Sister Creatures

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Sister Creatures by Laura Venita Green

—Stuck

Tess is a live-in nanny for the Thompson kids, Miles, 10, and Minnie, 8, in a house in the middle of nowhere Louisiana. Tess, 21, used to be the girl everyone loved in high school, but now, after dropping out of college and drinking too much, all her friends, including her best friend Lainey that she lived with for a few months when everything went to shit, have dumped her and she's stuck nannying for two young kids whose mom got sent away to a mental facility and whose dad is on the road almost constantly as a truck driver. 

Playing outside in the summer heat on the stumps of the old walnut trees that the Thompson dad sold, Miles hurts his arm after Minnie drops her creepy ass doll, Thea, and tackles him from his handstand. Sister Gail, a teenage Pentecostal girl who is frequently lurking in the trees in the property line, comes over to help. Tess is drunk of course, but reading and drinking are her two favorite pastimes, and nothing usually goes wrong at the Thompson house.

Sister Gail yanks Miles’ shoulder back into socket, and after this, she is ensconced with the Thompson kids. They watch The Little Mermaid and order pizza. Tess writes in a notebook Lainey gave her, her prized possession, about the story she's reading, The Yellow Wallpaper, and writes some of a story of her own similar to what is happening now with the Thompson kids and their institutionalized mother. Later, Tess feels compelled to help Sister Gail have a bath since it seems she's never had one before and she washes her clothes.

Later, Sister Gail tells the children that she had an evil twin sister who died named Thea like the doll and insists on taking it home with her the next day, but Minnie doesn't want to give up the doll. Sister Gail then talks about her evil German grandfather who is staying with them and writes a message in German in Tess's notebook. Sister Gail tells the kids their mother has wanted to call from the facility she's in but couldn't because Thea wouldn't let her, so Minnie gives in. With the creepy ass doll in hand, the creepy ass teenager disappears in the woods, back to her home, wherever it is.

—I Want More

Thea always wanted more. She was once a snake and she and her mate lived near a ranger station, but the ranger was kind and left them alone. Thea saw how the ranger looked at a human female and wanted to be desired that way. She went into the woman's tent and bit her, knowing that she had the power to transform herself. It was agonizing, but she changed. Now Thea lives with Frederick. They have everything they could want, but Thea always wanted more. She became fascinated with a hawk and longingly watched it fly with its beautiful feathers. Frederick gave Thea flowers but they weren't enough. She climbed the tree where the hawk lived and killed its mate, throwing their eggs to the ground below. She became a hawk, but after some time, she became infatuated with a beautiful, bright star in the heavens. How could she think she would ever be happy on earth and not in the sky with the star?

—Für Amelia 

Lainey and her father are settling in for a pageant featuring a piano recital by her younger sister, Amelia. Amelia has been held back at school several times and struggles with things that everyone else finds normal and makes increasingly strange and detrimental deals with herself to get through her issues. She plays a beautiful version of Für Elise, the only song she ever plays, but she plays it differently and uniquely every time. Tess stayed with Lainey for a while one time and mocked Amelia’s playing, and that, plus the constant drunkenness, pretty much ended their friendship. 

Amelia wins the pageant and earns a scholarship to a music school where she’ll take lessons several times per week that Lainey is responsible for, but Lainey is responsible for most things in their household. She cares for Amelia and cleans and also has a job at a nearby farm run by a former family friend, Tara. Amelia has banned Tara from coming to their house because she once overheard her talking about how Amelia needs help, just like their late mother needed help. One day, Lainey gets a letter with a job offer to an animal rehabilitation center in Texas but decides she can't go because she can't leave Amelia.

Amelia goes with Lainey to the farm one day but makes a deal that they have to go by their mother's grave on the way. She says she won't talk to Tara when they get there, but then makes a deal that she can talk to her but she can't put her arms down by her sides for the rest of the journey to the farm. Tara tells Amelia about Lainey refusing her job offer while they are there, which shuts Amelia down.

