that they can or cant be here. You have no right! Besides he's kinda cute, might do me some good to get on his good side since you said most of us go to hell first anyway. By the way, what was that comment about you quitting? You quite your job? How can death quit? Does that mean that no one is going to die, and if they do who is going to your job. I mean wont there be even more lost souls wandering around?" "Melissa just what am I supposed to say? You know that I needed your help, but alot of things happened since the last time I saw you. I didn't quit, I threatened to after Himself told me I couldnt love you........" "What!!! What did you say? You loved me, you told that to Himself? To like the power dude. The one who controls all of this. And your not even supposed to talk to me in the first place. Great Pal, you just set my wheel back a couple of eons. And how can you say you love me, you dont have a heart, hell you dont even have skin, you dont have anything. Your just bones and a cowl with a sickle." Melissa had fire in her eyes " Melissa calm down, let me explain." "Boy have I heard that line before." " Melissa please, listen to me. We had a meeting sort of, and it got all mixed up, and things were said, and demons quit, and angels fought, and Himself and Herself were arguing. Then the Elder Gods and Goddessess came in, not all of them mind you, but alot of the old ones came in and it got crazy. Orda, yes the same one that was here a few minutes ago, he quit, and Peter quit, cause well cause he was kind of told that he would never find anyone like you to love him..." "What? You implied that I loved you. You ignorant shithead. How dare you. Your no different from any other man I know except you dont have a dick." " Well, that might change too, I brought it up, thinking about what you said last time I was here." " Oh no you dont. In no way is this my fault. You got all of this on your own. I was just asking a friend like question. If you thought there was more to it.." " But you said you liked me, you said I was kinda cute, you said alot of things that led me to ..." " Will you get it through your head. Your a virgin here BOB, you dont know diddly about human feelings or emotions or even how to communicate. I will not be the owner of this chaos, hear me. Now I want you to go for a while. I dont care where, just not here. I need a few hours to myself. Go find your troll demon or Satan or any other heavenly person and take a stroll through the gutters of earth. Figure out what you can do for them. I'll call you." "Melissa," "Go BOB, now, just go." So Death winked out not knowing where he was going or when she would call him back.

"What the hell is going on here. BOB!! Its been almost another year and this time you bring company! I dont get it. I worked on your problem for months, didnt hear from you, then I finally give up and you just blink on in without a thought and ....with company. Ugly company, well wait a minute. You," she points at Satan," I've seen you before. Your pretty cute. But who road all over your face? I mean come one, you should be the Devil or somthing, is that snot coming out of your nose? Ugh! Go wipe yourself or shower or better yet LEAVE!" Melissa was beside herself, and as usual when she was in a tither, she talked and talked incessantly. Death was used to this, it was something he loved about her, but the other two were new to this game. " Death, introduce us to your beautiful and sexy friend here, wont you. I remember "running" into you for a second, but we werent formally introduced." Satan bowed down and then looked pointedly at Death. "Melissa, Satan, and Orda. Orda, Satan, my and let me stress this... my friend Melissa." Orda cracked up snorting and spitting snot and saliva all over, smoke coming from his horns and a half. " This? This is what you threatened to guit your job over? This, this human! Why I have seen better looking humans come to the gates of Hell than this." Melissa went beserk. Grabbing a copper candlestick off the coffee table, she began hitting Orda as hard as she could, puffing out breaths as she screamed at the top of her lungs. " Better than this, why you wouldnt know what better is you ugly, deformed, gross monster, how dare you." "Melissa, stop, he likes that, it makes him stronger. STOP hitting him." Satan reached across both Death and Orda, removing their hands and the candlestick from Melissa. "Now, Orda, thats no way to talk to humans. They are sensitive about their looks. Apologize or you will have to leave." " You cant make me leave. You cant do anything to me, remember. I guit. Ha! I can do anything I want." " But I am still stronger than you, and when things settle down what are you going to do if there isnt any job for you hmmmm? Perhaps you had better apologize." " I dont think so your Evilness. I think I'll just leave." " Good leave you stinking piece of shit. Get out of my house." Melissa rounded on Death and Satan as Orda winked out. "What was that thing?" "That my beautiful lady was a demon. And he now loose on your Terra." " My what? Oh yeah, earth. Well I dont think he can do much more than make people scream." Death didnt like this onesided conversation with the woman he "loved". So he put himself between Satan and Melissa. " Melissa, Orda will go look for some sex shop or place that caters to the special individual with unique taste." " What hes trying to say my lovely and ravishing young lady, is that Orda is a pervert, and a very nasty demon, who will look for the same kind here on your 'earth'. " okay Satan, thats enough. You can leave now. Melissa and I have business to work on." "Wait, wait wait. Who are you BOB to tell me when my company has to leave. I know you think you have some kind of thing over me, but do some brain work Bob, I am not yours. Satan can stay if he likes." " Why thank you my elegant new friend.But you dont have to worry about me intruding on your time with Bob, did you say you called him?, i shall call on you later." Satan winked out as perfectly as he winked in.

