LJ Idol Season 11: Open Topic Sudden Death Write Off #2
Several days before Lucy died, she made her husband, James, promise that he would never love anyone else like he loved her again. She made him promise that he would never get remarried or be with another woman. Laughingly, James promised her that because they were going to have a long life together and nothing was going to come between them. They were young, they just got married, what could possibly go wrong? Lucy frowned, concerned that he was not taking this seriously enough. She made him take a blood oath which he thought was a bit strange but he appeased her. While he might have thought she was joking, Lucy had worked too hard to make him hers and if she couldn't have him, no one could.
What James didn't know about his wife was the lengths she had taken to become his wife, the powers she had. Lucy and her identical twin sister Hailey were born with a special power to take over people's bodies. They could inhabit other people's thoughts, control their bodies, and even take over and switch bodies and push the original owner out of the body. Hailey was always the good sister, wanting to do good in the world. She would never dream of using her powers for darkness. But Lucy knew the power, embraced it, nurtured it from the time she was a little girl. She used it to get out of trouble, change her grades, make people be her friends, cause havoc for others who angered her. She never resented her sister or hated her sister until they met James. James, math and computer genius, all around Golden Boy and everything Lucy ever wanted in a man. Lucy was in love. Unfortunately, James never gave her the time of day as more than friends as he had fallen head over heels for Hailey and Hailey for him. No matter how much Lucy yelled, screamed, pleaded, and devised ways to break them up, nothing came between them. When Hailey came home glowing and beaming with a Tiffany's diamond ring on her ring finger, Lucy snapped. He was supposed to be hers, she cried! Hailey pleaded with her to understand their love but Lucy had enough. With a snap of her finger, Lucy's old body was lying in a heap and Lucy, now as Hailey, walked out of the house smiling and whistling as she gazed at the diamond ring on her hand picturing her future.
But what Lucy didn't account for, not long after the wedding, was the drunk driver careening into her car on her way home from work.
...
Lucy stared down at her body from above, as she sat in Hell's waiting room waiting her turn to find out her fate, waiting to see if she could argue with one of the devil's minions to get herself back down to James. She was never under any impression she'd go to Heaven so she wasn't shocked to find herself in the waiting room as she admired the plush, red velvet chairs with a fire emblem on each chair. Finally it was her turn as they called number 69420. She smirked at the number on the tiny piece of paper in her hand as she got up to the front desk.
"I need to get back!" she cried prettily as soon as she got to the desk. "I need to be with James. He needs me! I need him! We were meant to be together forever! This is not forever!"
"Oh, you'll get back," the minion cackled.
"I will?" This was easier than she thought and quickly wiped away her fake tears. "Great, send me back now!" she demanded, sure she had the upper hand.
"It's not that easy. It'll take a couple of months," he smirked. "You have to prove yourself. And you know.....you don't always come back in the same form you died in and things are not always the same when you go back."
"I don't care! I want to go back to my James! I need to make sure he's loyal and true to me! He'll recognize me no matter what!"
"Okay then." The minion whipped out some forms. "Sign here...here...and here." Lucy signed frantically, whatever it took to get back to her James.
"You really should have read the fine print," he commented as he looked over all the forms.
"No one ever reads the fine print, you stupid beast, so why would I start now?"
"Why indeed?" The minion whistled as he sent her to her new job cleaning Hell's toilets with nothing but a tiny toothbrush.
....
Those long months in Hell were no joke, she reflected as she stared at her burnt, dirty hands. But today was the day she was going back to her beloved James! How he must have missed her so. Lucy sat there in Hell's waiting room again like she did that first time, assigned to that same number as she pictured how happy he would be to be reunited with her.
"69420!" The minion waved his claws over her face, snapping her out of her daydream. "Follow me."
She stood and followed him into a small room with a video machine set up. "What's this?"
