Part 2

As Bill walked quickly down the gravel road leading to his house, he wanted to know if the rumour was true. Several thoughts were going through his mind at the same time. If it was true, it had to be bad genes from her mother's side of the family. No one in the Baker family tree had been cursed by MORFS. This disease had afflicted the sinful people of Earth for almost fifty years, but the Baker family had been faithful and pure. They had been spared the stigma of a cursed child, until today.

After arriving at the house, he was about to yell for Elizabeth when he saw Annie standing in the living room. He didn't trust himself to say anything. Instead, he pulled off his boots and coat, dropping them on the floor and climbed the stairs. He saw the IV unit attached to Elizabeth's arm and his heart sank. The rumour was true. His beautiful little girl had been cursed with MORFS. Bill held her hand and prayed for her soul, but knew what had to be done. He heard Annie saying something from the doorway, but wasn't paying attention. He needed to get her out of the house to prepare for the next few days.

"Thanks for helping so much, Annie," he said. Bill didn't want to give anything away to the young girl, so he continued to look at what remained of his daughter. "You should head home now. I can take care of Elizabeth until she's over this." Annie stood at the doorway for a moment but didn't say anything. She turned and headed down the stairs before going out the front door a few moments later.

Once alone, he began looking up information on the computer, making plans. Since he walked back and forth to the school, he didn't own a car. However, he knew where he would be able to get access to one of the four wheel bikes that were used for hunting. He just needed to make sure that no one would see him take it. The owner would notice soon enough and report it stolen, so that had to be left to the very end.

Over the next day or two, Bill completely ignored Elizabeth. She would sleep for hours at a time and he would occasionally hear her moving around. She was likely waking up to use the bathroom or to get cleaned up, but he didn't look in on her until the third day. That was the day that he committed himself to getting the unsavoury job done.

He waited until he heard Elizabeth moving around before heading up the stairs. He might have been able to do the work while she was unconscious, but it would likely make too much noise. He didn't want to raise any suspicions, and he didn't want to take any chances. As Bill got to the top of the stairs, he almost panicked. The curse had changed Elizabeth into an abomination. Instead of his beautiful, little girl coming out of the bathroom, he saw a monster with a bed sheet wrapped around itself.

It was taller than he was, well over two meters with white hair over its entire body, thick neck muscles and powerful arms and legs. Its face still had a human appearance, but had a slight muzzle shape to it. Its face was hauntingly similar to Elizabeth's, but it wasn't her anymore. He knew it would still think that it was Elizabeth and he would have to reason with it.

"Elizabeth," he called to it and shuddered slightly as it stopped to turn and look at him. It seemed confused or tired, as it took a moment to recognize him. As soon as it did, it moved toward him with tears in its eyes.

"Daddy, what's happening to me?" it asked. The tears and the voice reminded him of Elizabeth so much he nearly changed his mind, thinking that he wouldn't be able to go through with it. But he knew that he and his faith were being tested. He needed to save the soul of his little girl, trapped within the hideous beast.

"It's MORFS, honey," he explained, trying to keep his voice calm. "We need to get you to the hospital, though. Do you think you're able to make it?"

"I think so, I'll try," she answered. "But I don't have anything that will fit me. What can a wear?"

Bill thought that there was no need to clothe an animal, but said, "I'll get you a pair of my shorts and a shirt. They should fit you." He went to his room and started to look though his things. He didn't know why he had brought shorts and tee shirts to the far north. There wouldn't be any time that he could wear them. Even in the height of summer, the temperature wouldn't get high enough to need them.

Returning to her room, he found her sitting on the end of her bed and handed her the clothes.

She looked at him for a moment before asking, "Can I get dressed in private, please?"

Bill shook his head and stepped out of the room. "I'll wait for you down stairs," he said, walking away.

After a minute or two, the beast came down the stairs and sat on the bottom step, clearly winded from the effort.

"I don't know if I can walk all the way to the hospital, Dad."

He smiled, thinking that this was almost over. "You won't need to, honey. I borrowed one of those ATV things. You just need to get out to the sledge at the side of the house."

It smiled for a brief moment before saying, "Thanks, Dad. I'm sure I can make it that far."

Bill wrapped a large, thick blanket around the beast to hide it from anyone who might be out at this late hour and opened the door. Once it was lying on the sledge, he covered it with another blanket, replaced the cartridge in the IV unit and started the engine. It was asleep again before they even pulled out onto the road, which was good, since he turned in the opposite direction from the hospital.

He took his time to make sure that no one saw him riding the ATV with the sledge and the massive beast sleeping on it. He drove for more that two hours over the rock and snow to the point that he had selected. Once there, he stopped and removed the line tying the sledge to the ATV. Before turning the machine around to head home, he prayed for her soul. He was confident that the elements would deal with the beast soon enough.

With the town in sight, Bill stopped at one of the many bays in the area. He had selected it because the water here was particularly deep and dark, a perfect place to get rid of the ATV. After putting it into neutral he pushed it into the water, watching as it disappeared completely under the surface. The walk to the house was a little over two kilometres, but Bill didn't mind the distance or the walk through the cold morning air. It allowed him to think and to pray for the soul of his little girl again.

To ensure that there was no possibility of the beasts' survival, Bill waited an entire day before calling the police to report Elizabeth's 'disappearance'.

As the sun slowly climbed over the horizon, ice and snow on the small lake reflected the bright light. Beth still felt like crap, but stirred under the blankets when the sun got in her eyes. She vaguely remembered her dad helping her get onto the sledge, but couldn't remember anything after that. She peeked out from under the blanket, looking at her surroundings, trying to make sense of what she saw. The lake was completely frozen, with a layer of snow that looked like it had been blown into the low area. Beyond the lake was ... nothing. It was rock, snow and clear blue sky for as far as she could see. Beth couldn't understand why she was outside in the cold. It didn't make sense.

She rolled onto her other side to look in that direction and realized that the IV unit was still on her arm. The indicator panel still showed that she hadn't completed the second stage of MORFS. Fortunately the replaceable cartridge in the unit was nearly full, so she wouldn't have to worry about it yet.

She stood up to look for her dad, hoping that she would be able to see where he was. The moment that she stood up, she regretted it. Her stomach lurched and her head started to pound even harder that it had been. Without even bothering to look around, she sat back down. She could do that later, when she felt better. Instead, she hit a button on the IV unit to manually administer a sedative and went back to sleep.

The next time that Beth woke, it was to the beeping of the IV unit as it started to shut down. The indicator panel showed that she was over stage two and it wasn't needed anymore. She felt great! She was thirsty and a little hungry, but felt better than she could ever remember in her life. She pushed the blankets off of her and stood up, looking around again. The sun was low in the sky and looked like it might be setting, but she wasn't sure. She'd have to wait to see which direction it was going before knowing if it was morning or afternoon.

Then it finally dawned on her, she was standing outside in the freezing cold in nothing more than a pair of shorts and a tee shirt but didn't feel the cold at all. She might as well be standing in her living room, or on a beach in the tropics somewhere. However she wasn't in either of those places, she was at the side of a frozen lake in the middle of nowhere. Over the last few days, she had noticed that her skin had turned dark, almost black before the thick white hair started to grow out. There was no mistaking her as anything other than a polar bear hybrid. It was the only explanation for her not feeling the cold that she could come up with.