She woke in a cold sweat to the sound of Nathan weeping and immediately lit a cigarette.

Even though she recognized the dream spelled impending trouble, she was so self-absorbed she didn't care.

 The petite young mother lay in bed, smoking, staring at the cracks running across the ceiling, thinking about how there was no joy in her life, or in her daily routine.

 In a deeply sullen mood, still mourning her dead father, she longingly pictured his wolf like eyes, a combination of vivid blue, flecked with the tiniest bits of gray.

She blew smoke out in a slow succession of three perfectly rounded smoke rings. Oh pa...

Time dragged on like a long death vigil, with no escape from the maddening noise of the coal rolling down the mountain, or the child's endless whine.

She felt brittle and prone to be broken, rather than bent by life’s many trials and tribulations.

Four-year-old Nathan's incessant bawling was making her skin crawl.

She loathed dealing with children.

The truth was she found children to be a huge intrusive annoyance.

The strain, the resentment and even hatred she felt toward her children was beginning to boil, over making her feel trapped and helpless, causing her to chain smoke one cigarette after the other.

She was tired of the sorrow; tired of the gross sense of horrendous hopelessness and feeling that nothing could change.

She was dazed and exhausted and had neither the patience, nor the temperance to deal with the situation at hand.

Before the day ended, she would be totally consumed by something she did not understand, nor could she control.

His endless crying had finally worn her patience to the breaking point. Katrina dragged herself out of bed to go check on the children.

A prickly tingle of awareness ran across the back of her neck.

She clenched the doorknob so tightly her knuckles turned red.

She had to get out of the house, out of the marriage. She had to escape; while she still could.

She opened her door and walked the three feet to their room.

She stood in the doorway of their dingy bedroom and rested her head against the rotting wooden doorframe.

The room smelled awful, a putrid blend of sour sweat and urine.

 Nausea rose, tightening her throat. She studied them intently with a burning cigarette embedded between her lips.

"Don't yew be no dumb dang cry baby!" she said walking toward them, releasing the toxic fumes from her lungs into the air.

She glared at little cross-eyed Nathan who began to cough and gag.

"I'm gonna spank ya if'n ya don't quit yer cryin!"

"He's sa-ick mommy," Hannah Malinda whispered in defense of her youngest brother.

"I ain’t a'talkin ta yew Hanner Malinder. Don't yew pester me."

Katrina touched Nathan's ashen forehead, he was intensely hot and dry and cried out as if in pain.

She touched the other two, they were hot as well.

"I ain’t likin dis vay much." she said.

She hated sickness and sick children even more.

 She walked over to the side table where she had several rags in a bowl of tepid water in a tin basin.

She reached in one at a time, got a rag, wrung it out and laid it on the children's foreheads.

With her heart burning with impatience she walked the creaking floor smoking and cursing, wondering what to do.

Their ill health added a dangerous dimension to her plight.

 After awhile, she stopped in the doorway and folded her arms tightly across her chest.

She sucked hard on her cigarette, studying the children as she contemplated her formidable situation.

There was an edge to her silence, a hint of menace in her eyes.

 The children watched while she lightly tapped her head against the frame. Hannah Malinda’s breath caught in her throat.

Her clouded eyes sprung open wide with alarm as the light rhythmic noise of her head knocking grew louder and more urgent.

Five-year-old Levi looked at his big sister and whispered, "W-what's wrong wif mommy?"

She looked down at her baby brother Nathan.

He had snuggled up under her arm with his eyes closed tight and his bony fists bundled together at his chest trembling.

She frowned at Levi and shook her head woefully, "I dunno, Levi."

"Is yew s skeered?" he asked, and then waited anxiously for her answer.

Hannah Malinda looked at her mother with dismay, fearful of her headaches and her inexplicable bouts of temper.

Her eyes instantly filled with tears, and her breath caught in her throat as she struggled to maintain composure for her younger sibling's sake.

Then she nodded her head briskly, "Ya-es. I am skeered."

"Me tew." he said, scooting closer to Nathan.

