The Annihilator

                          Prologue:

21 November, 1978.

                                    The sun glinted off the shiny, red Ford on the driveway and Shelley watched through her bedroom window as her daughter shielded her eyes and turned away from the glare. After many days, the sun had peeked out from behind the clouds. The sun was pleasant, not scorching, like it would be soon, as summer arrived. Shelley decided to go and work on that dazzling, movie star tan she always wanted and could just never get. Seriously, what had she done to deserve such a ugly, pasty white complexion? But as she passed, she glanced into the mirror and thoughtfully conceded to herself,

                        “Not half bad”, smiling, she thought, “It’s a great package!” And she laughed and blushed as she remembered those secret magazines she had stashed under her bed, using the same terminology to describe some very shocking female “representations”, as Becca, her friend might call them. Although, as Becca always managed to point out, “Why call them packages when they are hardly wrapped?”

                        No, she definitely wasn’t ugly. In fact, hadn’t Micheal, her new colleague, just asked her out the other day? No, she was still “hot stuff”’ if she were to flatter herself a bit. That was definitely why she wasn’t single. She was single because, well……..

                        “No, Shelley!” she stopped herself in the middle of that thought, not wanting to spoil the rest of her day by thinking about her past.

                        She pulled on a pair of lurid pink pants that were so pink they’d jump out and bite you on the nose. As she slipped into her bikini top, she heard a giggle from outside. Being the devoted, obsessed type of a mother, she ran to her window, not wanting to miss a single minute of her only child’s growing years.

                        “Hey baby doll, what’s up?” asked Shelley from the window. Her daughter, Amanda, was playing by herself in her sand pen. Shelley looked down fondly at her daughter. The sun rays caught and tangled into Amanda’s ash blond hair, making the long strands look like liquid gold. The green eyes glinted with delight as Amanda glanced up at her mother and her red, pouting lips pulled up into a smile: a smile so beautiful and innocent it would put a cherub to shame. Shelley’s heart filled with joy and fear. Amanda was very beautiful, but she looked nothing like Shelley. Shelley was a brunette, with long curly hair, a thin lipped smile and dimples, and a voluptuous body. Amanda was a delicate, female version of her father, Felix. Felix…..

                        “Mommy,” she heard Amanda screaming from downstairs. “Mommy, I want lemonade!!!” Right! Amanda wanted something! Shelley quickly pushed away the ugly thought of Felix and “hauled her ass”, as Becca would put it. Shelley sighed. She was turning into a walking-talking version of Becca’s vocabulary. She really needed to stop herself from turning into Becca part II. Nothing wrong with it, no, but Shelley didn’t mind being Shelley. Being Shelley was good.

                        “Okay, I am definitely losing it!” Shelley laughed out loud and ran downstairs to get her daughter what she wanted. Shelley always gave Amanda what she wanted. Part of it was her daughter’s irresistible charm, part of it was Shelley’s immense love for her daughter and part of it was the hideous tantrums Amanda threw when she didn’t get something she wanted. Lifting a chilled jar of lemonade, two glasses and a plate of chocolate chip cookies onto a tray, Shelley carried it all out onto the porch. Amanda ran over and Shelley poured her a glass of lemonade and settled down into her chair as Amanda helped herself to a cookie. Slathering on some sunscreen, Shelley put on her “chocolate cake yummy” Gucci glasses, as Becca called them. Oh no, not again! “Becca, get outta my head, you old hog!” Shelley thought and smiled evilly to herself, leaned back into the chair, closed her eyes, and lost herself into a day dream about a golden beach and blue sea and beafy men in speedos as far as the eye could see.

                        SLAP!

                        Shelley jumped out of her skin and opened her eyes as the hot guy she was kissing dissolved away into nothingness and made to haul herself out by gripping the arms of her chair. Too late, she remembered the new deck chair had none and as she desperately clawed at the non-existing arms and got nothing but the air, the chair folded up and dumped her onto the ground, making an almighty crash. Untangling herself from the chair, her glasses and her long, dark hair, Shelley struggled to put the upside down world back to its original position, sat up and looked around wildly, waiting for her slapper to jump onto her.

                        “Mommy, what are you doing?” Amanda stood next to her, staring down at her blankly. “Yes baby, your Mommy’s a little crazy,” thought Shelley and smiled up at Amanda. “Nothing darling, I just……… Sweetie, what’s in your hand?” Shelley asked, having finally registered her daughter’s palm which was cupped up protectively around something.

                        “I just caught it, Mommy, look!” Amanda danced over in extreme excitement and held out her palm. Getting excited at her daughter’s excitement, Shelley leaned over, took a look at whatever was in her daughter’s hand and gasped. A big green bug rolled around feebly, crushed and weak. Its end was smashed right in and sickly, reddish grey blood was oozing out. And as Amanda shook her palm, the bug rolled over in its own blood, further smearing the soft, golden skin of my daughter’s palm with blood. Amanda’s thumb was also covered in the same reddish grey liquid and Shelley could just imagine her daughter’s dimpled hands crushing the bug. Revolted, she glanced up at her daughter’s face. And at the sight of the ecstatic joy in her daughter’s face, all the blood in Shelley’s face drained. A  million images flashed in front of her eyes: a mangled deer, snakeskin on a hook, pouring blood streams. And suddenly, her surroundings were drained of oxygen, and Shelley gasped in shock, till Amanda’s sweet little voice brought her back to her senses, and the images dissolved away, like the guy before, into nothing but old memories.

                        “Mommy? Didn’t you like it, Mommy?” Amanda asked in a tiny voice, her face all sad and disappointed. “I got it for you Mommy, don’t you like your gift?”

                        And as horror coursed through Sheller’s body, she managed to smile up at her daughter and say, “Oh baby, of course I loved it.” And holding out her palm, Shelley flinched in horror, as her daughter surrendered the bug and the rest of the mess to her mother and jogged back to her sandbox happily. In a small corner of her mind, Shelley registered that the bug was dead. Relief flashed through her mind for the bug, a quick death!

                        And as Shelley looked up and towards the sandbox, her angelic daughter got out her dolls and started up an imaginary tea party with them.

                        At that time, Shelley had no idea what had just started. But as the sun in the cloudless sky made the day brighter, Shelley’s mind clouded over and all she could do was pray silently, but fervently, “Please God, not my daughter!”