Charlie was a little nervous as he parked the van. He had promised though, promised that when things permistted he'd take Callie to visit her mother. He really didn' think it was a great idea. He'd brought her anyway.

Perhaps he was more nervous because this was the last hospital he's lived in. He was not sure how he would feel if people recognized him, or how they would react. He didn't relsih being possibly being patronized in front of Callie.

They went to the main entrance and were directed to the elevators. They went as instructed to the fourth floor. The maximu security area. Charlie had lived on this floor himself.

Once they got out of the elevator they had to go through a security check point.
Then they were let into a room that looked like somethin out of a prison. A wall of glass and counters with those little speaker boxes and chairs at intervals. You could visit, but not have contact with those who lived on this floor.
charlie had tried his best to prepare Callie for this. Still it had to be some what disappointing in terms of a visit.

Hte took seats where they were told to, and after a short wait two orderlies brought Callie's mother, to sit on the oppostie side of the glass.

Finally she was going to get to see her mother. It had been a few weeks now since they’d been split and she’d moved in with Charlie. Her life was actually looking for the better and was even back to her normal self before all the madness started with her mother. Reading everything she could and whenever had really helped her with catching up with the world around her. She’d even starting fixing a few meals for Charlie.

Getting out of the van she looked up at the building. Her heart started pounding harder and faster. Coming face to face with her again was what she wanted, but could she handle it? Walking inside they were told where to go; the fourth floor. Luckily Charlie was helping her by leading her around as she was in a daze and still lost in thought.

Stepping out onto the fourth floor her eyes were wide as she found they had to go through ha security check point. What kind of place was this? Wasn’t it a hospital? Why did they have to have such strict security in a hospital? After the check point they were taken to a room and Callie felt her heart leap right out of her chest. Nobody deserved to live like this. Sure Callie was a bit mad at how her mother treated her, but she was quick to forgive. That quality might get her into trouble one day. Who knows? Even after all her mother had done to her, she still had already forgiven her. She had not told Charlie that, rather kept it to herself.

Sitting down at the glass, her heart was pounding faster and faster as her mother came into view and was placed in the chair on the opposite side of the glass. Her eyebrows furrowed and her hazel eyes had a look of sadness in them. Her mother was in a straight jacket so she couldn’t do anything and she looked rather dazed though that look of hate was still in her eyes.

Callie was speechless. She’d forgotten what she was going to say. And when her mother’s gaze turned to Charlie she had a look of disgust. Obviously she still remembered he was the one that caused all of this to happen. Callie didn’t know what to say. Just sat there, staring.

Charlie had not been told about the straight jacket, but it made sense since he'd beeen told that she had biten off a male nurses ear and eaten it. He could tell Callie was sad, one reason he really hadn't wanted to bring her. He'd lived here once, he knew what to expect. She was still so innocent in so many ways, she might not even be able to conceive how dangerous some of these patients were.

Callie's mother stared at him with eyes full of hatred. He shuddered, at least he'd been bale to learn why they didn't eat meat. He didn't tell Callie that either. He'd simply gotten rid of every scrap of meat in his house including the salad Bacos.

She continued staring at her mother with a worried look. A knot was starting to well up in her stomach.

“ Il vostro selfishness ha rotto la nostra sede. Ora non otterrete mai andare di nuovo all'Italia.” Her mother shouted at her from the other side of the glass. It made tears start to well up in Callie’s eyes and her head started to shake in a ‘no’ fashion.

Rather impulsively she pressed her hands on the glass as she stood up slightly out of the chair, sadness in her eyes.

” Nessun che non è allineare! Perchè avete dovuto danneggiarli? Perchè avete dovuto fare le cose senza mia conoscenza?” Tears were starting to fall down her face at this point. She couldn’t hold it back any longer.

” Siete un disonore al nostro genere e dovreste essere uccisi lungamente fa!” Her mother screamed at her and started running her body into the glass. Callie stood up and backed away from the glass to the other side of the room and curled herself up in the corner, hiding her face as she brought her legs closer to her body and put her arms around them. She was bawling by this point.

The orderly’s had run over to get her mother at this point and try and calm her down.



((First translation: Your selfishness has broken our home. Now you'll never get to go back to Italy.

Second translation: No that's not true! Why did you have to hurt me? Why did you have to do things without my knowledge?

