Chapter 48


    And behold, it stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea:


    She wore an all blue one-piece bathing suit as she treaded in the three foot high, crystal blue ocean


    water. Lyte''s hair was wrapped in a halo of lilies, and the tranquil smile that she wore upon her face


    was reminiscent of that to someone who had just happened across the threshold of life and eternity


    above the clouds. She allowed her hands to skim across the soft, warm water as she carried on


    deeper.


    For as far as her eyes would allow all she could see before her was wide, open and blue water. There


    were no clouds to speak of in the sky, nor was there a boat or person anywhere to be found. She was


    absolutely alone in the expanse; even her breath felt effervescent, like she had just tasted the greatest


    sip of refreshing water that lingered inside her mouth unceasingly.


    There were the events of the past weeks and days that somehow, someway were nowhere present


    inside her being. The woman was a picture of istion and rest. Even when her smile vanished there


    was still a rxed warmness melting inside her belly that caused it to tickle with every movement. She


    looked down at the shimmering water to see goldfish swimming back and forth around her feet and


    ankles.


    The further out she ventured that was all the more clearer the air became. She breathed it all inside her


    lungs until she couldn''t inhale any more. Behind her was a sound. She could feel the waves nudge her


    bottom half forward. She turned only her head around to see none other than a naked Arthur Bushard


    coming towards her with a gentile grin gracing his handsome face.


    Lyte didn''t cringe or even budge for that matter, she just turned her head back aroundwhile the


    man came up behind her and fondled her chest and neck with his soft, strong hands.


    The youngdy closed her eyes and allowed the man''s actions to carry her further away into the


    blissful abyss. Soon enough, his lips met with her neck. She moaned in ecstasy as Arthur''s luscious


    mouth kissed all over her warm, goose-pimpled skin.


    Lyte took Arthur''s hands off of her before turning around and sping his face. Her eyes were still


    shut as she pressed her lips against his in one passionate, tongue-induced kiss while the burning sun''s


    rays caressed their beautiful, ck bodies.


    Lyte''s eyes then opened. Lying beside her was Isaiah. She gawked all around to find herself lying


    in her own bed inside her room. The woman, somewhat confused, continued to scan around before


    catching her mother sitting in her rocking chair against the wall.


    Her mother was wearing the most idyllic look on her face as she sat in her bathrobe staring at her. It


    unsettled Lyte more than she already was.


    "I haven''t watched you sleep since you were a little girl." Her mother quietly stated.


    Lyte ignored thement before listening to water outside the window tap in a chorus. "Is it still


    raining?" Lyte rubbed her aching forehead.


    "A little bit." Her mother sat up. "I think the sh flood warnings are all over with. I got tired of all those


    beeping rms on the TV, so I ended up turning the darn thing off after a while."


    Lyte managed to catch a glimpse of her blue pajamas that she was wearing underneath the


    covers. She then nced back over at the baby who was steadily snoring right beside her.


    "I don''t even remember getting cleaned upst night." Lyte attempted to sit up on the bed, only to


    realize that her entire body was nearly immobilized from head to toe.


    "I found you outsidest night on the frontwn." Her mother began rocking back and forth. "You were


    just kneeling there. I don''t think you were even hardly awake when I brought you inside. And, child,


    your breath sure was stinking, too." She giggled.


    Lyte cracked a grin while still struggling to get up. But when she came to the realization that her


    body just wasn''t in any condition to act, she instead resigned to her fate and lied back down on the bed


    underneath the old nket that her grandmother made for her when she was still a little girl.


    She was sore to the very bone. Both her and her mother stared at one another for endless minutes. For


    Lyte, just being inside the same room with her mom seemed normal for the first time in years, and


    that thought alone caused her heart to race with anticipation as to what could have been around the


    corner next.


    "I never realized how restless of a sleeper you are." Her mother said. "At first I thought you were going


    to hurt Isaiah with all your tossing and turning."


    "I think I was dreaming of Jaws." Lyte feebly quipped.


    Lyte''s mother only grinned before saying, "That eclipse yesterday was something to see; if you


    could see, that is. We all thought the world was about to end."


    Lyte rested upon her ufortable pillow while wondering in her head why she didn''t happen


    upon any harsh nightmares.


    "God is funny." Her mother suddenly remarked.


    Lyte lifted her weary head and looked dead at her mom in the most curious fashion. "What?" She


    frowned.


    "It''s funny how he seems to bring things back around full circle. I can''t remember a single thing that''s


    been going on these past few days, and yet, here you and I are, right where we started back in


    February when you came home from the hospital."


    Lyte recalled the event with perfect rity, except rather than sitting in the chair, her mother was


    seated at the foot of her bed. But she got the woman''s message all the same.


    "Mama, why didn''t we go to church growing up?"


    Her mother only turned her eyes away for a moment and kept them locked on the closet door to her


    right.


    "Your father and I got married, had you and your sisters, and then we both gotcent in our lives


    to where going to church was such a burden. It didn''t mean that we didn''t believe in or love God, we


    just felt that we worked so hard that we deserved at least one day to ourselves. But I look back now


    and realize that...it may have hurt our girls."


    Wanting to cry, Lyte said, "I saw...I saw such an evil, mama. It''s not that I never wanted to talk to


    you about it, it''s just that...I didn''t know how to." Her voice cracked. "I didn''t know how and where to


    begin. It all started with Isaac, and then...then it just went downhill from there. I still think that I''m


    dreaming even now. Am I even alive?"


    Wilma sat and looked so fondly at her child as though it were the very first time she had done so.


    "I know that I haven''t been easy to live with these past few months. I know that I''ve caused so much


    damage, but you and daddy have to understand that...I just don''t know where to begin with it all."


    Wilma continued to look on at Lyte before asking, "Why did you stop writing your poetry?"