The Elder Gods Miach and Echne appointed themselves, well really they volunteered themselves to approach Elder Goddess Morrigan to see if she might "man" the gates of hell. All of this depended on whether or not she would only do that, as she was known to like control of war and life also. Meanwhile the Angel Chamuel, who was given administrative authority over the meeting also took it upon himself to find someone who could be in charge of the Gates of Heaven. She was leaning towards Gabriel as she was the only female Angel in the upper management. Elder God Dagda went to visit Himself. The Elder Goddess Aine, Dana,and Aine's daughter Angel Anahita went for a walk having not been in this realm for a few eons. As they passed the Gates of Hell they saw Elder Goddess Morrigan in a fast and seemingly furious conversation with Elder God Miach. She was a glorious site with her sword and flames surrounding her. They waved at each other and went on their way. Peeking between the Heavens and the skies they looked at Terra. " I miss it sometimes don't you? The humans, the statues, the tributes. I know there are still some that hold to the old ways, we hear from them now and again, but at one time we were great, huh?" Elder Goddess Dana nodded her head in agreement. " I know what you mean. Well perhaps there will be more of a calling for us in the near future. All we can do is hope that Himself and Herself get it back together." From behind them they heard the sound of thunder cracking, knowing it was Elder God Morrigan giving his conditions. But that thunder clap usually meant ok. The chaos in the upper realms were nothing compared to the emotions that were raging in Death, Orda and Satan. Peter Himself had already decided he would find himself a love of his own. But Death, Orda and Satan found themselves winking into Melissa's living room at the same time.

The heavens were in an uproar. Herself and Himself not speaking, Peter had quit his job at the Pearly Gates, Satan had left for who knows where noone really knowing if he was serious about quitting. Death had said he quit. The Angel Chameul met outside with the Gods Dagda, Miach and Echne, the other Angels Aine, Dana and Anahita hovering nearby. " So now what? Is this our chance to take over again. Or do we help a brother Himself in need until this crisis is over. Any suggestions?" " I say we just love and support Himself and Herself, staffing where we can, and wait till they can work things out themselves. My concern is the souls that will be passing, do we really want to call back in Morrigan? I mean all that she is a Goddess, but she had a hard time giving up that power over war, life and death. We could ask her to limit herself to just death. Think she'd go for that?" " hmmm Perhaps, but what about the Gates to Heaven? Who could we get to do that? Maybe the Angel Ongkanon, after all his job was to was basically to act as intermediary between Himself and Herself and humans. Its worth a try. I think" "Any other ideas Elders, Angels? Come now, as minutes pass here, years pass there. I still don't know why Himself let thingsd get so out of control here. Why when we were more active things seemed much more calmer. Ah, for the old days huh" And each of the Gods and Goddesses with the Angels took a moment to remember what it used to be like. " Lets give Himself and Herself a little while, and come to them with our ideas, perhaps by then things will have settled a bit and we will know what we need to do, if anything." All of them grasped hands and prayed, parting, knowing that something somewhere was going to have to happen. Himself and Herself were having themselves a little sit down in their cloudy abode. Neither had begun to talk yet, but hands were clasped, and looks were being exchanged. Someone had to start this, and it seemed that the women, whether it be here or on Terra, always seemed to open up the conversation. Herself was just hoping that Himself was not going to be like Terra males and misconstrue everything she had to say. " Himself, you know how much I love you, right?" "Yes dear." Oh this was going to be difficult. " I didn't mean to hurt you. I just felt like since this was a meeting about all the things in Heaven that were bothering us, I would include my problems, the ones I seem to be having..." "YES I KNOW, PROBLEMS YOU WERE HAVING WITH ME!!!! IN PUBLIC OF ALL PLACES!.." " Calm down Himself, I said my problems. It wasnt a problem I was having strictly with you, it was alot of little things and I really needed to air some things out also. Please try to understand, you can be so judgemental at times, and when you are, things happen on my beloved Terra, winds blow, storms happen, thunder rolls. I only wanted to save "them" your temper." "I DO NOT HAVE A TEMPER!" Herself rolled her eyes thinking there goes tornados in a place there never have been any before. Poor humans. How to approach this delicately. Perhaps she need to speak to another person first to get it all straight in her head. " Dear Himself I think I will go for a stroll and see if I can find a flower or two that might need my attention. Let's let some time go by and speak about this again." " Herself, I dont feel the need to speak about any of it. Suit yourself." And turned his back on her. Herself left the cloud in search of family.