Back at their house, Amelia has removed everything from her room and barely eats and refuses to go to school or to her music lessons because Tara told her that Lainey is refusing to go to her dream job because of her. Lainey makes a deal that Amelia has to put everything back in her room and eat and go to school and music lessons and even go to see a doctor, and if she does all those things, Lainey will accept her new job. Amelia agrees, but then bans Lainey from ever coming back.

—Gold Star

Olivia has just learned she's won a full ride scholarship to LSU. Since she's a senior, she only goes to school half days and goes to her job at a factory for the second part of her day. Her best friend Nora is there, too. Nora is 10 years older than Olivia with a daughter in middle school. Her mother tried to get the school to create a daycare so Nora, only in ninth grade at the time, could continue school but a preacher was brought in to teach abstinence instead. Olivia doesn't want to tell Nora that she's going to college after summer, but her boss is excited about the news and asks Olivia to come up with a project that Nora can do after she's gone.

When the boss gets back to work, Olivia immediately and ridiculously begs and pleads for Nora, who is sneaking liquor from a flask, to forgive her and she does. They gossip about high school boys, including one idiot who carried dirty panties around the cafeteria shouting mustard! at everyone, thrusting the panties in their faces, causing Amelia, who Nora says must be 20 by now, to come back to school the next day with an eyebrow shaved off. Nora thinks somebody should get back at that idiot. 

Later at Nora's house, Olivia's favorite place to be, Olivia tells a drunk Nora another story about a coach and a teacher having an affair, leaving their classrooms at 11:15 each day and meeting up in a handicapped bathroom stall, but Nora doesn't want to hear the story about the coach, who coincidentally is the same one who invited the preacher to talk about abstinence when she was in school. She wants to go to the mustard boy’s house and play a prank on him. She wants her daughter Casey, who she mocks by having her kindergarten report card covered with gold stars on it, the only thing she'll ever amount to, taped to the refrigerator, to find the boy's house, but then she remembers she knows where it is.

Nora, Casey, and Olivia go to the store and buy lots of mustard and then drive to the idiot boy’s house, spreading mustard all over everything. Nora, and Casey because she has to, then take Olivia's car, leaving her there, probably hoping she'll get in trouble and lose her scholarship. The house they vandalized wasn't mustard boy's, it was the coach’s. Olivia has to call her overly religious and pushy mom to come pick her up. Luckily while she was waiting and being lectured by the coach, she mentioned how grateful she is that the school has handicapped bathrooms that she somehow finds herself needing to use at 11:15 every day. The coach obviously picks up on the blackmail and Olivia doesn't get in trouble. 

At work the next day, Nora is distant and Olivia is angry. She makes a very detailed but simple project for Nora to do to earn gold stars and it's clear that Nora is fuming about it. She comes up and whispers in Olivia's ear that she's sorry and Olivia asks her to get an apartment with her when she goes to college, her plan all along because she's definitely got a crush on her older friend. It seems like maybe she'll think about it, but when Olivia gets off work later, she goes out to find her car completely covered in gold star stickers. 

—One Trick

Tess is nearly 30 now with a studious but inattentive military husband Paul and a four year old daughter, Summer. Tess is working in a library on the base where they live and earning her master's degree so she can become a Librarian and run a library instead of just working at one. She stays late at the library one night a week to have a play writing workshop with a few other people led by a grad student, Joel, who is just a few years younger than Tess.

Tess has a crush on Joel that he seems to reciprocate, but Tess remembers her wild drunken years and doesn't act on her feelings. The group critiques her play about Thea who was once a snake, then became a woman and a hawk, and most of the group doesn't really get it, but Joel might.

The next day, Tess and Summer go with Joel on a hike to record water sounds for another group member’s play performance and while they are out, a weird gang of maybe inbred vagrants approaches Summer. A giant of a man has a creepy woman harnessed to his back and she demands to see Summer, so he turns around and the woman grabs the little girl while two other women watch. Tess and Joel are shocked into stillness by what is happening, but when the woman grabs her daughter, Tess rushes in and eventually gets the woman to let go. When they get out the woods from their nightmare hike, Summer asking why they couldn't help the woman, Tess kisses Joel and they make out a little, but then she snaps back to her senses and drives home. 

