Welcome Back.
	Lily & Josie Reunited.
	Josie in the Darkness.
	In the Park Again.
	End of Part Two.

Welcome Back.

The story so far sets a scene far below par
for the Earth is endangered by a force far stranger
than terrorist planes or comets that came
from out of deep space to put us in our place.
Two young ladies, one pregnant, one crazy,
opened a portal into realms immortal
out of which flood creatures baying for blood.

The first young filly, a lass named Lily
has gotten her sights set on raising her mite
whilst the mad one Josie, is all pocketfullofposey
in a hospital bed for making her own kid dead.
Under unusual stresses they are making guesses
that encounters hairy have been with a fairy,
but they have both been dopes with their wishes & their hopes.

Singing the best bits of every rock song you ever heard The Skriker granted Lily's wish & Josie was discharged from the hospital as fast as it took for the doctors to sign the forms (which were eerily easy to locate & cross-reference). She left the hospital to find Lily in order to see if her friend would let her co-habit.

The Skriker, obviously still stung by their previous disagreement, couldn't resist subjecting Josie to the same test it had run past Lily only a short time earlier.

The derelict smelt,
Wanted to be held.
Oh, often she swore.
Her son lost in war.
Josie's face flash'd red,
"Oh, piss off!" she said.
The Skriker did seethe,
& a living toad forced it's way past Josie's mad teeth.

Coughing up toads is entirely less pleasant than pound coins &, unless the subject of the curse is very resourceful, not profitable at all. Josie was very upset but was most of all angry. She knew instantly that The Skriker was responsable & silently vowed revenge (lucky for her, as a spoken vow would have caused another toad to climb up her gullet & besides I've already prevaricated on how vows, wishes & curses empower The Skriker).

Lily & Josie Reunited.

Well, Lily was very pleased to see Josie & agreed to let her friend stay. Now some might have questioned the logic of a pregnant girl letting a child murderer stay with her but maybe Lily could tell, in some subconscious fashion, that Josie was hardened & wise to the machinations of The Skriker & would therefore be a useful ally in times to come. Lily didn't have much of a place but room was found for her damaged chum & they settled down to life together. It wasn't long before The Skriker decided to interfere once again.

She jumpt out of the sofa dressed like an Xmas fairy,
clearing taking the piss with it's shapeshifting antics.
Now Lily gets scared but Josie gets Lairy,
cause of the curse with the toads & other nasty tricks.
The Skriker claims again to be there for Lily's grace
but Josie says she is shadey
& come to steal the baby,
hide it in the underworld & stick a changeling in it's place.
Well The Skriker said "no"
& no guilt did she show.
Lily chose not to listen to her friend
& wished for flowers instead
& although it had lied
(yes, lies it had cried
in it's mouth the truth died)
The Skriker complied.

The granted wish made it grow even stronger.
Josie was nettled,
sitting on the sofa as all the petals settled,
said to Lily: "You've made this thing carry on for longer."

Having got what she came for The Skriker vanished. Lily felt confused, her time with The Skriker had been bewildering but had generally worked out to her benefit. Still she didn't fully ignore the sage words of her friend Josie, for they rang true despite evidence to the contrary.

At this point in the story you should pause with relief with our mishappy heroines for The Skriker did pause in it's pursuit & turned it's attentions to matters unknown. Josie & Lily cemented their friendship as Lily's gut swelled with new baby belle. It soon felt as if strange times were behind them. It seemed, to Lily at least, that the dust of The Skriker's passing was settled & done.

Off of her guard, Lily decided, on one of those days when the sky is pure cobalt, that it would be nice to visit the local park. Gentle exercise, such as taking a walk, was all she could comfortably take (so near was the birth of her child) & was therefore important to Lily. An orphan child played alone in the park & began to converse with Lily. Feeling maternal (some might say broody) Lily was happy to talk with the child & offer it her support. This was a grave mistake for the child was none other than the ancient and malevolent being known as The Skriker.