Death wandered over to the Gate and of all the surprises he could have had this was a biggie. Manning the Gate was an Elder. Himself must really be serious this time. " Hello Death, I hope all is well with you. I havent been here in a long long time. I'm not sure you would even remember me. But I can see by your stunned appearance that you do." " Hello Elder Dagda. I never thought to see you here on Himself's plane. I thought you had all retired, to, well wherever it is you retired to." " Himself and We keep in touch. You know how it is with Gods and Goddess's, well perhaps you don't. I'm sorry, sometimes I forget. We never really had an angel of Death in our time. We had AAFea and Nemon but they werent really doing what you do. Then of course there was Morrigan, but he is a different sort. Anyway, Himself says go on in." Death entered the Gate but could not help but look back at Dagda. "Wow, what a presence" he thought. Now to find the right cloud. Looking around he found one cloud with the Goddess Aine standing in front of it. Another Elder!!! This was getting scarey now. If Himself and Herself called on the Goddess of Healing this was either going to be a long long meeting or some proverbial heads were going to roll. " Death come on in, have a seat. You know most everyone here, but let me reintroduce you to a few Angels, Gods and Goddess's that will be staying with us for awhile. You remember Appoloin, who watched over the pits of hell for eons so that he can throw Satan down there and keep him there. This Goddess over here is Elder Dana, Herself's sister, with her is Angel Anahita, her daughter. Lets see, who else is there you might not recognize, oh yes, my good friend Elder Miach, and Elder Echne, both have helped me with Terra. Come come, have a seat now, we must get on with this." Himself waited until everyone had settled, this being difficult because of all the wings, staffs, and halos that had to be juggled. " Angel Chamuel has stated that he will help preside over this meeting as his "job" has always been to inspire tolerence so that we may love each other and ourselves. Chamuel I turn this over to you for governance." Himself sat down on his Throne. " Uhum, fellow Angels, Elders, and the government of this plane, I welcome you to a meeting of peace and honesty. We come together because Himself and Herself along with a few others here are having problems doing their jobs." Himself jumped up, " now wait a minute, thats not what I...." " Sit down Himself, please. You asked me to do this and I am going to do this as I feel it needs to be done. As honesty is the first step, I will be honest to a fault. Do you want me to lie? Hmmm? Himself, do you?" " No, no, go ahead" Himself waved a hand at the Angel. " Ok then, here we go again. As I look over this list, the participants have pointed out four, no five " persons" who have caused some havoc in this peaceful realm. I will call out to the name of the complaintant and you will all allow him or her to speak. No comments until all have been allowed to speak and then we will commence with trying to solve all this. Ok? Ok. Now Orda shall we hear from you first? Are you ready?" All heads turned to the ugly demon. Orda stood up and made his way to the front of the "room". " Yeah, I'm ready, ready to quit. If I don't get answers today, that just whats gonna happen too, do you hear me Satan, I need some help. I want to know how come no matter how many horns I grow, or how ugly my skin becomes, you leave me outside the Gates of Hell checking off souls that all the other demons inside get to have fun with. How come I can't do it. There are demons in there that dont even have any horns yet, I have been here for eons, faithful, and waiting, but no, you just flit here and there, causing havoc and testing souls, while Im left to man a podium with a damned book, all the while listening to the fun your little demons are having inside. I want a raise!! Or a promotion, or some thing. " Orda had gone a glorious shade of purple red and smoke was comming out of two of his horns while the third newly grown horn was trying to sputter out some thin whisps. He sat down, and glared at Satan. "Alright then. Orda you have stated your complaint. Satan have you anything you can say, or is there anything you want to add? Satan? Are you listening? Stop talking to Douma, we need you to answer to Orda." "Answer to him!!! No way. I will not answer to an "employee". He will answer to me. When Orda who replaced Douma grows a thousand eyes, I will give him a flaming sword and he will be in charge of my thousand demons. But he has a lot to learn yet before I trust him to that many. Why Orda you can't even manage a conversation with Death without coming to me running and blubbering about how he doesn't do his job. A good administrator would have solved that problem, not come to me crying. how can i trust you to hand out punishments if you cant even handle one Angel? Thats all I have to say." Satan sat back down and resumed talking to Douma. At this Ordas new horn began to grow and grow, spitting flames of fire everywhere. " trust!, blubbering!, why you two bit piece of shit Angel. If it werent for Himself, you wouldnt exist. I do quit! And I am leaving." And with that Orda winked out. " Well, I would say we are off to a lively start, now arent we? Does anyone have anything more to add to this subject?" Chamuel looked over the group around him. " Uh, yeah! Who do I hire now, big guy?" Herself jumped up, " you never did have any respect, always wanting to be a God or have more powers. The least you could do is address Himself with more respect." " Sure, why not, he only kicked me out and said I couldnt come back. Course I do like my job, but I still have to answer to Himself"< this said reluctantly>" and maybe I dont want my job any more either, so go to Hell yourselves if you want. I quit too!!" And out winked Satan. This was getting nowhere fast. "uhm Himself? Perhaps we might save this for another eon or two. I dont see anything really getting resolved here." "Wait! Wait! I just want to say that I want to grow apendages like Satan, and be able to not scare people so badly and have an assistant to help me/ And why cant I talk to humans? I met a really nice one that I think I have ...." " Dont say it Death! Dont say you have fallen in love. Its not allowed. I wont allow it." "Himself