• “Watch them hang, watch them burn. For Satan is which they yearn. See them rock, see them sway. They deserve it anyway. Hear them scream, hear them yell. Their spirits will go to Hell.”] Her soft singing was stopped abruptly as her mother slapped her across the face. She looked up and, seeing the woman’s anguish, averted her gaze.
    The pretty face of her mother looked strangely aged and strands of her brown hair had fallen out of its clasp. This was odd in itself, almost scary to the young girl. “Mama?” Her mother was sobbing softly, but openly, as she yelled. “Child, what is the matter with you?” When her daughter didn’t answer, she slapped her again. “Elizabeth, answer me!” The girl remained silent. “Tonight they from me my righteous child and my devil children are left for me to suffer their evil.” Her daughter simply raised an arm, pointing at the young man who had just entered.
    “Mama …” her mother turned, seeing the male. He was tall, standing at about 5’11” and of average build for a nineteen year old boy. His hair was black and shaggy, but he was apparently of Spanish descent. After a moment, she reacted violently, throwing herself at him and beating his chest.
    “Santiago, I curse you to the depths of Hell!” She screamed; a hysterical look on her face. “Your own rebellion against myself and you plot in opposition to your elder brother! How do you do such things?” She suddenly stopped, recoiling from him as though she had been burned by him. “I rue the day I so loved you as your father. How may I repent my soul to the highest of heaven but a penance? Your death for that of Joseph’s. An eye for an eye, Santiago. Oh, you must understand. I will save you by this lewd act of mercy.” She hugged her son. “Had your father never touched the wife of Arthur, you would have never ended my Joseph’s life, nor made my Elizabeth become Esperanza.
    “The influences of the Spanish are deep and yours have driven my dear Elizabeth mad. “ In light of her idea, her blue eyes began to gleam dangerously. “What say you, Santiago, my son? I will rescue you from Hell as every mother should forsaking their own hatred if need be, For your half-brother, remember Santiago? Save myself with you.”
    And my motive for saving you would be little more than that of a dutiful son’s. But I hold no love for you or Joseph, so the reasons for my sacrifice would be nothing more than that of a fool’s.” Santiago responded softly, but coldly; his dark eyes holding a deep loathing of the woman. “Save for my unnamed father and Esperanza, I hold nothing but contempt for everyone that has populated this house. I hate the naïve actions of those who praise God in the midst of their abandonment of him. For those, I hold no love nor lack of penance; so that you yourself may go to Hell for the masked betrayals that you have so deftly dealt.”
    His mother was astonished by the outburst, but she had nothing to say until Esperanza chimed in. “Mama … why must you continue this tirade against him? He is your son.”
    “No longer is he mine. Thus, I repel him in my beliefs of his denial of God.”
    “Denial of God? You have done everything but admitted your own abandonment. For the sake of your prosthetic preaching, I must say that it is something I have not ever upheld except for its lies and deception.”
    “For that which you condemn me, you’ve all but done yourself. You are not only the demon born of an unreliable union, but that of Satan.”
    “Yet Satan himself holds more respect of God than you. And, there is more love in the heart of Satan for the children of the darkness than yours of your own offspring.” His mother’s expression became unreadable as she temporarily mulled this over. She was angry though, that much was apparent. Her lips had pursed over her pearl white teeth and she retaliated.
    “You speak lies out of possession in lieu of madness, do you not?”
    “I do not.” This only angered her further. Her tongue passed over her lips, absentmindedly biting the lower one.
    “Why then must you plague me further? You are nothing more than a deranged boy on the verge of manhood. For nothing less than power is what you desire to carry on from here, so why must you choose to not leave?”
    “I stay not out of choice of company, but blood. You have coldly pushed me aside whenever Joseph chose to come to you when he wanted nothing more than to pin you as a witch and watch you burn. Once in my life, I loved you but that time has passed without mercy and I am so delighted as to my opportunity to watch you burn of my own accord.” His mother faltered and fell silent, breathing out of her nose sharply.
    “You, my son, condemn me?” Santiago nodded vaguely, his eyes on hers.
    “With the righteous intentions of a devil.”
    “Of a devil, or Satan himself?”