"Who's that little ray of sunshine, Judy? Your sweet daughter?" The German emigrant joyously enquired with her firm, hoarse accent as she fixed her hazelish-brown eyes on Elsie as they glinted sheer maternal love, warmness. A beaming, affectionate smile danced on her bloody red lips as the both women verged to have a heart attack as they turned to the little girl by the least expecting her in the library. It has been always a miracle for the former freak show owner to have her own children though she secretly envied Jude for able having her own mini creations, made of her flesh and blood. Envied, due to the fact, she has never thought of having her own biological and considered the freaks who used to be her family as her own children, regardless the sinister, earthbound circumstances. The insatiable, bland fame which she harvested via Hollywood, owning her own show were the reasons why she was childless lady.

In the interval, Elsie offered the both women a benevolent, bashful smile, cracked upon her flushed face.

"It's her!" Judy answered completely sure by swatting affably, euphorically her frail shoulder, subsequently crouching down to her sweet little ray of sunshine. "My Elsie! My heart! Come here Mommy to give ya a big, warm hug!" Meantime Jude snaked her protective, doting arms around her daughter's mid-back by pulling her in a tight, warm embrace, whilst the young brunette purred between the embrace as they shut their flimsy eyelids, relishing its moment. Moment as it was their initial reunion especially in their afterlife. Moment, which she reckoned it as the best thing after holding a grudge when Timothy opted to earn her forgiveness or earn heer normal treatment at least even if he didn't deserve it at all.

"Mommy? Where have ya been for so long?"

"I didn't know ya were there until you finally came by yourself. The whole yourself and brought me enormous happiness, my ray of sunshine." The former sister of the Roman Catholic church murmured cheerfully as the young girl nuzzled her mother's bosom as it has been a long time since she's been with somebody else than her own mother. It molted her heart to edges. Little did she know why her love child was already dead and midst the spectrals inside the purgatory. What if she acknowledged right away the murderer who took her life right away as if she was nothing than a toy for the dangerous, exceedingly perilous assassin? It would render Jude livid, of course. Her loathe towards him would escalate until their toxic, unexplainable relationship improves for better as they work on and accomplish mutual atonement by concluding the purgatory quest, thereafter finding peace with themselves at last.

"Daddy brought me there, thanks to the hostess as he insists to be with you, Mommy!" Elsie commenced explaining shortly after they broke off the hug as they eventually relished its sweet, prominent moment they had. Once the former devotional woman of the cloth heard the word Daddy, she repress her overthinking train of thoughts of the man she lustfully loved and searingly detested for each heinous, foul deeds he did to her, in order to keep their daughter away from her claws and guarding his bland, revered reputation.

"Well, it seems he cares a bit about me, at least." Jude pessimistically replied by pecking a loving kiss on Elsie's creamy, palish forehead.

"Judy! He's trying to help." The German lady attempted to persuade her friend and colleague after figuring out everything behind her drama with Timothy and how she snapped at him and neglected whenever she had the genuine opportunity to grant him a second chance even without forgetting the somber past and take a further step in their relationship's repair. "He's the answer to the unanswered questions in which he's involved, of course!"

"How a traitor is supposed to be helpful since he has enough done to get me in pitch-black mess without an escape from the darkness, Elsa?" In this moment, the Bostonian snapped exasperated at the other blonde as Elsie and Elsa pursed their plumpish lips. Then she held her sole daughter's hand as she was more than pigheadedly determined to flee the library as soon as possible and take a nap, in case to calm her nerves and spend some time with her precious Elsie.

"At least, listen to his motives and be as patient and less hot-tempered as possible. You will win him again. Trust me!" The former Hollywood actress attempted to give her counsel to the other singer as Jude was beyond flabbergasted by her calm voice without trying to raise her voice. In the meanwhile, Elsa's fingers kneaded lightly, gingerly Judy's cheekbone, in fact, to alleviate her since severely pulsating heart peaked to spring up of her chest, resembling a toy-out-of-sandbox.

"I don't even need to try with him to give him a second chance which he will spit on it." The young girl opted to not overhear the both women's conversation as she contemplated blankly, absentmindedly the former freak show owner without peeling a single word by ruining their remarkable, grave conversation as well. "It's a total waste of time, