It was late in the night. Cat was soundly asleep in her bed when the door was violently thrown open. The carry-on flew for a meter and clattered on the floor, awakening the girl. Anyone could tell the woman was drunk from the way she sidled into the room. The bedroom lights were all on according to Cat’s trap design.
“You little whore!” Mrs. Wallenstein screeched. Sorry for breaking it up to you, reader, but this woman too doesn’t deserve a given name in this narrative. Fight me.
Cat could tell Catherine was traumatized by it. Even her physical body seemed to know what was coming as she started to sweat.
A woman that looked like an older version of Catherine straightened herself and stomped a beeline towards the bed. A quick glance at the window showed it was late in the evening.
“Good evening, mother. Glad to see you’re okay after eight months without a single visitation. I was discharged from the hospital today, did you hear?” She cheekily greeted her, stoking the fires of the older woman’s temper tantrum with her passive-aggressive discourse. Cat also repositioned herself to show a better angle to the hidden laptop computer.
“Don’t you talk back to me, young lady!” She shouted and slapped Cat’s face. It stung and her eyes started to tear up.
Ignoring the ghost, Cat glanced at the hidden camera lens before staring at her mother.
“Ouch, mom! What did I do to deserve it?” Cat rubbed her bruised cheek and let some tears streak. “I missed you! Is that how you greet your own daughter. Eww, your breath stink of booze.”
“You little wench, how dare you to block my bank account? Do you know how ashamed I was when I was told my checks bounced?” The drunkard screamed and prepared to slap Cat once more.
It stung but Cat didn’t try to evade the strike. The slap rang across the bedroom and Cat shouted in pain.
“How could I block your bank account from the hospital, mom?” She asked.
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Internally, Cat knew what happened. It was obvious that Mrs. Wallenstein was leeching off the girl’s money for whatever spendthrift reasons. From the financial reports Oliver produced, the household expenditures were unsustainable. The woman was dragging Catherine so deep in debt she would need to claim bankruptcy.
Too bad she’d withdrawn the powers of attorney she granted Mrs. Wallenstein over her finances months ago. The matriarch had burned all her share of her late husband’s inheritance on charity fundraisers, parties, and fancy margaritas over the years. Lately, she was mooching off of Catherine’s trust fund and money reserves like a starving Dracula after a few centuries of slumber.
In his late wisdom, Catherine’s father set up his will to ensure the girl’s livelihood, leaving the physical assets and most of the family’s fortune to a trust fund on the girl’s behalf. To his prodigal wife, he left a lot of hard cash he knew would distract her from his true intentions. But the sky was the limit and the woman drowned her widowy sorrows with truckloads of dead presidents.
The only silver lining was that she donated most of her bequeathed fortune to charity institutions. She was well-known for that and was pampered and well-received at several fundraisers on both sides of the Hudson. It was how she got her endorphin highs to complement her alcoholic-indulgent proclivities. Most of the time she took Catherine along to parade the girl to prospective marriage partners, at least that was Cat’s assumption.
After losing access to Catherine’s dwindling funds, however, everything crumbled down like a house of cards. She was publicly shamed by her leeching fundraiser associates and now was taking it on the culprit. Mrs. Wallenstein was broke and bankrupt, and Cat knew that.
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Mrs. Wallenstein screamed as she kept hitting and shaking Cat around. After being crushed by a falling person and enduring hospitalization, Cat relied on her gifted powers of regeneration to endure the punishment. Another trait from Catherine that was ingrained in her new body. The girl was used to being beaten, something Cat decided would end that night.
Cat had to endure the physical punishment and the ghost’s keening. It was the only way she could think of to end this abuse once and for all.
“I removed you from my bank account, mom. You were spending too much money. What did you do with your share of father’s inheritance?” She explained once the woman stopped the beating to catch her breath.
Cat made sure to try to defend itself, offering her forearms and elbows to the offending slapping hands. Like a boxer, she attempted to tire her adversary.
“Don’t you dare talk back to me, young lady! You are my child, your money is mine!” She screamed back and resumed her aggression.
Cat was glad the woman wasn’t striking to wound, just to humiliate. It still hurt but it was only bruised skin and flesh. Her delicate complexion would be badly swollen come morning but she was kind of counting on it. To be honest, Catherine’s mental whimpering and cringing hurt almost as much as the physical beating.
The woman tore Cat’s nightgown out, leaving the girl half-naked. She scratched Cat with her fingernails as she kept screaming and demanding money.
“I’m an adult now, mom. I took the reins of my financial life back. Thank you for all you’ve done so far but I think you should handle only your own money now. I need to learn how to fend for myself.”
“Ahhhhhhhhh!” The woman stopped using language and redoubled on her violence. Berserking, she went for Cat’s face and got a few scratches in before Esmeralda barged into the room and grabbed the household matron’s arms from behind.
“Stop it, madam!” Esmeralda pleaded.