Third translation: You are a disgrace to our kind and should have been killed long ago!))

Charlie went to Callie. "Come on Callie, we're gonna go." He said softly a he crouched down beside her. Some of the orderlies were watching. It wouldn't do for someone her to decide Callie mihgt be mentally ill. "Callie, come on, we can come anothr time, this isn't a good place for you to be so upset. We should go." he was talking oh so very soflty. "Let me help you up."

Charlie’s soft voice came to her ears, but she couldn’t stop the crying. She looked up at him a salty tear stained face and bright red cheeks from crying. Then her gaze turned to the glass. They’d already taken her away. It definitely wasn’t the way she wanted to leave, but she felt she had no other choice.

”Where did I go wrong?” She choked out the words through sobs. With his help, Callie stood up; her hands were slightly shaking from confusion. ”I just don’t understand Charlie.” Her voice sounded desperate, almost pleading for an answer to be given to her. Some reasonable explanation as to why her mother acted like this. Without thinking about it she wrapped her arms around him in a hug and buried her face in his chest.

"Callie I doubt this was all your doing, if any of it was."He spoke vry soothingly in spite of his very ddep voice. He kept his arms around her and walked very slowly with her down the hall to the security check point. Thankfully the were simply buzzed out and Charlie Guided her to the elevator. This wouldn't do it all, he did not, like at all, that it only took a few minutes to unhinge Callie.

He regarded Callie like a younger sister, so he was prone to being a bit protective, in spite of the fact she was an older creature. It seemed to him her mother was trying to drive her to embrace their old ways. It saddened him, it is the nayure fo all things to change. If Callie was different, she shoulc be allowed to be what she was. She was a danger to no one. He patted her back lightly in the elevator as they went down.

He got her to the van as quickly as he coud without fushing her, she was still crying so hard that she was weakening herself. He wished he understood her mother's behavior as well, but that might never happen.

Their visit had been short lived. He had not wanted to be here long, but he had not wanted it to go like this at all. They drove back to the shop in silence.

She couldn’t stop the tears from falling as they made their way down the elevator, out the building and into the van. Though Charlie said he didn’t think it was her fault, she couldn’t help but feel like it was. What else could there be? She was the only one that lived with her for so long. There was nothing else to make her this way. It had to be her? But why? Why did her mother hate her so?

Callie leaned her head against he window of the van and stared blankly out the window at the passing pedestrians. The crying had finally stopped however she still looked quite upset and the emptiness in her eyes didn’t sooth the feelings of that she was feeling better. The tears had exhausted her and the mental stress of what her mother said to her was overwhelming. The words kept repeating over and over in her head like a bad dream.

At the shop again Charlie parked the car without much reaction from her. Her head was still against the window of the van for a few moments before she unbuckled her seat belt and got out of the van herself. She didn’t wait for Charlie to come over to her door as she climbed out and shut the door behind her.

She walked into the shop and headed up the stairs, not even saying so much as a ‘hello’ to the owner like she normally did with a smile on her face. He most likely was wondering what was going on, but it didn’t matter to her. As if in a zombie like state she reached the top of the stairs and waited for Charlie to unlock the door, leaning against the wall and staring at the stairs below her feet.

Indeed Mr. Jenkins did give Charlie a worried glance as Callie went ahead of Charlie up the stairs.

Charlie opened the door and watched her dazedly stagger in. He felt aweful. H had no idea what to do for Callie, it seemed the shortvisit had sapped her of vitality.

She went to her room. He lingered in the living room not sure if she would come back out or not. With a sigh he sat on the couch. Rather slumped and dejected looking himself. Why did the woman hate Callie so much? Callie was so sweet, was it jealousy? He wantedvery badly to understand, maybe almost as much as Callie.

He closed his eyes and sat in silence. He tried to hear her in the next room.

She’d gone to the attic room that was hers and shut the door behind her. Walking over to her bed she lay down on her stomach and pulled the pillow closer to her with her arms and wrapped it tightly under her head. Legs pulled themselves closer to her upper body until she was almost laying in a fetal position, eyes still staring into nothingness. Desperately she wanted to know where she’d gone wrong, where their relationship went wrong.

