Saint Elaine: or, there is something your parents didn't warn you about.

 

“Both read the Bible day and night, But thou read'st black where I read white.” ― William Blake

Down in the cellar, the little girl Elaine played. Her mother had left her there for most of the day. When she heard from the furnace voice that shook the steel she pursued it with bravery reserved generally for military service.

   "who is there?..." she whispered taking a breath before repeating herself louder. When there was no response, she climbed the stairs to knock on the door. But remembering the beating, she got last time she thought it better that there was a locked door between her and her parents.

    A tentacle wrapped around her ankle and dragging her screaming beneath the stairs. With several fingernails tearing loose from the eight-year-olds hand as she desperately grabbed for something to hold.

    She was found by the police preaching the word of god in the park. When she was asked about her missing fingernails. she smiled and started to rip one off as a gift saying "I have no need for this flesh."

     Elaine was sent to an asylum when it was found that her parents had been murdered and partially cannibalized. She grew up but became catatonic. As a young woman, she was regularly molested by a male guard. Who ceased this behavior when his the fingernails fell off, and later his teeth and hair came loose also.

   As an old woman, she would talk to herself of the salvation of scripture. Often quoting the old testament so she would never stop winning arguments with herself.

   When she gave up the ghost at eighty-seven years old. The power went out from a lightning storm. With a flash, some say a titan stood over the building a foot on either side of the fence. With androgynes' legs and no distinguishing characteristic between them. But above the waist were starfish-like limbs spinning like a carousel with tentacle dragging on the earth.

   For the next three days, the ghost of Edward Gorey was seen in the asylum saying only "life is a parody but of what? I know not what."