Katrina felt an excruciating, piercing sharp pain over her left eye, and then heard an odd noise, like the roar of rushing waters, lash through her head taking her by surprise.

 Her lips and her shoulders began to tremble and shake.

Her cigarette sprung from her mouth and dropped to the dirty linoleum floor.

She grimaced and cried out in anguish while her head shattered as though it was made of fine fragile glass.

Nathan quit crying and whipped his head up to look.

The heinous, painful sensation rapidly dispersed, sending out hundreds of hungry, electrified tentacles all over her scalp.

 Her vision clouded with a blinding white light.

 Her heart fluttered madly as she clasped both hands to her head, wrenching handfuls of black hair with her nicotine stained fingers.

The children held their breath as they watched her frightening display.

She broke out into a sweat and staggered backwards out of their view, heaping a string of obscenities on her torrential torment.

Katrina burst out of the front door, gagging and dry heaving, brought to her knees in the mud, in her night gown, bent in half by the unbearable pain.

Her sudden retreat sent chills up Hannah Malinda's spine.

She drew her knees close together under her yellow cotton nightgown and waited tensely in the heavy silence for something else to happen.

Outside the mutts began to whine and sniff at the air, and run in nervous circles, keeping a safe distance from their master.

 Katrina held her head and began rocking back and forth mewling.

 The persistent pain refused to yield.

 She was breathless, her hair was wild and her eyes were glassy, "Help me Lawrd! Help me!"

As if in answer to her prayer, her headache vanished as suddenly as it had materialized.

Inside, Hannah Malinda, who now had the highest fever of them all, began to sniffle softly as hot tears spilled down her feverish cheeks.

Nathan resumed his wailing, this time weaker, but more desperate sounding.

She whispered to Nathan, "Shhh, stop cryin Nat, mommy has one of her bad headaches."

Levi watched attentively in silence, his huge black pupils filled with fear.

"Shhh." She rubbed his sweaty head and tried to calm him down.

"Stop! Stop it!" They suddenly heard her yell from the hallway, and then she reappeared at the bedroom door.

"Gawdang it! Stop dat cryin!" She hit the wall in frustration, causing pain to shoot through her arm.

"Hush all dat fussin now!" Nathan quieted, but continued whimpering.

Katrina, like most other mountain folk, spoke with a rigid fixed chin and half-closed mouth.

Due to their rigid chins, many of their words are broken into two syllables.

Because of the habit of thrusting the chin forward, sounds are often dragged out.

She slipped a cigarette between her cracked lips and lit it, then inhaled the welcome smoke deeply into her scorched lungs.

She stood there silent and smoking as her secretive stare traveled slowly from Hannah Malinda to the boys, and back to Hannah Malinda once again.

 She thought of going to get their gee-ma, Gladys, to make take them home with her.

Then she remembered that she wasn’t home.

She was down in the holler at her sister Eileen's house, helping to deliver Kay Lansing’s fifth baby.

So Katrina decided that a combination of prayer and the laying on of hands were all they really needed.

She crushed her cigarette out on the doorframe, laid the butt on the side table, and turned to the children.

A prickle of warning ran across the back of Hannah Malinda’s spine.

"Do all yew young’uns have faith in da Lawrd Jesus Christ ta heal ya?" she asked the children.

They all nodded their heads.

"Good, now Hanner Malinder, yew be a’holdin both yer brothers hands now, ya hea?"

They held hands and looked at her with heavy lidded, blood shot eyes.

"Now close yer all’s eyes. I aim ta help ya."

Katrina leaned in close and put one hand on each boy's forehead, and then than began to pray for them in earnest.

"Dear Lawrd Jesus, healer o da sick, dis is me, Katriner; I turn ta ya in dis hea time o illness. I place des hea sick young’uns under yer care, an humbly ask dat ya restore em ta health once agin. Ease my worries, an my sorrow's wit yer warm an gentle luv."

She opened her eyes and peeked at them, their eyes were still closed. She smiled. She felt superior, special, intoxicated with her own self and thoroughly expected a healing.

"Thank ya fer da healin pow’r." she said clasping her hands together in front of her. She opened her eyes and looked at the children.

