Grudge 2 ; The Reckoning

She reached forward and took him in her arms. Took him in her arms and kissed him on the forehead. He resisted at first but eventually gave into the hug. She reached down and stroked the cat. It hissed and bit her, clawed at her flesh. But it too rapidly submitted to her act of affection. If there was one sound for contentment in all the world it was that of a purr.
“It’s ok” she whispered, “It’s ok”. In all the research she’d done she’d never been able to discover if the kid could speak English. But it didn’t matter. Her tone said it all.
The spirits bathed in her love. For it was what they had craved after all they had suffered, all the dreadful things they had witnessed. All they needed was for someone to take them in their arms and tell them it would all be alright.
And Karen did.
She heard the sound behind her. The gurgling, the dreadful dull clicking of the death rattle. She recognised it instantly, the noise sending shivers through her soul. Because she had made that noise, when her jawbone was ripped out she had made that noise when she had been trying frantically to speak. And she knew the pain that poor woman must be going through.
She turned and embraced her. Embraced her and kissed her, deep, longing, probing kisses, full on the mouth, never caring a moment for the mutilation or her inability to respond. She cradled her head in her hands and felt the spirits’ hands cup hers, cold, cold hands.
After all her pain, all the brutality she had undergone all she craved was a sign passion, that someone still craved her, still wanted her.
Karen did.
Her seized her from behind, wrenching her from his wife’s grasp. Her hauled Karen across the floor to the bathroom, his captive instinctively struggling to escape.
Panic gripped her as he forced her head under the water, cracking her skull against the sides of the bathtub. Karen clawed at his hands with her nails but it was pointless. She used all her self control to reach out with one hand and rip the plug from the plug-hole. He reached out with one hand to stop her and she used the distraction to twist around, knocking his hand free of her hair with her forearms.
He grabbed her by the throat and started pushing her back under the water, facing her as he drowned her for the first time with any of his victims.
Amongst the water a single tear dripped from Karen’s eye onto his hand.
“I’m sorry” she mouthed silently.
And someone understood. Finally someone understood all his rage and anger and hate.
And guilt.
Karen forgave him. Forgave them all.
And then they were gone. The house was empty. That was it, no lightshow, no explosion. The spirits were gone, at peace.
Karen took a few minutes to gather herself and then slowly left the house, bidding final farewell to the place that had caused her so much pain and earned her utter redemption.
For no place was good or evil. No death-camp or torture chamber or prison was in itself evil. It was purely what humanity did there. And nowhere was forever damned.
Because there was always a new day and an infinite number of possibilities for each and every soul. You took each day and made what you wished of it.
Karen walked out into the Tokyo morning, a world of choice and potential at her feet.

The End