Undead Friend

Molly was a quiet eleven year old girl living in a dismal council estate. She was being raised in a home with parents who lived on welfare. However her parents would frequently pretend to be successful business executives with plenty of wealth. Wearing cheap suits from charity shops they would frequently go round pretending to any wealthy people who were daft enough to listen to them. They would also force Molly to go round her school on her own boasting about having spoken to executives to other children. Being left alone with no friends, Molly would frequently end up in situations where other children would get jealous and beat her up in an attempt to get money out of her. When she didn't have anything, her parents were very pretentious after all, this was cause her to be bullied even more. Then when she couldn't bring home any wealthy children, of which there weren't any on the council estates anyway, her parents would beat her and thrash her badly. Molly would then sit in her room crying every night. However, one event changed all of this.

Molly's parents had began to tell their usual lies to a bearded old man in a suit with a walking stick. He seemed to believe them and offered to be their friend. He then invited Molly and her parents into his car to take them to an elegant banquet. This was an offer that her parents couldn't refuse. Molly, dressed in a cheap second hand dress that smelled of dust and old shoes, was taken with them. "My name is Beast" said the old gentleman. "Nice to meet you. I'll drive you all there." They were driven into a rural estate deep in the forest full of old places of worship. They were taken into a mansion with gothic looking windows and turrets. Beast seemed very unemotional and serious all the time. "Please wait here" he said, leading them into the main hall in his mansion. A butler will come to serve you. "Let's look around here" said Molly's dad. "See what we can steal."

Looking around the mansion they noticed it was full of cupboards. They tried the doors but they were all locked. The handles creaked loudly as they were turned. "These door are so old and rotton I bet we can prize them open with something" said Molly's dad. They began looking around the room. "Look!" said Molly's mum. "There's a samurai sword up there. We can use that. I bet he's stashed lots of treasure behind it." At that moment a butler came in and offered to lead them to a table. Molly's parents decided to wait for a better chance. They were lead to a banquet where they ate well. There were plenty of luxury meats with exotic sauces and dressings. In the meantime Molly's mum whispered to her to go prize open a cupboard with the samurai sword. She muttered and excuse and slid Molly away from the table where she was sent on her own to the hall. Molly went into the hall and, climbing up onto a chest of draws, took down the samurai sword. She then began to hack at the door handle with it and it broke off.

Inside the cupboard it was very dusty and dark. Molly then noticed a coffin inside it. Curiously she went and slid the lid off the coffin. Inside was a girl of about Molly's age wearing a slightly torn lacy dress and barefoot. She was seemingly asleep but suddenly she opened her eyes. "You brought me here from hell" she said. "My name is Xanthe. What's yours?" "Molly" said Molly. "I'm sorry to have woken you." "That's all right" said Xanthe. "I just haven't seen another human in over two hundred years. My soul lives with demons you see." "Can we be friends?" asked Molly. "Sure" said Xanthe. "You call me in your mind and I'll come to you." Molly was excited because she's never had a friend before, even if her friend was an undead girl who befriended demons. "Do you have any treasure?" Asked Molly, knowing her parents would beat her if she didn't find any. "No, sorry" said Xanthe, "but if you're ever in danger I can help you. You can call on me in your mind."

Molly went back to the meal as her parents were being offered a bed for the night. That night Molly began to have visions of Xanthe being subjected to painful procedures including having sharp metal objects stuck into her and being offered up to strange creatures. She began to wonder if Xanthe was spilling her sorrows out to her. The next day at school what happened had somehow got around and Molly was being subjected to numerous beatings pff bullies. After school a girl jumped on her and began scratching her and pulling her hair. "Xanthe, help!" thought Molly. At that moment Xanthe appeared and pulled the girl off her. Xanthe then tore into the bully's chest and ripped out her heart and ate it. The other bullies fled in terror. Molly was so thankful. No one had ever stood up for her before.

That night Molly began talking to Xanthe in her head. Xanthe would respond by giving her visions of her life in the eighteenth century. She mentioned how she was executed at age eleven for her parents' behavior, offering her to dark beasts and that Beast had bought her body and kept it. The next day word had got around school about Xanthe and children were ganging up on her heavily. Event he teachers ganged up on her as they knew that there was a death and they had Molly arrested. In the cell Molly realized there was only one thing to do and that was to call on Xanthe to take her away. "Very well" said Xanthe. "I can do that for you. You can come to my home in hell with me but you will never be able to return to this life." "That's fine" said Molly. "Take me with you. I have nothing to live for anyway." Xanthe agreed and at that moment Molly's body burst into flames. She was burned to death in seconds. When Molly's body was found in the cell there were just ashed left. But other people would never know that Molly had been freed from her misery to live with her new friend where she would have no more suffering.