"An by his stripes...you’uns are healed!" she declared triumphantly.

Fear slammed through Hannah Malinda’s heart. Her face grew pale, she felt weak and faint.

She broke out into a cold clammy sweat; she had a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.

Her weakened stomach churned and terror washed over her as she looked at her mother's face grievously.

Without warning, she arched her back, her mouth opened wide, and she began vomiting profusely.

The vomit was foul smelling, greenish and slimy, and emitted with such force it was cast several feet from her landing near her mother's bare feet.

Katrina's mouth dropped open with chafed surprise and a red-hot wave of hatred and loathing washed over her.

She clenched her hands so tight together her nails drew blood. "How dare yew?"

She perceived this to be an obvious, blatant act of disrespect, intentionally directed toward her.

She was at once reduced to a state of insulted sulking agitation.

She quickly lit another cigarette and took several deep rapid drags, as Nathan began to dry heave.

"Ya'll jus don't have 'nough faith!" she said, smoke coming out of her mouth with each word, "Dat's yer problem! Ya has ta have faith!"

She blew an angry stream of smoke at the floor, "Yer bein so dang selfish Hanner Malinder!"

Hannah Malinda gagged and coughed, and started to cry. When she did, both of the boys began to cry as well.

Katrina was overwhelmed; the chorus of howling children threw her thinking into total disarray.

She threw back her head and let out an all too familiar terrifying growl that echoed off the four stark walls of the bedroom.

"Nemmine den! All's-ya-had-ta-do-was-believe!" she screamed, chopping one hand into the open palm of the other.

"Yew-gotta-believe-ya-will-be-healed, fer-ya-ta-be-healed, Gawdang!"

She planted her fists on her narrow hips, "Ya'll best jus be a thinkin 'bout yer faith. Dat's what ya best be doin!"

She stomped out of the house, sweat trickling down the back of her neck, to escape her appalling world inside.

Outside, two of the dogs ran up to Katrina, she kicked one and it yelped and ran back to join the other dogs who wisely viewed her from a safe distance.

The weather was calm and tranquil with the kind of languishing stillness that foretold of a coming storm.

 She smoked three cigarettes before finally forcing herself to go back inside the house.

The children heard her angry footsteps as she came stomping toward their room.

When Hannah Malinda saw her approaching the bed, she draped a protective arm across the front of her little brothers and started screaming incoherently.

Her eyes were wild and her lips had taken on a purplish hue.

The boys crowded close together beneath the shelter of their big sister’s arm.

Katrina smirked, thinking Hannah Malinda was just being pigheaded. Her own hostility and fury agitated her into action.

"Gawdangit! Shut up gal! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

She slapped the little girl hard across the face repeatedly, while she thrashed and shrieked hysterically.

Both boys simultaneously scooted away from their sister with wide frightened eyes.

"Shut up stoo-pid! Just shut up!" she screamed.

But the young girl continued to flay and yelp feverishly while Kat shoved her down, pining her to the bed by her tiny shoulders, trying to force her to lie still.

After a long struggle, she quit fighting and fell back on the bed limp, never to speak again.

Katrina tried to get her attention, shaking her by her shoulders and calling out her name.

Her eyes were open, but she did not respond. Katrina released her and stared closely at her face noticing curiously that her pupils were almost as big as her blue eyes.

 The boys huddled together, clinging desperately to one another and mewled like newborn kittens.

The room grew cold.

Katrina heard a voice call out her name. The hair on her arms and the back of her neck stood straight up .

She turned to see if it was her husband Vardy. Instead, she saw a dark black cloud beginning to materialize in the corner of the room, and she felt the night monster's terrible presence.

Her world seemed subtly altered, uncanny, portentous and sinister.

Then the multitude of voices began, setting in motion her inability to differentiate between logical and illogical thoughts.

She had been conscious of the sinister inner voices all of her life; voices that tempted her to do unmentionable things, and aroused the most shameful thoughts within her.

Some whispered, some shouted, conversing with one another, saying disparaging things about her.

 She started to feel as if she were being pushed and pulled simultaneously by resistless forces.

