“Tina come over here.” she spoke softly and watched as Tina eased the tension on her eyes and peeked with one eye first. She opened them both and let go of the breathe she was holding. “Come here.” Angela demanded this time more forceful than the last. Tina went over to her mother and she grabbed Tina’s arm. “Open your hand.” Tina did and she saw a small beating heart in her hand. Her first instinct was to drop it on the floor and her mother knew that.

“The only reason why you’re holding this is because you obviously have a connection with her that could not be penetrated from another realm.” that for some reason made Tina feel a little bit happy. Although at this point she wasn’t sure whether or not that was a bad thing. “Touch here,” she said grabbing Tina’s hand placing it on Bette’s stomach. The texture of her skin felt like a balloon full of hot water. She could still see the red mark on her stomach and as she looked at it further she could see it spinning in circles. “Take the heart and place it directly in the circle.” Tina did and saw how Bette’s flesh seemed to grab hold of it and meld with the beating heart. Angela saw Tina’s hands start to shimmer green, Tina was amazed because she had never seen this before. Like an instinct she pushed down on the heart and felt it enter into Bette’s body.

She watched as Bette turned on her side holding her stomach and moan. Tina saw the ball move further up Bette’s body each way making Bette move and moan in pain. When it reached her lungs she sat up and began breathing fast and deep breaths almost like she was drowning. Angela had never seen that before. Again without direction or encouragement Tina placed her palm over the red light and moved her hand over it. She moved it throughout Bette’s chest and up her neck and through her throat, she watched as Bette spit out the still spinning red ball.

“Put it in the sack, Christina.”

Tina did as she was told and handed it back over to her mother who placed the small sack in her jacket pocket. Tina went to go remove the now snake skull and teeth from Bette’s neck when her mother yelled at her, “No! She needs that to keep these wounds open. If you take it out she’ll be scarred. Use this,” she threw another sack at Tina. “Rub her body down slowly and do the snake skull last. Okay?”