with all due respect, you have no authority over my heart. I can and have fallen in love. With a human no less. So, as I see it, I can quit too, cant I?" Death felt very smug. " If he can quit so can I", this from Peter," I am sick of just standing there at the Gates waiting for HIM over there to to his job in an orderly fashion, but no, he has to forget about me and bring me thousands at a time so he can get back to his human lover!!!" said very sarcastically this time. "Your just jealous because you can't. And I can." " Who says I cant? You? Your nothing but Death, I am the person who passes souls into Heaven, you are nothing to me." "Then prove it, find a human to love you." And with that last statement Death winked out. " Does this mean he's quit too?" Himself asked Herself. " No dear, I didnt hear him say that." " Oh good." "Himself should I address your problems now with Herself or Herself's problems with you?" Each looked at each other in shock. "You complained about me? In public? How dare you Himself. I have done nothing but wash your beard, wings, make your cloudy bed, and nurture your silly experiments." " You complained about me? In public? How dare you Herself. I do nothing but listen to your constant complaints about mothering Terra, you never let me create any thing any more." This being said at the same time, all other members in the meeting winked out. amawitch/2007

As Death contemplated about his inability to grow appendages, Melissa was organizing the "list", adding questions and notations. " Uhm Bob, can I ask you something?" " What?, Oh yes, anything." " How did this start, lets go back to the beginning and figure out how you went wrong. I think thats the only way we are gonna be able to get a head on this problem." "Ok. I have a book, it list the time and places I am supposed to be to greet the soul, take it to its appropriate place and go on to the next one." " I got that Bob, I want to know about that day." " That day listed Marrissa as a successful suicide, she was supposed to be in the room you were in. But Marrissa never made it to the hospital, and you were put in the room as an overdose, sent home and I followed your trail instead of hers." " My trail? Explain please." " Every soul leaves a trail of energy that can be followed. I know you know what I am talking about because everywhere on this Terra you hear about energy, hauntings, etc,. So when I went to the hospital I thought I was following Marrissa's trail and to just put it all simply, it was you, and I found you home, in overdose recovery, and fighting all the way. I am assuming that Marrissa never even made it to the hospital because I never found her trail." "Yeah, but you said you heard she went to Peter and Satan, and asked about you there, can't you find her trail there?" " You would think so, but apparently she has found a way to avoid me, or is learning tricks she should not have figured out." " So cant you just go to her house and find her trail there?" " Yes, if I had know about two years earlier. Now its too late, her trail is gone." "But wouldnt she have left a trail where ever she went? I dont get it, here I am trying to get you some help, but BOB, hey BOB, are you listening to me?" And in fact Death was listening, but not to her, he was hearing the yells from other planes, that there were some things happening and he needed to go fast. " Listen Melissa can you do me a big favor? Can you use that thing the computer, and see if you can find anything that seems out of the ordinary, stories, amazing happenings, I have to go, somethings going on, but I will be back as soon as possible. I promise." "Just like last time, huh? Just pop in and out asking for help never staying long enough....." Melissa realized she was talking to empty air. Death had left once more. Death hovered over a scene he didnt think he would ever see on the planes of his world. Souls wandering around, angels trying to calm everyone down, in the midst of Peter arguing with Orda of all people, and Himself and Herself with their backs turned to each other. Not really sure he wanted to descend, he knew he couldnt stay where he was. Once he was sensed that was it. So might as well go on in and find out what was going on. But not really sure he wanted to. " Death, what in the hell do you think your doing?" " Death, why arent you doing your job?" "Death, I told you the rules when I created you for this job, why are you talking to humans,", this from Himself. Death approached the group, pushing his way through the lost souls, and going directly to Himself. " Himself, why cant I grow appendages like Orda and the other demons? Why cant I talk to humans like the angels do? Why do I have to be skeletal and scarey just to bring souls safely over? Why..." " Dear, dont lose control. You always do something I regret when you lose your temper." Herself put herself before Himself facing Death. " Now, Death, slow down, and lets get these things done first post hast and then we will all settle down for a nice long meeting. How does that sound? Everyone? Is that okay? I see frowns, but you know what? Tough, and yes dear that means you too. I will not have this plane in chaos like the earth, do you hear me, all of you! I WILL NOT HAVE IT. THATS FINAL. Now go to your respective places and we will meet in about say a hour or so, our time." Herself grabbed Himself, pulling him along as he grumbled and she bowed her head toward him speaking rapidly and low. " I Swear Death if...." " I heard that, Peter, not now." Herself stated. "You little weasel of an ang...." "Orda, no more! Go to hell where you belong until this meeting." Both Demon and Angel parted to allow Death to face his souls. In a re-enactment of an earlier time Death separated his souls in three groups, got them where they needed to go as quickly as possible and then grabbed some down minutes at his lake shore. Wishing he had an assistant, so these things wouldnt happen, he put it on his list of complaints. Peter had help, Satan had help, why shouldnt he have help. Even Himself had Herself. In fact, why did he even have to be here most of the time. He could be with his Melissa. " And therein is the problem, Death, she is not your Melissa, and you are not human." Death headed off to the Gates for a meeting he both wanted to have and yet wanted to avoid. Did all this really begin because of him?

