She Kills Them All

TWO

"Please God, please," Florence banged her head on the steering wheel, tears rolling down her cheeks. It still wasn't the time for this, she chastised herself running out of the car to where the nurses were.

The group of people moved into the emergency area. "You can't come in ma," one of the nurses moved to closed the door.

"Those are my daughters in there!" Florence screamed at the nurse.

"But the room is full, I'm sorry but could you stay in the waiting room?" The nurse asked.

It was a question but it sounded like an order. "Okay," Florence sighed, she hadn't prayed yet and it was rubbing her wrongly.

As she got into the waiting room she saw looks of despair on the faces of most of the people in there, usually she would've asked them all to join her for prayers but she wasn't sure if she could handle another person's burden.

Florence took her sit and bowed her head in prayer, she wasn't sure how long she stayed like that.

"Mrs Florence?" the doctor walked right in front of her.

She couldn't even bring herself to correct him that she was a Ms. not a Mrs. "Yes?" she stood, her heart falling just looking at his expression.

"I'm sorry we tried our best..." the doctor started talking

But everything else he said had fallen on deaf ears. Florence fell to the floor, deep wails vibrating through her.

The doctor looked at her with pity, it was one of the things he hated about his profession. "Madam please," he set his clipboard on the chair beside her getting on his knees to be on the same level as her. "There was nothing more we could do." he made his voice as soft as possible.

"My children, my children," Florence kept repeating, she couldn't have lost them, God wouldn't let her lose them.

"Mummy," Phoebe walked out of the emergency room.

"Phoebe," Florence tried to stand, Phoebe was here, maybe the doctor was wrong, If Phoebe was alive maybe Claire and Alex were too.

Florence jumped up, pushing through the throb of her knees and running into the emergency room, there was no one who would keep her from them this time.

"Claire!" Florence was elated just toying with the idea that she might still have her children.

An excitement that was short lived, Claire and Alex laid there lifeless and white, it couldn't be, she knew she shouldn't but she couldn't help asking God why.

"Mum, get up," Phoebe grabbed her mother's hand and tugged.

"They're gone, He took them from me," Florence screamed once again falling to the ground.

"Mummy we need to leave," Phoebe tugged again after steadying herself.

"I can't leave my babies," Florence's voice had become barely a whisper.

The doctor who had announced their deaths had been watching from the door, he knew he had to get her out of her before she was tempted to join them.

He beckoned to one of the nurses. "Get a driver, we need to take this woman away from here." He couldn't take his eyes off the broken woman even as he spoke.

If he had though and turned to look at the nurse he'd called he would've noticed that she had rolled her eyes, as if to ask if that was what he'd called her for but she was still his subordinate so she swallowed whatever was left of her pride and murmured a "yes sir"

Florence looked at the house they'd left this morning, no mother wanted to live to see her child die but she had just witnessed two, it took all of her to remind herself that she had two children left and she couldn't let the breakdown takeover her.

Florence walked to the room and looked around, the bottles of Claire and Alex were empty but Phoebe's was still full.

She looked at Phoebe for the first time since she watched them take her away in a stretcher. "Why didn't you drink your water?"

"I don't like drinking water before I brush," Phoebe moved closer to her mum.

Florence managed a feeble nod. She couldn't stop thinking about her dead children, she needed something to take it off her mind, she would do what she'd always done and take it to Jesus but first she had to make some phone calls.

"Excuse me, I'll be back." Florence left the room.

Alone with her thoughts Phoebe was excited that everything was going according to plan. She'd overheard her mother last night talking on the other phone with a priest, she knew her mum was going to bring holy water to them the next morning and she saw her opening, she'd waited years to get rid of her sisters to escape the life of hand-me-downs and errands.

While her mum slept she poisoned the water, she knew her mum wouldn't have drunk from the regular bottles. And now there was one left.

Theresa had just gotten back from the HR department. It was her official first day of work and boy was she excited.

She'd only just sat on her desk when she received a call from her mum, it was such a frequent occurrence she'd assumed her mum wanted a briefing on her morning so she begun to narrate, being as detailed as possible because she knew her mother liked that.

"Theresa, I have to tell you something," the emptiness of Florence's voice worried Theresa.

"What's it mummy?" Theresa turned away from her colleagues, she knew she couldn't control the way emotions showed on her face, and she'd rather her first impression not be soiled by that.

"Your sisters they..." she heard her mum's voice break, she knew Florence was in tears.

"Mummy did Alex say something?" Theresa knew her sister could get rude sometimes.

As Florence heard Alex's name, she wailed.

"What did she say? Should I talk to her?" Theresa got angry on her mum's behalf.

"You can't," her mum whispered from the other side of the phone.

"Why not?" Theresa knew Alex didn't listen to anyone but it didn't hurt to try.

"Claire and Alex are dead."