Cat used the opportunity to scuttle to the end of the bed near the couch with the hidden camera. She kept staring at the wrestling women as she assessed the damage to her body. She then took advantage of their momentary distraction to stare at the camera and mouth, “No more.”
The drunk house matron finally ran out of stamina and yielded. Esmeralda let go of her and the woman withdrew to her own chambers.
Esmeralda approached and took a good look at Cat’s wounds, “You poor thing! Let me get the first-aid kit.”
She took the first aid kit from a cabinet on top of the bookcase. Cat noticed how both of them seemed to be used to do that. Esmeralda spent the next half-hour treating Cat’s wounds but the girl refused to let her dress them. Everything that happened was recorded on camera, live-streamed to cloud storage.
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“Does the door have a lock?” Cat asked.
“Yes, but the madam forbids...” Esmeralda trailed off when Cat frowned.
“Look, Esmeralda. The house is mine, the money to pay the bills and wages of this household comes from my account. Oliver has it all secured. It is due time I take the reigns of what is mine. Mother will… either change her ways or have change forced upon her. She won’t fire any of you and she won’t run or freely rule this place any longer. Lockdown all the alcohol and non-essential rooms. She will probably sleep until early morning. Would you please get me my phone?”
Esmeralda's brown eyes were wide with surprise and awe. They moistened up and she threw herself upon Cat, giving her another of her branded bear hugs. Cat endured the stinging bruises and hugged her back. “Oh, Cathy! How have I waited for this moment!” She finally let some of her Spanish accent show.
Catherine didn’t dress up. She stood in front of the camera in her underwear, the torn nightgown in one hand and the phone in the other.
With her phone in hand, Cat dialed 911 and reported her assault. She assured the officer on the line she was in no danger but requested a patrol car nonetheless. After the emergency call ended, she called Oliver and requested his presence. The lawyer grumbled and attempted to dissuade her by charging double for overtime service, which Cat accepted with a chuckle. A few minutes later, the house was illuminated by red and blue lights. Esmeralda let the officers in the house and into Catherine’s bedroom.
Only after the officers saw her wounds she covered her modesty with a robe.
The officers interviewed Cat about what happened and she opened the computer to copy the video to a thumb drive. She gave them her statement and handed over the evidence. She clearly stated it was a common occurrence and she felt her life was in danger. She also explained why she set up the trap with the camera but the officers told her she did the right thing. They were collecting Esmeralda’s statement when the lawyer showed up.
Oliver’s eyes took in the sorry state Cat was in with her swollen cheeks and took over the situation. In front of the officers, Catherine asked Oliver to start a lawsuit for damages and request a restraining order against her biological mother.
“It must be done,” she answered the ghost out loud. “I intend to get her interned in a rehabilitation house but if she doesn’t accept it, I am fully willing to move forward with the charges.”
The female officer of the duo nodded in agreement. Oliver was clearly bothered and fighting off a conflict of interest but he knew Mrs. Wallenstein had no money to fight off the lawsuits. Catherine’s mother was a client of his law firm. Was being the keyword, Cat hoped.
Cat intended to push her biological mother straight into filing a chapter 7 claim. It was the only way to get her out of the massive debt she accrued and give her a clean slate to restart her life however she wanted. As callous as it sounded, Cat felt no compelling reason to let the older woman’s indulgent and wastrel behavior continue. To the gender-bent girl, even jail was better than was the current status quo.
All the while, Catherine kept sobbing and whimpering in Cat’s mind. The ghostly girl was clearly distraught by the drama unfolding in front of her borrowed eyes.
The officers went to the woman’s bedroom to attempt to talk to her. She’d barricaded herself once she noticed the patrol car lights and was currently screaming at the cops behind her door. She started to swear and curse at them, threatening to sue them if they didn’t leave the house.
Oliver and Cat were left alone in the bedroom as Esmeralda slipped out.
“Look, I don’t recommend dragging your own mother to court,” Oliver counseled in private. “She doesn’t have anything to her name anyway and it will hurt your sexual assault litigation. You must seem like a frail girl, not a scheming fiend that would put her own mother in jail over money.”
“Thanks, Oliver. I will try to give this conundrum the best outcome, but I can’t let this aggression continue.”
He smiled to reassure her, “it’s my job to give you the full legal consequences of any actions, Catherine. However, I believe you did the right thing. Let me help you once more. I’m going out to keep your mother from being arrested now.”
“Please do. Thank you, Oliver. It means a lot to me.”
The lawyer nodded, “I appreciate it. Don’t worry and let me do my job.”
Oliver let Cat alone in her room and went to witness the developing situation. Cat dragged herself into the closet to get some clothes on. She winced as the fabric rubbed on her bruises and cuts but they were scabbing already. Not as fast as the cat scratch but she believed her preternatural recovery was tied to how wounded she was. It did take eight months to bring her from the broken heap on the pavement to full health with medical help, after all. It could be losing its efficacy too. She had no way to know.