Death and Melissa had decided to make a list of all the places a lost soul might decide to visit, haunt, wait, whatever. The list was short as each of them had no experience on the subject. Melissa even called a medium that was advertised, to get advice. She was promptly told for a hundred dollars her whole life could be layed before her. When she tried to get answers about where abouts of a lost soul, the person hung up. So on the list they had compiled, was written 1. Graveyards 2. Churches 3. Hells gate 4. Heavens gate 5. Hospitals/clinics The list being so short had everything to do with ignorance and nothing to do with how to get started. Melissa looked over at Death, and found him staring at her. "What are you looking at? Dont do that, makes me think you wanna take me with you." Death was thinking exactly that, and didnt know why as he had no heart, or feelings or wasnt supposed to anyway. "Whats it like?" "Whats what like?" "Being alive, doing stuff." "What! I dont know, why ask me, well I know why ask me, but hell I dont know. Werent you ever alive?" " No, I was created just like this by Himself and Herself when they decided that an angel was needed to do my job of getting the souls to heaven or hell." " So your like an angel, without wings,and ugly instead of pretty, and no halo? Sorry that sounded awful." "Well, yes, but its the truth. They wanted me frightening so that the souls wouldnt fight me, they would be to feared to scatter and I could get the job done faster." "Dont you get tired of scaring people,and just going from up there to down there?" "Well its not really up there and down there, its here, just on a different plain, and yea its getting boring. I been thinking about talking to Himself about a different job. But I am so ugly I couldnt begin to choose what else I would do. I can read, I have my book so I can keep records, but what do you think souls would do if they saw me at the Pearly Gates. Shit their ethereal panties I tell you. So, really I dont know what I could do. I would hate Ordas job. He mans the gates for Satan. Hes just hung up on how many horns he can grow, so he can stay on top of the subordinate demons. You have to have alot of horns to be on top." " Have you ever wanted to be alive? Ever?" " I never thought about it, well, until, well, until I met you and talked to you and i dont even have friends, so, " Death shrugged his boney shoulders," why are we even talking about this anyway." "Cause you started it. You asked me what it was like with those, those, eyes of yours. What am I supposed to do, tell ya to go to hell? Being alive is like being alive, the good things, icecream, mud puddles, puppy breathe, the smell of roses, I dont know." "Puppy breathe? Being alive is like puppy breathe. Come on." " I didnt mean it that way, I cant explain it to you, you have to do it, be alive. And you cant". " I have smelled puppy breathe, it smelled like old mothers milk and dog shit mixed together. And mud puddles, what in Himself's world do you mean by that one. Their wet, dirty, gritty, and dry up to nothing. Life is like that?" "Come on, your putting me on the spot. I was just thinking about the fun things about being alive. Mud puddles are fun to stomp in, to get all dirty and gooshy between your toes...." Melissa stopped cause she could tell Death was not gonna get it. "So what are you going to miss the most when you do go?" " Am I going soon, can you tell that? Is that really why your here?" " No. It was just a question? Promise. I dont know when your gonna go." " Okay. Well I think I am gonna miss kissing and sex the most. Do angels have sex? I guess you cant answer that huh? You dont have uh, the necessary apendages for that right? But yeah, the closeness with someone is what I think I will miss the most. I guess sex is the bonus. Wow, I just thought of something, your ancient and a virgin to boot, just think of that, awesome, a virgin death...." Melissa stopped when she saw the eyes change color in Deaths face. " Geez, I was just kidding you." "Well its not funny. I may not have the "apendage" that I need, but I have the need to need it." "What?" " Never mind. Lets go over the list." "Can I say one more thing first?" Melissa bit her lip waiting for an answer. " Sure." " If that Orda dude can grow a horn, why cant you grow an apendage?" "Melissa!!! Thats enough of that." But Death did wonder just how come he didnt rate that possibility and it was something he might just take up with the big guy.