    Lyte mmed her head back down onto her pillow and sighed, "Mama, I don''t have the will to do


    that anymore."


    "But I remember you told me years ago that writing poetry gave you the opportunity to express yourself


    in ways that you couldn''t say out loud. I never once said that you had to tell me every minor detail in


    your life, but I never wanted to be cut out of itpletely either."


    Lyte looked back at her mother with a baffled grimace, as to say her words had cut deep inside.


    "I know that what you went through with Isaac was terrible, but, child, you''ve been through something


    recently, too. I can see it not only in your body, but also in your soul. I have a feeling that what you went


    through back in February, andst night for that matter, shook you so hard that words just can''t express


    it all."


    "The funny thing is, it''s not even about Isaac anymore." Lyte sniffed. "This whole matter goes so far


    beyond that man. When I say evil, I don''t just mean something bad, this was something from hell. It got


    Isaac, and it almost got me and Isaiah. Something came into this world...and it just won''t leave."


    "Then sometimes, little girl, it''s up to us to make it leave." Her mother said in a stern, yetposed


    manner.


    Right then and there Lyte''s vision mysteriously began to blink in and out. At first she thought she


    was going blind, but once her sight remained intact she realized that it wasn''t a physical happening, but


    rather spiritual.


    "You''re not like your sisters." Her mother stated. "There''s a motivation about you that they don''t have.


    And that same motivation is what has caused you to survive all this time. God is with you, and he''ll


    continue to be with you."


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    Lyte lifted her body up from off the bed before sitting on the edge. Her mother''s words didn''t have


    to sink inside, they hit with such ferocity and suddenness that thinking about it was only a waste of


    time. The little girl got it.


    "Where''s daddy at?" She muttered.


    Exhaling, her mother replied, "He''s in the room. I guess something happened to him, too. He doesn''t


    want to talk about it."


    Lyte, daring to exert her already damaged body any further, got up from off the bed and went for


    the door with her mother right behind her.


    "You should''ve heard the babyst night; he was singing ''Jesus loves me'' in his sleep." Wilma


    mentioned before shutting the door behind her.


    Lyte limped down the hallway, just two doors down before she came to her parents'' room. The


    door was wide open. She looked inside to see her father lying down in the bed, rolled over onto his side


    to where she could only see his back.


    She couldn''t tell if he was awake or not, all she knew was that both he and her mother were not the


    same people she once knew all her life. The man lying on the bed was just an unfamiliar husk of a


    human being.


    "He''s been like that ever since I came around yesterday." Wilma mentioned. "I don''t know what went on


    here...but I am so damn d it''s over." She started to whimper. "So, so d."


    Lyte just stood at the doorway and stared on at her long-suffering father while listening to her


    mother behind her speak so delicately.


    All the words, sights and thoughts were entirely too much to handle and grasp all at once. Lyte


    simply shut herself down like a machine right then.


    "I...I have to leave for a while." Lyte whispered.


    A minute and a half passed by before her mother patted her back and said, "Then you do whatever you


    have to do. And don''te back until it''s done. Live to fight another day."


    Lyte listened as her mother walked down the stairs. She stood and watched her father with


    mournful eyes for a bit more before turning and heading back to her own room. The instant she


    reached her room door she leaned up against it and listened as the tapping rain spat upon the old


    house.


    Every muscle and fiber in her body wanted to open the door, but she relented as hard as she could


    while moving her hands against the wood.


    "Goodbye, little baby boy." She whispered so softly at the door.


    Pulling away from the door Lyte went inside the adjacent bathroom and shut the door right behind


    her.


    There was such a grim quiet inside the room that Lyte figured at first that her hearing was fading


    away. She stood before the medicine cab mirror without looking at her own reflection. She then


    pulled up the bottom half of her pajama shirt and examined thecerations that covered her stomach.


    From her stomach she made her way down to her legs and feet that were marked up with bruises and


    cuts. The youngdy was a picture perfect coge of misery. Even her hands had scorch marks from


    where she handled the piece of fire that she tossed at the siblings. But beyond all of the physical


    mise, there was Arthur who remained with her for endless hourster.


    She could still feel his hands attempt to undo her pants. The aroma of the man''s breath was such a


    striking stench that Lyte could smell nothing else besides it. Just knowing that he ate people


    caused her to gulp down a huge glob of saliva.


    Both of the creatures had their ws all over her at one point or another. Two things that should have


    been relegated to ate night matinee were at one time right in front of her face. Just the very thought


    of such an urrence hit Lyte with such a blunt force that the woman had to brace herself from


    shaking all over again.


    She was sick and tired of shaking. Fed up with running, and downright frustrated with being afraid. At


    last, Lyte lifted her head and stared straight at herself in the mirror for at least ten whole seconds


    before opening the medicine cab door and taking out her father''s shaving de.


    With the sharp utensil in her right hand the youngdy blindly glossed over its shine from one tip to the


    other before cing it against her left wrist. The will to have the de break skin was there, but her


    strength was nowhere to be found. It''s not as if it took a mountain of muscle to open herself up, rather,


    her own right hand just couldn''t seem to perform the action of pressing it against her pulsating vein


    hard enough.Soon, she found that both her right hand and the razor de were shivering.


    Lyte kept on pressing it against her flesh, but rather than a gory split, she instead got only a trickle


    that shocked her so much that she dropped the de to the floor before stumbling backwards and


    sitting down on top of the toilet seat.


    There Lyte was, ogling at her slightly bleeding left wrist that required only a small Band-Aid to


    conceal.


    All around her was the ever so unnatural sound of silence. Earlier, she wondered to herself just why the


    nightmares hadn''t begun yet; she wished to God she had never asked the question to begin with.


    "Please...wake up." She murmured. "Just wake up already, bitch."