After a while she decided it was when the moved to America that things went wrong. Everything had been fine on Crete. It was such a tiny island and her mother had been so happy then. Of course there was also a beach and ships with sailors and such. Perhaps the time changes left her bitter and angry? It was too much to think about. Her head was starting to hurt from what had happened and the look on her mother’s face and the words she spoke still played over and over again in her head.

Finally she broke down into another fit of tears on her bed and buried her head into her pillow. She screamed into it so the noise was muffled and barely audible. However it didn’t sound like a human scream. It was almost as if a bird had flown into her mouth and was screaming to get out. The noise startled her for a moment. It’d been a long time since she’d scream so hard as to make the inhumanly screech come out. Was she really that upset?

She didn’t scream again in fear of it happening again. That was one part of her life that she didn’t like. She couldn’t remember how many times she’d wished to have been born human. But that wasn’t the issue at this moment. The problem was with her mother and if she’d actually ever have a descent relationship with her ever again. What if she took her back to Italy? Would that make her feel better? But how would she get out of that hospital now? Just thinking about it made her continue crying into her pillow until it was soaked with salty tears.

He could of coarse only listen to so much muffled screaming and sobbing, some of it sounded very strangebut Callie was special, it didn't disturb him. He tapped lightly on her door, He didn't want ot disturb her, but it might help her to know he was nearby if she wanted to talk.

"You care if I come in there?" he called to her.

There was a knock on her door and she heard Charlie ask if he could come in. She stopped her crying and ran her arm across her face to wipe away the tears. Seeing that her pillow was thoroughly soaked she shoved it underneath the bed so he wouldn’t see. The thought that he’d heard her crying didn’t register to her.

”No. You can come in.” She stated hoarsely. Quickly she sat up on the bed and tried to look halfway descent, but the redness of her face and the streaks on her cheeks showed she’d been crying for some time. At one point she almost lulled herself to sleep with the crying. Her throat was dry and she didn’t think she had anything to keep crying. In a word, she felt awful.

He came in and sat down next to her. The missing pillow indeed registered." Did you eat it, I thought I heard you crying, it must have actually been you eating all the feathers in that pillow?" he teases.

"Can you talk about it?" he asks more seriously, he wans to help if he can.

Sitting down next to her he made a joke of her missing pillow. She could only half way smile as her present mood was still quite unhappy. Callie appreciated the thought though. Perhaps that was all that matters. He was trying to cheer her up, though her mother’s words of hatred still rang vividly in her head. It brought a frown again to her face just at the thought of the words.

Her eyes met with Charlie’s as he asked if she wanted to talk about it. The thought didn’t cross her mind if he knew Italian or not. She assumed he did and if he was confused she would tell him. Well, she would try. She wasn’t sure if she could repeat the hateful words.

”I don’t understand Charlie. Why does she hate me so? She wasn’t always like this.” Her eyes were pleading. She wished he could tell her a laid out explanation of why she was treated this way by the person she thought loved her most.

" I was hoping you might have some inkling, when did this all start, she told you some horrible things." he said and he gave her a hug. He really did look at her more and more like a little sister, definitely like family, it was a good feeling. He really wanted to help her.

"What was she like before?"

If Callie couldn't answer he was beggining to think of a few ways that maybe he could find out.

She felt like crying again at the mention of the horrible things she said. So he did know what had gone on between the two of them. It was a good thing she hugged her, because she was about to break down again. His reassurance helped her to try and keep calm about the whole ordeal as he asked her questions.

Her eyes danced back and forth as if she was trying desperately to recall the better days. Thoughts drifted back to the beaches of Crete and the two of them were walking along as the tide shifted in and out. They were talking, but the conversation was muffled. Her memory couldn’t recall what they had been talking about. Of course she was a lot younger then. She looked about 15 when they left the island.

”She was nicer. A smile always adorned her face when we were on the beach. We’d talk about all kinds of things, but I can’t remember anymore anything specific. I remember….a few arguments we had.” Her face looked like she’d just seen a ghost. She remembered what the fights had been about. Always about what they were and why Callie thought they shouldn’t kill men as if it were a sport. Perhaps that was when things went wrong, when she started to have her own opinions about the way they acted to others. She quit thinking about that and changed the subject.