Marrissa had taken to visiting the hospital alot in between her good and bad deeds. The peacefullness of the place was a balm for her. A lot of people thought hospitals were noisy busy places, and of course for the living and surviving they are, but for the passing soul it is a quiet surreal kind of noise. Calming. Well for the most part. Every once in a while a soul fought passing, causing frenzy in the emergency rooms, when all was for aught anyway. The ones that Marrissa loved the most though were the stupid ones, the ones that she could convince that this was hell and they were never gonna leave the hospital for eternity. Boy those were good times. But for right now, Marrissa was just floating along looking for something to do, someone to connect with, some peace. Sometimes she thought of that handsome angel Satan, and wondered really just what that was gonna be like, probably give her a vibrator with no batteries and make her look at him all the time. Now that would be hell. Going into the preemie sector, she found a soul hovering over a tiny baby. The soul was so sad. " What happened? Do you know?" " No, I just know that Himself and Herself have given me these parents a couple of times and the mother just cant seem to keep me with her. I just want to earn my way into the big time, the better time. But to do that I gotta be born and die a few more times so I can learn all I need to learn. Sorry, I know I should be glad of the chance at all, some dont ever get it, but I'm not. I really wanted to live this time." " I'm sorry, I dont know what to say. But if you want to, you can tell me about this big time stuff your talking about. I never heard about that before." Marrissa thought she knew it all. Your born, you die,you pay your price, you go to heaven and your reborn. Thats it. Now she finds out that not it! " Yeah might as well be out of here, I hate to watch the rest of this. Tears and the body being destroyed. Brings bad memories of past lives." So Marrissa and Jay as he called himself, floated to the top of thehospital and settled on the roof. " Now you said past lives? Whats that about,and whats this big time about, and..." "Whoa there, slow down Marrissa. Let me see just what you know and just what I can say. First of all, you know your shrinking right? Didnt Death come get you yet? If not, your gonna be gone soon, and I mean really gone,no energy, no space, no nothing." "Death hasnt found me yet. And I got tired of waiting, so I tried to get help from Peter, and Satan, but they said only Death can help me." " Well their right. Death has to decide where ya go. In fact Death is a bit late for me too. Wonder where he's at. He's usually on top of things. Must be a back log or something. Anyway, you die, you go to hell, most everyone does. I cant tell you what your hell will be like, cause Satan is pretty ingenious, its individual what happens to that soul, but when they are ready they go to Peter and he lets them in the gate. There you rest up, meet with old friends, in general go to different classes, learn about the next levels...." "levels? there are levels? Sounds like school. I didnt do very well there." " No, what I mean is its like a big wheel, you know that corny movie about the "circle of life", ok that true to a point. Our bodies die and feed other things giving birth to other things, well its kind of like that. your soul moves on to bigger and better plans, does more, sees more, I mean the heaven are an infinity. I am on my third time around trying for just the next level." Marrissas soul got very quiet. She had never heard anything like this shit. Oops, now she would really have to watch.... Forget it. She had some time and a few " levels", so this soul was gonna have some fun. But it was kind of interesting to hear about the big time. " Do you know what the big time is?" "No, I just heard it from a couple of angels that got their golden wings". So Marrissa "sat" next to this older soul no longer speaking, each into their individual thoughts about the up coming events in their existance.