Tess doesn't mention the creepy incident to anyone, not even Paul, who is studying for a military languages exam he'll be taking soon and not paying any attention to Tess or Summer. Tess looks through her old notebook and finds the note Sister Gail wrote in it all those years ago. Instead of asking her husband for help with the German the note is written in, she calls Joel and they go to the library to work on it. Tess remembers hearing that Sister Gail was accused of killing her evil German grandfather but doesn't know if that is true.

After Tess apologizes for making out with Joel, everything is fine and friendly. They translate the note which is an eerie set of instructions on how to find Sister Gail in the woods that they turn into a discussion for their writing group with steps of how to complete this weird journey, which include having an animal companion, losing a limb, and lots of carnage. Tess and her family will be moving soon after Paul passes his exam, so this is the last meeting they will have together. 

Paul passes his exam and wants to take Tess out on a date now that he's not so busy with his studying. They make reservations and hire a babysitter and everything, but then Paul ends up staying at work late helping his boss with a presentation. Tess goes on the date herself and tries to get Joel to come meet her several times throughout the night. She ends up sloppy drunk at a college bar doing some guy in the bathroom and when she steps out, Joel is there. He tries to sober her up and calls a cab to get her home. 

—Palsgrave House

Thea is in Palsgrave House. The doctor there insists that she has children that want her to return home but she has to be better first. She does not have children and all she wants is to ascend to meet the bright star in the sky. The doctor wraps Thea in blankets next to a fire in some sort of sweat treatment but she still won't admit that she has children. He tries another test, opening the door and seeing if she will flee and she runs, but the doctor and his nurses catch Thea before she can jump off the roof.

One day, the doctor puts Thea into a harness on his back and they, along with the nurses, go for a hike. While in the woods at a stream, they come across a being made of brilliant light. Thea wants to see, so the doctor turns around and crouches low enough for Thea to grab the being and squeeze it tight. She finally feels true happiness, but then a voice booms telling Thea the being does not belong to her. Thea recognizes the voice as her Creator and lets go. The doctor is pleased that Thea’s motherly instincts have returned.

That night, wishing for the star again, Thea hears from her Creator, telling her that she will help her. The Creator says that Thea must call her children and then she can be set free. Thea still doesn't believe she has children but calls the number directed to her by her Creator. She calls The Thompson residence and a young boy and girl answer the phone and tell her about dislocated shoulders and stolen dolls, then the voice of the Creator says she's putting the phone on speaker and mute so she can read aloud to her children. 

After the phone call ends, Thea tries again to escape, but the doctor catches her. This time, the nurses come to her aid and help her jump from the roof to a tall tree. She crashes through the branches, but before hitting the ground, she begins to ascend, floating in the sky toward her star, but before she reaches it, she gets stuck in space where it is too cold and impossible to breathe.

—Mama Prayed

Olivia, now 30, is riding a bike crosscountry with Valerie, her Irish friend turned something more. Olivia planned this bike ride down to the water stops but Valerie is content to stop and linger and explore. In South Dakota, Olivia realizes that Valerie is probably sick of her and that's why she keeps detouring, so she decides to let Valerie take the lead when she finally catches up after having stopped to look at a field of sunflowers that Olivia passed by without much thought. 

Instead of going to their motel, they take a side road and see a house with MAMA PRAYED painted on the side, scarecrows and pumpkins scattered around. They stop to take pictures even though Olivia really wants to continue on, and then a young man steps through the front door followed by another that looks exactly like him, and then another arrives in a sputtering truck. These triplets, Dean, Cal and Augustus, are an a cappella group called Mama Prayed and they sing the songs of the people around them, which makes them… not well liked. They ask Valerie and Olivia to take photos for their album because no one around them will help. With a shrug from Olivia, they agree.

The brothers offer to share their dinner with Olivia and Valerie as they wait for the sun to be just right for optimal photo lighting, and they sing a song. It's eerie but beautiful and Valerie is enthralled. She calls them a Goth-Horror band and they talk more about their stories, Valerie saying her childhood was not pretty, but then refuses to share. The brothers seem demanding of it, almost like the stories are payment, so Olivia tells a story instead.