"We make sure everyone watches what has happened while they've been...," the minion gestured around, "here." He pushed her into a seat. "This way, it's less of a surprise for you when you make your arrival." Lucy sat down eagerly ready to see her love but her grin quickly turned into anger as she watched that after a few months, James met a young woman, named Laura, who moved into the neighborhood. They bonded over their love of cats, board games, and traveling and quickly fell in love and got married. They adopted four cats, Gizmo, Sangria, Andy, and Hera and lived happily in a suburb traveling and playing games when they weren't working.
"Who does that tramp think she is?!" she roared. "I'll show her what it means to mess with my man! And that asshole, he couldn't even keep his promise! I'll show both of them! Just wait til I get back with my powers even stronger!"
"Oh you'll be with them alright but not as your original form."
"What?"
"I told you to read the fine print," he admonished her. "People always get these high hopes of what they'll do once they go back but no one really ever stops to read Hell's fine print. We have the final say and we can alter your form to whatever pleases us."
"But you said I can go back!"
"And you said you don't care what form you go back in when I informed you that you don't always go back in the same form." He rolled the footage of their original meeting to remind her of her statement.
"Yeahhhh," she sputtered. "But I was a good girl in Hell and I cleaned your fucking toilets! ALL THE TOILETS! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU DEVILS STINK UP THE PLACE? I WORKED MY FUCKING ASS OFF! I DESERVE TO GO BACK AS ME! MAKE THAT HAPPEN NOW!"
The minion rolled his eyes. "So dramatic, you are. You'll be going back but that poor family, they lost one of their cats."
"So? Who needs five cats? No one that's who. What does this have to do with me?"
"You'll be one of their cats. A black cat, of course."
That wouldn't be so bad if she had her powers. She could make that intruder disappear quickly and painfully.
"Oh and those powers you had?" It seemed that he read her mind. He snapped his fingers. "Gone!"
"Wait, whaaaat?" she yelled as the ground around her dissolved and she found herself in a box on a driveway.
...
"James!" Laura called out excitedly as she came back into the house. "Look what I found! An adorable black kitty! The neighbors said someone just threw out a box of kittens onto her driveway and this one just clawed her way up to my face and tried to smack me in the face with her paw! I think she likes me!" The kitten hissed but then purred as James walked in. "Can we keep her? Look how tiny she is!"
"Sure!" James walked over and scratched the kitten's chin as the kitten looked up lovingly at him. The kitten jumped into his arms and snuggled up under his chin. "What do you want to call her?"
"How about Luna? It seems like a good name for a black cat."
"Luna, it is," James answered as he sat down with Luna draped around him like a scarf. "I think she likes me too," he remarked with a smile as he stroked her fur as she couldn't help but purr at his touch.
This wouldn't be so bad, Lucy thought to herself. She could figure out ways to take out this Laura person while she slept, ate, drove, walked .... all while curled up with her precious James. Maybe she could put in a request with the Hell Network to get her powers back if she could be a good cat for a few months. The possibilities were endless! James would then figure out that the two of them were meant to be together and after she put him through pain and suffering for breaking their oath, she would forgive him and shower him with love.
"Hello, Lucy," a grey striped cat sauntered in.
"Oh look, it's Hera! Here Hera, come meet your new sister, Luna." Laura exclaimed as she scooped both cats up in her arms.
The cats stared at each other for a moment. "Oh shit. Hailey, is that you?"
Hailey as Hera grinned as much as a cat could grin. "I won't let you mess with my humans. I'll take you out before that happens."
The cats hissed and swiped at each other as they squirmed out of Laura's arms and ran after each other. "Look, sweetie," Laura called to James. "I think Hera and Luna are going to be besties already!"
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Note: This was written for LJ Idol Sudden Death Write Off #2. This story was inspired by a conversation with lyssa027 about how her cat, Litten, is probably convinced that she is her husband's true wife and would kill her if she could and take over her body. Out of that conversation, came this story! If you like this story, please consider voting for me and check out the other awesome writers!