”Maybe she was upset after a few of the local’s burnt our house down and we had to move to America. They were starting to suspect we were different and we couldn’t stay there any longer.” A tear was starting to well up in her eye. She really did love that house on the beach and the memory of her standing there from behind trees and watching it burn was almost more than she could bear. The shouting of the villagers as they called them horrible names, thinking they’d burn them in the fire.

”That’s when I guess I started to sink into a low time. I didn’t want to do anything or go anywhere.” Her hand was gripping tightly onto the sheets and she finally stopped talking before she went into another fit.

Charlie didn't really know what to say. There were still pieces to the puzzle missing.....he coldn't even tell what the picture was supposed to be yet, for this particular puzzle.

"Callie, What do sirens really do, bsides the power of their voices, there are a lot of legends, what's true?" he felt like he was graping at straws asking, but maybe he could get a clue about her mother.

Her gaze was cast immediately downwards as he asked about what Sirens really did. A headache was starting up in her head from all the crying and the recalling of past events. It was quite stressful and hard to think about in such an exhausted state. Her heart was pounding fast and she gripped the sheet tighter.

”There are a lot of legends, because there are several different views that one could have about using the ‘gift’ of song. It was used differently by different sirens. Some stood on the cliffs just out of view and sang their songs, luring the sailors to crash there ships trying to find them. That’s the most popular theory.” Her voice dropped a bit lower. ”They….they liked to watch ships sink and cared not about the men.” Tears were welling up as she thought about her mother. The way she thought about them.

”I think…..I think my mother was the worst of all of them.” She looked up at Charlie. A few tears were starting to run down her face again. It was amazing she still had something left to cry out.

”She….she liked to toy with their emotions. Liked to watch them beg for her to stay with them and sing for them. She loved to see the look in their eyes before…” She couldn’t go on. Some of things she’d watched her mother do to men was atrocious. But at the time she didn’t know any better. She’d grown up with it and thus Callie thought that was the way things were supposed to be.

”I got older and…..I didn’t agree with the way she toyed with them. That’s when I told myself I would never sing again. It’s…..it’s hard though.” She had loved to sing, but she had seen what it was starting to do to some of the younger men in the village. It was slowly driving them insane and they wouldn’t leave her alone. It was more of a nightmare for her than fun by the end of it.

"Is it possible it unhinged her to have to stop, or was she able to continue....those sorts of things here?" he asked patting her back. Possibly if she'd not been bale to victimize men she decided to substitute for it by victimizing Callie.

"I don't know if she can be helped or not, but I will try to help you, I know you still love her." he said.

”She continued for a while. But she found as more people started popping up we’d have to move quite frequently to avoid any suspicion. I’m not sure exactly. I think I was still in shock in those days that we’d never get to go home. At least not anytime soon. I can’t actually remember much from the late 1800’s. It’s as if that part of my life has been sucked out of my memory.” And for good reason. The parts she couldn’t remember had been the most violent in her life. They were the parts where her mother had absolutely lost control and almost killed her several times. Callie couldn’t remember the times, because she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to think of her mother as the vile creature as she truly was. Perhaps the drugs played a part as well in letting her forget what went on. The most recent event she had with the poker was definitely far from the worse episode Callie ever had the privilege of being on the other end of.

”Every now and then she had fun with a man at a bar I think, but she couldn’t do as much damage as she used to be able to.” She felt numb inside thinking about it. She was tired of thinking about it. Their relationship shouldn’t have fallen so terribly like this. They should have been together for at least another half a millennium. Her eyes started drooping out of exhaustion.

”I hope they can help her. But…” Deep down she had this sickening feeling that she’d never able to be helped.

Chrlie frowned. He wondered if she'd recover too, simply becasue a person has to want to recover.

"Poor Callie, I'm sorry this turned out like this, but I couldn't just leave thijgs like they were. I was worried for you." he said apologetically.

"Can I fix you anything? Do something to cheer you up, perhaps get out the slippers?"

”I know you were just helping.” She wasn’t sure if she was glad that he’d helped or if he should have let her just deal with the pain. It’d been working for her for a long time; dealing with the pain that is. The drug’s her mother had been dosing her with must have relieved the pain some as well. It never seemed to hurt terribly, no matter what she did. She was just numb; physically and mentally.

”No. I think I just need to lie down for a little while.” She replied having been asked if he could do anything. However she did manage to laugh for a moment when he mentioned the ducky slippers.