Gail Liebrecht was a teenager in Olivia's hometown and her family thought she was evil. They brought her German grandfather to stay with them and locked Gail in a shed for two years. When she finally escaped, rumors spread that she killed her grandfather, but did she? Either way, someone in that family was evil. After the story, the brothers begin to ask about German words and then sing to a track that sounds like Für Elise but somehow different. The song is almost painful and very very creepy and the women decide they need to get the fuck out of there, but the brothers are creepy and don't easily let them leave, though they manage to get away.

They rush back to the field of sunflowers and decide that yeah, they probably almost just died back there, but then Olivia tells Valerie that she must be getting sick of her by now and if she wants to continue the ride alone or just call it quits, she'll understand. Valerie is shocked. Olivia is her favorite person. She explains that she was fired from her job, but they are keeping her on the payroll until the end of her trip and that she will have to return to Ireland when the bike ride is over. Olivia invites Valerie to move in with her, but then they hear the sound of the brothers’ truck and go deeper into the field.

—Slovenly Tess

Tess, Paul, Summer and baby PJ have landed in Germany for Paul's new assignment. Tess has been cheating off and on with other men since that sloppy night in the bar and now in Germany will have a fresh start, or the chance to start a new fling with someone else. They make it to their new home for the next two years, what was supposed to be a duplex suddenly switching to a six floor walk-up. Paul’s knee is bad but he won't complain or try to make things better just like with literally everything else in their lives. Tess is pretty fed up.

Summer has been reading books in German to learn and Tess got her an old creepy one full of strange folktales from the library before they left. Summer recently read one about a scissor man who cuts off babies’ thumbs when they suck them, so Summer has started pulling baby PJ’s thumb from his mouth whenever she notices. PJ doesn't get upset though because PJ has never cried, not once. It's troubling to Tess but doctors have said he's fine. She really wants him to cry though, just so she can believe he's normal. 

Another military family tries to help them feel welcome and the young mom, Patricia, visits Tess in her apartment. She brushes a hair away from Tess’s eye and it turns out it's a long gross eyebrow hair that she goes to the bathroom to yank out. In another of Summer’s German stories, there is a character called Slovenly Peter. Tess is becoming pretty slovenly herself with this weird hair and her ragged nails and knotted hair with dandruff. 

The family invites them to a picnic. Paul is fake nice and Patricia’s husband Dom is surly and the children play, but when they start screaming, the play stops. They were just retelling one of the creepy stories, but Patricia doesn't allow her son to read things like that, so the picnic ends quickly and awkwardly, though there are flirty looks from Tess to Dom. 

Behind their apartment is a beautiful forest where Tess takes her children for a walk. She begins writing a story about Thea who is in search of a baby who never cries in the hopes of making him cry. They walk to the middle of the forest and she tries to force the baby to cry, but not by hurting him or anything. His face turns red and his chin quivers.

—Hintergarmisch

Thea and her new companion, a red fox, are on a quest to find a shed in the middle of the woods. They overcome many hardships together and rescue each other many times. Thea still dreams of ascending to the stars, but for now, she must complete this quest. She loses an eye in a fight with a hawk to protect her red fox but still they go on. The red fox finds a stream with clear, cool, delicious water, a stream that Thea knows is part of a prophecy that she must fulfill. 

They follow the stream and find people destroying trees and avoid them. They finally see the shed but as they approach, Thea steps in a bear trap. An angry old man tries to attack her while two others lurk nearby, but Thea and the red fox manage to kill the man. She has to cut off her leg below the knee to free herself from the trap, but they manage that as well. After some time healing, but not enough time, and after more wounds and trials, they arrive at the shed and find a young girl inside with a rope tied around her ankle. The shed is surrounded by wraiths, but Thea is able to free the girl and take her place. She sends the girl and her red fox away together while she becomes a wraith. Even though it's not the ending she would have chosen, she can still look up and see her star, and she now sees it with perfect clarity. 