She had the odd, creepy feeling as if all of her skin on her arms, her shoulders, her chest and her legs were lifting off.

She slapped her hands over her ears and began chanting, "No, no, no."

She knew if she did not make them stop, she would go insane. But the voices were unappeasable.

Not long after that, her brain began to slip sideways.

When it had finished, her mind seemed to haven fallen apart.

She was unhinged and in a total state of delusion. Something in her innermost psyche was driving her actions now.

Before long she would be totally consumed by something she did not understand, nor could she control.

Her perception was so distorted; when she looked at her boys she was certain she saw the devil himself within their eyes.

She closed her eyes to block the sinful vision out, but the knowledge picked and scratched at her brain like a battalion of evil spiders.

She peeked at them through her fingers and watched as their heads and faces warped into an elongated shape right before her eyes.

She put her fists to her eyes and rubbed them briskly, unable to believe what she was actually seeing.

She took a deep breath and braced herself, then opened her eyes again, ready to face the awful truth.

Levi and Nathan faces were now fearfully swollen, unnaturally lengthened and scarlet red.

Their eyes protruded horribly and then sunk deeply into their skulls. Their features had begun to assume a pronounced satanic cast.

Then right before her eyes it happened, their mouths widened and they began frothing at the mouth.

This was an obvious manifestation of the truth, the final, irrefutable, incontestable sign. The multitudes of relentless bestial voices no longer whispered, and were now talking recklessly over one another.

"Love not the unclean spirits," one voice said, followed by many others.

"Suffer the little children to come unto me."

"Listen."

"Do not be afraid."

"Confess."

"Forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of God."

"Listen."

"Be faithful, even to the point of death."

"Who will go for us?"

"I will give you the crown of life."

"Do not be afraid."

"And these signs shall follow them that believe."

"Confess."

"Look to me."

"Many are called, but few are chosen."

"He alone shall ye serve."

"Do not be afraid."

"Listen."

"He that hath ears to hear let him hear."

"Do not be afraid."

"Love not the unclean spirits."

"Suffer the little children to come unto me."

It was sudden and dramatic, crystal-clear and easy to understand. She was receiving a call from God. The churning voices were Christ's angels telling her that the children were indeed possessed by Satan. Now it was up to her to turn them from the darkness to the light and from the power of Satan and give them up to God. She had been chosen.

"Listen."

"It is time."

"Forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of God."

"You have been chosen."

"Great is our hope in thee."

"It is time."

"Obey."

She had been called.

She had no choice but to obey the laws of God and cast out that vile serpent, the devil, out of her children.

 By doing so, she would be saving them from eternal damnation. She would be saving their very souls.

"Let it be done," she said, and the voices quickly hushed. The room became silent and time stood still. Katrina smelled sulphur.

She believed it was God’s way of confirming the Devil was near. Her head turned slowly and she looked at the boys.

Their forked, black tongues hung down to their chins. What she saw made her snarl with raw anger at the serpent Satan now embodying her children.

She leaned in close to the boys and whispered with bared teeth, "I knows what yew be."

Some thing in her voice alerted Levi that this was not just the angry, loud mommy.

This was a great deal worse.

He saw the evil look suggestive in his mother's eyes, and acting on instinct he grabbed his baby brother's little hot hand.

"Run!" he told him, jumping quickly from the bed, leaving their sisters lifeless body behind.

They hurriedly bolted into the bathroom and slammed the door behind them. With jittery fingers, Levi locked it.

Scared and weak they crouched together as one in the corner next to the toilet. Levi wrapped his arm around his terrified little brother.

"I want daddy," Nathan whispered. Levi frowned sorrowfully at his little brother.

Their flight enraged Katrina; she feared she might lose control of the situation. The voices began again, this time louder and more forceful.

"Listen."

"The time to finish it is now."

"Do not hesitate."

She had no choice but to sacrifice her children to Almighty God. She knew if she did not do as asked, she would lose her own soul and go to Hell.

She cast her fists toward the heavens and threw her head back, omitting a long, loud, piercing cry. She ran to the bathroom door and began to bang until the hinges shook. Katrina was on a mission.