He nods, "Callie, tell me if you need anything, I'm going to fix some leftover soup if you change your mind." he says. HE'd been making soup a lot, she liked it.

He left her room then quietly closing her door. He had intrfered only after observing..... his observations made him think eventually Callie's mother would kill her.

She nodded and then he left. Her eyebrows rose in worry as she pulled the pillow out from underneath the bed. It was still wet so she grabbed a spare blanket and wrapped it around it so she wouldn’t get wet. A yawn was released as she lay down on her bed again. Slowly she drifted off to sleep with little difficulty. Too bad it wouldn’t be a happy dreamless sleep. Oh no. Not after all she’d been through today.

The dream was surprisingly not red nor on a broken down street. However her heart was pounding hard oddly as she was at one of their old houses. It was a brick building surrounded by similar brick buildings. Children played on the streets outside that were still dirt not paved. A horse drawn carriage passed by her figure that was staring out a window from the top of the building. Callie knew this to be the house they lived in from 1885 to 1894. It was definitely a part of her memory though that’d been hidden at the back of her mind for some time. A part that she couldn’t remember while she was awake.

Noises could be heard from downstairs and her mother shouting several profanities. Obviously today was not a good day and it was soon to be a horrible day for Callie. Hazel eyes traveled to her slightly cracked door as footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. Slowly the door opened and her mother was standing in the doorway. She definitely did not look well at all. An eerie grin was on her face and the smell of alcohol heavily on her breath. It was more common in those day’s to drink as there was no limit and she definitely went overboard with it at the saloon’s.

What’s wrong? She asked her mother as she stood up and walked halfway across the room and stopped. Her mother was holding something behind her back. Something was up, but she didn’t know what. Callie was reliving the very first time her mother started abusing her and it was deathly close to killing her at the same time. Her mother had went overboard and beyond berserk as she pulled a gun from behind her back and shot her in the side, just barely missing vital organ. She fell backwards as the bullet hit her in the side and a pool of blood was starting to form underneath her. Her breathing was labored as her mother walked over and stood beside her, pointing the gun down at her.

Luckily for Callie though somebody walking past their house had heard the gunshot and ran inside and up the stairs to see what had happened. Her mother came up with some lame excuse that it was in self defense that Callie had gone crazy and lashed out at her. However she was ‘nice’ enough to not press charges against her daughter and after they took Callie to the small town hospital she was returned home with her mother. That day would forever live in her mind, though she’d pushed it aside thinking that it was just one incident that went bad. However the dream seemed to not think this was so trivial and seemed to have rewound itself back to the part where she was lying on her back in her bedroom. Just before the man rushed up the stairs, her mother had pointed the gun at her head. One could only guess what might have happened if he’d not walked by and been concerned. However the dream decided to play it out differently as if her mother pulled the trigger at her face. A white flash was all that seemed to be there after that.

Callie sat up rather quickly and was screaming at the top of her lungs. She fell out of her bed and she scrambled to the corner of the room and cradled herself tightly as she continued screaming. She’d been asleep all of a half hour.

Charlie doesn't knock this time, he rushes into the room since it sounded like somebody has killed her.

At first he's startled to see she isn't in teh bed. His eyes immediately go to the window and then he spots her balled up in the corner.

"Bad dream?" he askes approaching her softly in his bare feet. He crouches before her and pulls her to him. "You're safe here, you know that right?" he asks very worried.

Bad dream could not describe the horrid image of an eerie grin on her mother’s face as she pulled the trigger at her. Her hands were shaking horribly as Charlie came over and pulled her closer to him. Will it never end? She doesn’t cry this time as she is still too much in shock from the vivid images of her dream and only recently had stopped screaming after Charlie held her.

She was choked up on words. The vocals needed required to talk weren’t functioning properly at the given time. Her eyes were wide and her face pale as if she’d seen a ghost. Perhaps she wasn’t meant to sleep; ever again. She could try and stay awake all night right? Her breathing was rapid and her heart was beating quite fast as well.

”Make it stop.” She pleaded with him as her eyes finally started to well up again with the tears. Not more tears. She was tired of crying, but it was a reaction that was becoming instinctive for her body to automatically do lately. It could not be helped.

"What if I stay with you, well really if Charles does in your dreams?" he asks, this is going tot take a toll on her if it isn't already. He couldn't think of any way to make it stop.