—Banned

Some twenty years have passed for Lainey. She is happily married and has an amazing, artsy adult stepdaughter, Mina, who has just dropped out of law school. Lainey is supposed to be visiting her dad back home in Louisiana for his 75th birthday, but she is still banned from going home by Amelia. Over the years, the ban has spread, not just from home, but to their town and then their parish and finally the entire state. Lainey's dad wants her to come but she's feeling very panicky about it after receiving a letter from Amelia that read in bold letters DON'T EVER COME BACK TO LOUISIANA YOU ARE BANNED. While that sounds horrible, the rest of the letter actually tells Lainey how great she is and that she doesn't need to look back on her past. It's very sweet. 

Lainey and Mina set off on a road trip to Louisiana but as Lainey drives, her panic overwhelms her and she ends up driving 400 miles right back to where they started, but still feeling like she can't go home, to any home, they get a cabin. Mina explains why she dropped out of law school (because she plagiarized lots of papers because she doesn't really want to be a lawyer but instead she wants to be an artist and she's really really talented), and expects Lainey to be disappointed but she's really not. They try again for Louisiana the next day with Mina driving.

They get close to the border of Texas and Louisiana but Lainey panics again, refusing to cross the state line. Mina pulls over and they go for a hike to calm down, though Mina is following her GPS to a pinned location. The pin is Lainey's dad, just on the other side of the river in Louisiana. Amelia is there, too. Lainey's dad tosses a walkie-talkie across the river and after some back and forth and through various deals, the sisters agree to sit together in the river. 

—Jesus & Booze 

Olivia goes to visit her mother after being away for 20 years, minus the visit a few years ago when her dad died. She goes without Valerie because she thinks they might be getting sick of each other. Olivia's mom picks her up from the airport and they go to church and Olivia hates it. She looks around to see if she recognizes anyone and spots Minnie Thompson with literally a gaggle of children. She then sees Nora in the back, but on second glance, it's not Nora, it's Casey, Nora’s daughter. After church, Olivia spots Casey again, standing with a group of people and they are all glaring at her. Casey approaches and asks Olivia to go to brunch. At first, Olivia thinks Casey is leading her to the middle of nowhere for nefarious reasons, but they walk to a local brunch spot and sit for a meal. It is not at all pleasant.

Olivia mentions Valerie a little but then Casey basically tells Olivia how horrible she has always been. How she always trash talks people and thinks she's better than everyone. How she felt so alone back when whatever was going on between Olivia and Nora, but then how Nora would make fun of Olivia after she left. Before leaving, Casey asks to borrow Olivia's phone and steps out of the restaurant, Olivia again thinking nefarious things because why wouldn't she after their exchange, but Casey comes back and returns Olivia's phone. 

On the phone, she sees a text exchange between herself, actually Casey, and Valerie in which “Olivia” tells Valerie she's flying back home the same day because she thinks something bad might happen to her if she doesn't. Then she asks why Valerie loves her and Valerie shares many reasons why and it's very sweet. 

—Sistercreature

After spending the first part of her life with nothing but her family, no toys or trinkets, kept in a shed and told she was evil by her German grandfather, Gail “Carrington” has become a successful member of society with a daughter that looks almost exactly like her, so similar that sometimes people think they are sisters. After her time in the shed and that short evening with the Thompson kids and stealing the creepy ass doll, Gail went to live with her aunt and helped make her event planning business a rousing success. 

Now, many years later at a multi-million dollar event for Google, Gail is likely having a breakdown. She's been suffering from insomnia and has maybe been stalking her daughter. She was on the subway and heard her real name sung a cappella playing on someone else's phone, but could never find the song or anything about it, and since then, things have been bad. She loses time a lot. Her friend and coworker Luca tries to help her, offers to let her go home and rest after planning such an amazing event. She planned it so well that she can take off and let everyone else handle the evening. Instead of going home, Gail goes to a park where a woman in red rubber boots hits her in the back of the head, maybe with a rock, maybe with her fist. Gail tries to follow and ends up in a weird room with a dirty old mattress on the floor.