The child's demands became more plaintive and Lily found it harder & harder to extricate herself from the orphan's clingy clutches without hurting the child's feelings. This came to a head when the child actually struck Lily's belly in a fit of jealous rage directed at her unborn.

Luckily it was at this point that Josie turned up. She saw through The Skriker's disguise & told the fairy to begone. Lily, still bewitched, raised her voice in protest but Josie ignored her and struck The Skriker in it's fake face. Lily was outraged at the violence her friend had meeted out to a young girl but at this point The Skriker dropped it's charade.

"You're stupid aren't you Lily?" The Skriker said, "Josie knows..."

Lily was taken aback by this change in circumstance but Josie was ready for The Skriker & began to accuse it of all sorts of mischief. Josie was coming to the conclusion that the only way to liberate her friend was to sacrafice herself to the whim of The Skriker. Hence, during the arguement Josie offered herself to The Skriker in return for the fairy's agreement not to bother Lily anymore.

The delighted Skriker agreed at once & whipped Josie down into the underworld from which it had originally sprung.

Return to Top.

Josie in the Darkness (more poetry I'm afraid).

O! Noble yet foolish gesture
just look where it gets yer:
In a deep hole in the ground
with a hoarde of nasties around.
A dead girl's spirit told Josie:
"Don't eat the food that they offer,
it's a body stole from it's coffer."
But the food seemed all rosey
so Josie all consumed
& the dead girl resumed:
"Don't drink the blood from their cup
it's a mix of pond water & blood."
But Josie had a thirst,
made her predicament worse.

It's nothing secret that it is a trap
to eat and drink the fairie's magical crap
puts you under their obligation.
It doesn't help in the least
to eat at their feasts
in fact you'll find that it lowers your station.

O! Josie ate until she was one full-up fool
down in the dark next to a poisonous pool.

Next came the fast as years & years passed.
Josie was stuck in the gloom for many a moon.
Mothered a brood, grandmothered her brood's broods.
& where was The Skriker throughout all of this?
Lapping the blood from a wound in Josie's wrist;
devouring every dream Josie saw in the night;
or a morsel of her memory would do for a bite.
Til Josie was without thought, dream or blood.
All used up.

& so The Skriker threatened Josie with the end of her days
unless the old woman could come up with other ways
to drip drops or nightmare
or recall distant care.
So Josie sat by the pool she had feared for most of her life
for they had lied to her about it just to add to her strife
"To touch that poison is to die!" Josie had been told
& now she slipped into the water dark & cold.

Lie upon lie had been told about the pool
Josie slid into the water cool.
As Josie swam through the water fresh
the marks of age left her flesh.
Josie swam on throught the water dark
& found herself stood next to Lily in the recreation park.

In the Park Again.

To Lily's eyes nothing had changed. She called after The Skriker, still in the form of an orphan child, & told it that they were not afraid. Josie was in shock. Only an instant ago she had been a venerable old lady in the underworld of the fairies. Now she was a teenage girl again, transported back to the moment she had left. She tried to explain what had happened to Lily but her friend just laughed & hugged her, for Lily assumed that Josie's tale was nothing more than a delusion.

Another period of relative quiet ensued. Perhaps Josie's escape from the underworld bought the girls some time, or maybe The Skriker did not want to interfere with the birth of Lily's baby girl. Lily, Josie & the baby lived together in peace for a while until Josie began to exhibit worrying signs, calling the baby a changeling & suggesting that Lily place it in an open fire in order to force it to reveal it's true nature. In fear & ignorance Lily found herself calling upon The Skriker.

"I wish Josie wasn't mad," Lily said.

But the sight of her friend sane was too much for Lily to bear. Poor Josie had been relying on a strength that madness had lent her to protect herself from the horror of her past actions. Newly sane Josie broke down immediately, crying for her lost child in a display of self-pity & self-loathing. It would seem that sane Josie was far less equipped for life than mad Josie was. In desperation Lily wished again.

"I wish Josie was back to what she was before," Lily said.

"If you keep wishing she will win," stated Josie.

Return to Top.

To continue click on The Story below...