She shook her head no. ”I don’t even think Charlie could stop the images from flooding me every night.” Her hand clasped her head as she shook it. If she could she have brain surgery to wipe out her memory, but of course that takes money and there were some memories she would like to keep. Especially those of Charlie and when she was younger. She buried her face in his chest unsure of what to do. It seemed like nothing would help.

"I'll try to help you figure something out." he promised. He held her and rubbed her back while feeling helpless. For all the unique things he can do, he's still very human and not very well equiped to deal with all of this.

No matter how good Charlie’s intentions were Callie had this sinking feeling that whatever he tried probably wouldn’t help much. Dreams were a hard thing to try and mess with. However she did like the rubbing of her back. That was calming her down a bit.

She pulled away from him and got up, sitting back down on her bed. The thing that was worrying her most was that even with her mother gone, she still haunted her every moment, awake and asleep, not giving her a moment’s peace. It was almost worst than when she was physically with her. Though she didn’t want Charlie to think he’d made it worse. He didn’t in all honesty. She loved Charlie like a lost sibling that she had only recently been reunited with. He was caring, an emotion that’d not been expressed to Callie in quite a long time.

”You still have soup?” She tried to get off the darker subject. Callie didn’t particularly feel like eating, but it was better than trying to go back to sleep in her opinion.

"'There's still soup I'll go heat some up for you, want some grilled cheese with it?" he asks satrting to get up. Eating might make her fel a little better. He hopes.

She shook her head no.

”No thanks. Just soup is fine.” She got up and headed downstairs before him and sat down at the small table that was just big enough for to. Sitting down, she slumped against the back of the chair stared at the table as if she was concentrating hard on it, when she really was staring off into space. Her face held no emotions other than a total look of sorrow and depression.

Charlie brought her the soup and then went and rumaged around in his closet for a time. He came back out with a Mr. potatoe head and sat it on the table. "You ever palyed with Mr. Potatoe head?" he asks her n his best Bullwinkle Mosse voice. He's hoping the ubsurdity of it might lgihten her mood a little.

She started eating her soup as Charlie went off and started doing something elsewhere. After a moments time she almost spit out the soup in her mouth as a small…..something was placed on the table. Looking up Charlie asked her if she’d ever played with one before. It cracked a smile on her face.

”No. What does it do?” Was it a doll? Was it some sort of game? She wasn’t sure.

"He's a toy."

He pulls opened the hatch in back and dumps the accesories. He then kits out drag queen potatoe head complete with mustache and sings in a silly voice...."I feel pretty, oh so pretty...."

She blinks in a loss as he dressed the doll up from clothes in its butt!? What the….? Whoever made up this really had to be drugged or drunk at the time to put clothes in its butt.

He then proceeds to dress it up as a girl but with a mustache and pretended that it was talking and saying it was pretty. Obviously Callie wasn’t completely up on the idea of a man dressing up as a woman as she just had a confused look on her face. But she did laugh.

Which was the point of coarse it's so bloody absurd who wouldn't.

"Come on Callie let's do something, a movie, or a walk, lets's go someplace....I can't stand to see you like this, what would help cheer you up?" Only it isn't Charlie, it's Charlie acting as the voice for drag queen potatoe haed, as if potatoe head were talking to her.

Her smile turned to a frown as he said he couldn’t stand to see her like this. She couldn’t help it. Like she wanted to stay like this, but it was hard to be cheerful when your mother was in a mental institute and she still haunted you day in and day out while you were awake and asleep. Her eyes seem to fixate on the daffy looking Mr. Potato Head.

”I’m sorry.” She couldn’t think of what else to say. The idea of hurting Charlie now with her poor mood made her feel worse.

”Maybe….a walk sounds nice.” She tried to find something for them to do. But everything just did not seem to feel the same. Hopefully a walk might help her shrug it off or something.

"Ah well, no need for you to be sorry, I snuck into your house you know."He gave her a small hug. "Where should we go walk then?" he asks her. "Or should we just see where we wind up?"

She returned the hug which brought a smile to her face. He asked her where they should go for a walk or see where they ended up but she already had a destination in mind.

”The beach.” Ah the beach. It had been a while since she’d been there and that part of her was yearning to be back on the sandy shores, listening to the gulls screech above and the tide rolling in and out.