A Man in a Woman's Body: The Story of a Habentem #Wattys2016 #JustWriteIt

Chapter 22 - The shiralee

I stepped out onto the concrete footpath gingerly, checking over my shoulder as I went. I was worried that Julia would have possessed some of her neighbours and that she would catch us before we could hide up on Tony's balcony behind the overgrown wisteria. The street was quiet except for a cat that stood at Tony's front gate and eyed us off suspiciously. Once we encroached on the cat's personal space it darted off.

"It's this house over here Father" I said motioning to Tony's house "It's owned by my friend Tony. Come, he won't mind us sitting in his old art deco lounges on the balcony"

"Thanks they look comfortable. What back up plan do we have? Should we call the Police for good measure?" I looked around at Reggie and noticed her holding her hands back awkwardly, she had a backup plan, it was knives, and they were up her sleeves.

"Why don't you put the Police number in your phone ready to speed dial them if we have to. We don't want to call them out for nothing" quipped Reggie smartly. As we sat down in the chairs a cloud of dust puffed up from the disused lounges and Father began coughing.

"Oh sorry about that Father" I said and Reggie looked over at me and smiled, she had positioned herself to sit closest to the front door and the footpath up which Alicia or Julia would come. The Priest was sitting next to Reggie I was at the rear of the line, furthest from the front door. It made me feel guilty that I was putting these good people into danger.

"So Father why do you think Julia is doing this?" I said to pass the time.

"It's my philosophy that people have four basic fundamental human drives, which are a sense of power over your life, secondly the need for intimacy in a deep relationship, the need for belonging to a social group and the desire for success. I think it is the contradiction between our human drives that fuels the story of our lives. In this case Julia is seeking to hold a power she never had, to have a relationship like she never had, she is seeking belonging and success."

"Wow that's deep" said Reggie.

"Did you see that car?" I said.

"There's too much wisteria to see much" said Reggie.

"I think it was a Lamborghini" said the Priest.

"That's what I thought. Someone mysteriously gifted one of those to my friend who lives here. I wouldn't mind betting it's Julia." We could hear the car park nearby and soon afterwards we heard the sound of the door closing. Then was came the unmistakable sound of high heels clip clopping there way up the concrete footpath. I could hear both Father Michael and Reggie holding their breath. Soon Alicia came around the corner but she must have known we were coming because she had a large clear umbrella that was opened and pointed out at us so that she could use it as a shield against holy water. She had obviously learnt her lesson the hard way once.

"I don't really need this you know" said Alicia "I have fully possessed this body and holy water will not dislodge me or my power!" and she began to laugh a maniacal cackle.

"Why don't you put it down and we'll see what happens" said Reggie provokingly. Father then began reading prayers from his bible. Now the gravely mysterious voice spoke up again from my voicebox.

"Tordan, is that you? Reveal yourself!"

"I'm not so stupid as to let that old Habentem in. I tricked him back into a stasis reliquary" said Alicia with a foxy look on her face.

"Who belongs to that gravelly voice?" I said.

"Did you not read the book before you thrust yourself out of your own body Hugo? You have a Habentem named Susi travelling inside you as a passenger. You need my help to get it out" Alicia started drawing closer to us as she said this.