Marrissa materialized in the living room at the same time as the woman, pulling a blanket from the couch she threw it up and over the woman, who immediately fell down to her knees, keening and praying some kind of shit. After letting the woman babble a bit, she pushed her way into the body, stretched to get the feel , turning her " head" left and right looking for the telephone. " George, this is Dawn. Come get the kids now. I can't handle this shit on my own. In fact I can't handle anything anymore. All I want is my drugs, my money and my booze. Bring the papers with you, I'll sign em, really, no no no, not a joke, I am not gonna call the cops. Are you kidding? Im losing it here George. The house is haunted, my body is being possessed, my mind is gone, all I want to do is get rid of these damn brats and go find some z's. Now George, come now!" And with that Marrissa hung up the phone and settled down on the couch. " hey kids come in here now." Slowly the children came in the room. Marrissa/Dawn patted the couch next to her. "hey guys, I know this sounds weird, but I am not your mom, I'm kinda like an angel, but not really. I know whats going on here, and I didnt like it. I called your dad with your moms voice and told him to come get you and take you home with him. Any questions?" The children stared at her open mouthed not knowing if this was a drunken episode or what. Finally the youngest,beautiful little girl, reached out and touched her mothers hand. "I love my mommy. Are you my mommy too? Is she inside of your tummy like a baby? Can I..." Marrissa cut her off gently and huggedher close. " No sweetheart. Shes not in my tummy. Its hard to explain, but you can understand angels right? Well think of it this way. I came down to help you so that your mommy can get help too and be a good mommy. But right now she has a problem that needs to be fixed. You know that right? Ok. Well with you at your daddy's she can get fixed if she wants to." "What if she doesnt want to get fixed." This from the older boy. "Well then young man, you will have to help your sister as she grows up to remember the good things about her mom." "Aint nothing good." The door bell rang and Marrissa/Dawn yelled" come on in". George never expected to see what he was seeing. The kids were sitting next to their mother, with her arms around them, the very picture of domesticity. "Ok Dawn, Im here. whats this about?" " I told ya, Im done here George. I cant do it. I need ya to take the kids and raise them right. I dont know if I can make it clean or not, but they dont need to be in the middle of it. I dont want no money, I can try to work, just take em and go now, please." The reality was that Dawn was beginning to fight her for control and Marrissa didnt know how long she could keep this up. "Kids get your shit out of this house and make your mom proud, do it now!" The kids jumped up,as George started to come toward Dawn. She jumped back hands in front of her, "George, I know you know what coming down for me is like. dont, just take the kids and go." "You didnt have to do it this way Dawn..." The kids came came stumbling down the stairs carrying everything they could and dragging bags after them. The little girl stood in front of her mommy " mommy I love you, get better" The oldest just scowled. "Go on get outta here now!!" Dawn/Marrissa yelled. George took most of the baggage and the three of them left, just as Marrissa was losingher hold on Dawn. Running after the car Dawn started yelling, " George I dont know what you think your doing, but your gonna hang for this........" and was yanked by the body back into the house. Marrissa had the eyeliner pencil ready. she began by writing on the walls. "Dawn you are being haunted, you are a bad bad mommy, you asked George to come and get your kids because you cant watch them, understand!!!!! If you try anything to get those children back, you will burn in hell fire for eternity." Dawn clearly high and confused, began to wail," oh my poor soul, what do I do now, where am I gonna get money....... Marrissa didnt stick around to listen to any more of that shit. But she would if she could visit once in awhile to make sure those kids werent there. Now what to do?