She leaves, tries to go back to work but ends up standing motionless outside her daughter's townhouse for hours until the police come and warn her that if she returns again, she will be issued an order of protection and forced to stay away. Gail goes back to the event but sees the woman in boots again. She follows her to the weird room, but it's not dirty and gross this time, it's nice, filled with things she never had before. 

The woman is a doppelganger of Gail. No, that's not quite right. A sort of sister? Another version of herself? The evil version that her grandfather warned her of before they, she and the sistercreature whose name starts with Th, killed him with a rock. Did Gail do it? Did Th? Gail tried to escape once, went to a gas station and asked for help in German, but was only laughed at. She went back to the shed where she stayed voluntarily because she was told she was evil and then killed her grandfather. 

After having her daughter Kate at 19, all Gail has wanted is to protect her. Sometimes they need to stay in a cabin and reset themselves with fasting and no furniture, but at least they have electricity and running water, something she never had growing up. She doesn't want Kate to know anything about her childhood and teenage years. She has to keep her safe from the evils that are lurking in. 

Now, in the room with the sistercreature, they rest together topless on a bed. Strangers come in and see Gail maybe holding a snake or some other violently hissing creature. The sistercreature explains that she's existed since the beginning of time and the evil is coming. Kate comes in, telling Gail that Luca has called an ambulance, and tries to pull her from the room, but Gail and the sistercreature stay. They know that the girl is different from them, that they will face the end together.

—The Strays

Summer comes to visit Tess and PJ before leaving for a job in Barcelona. Tess is 51 now, running a very cool and unique research library. PJ left school at 17 and is taking various courses and learning interesting things at the library. Tess divorced Paul and is happier without being married. Paul is happy, too. So is PJ. Summer is not. Not really. She's a successful athlete, but she's got hangups about Tess. 

The last time they were together, when Summer graduated college, Tess, Paul and PJ visited, but Tess stayed longer to help Summer pack. Summer was excited to talk through a lot of things with her mom, but Tess got violently drunk instead. It started with one glass of wine but quickly became Tess drinking all the alcohol in the house Summer shared with three roommates. Tess sloppily said she was divorcing Paul. Tess said she used to be a slut and has no idea who Summer's father is. Tess slept in a roommate's bed and peed in it. It's understandable that Summer has issues. 

Summer told her mom and brother she was staying for a few days before her flight, but has changed her mind. She wants to leave immediately after seeing Tess happily writing her stories and running the library and helping researchers. She is put off by all of this for some reason. That night, Summer shares PJ’s guest house. He shows her around and points out all the neat things he's learned from fellows at the research library. Soot fabric dyeing techniques, weaving, all sorts of things about all sorts of bugs and snails and small creatures, things completely different than anything Summer has ever done.

PJ gets Summer to open up and she explains the drunken night and PJ slow claps at his sister for realizing that their mom is a real human with problems. Sure, it's understandable that Summer needed her mom and was upset at her for being drunk, but it's also okay for Tess to be a different person now than she was before. PJ and Tess see the world differently than Summer does, and that's okay. 

That night, sleeping on PJ’s sofa in a room with a wall of windows and a skylight revealing the stars, Summer looks up to see what looks like a person in the rafters, staring down at her. After being freaked out, she realizes it's not an actual person and pulls down a giant weighted doll, dyed in shades of dark gray and black. She knows this to be a representation of Thea from her mom's stories that PJ has made. No longer afraid and maybe understanding more about her mom and brother, Summer sleeps soundly for the first time in a long time. 

The next day, Summer goes to the main house to find Tess and PJ in recliners, enjoying their own activities. She asks if she can stay until her flight like originally planned and of course Tess is excited. She offers to cook a meal for her daughter and brings out a lot of her favorite things and makes delicious pancakes. While they eat, Summer asks if Tess would still love her if she was going to Barcelona not for a job but because she is starting a cult, and of course Tess would. Then they brainstorm all different kinds of cults and decide the cult they are creating isn't actually a cult, but maybe they are the only ones that understand the universe.