Once decent, she joined Oliver and the cops by her biological mother’s door. The woman was going through the stages of grief and was now begging the police to depart.
“I told them you are the property’s legal owner,” Oliver reported to Cat once she reached them. “How do you want to proceed?”
“We can arrest her if you want, miss,” the female officer suggested but her tone implied it was an idea she wasn’t behind. “Despite being your mother, it is your house. You can declare she’s trespassing.”
“Wait,” Cat said placatingly. “Let me talk to her. Don’t leave, though,” she hurriedly added at the end. They shuffled around in the corridor and Cat put a hand on the door. “Mom, it’s me, Catherine.”
“Go away!” The woman screamed from the other side.
Cat sighed. “Mom, if you keep misbehaving, the police will have to arrest you. They could do that since you offended them already. Do you want to go to jail, mom?”
“No, you miscreant child of mine,” she hissed back.
“Mom, the rules in this house will change as of today. I’m in charge now. You can stay but as a guest, not as the boss. Will you behave or do I have to evict you?”
[Sorry, I have to do this. It is for our own good and hers too,] Cat replied by sub-vocalization. “Mom, will you give me another beating?”
“Please, Mrs. Wallenstein,” Oliver entered the debacle. “The police officers have other issues to attend to. Can you promise them you’ll behave and stay in your room? More importantly, you need to stop beating your daughter.”
“We’ll have to arrest you otherwise, Mrs. Wallenstein,” the female officer added, playing the part of the ‘bad cop’.
“Fine! Fine! Just begone! I disown you, Catherine! You hear me! You are no daughter of mine anymore!”
“Do what you think you should, mom. Just play by the new rules,” Cat said to the door and heard the woman move away. She turned to address the trio standing by the corridor. “I think we’re done now, gentlemen. Thank you for your assistance. I’ll pay your precinct a visit tomorrow if you need me. You can contact me through my counselor Oliver here.”
“We are glad to assist, miss Wallenstein,” the female cop replied. “We’re also glad this can be settled without anyone getting arrested. I’m keeping the thumb drive for safekeeping if you don’t mind.”
“Oliver, I won’t press charges at this time. Can you see the kind officers out?”
“I can, Catherine. I’ll leave you two alone. This way, officers,” the lawyer guided them through the corridors. He and the police officers exchanged business cards as they went. Cat was left alone before Mrs. Wallenstein’s door. Once the silence settled, she heard a bottle sloshing and the older woman’s sobbing.
“What a mess, mom. This didn’t need to happen.”
“Go away!” The woman slurred and whimpered. She needed but a sip of alcohol to sink back to her drunkard demeanor.
“Stop drinking, mom. You need help. You need to stay clean. You need rehabilitation. Say, do you want to go to a hotel?” Cat offered.
“Fuck you, murder-whore!” Mrs. Wallenstein drawled and gulped more liquor. “Are you going to crush me to death too? Wasn’t it enough to kill your own father and now an innocent man?”
Catherine kept crying inside Cat’s head. Apparently, the ghost kept some secrets from her but she didn't intend to force her into revealing that dark past yet. She put a hand on the door and said her piece.
“Heavens knows I tried, mom. Know what? I’m going to save you no matter what. I’ll do it for old Catherine’s sake.”
With that said, Cat went back to her own room and picked up the carry-on. Then she heard Mr. Mouser mewl. The furry freak was on the bed, sniffing the torn nightgown and licking his paw.
“Please, Mr. Mouser. Can we be friends?” Cat asked. The cat hissed at her and jumped off the bed, strutting around the girl and out of the bedroom.
Cat counted that as a small victory. She thought she had too much excitement for the evening. She was about to bar the pet door when Oliver came knocking. She opened the door and invited the lawyer to sit on the couch with her.
“If you allow, I’m going to sleep in a guest room so we can go to New York early in the morning tomorrow.”
Cat nodded. “Thanks, Oliver. I know you’ll wave it off as I’m paying you twice your usual rate today, but you went beyond duty.”
Oliver sighed and patted her head. “I told you, your father was a friend of mine, Catherine. I’m sorry you have to go through all this. Know that he loved you.”
Cat couldn’t hold back the tears. It was easy as she only needed to go along with the wailing phantom in her head. The bawling Catherine would be out of breath already if it was possible for a ghost.
“Thank you, Oliver. But I’m not paying you to sleep,” she joked and chuckled between sobs.
“I think I can wave off my overnight rates, as a prize for your bravery,” he jested back.
Cat chuckled and sniffled. Oliver offered her a handkerchief. “So cliché,” she mumbled before she accepted and blew on it.
They chatted for a while before Oliver went off to bed. Her mind was running at full sped and she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. Alone with her mind-tenant, Cat decided to have a conversation inside the jacuzzi.