"Opin dis do-er! Opin dis do-er!" she screamed while wiping away strands of hair that was pasted to her sweaty forehead.

Then she spoke resolutely to the door. "I've been given de authurity ta trample on snakeses an scorpionses, an ta overcome all da pow'rs of da Enemy. Nuttin will harm me!" she pounded on the door with both fists.

"An des signs will foller dem dat believe, in yer name shall I cast a-out da devil!"

The children trembled inside and Levi bravely screamed, "N-no mommy! No!"

The brother's hearts pounded against their ribs, their red blotchy faces were wet with tears and contorted with abject horror. Nathan spewed vomit all over himself and the floor around them.

In pitiful desperation, wide-eyed Levi cried out to his grandmother to come save them.

"Gee ma! Ha-elp us! Ha-elp!"

At that time, Katrina could not hear her children's voices or smell the unbearable stench in the house.

All she could hear was the myriad of voices demanding her to obey. Her eyes shone with religious intensity and her anger and rage made her strong.

"Depart from me ya curs-ed, in ta ever lastin far prepard fer da devil an his angels!"

Her voice was loud, but it was hollow rather than forceful, sounding as if it were a clarion call being delivered into the void around her.

Cold blooded and stoned on her apparent insanity, she realized she was getting nowhere.

 She shook back the long tangled black hair from her face, and went outside, her bare feet padded on the soft grass.

 Under the light of the moon, she walked to the shed and slung open the door.

She planted her short legs firmly apart, and while breathing in rapid gulps of air, her eyes searched for a weapon.

 When she spied it on the top shelf, her lip curled slightly and she took a long, satisfying, deep breath.

Her life long inner turmoil over God and Satan, Good and Evil, and life and death, had all been for a reason.

She retrieved it, and slid her finger across the silver blade drawing a line of dark red blood.

She slipped her finger into her mouth, closed her eyes and sucked on the salty taste of her own blood.

Without hesitation, she returned to the house with the hatchet in hand. By now, she was not angry.

It was a feeling beyond rage, beyond pain, a draining of feeling, a void, and an abyss. She was on a divine mission.

She approached the bathroom rambling in a low voice, "I'll not be a'skeered. May God da Father bless us. May Christ take kur of us. Da Holy Ghost enlightens us all da days of ar life."

With blithe unconcern, she walked past her dead daughter’s body lying on the bed in the bedroom.

"Da Lawrd be are defenderer an keeperer of body an soul, both now an fer ever, ta da ages of ages."

The boys heard her outside the door and noticed she sounded calmer. They locked their frightened eyes on one another.

Levi placed his hand over Nathan's mouth to ensure his continued silence. There was a lengthy hush, which seemed to last for an eternity.

Then without warning, she let out an unearthly scream like that of a banshee that pierced the cold silence in the house like a knife.

Nathan wrenched free and buried his face against Levi's chest, "I want daddy." he whispered to his brothers pounding heart, as Levi held him tight.

She lifted the hatchet high above her head and sliced it into the unyielding door, feeling no remorse.

She issued a grunting noise and jerked the hatchet back out of the wood.

The children's screams of terror returned, as her own heart struck hard against her chest as though testing the firmness of its structure.

Every beat pushed a renewed pulse of urgency through her soul. She swung repeatedly at the door until she had made a hole big enough as to where she could reach inside and unlock and open the door.

Katrina opened it and stepped inside the room.

 The two little boys looked up at her, their wide eyes filled with unmitigated fear. She stared back at them with eyes as cold and emotionally blank as a reptile's stare.

"Christ…into yer hands I commend da spirits of my childern."

Panic beat inside the two young brothers little chests like trapped birds, not even recognizing the monster that stood before them as their mother now.

 Levi tightened his grip on Nathan's shoulder and both boys squeezed their eyes shut tight for the inevitable.

At that point Katrina underwent a complete disconnect from a full awareness of self. She was no longer cognizant, she had no formal knowledge of her actions, it was as if she were hiding underground deep within herself.

Something else had taken over and the next thing she knew, she was walking down the road in the cool dark rain.