Marrissa's soul may have been shriveling, but her strength and talent had grown. she had learned to lift things, toss them bout, make them disappear. she could temporarily inhabit a body, making it do all manner of things, while the owner of that body was aware of it and could do nothing. Her favorite thing to do was to inhabit an old friend or teacher at an important function and in the middle of a conversation say or do something totally outragious through the body. Farting out loud, belching, or just in general being a pest. Marrissa had also learned to go anywhere she wanted to in seconds. She enjoyed giving money to the poor, taking it from the rich, you know, kind of like a 21st century Robinhood ghost. While she did a lot of good things, like preventing robberiers of stores, purse snatching, or beating of innocent children and other victims, what she did was bad things to them, really horrible. Of course the horrible things she did, were mostly to people who deserved it,and she knew that Himself and Herself would not appreciate inervention, but she did it anyway figuring she was going to hell first anyway and she could atone for her sins there. If Death ever caught up with her. In the meantime she didnt care what she did as long as it was fun, or helped someone. even her good deeds had to have some aspect of "daring" in them. It had been almost two years since her death. she knew that because she read the papers every day. It seemed to her that it had only been a short time ago when she had watched them load her body and take it to the morgue. She had hung around the hospital for a long time, watching souls hover around not knowing where to go or what to do. She had met Satan again, that very handsome angel, but he had been busy searching for Death. Some of the souls she met just floated around grumbling, wanting to go on with it. She had tried to explain that Death was busy and they could hang with her, but no one ever took up her offer. they were all afraid to spend an extra century in purgatory, she guessed. So she had gone off on her own and learned some things, and was having a grand time. Today her "agenda" was to help a man get his children back from an underserving wife, or ex-wife. He loved his children very much and they him but she waned them because of the check she could draw from the system, and that money provided her with booze and drugs. The man was a hard working guy with plenty of assests as far as she was concerned, but the wife had told the court of abuse and beatings. Most of the time courts believed the woman. and this case was no different. Except Marrissa had seen the woman hit herself in the face, and purposely rip her clothes. Then she had called the police and reported that he had broke in and did this toher. they had arrested him and after jail and court, was paying the price of the "label" wife beater. Poor woman had the community practically giving her anything she wanted. well Marrissa was about to set things right. Waiting had been no problem for her, she kept busy helping people who needed it,or pulling pranks to pass the time. One day as evenings dark curtain began to fall, she thought herself to the womans house. It was time. As she had known it would be, the children were fixing their own supper, and the woman was getting ready for her night out. That woman had no clue what was going to happen very very soon. As the woman began applying her makeup, Marrissa took over, taking the eye liner right out her hand. It hovered in the air as the astonsihed woman watched it come closer and closer to her face. Marrissa beganmarking the eyeliner over her lips, drawing a mustashe on her upper lip. the woman grabbed at the pencil, but found she could not hold onto it. "What the hell!!" she screamed, as her perfume bottle began to spray, atomizing the air aournd her, choking her with the fumes. She ran out of the bathroom, finding her "hair" following her, hitting her on the but as fast as she was able to run. " Oh god,kids,help me, someone is afterme, call a priest,call the pastor,someone." The children all stopped in mid bite, spoons in fron of them, dripping milk and creal on the table in front of them. they watched as she flew through the kitchen, into the living room, each gave the other that knowing look, the one that said, " shes drunk again already." They decided the best thing to do was to finish supper, and ignore the wild voices coming from the back yard.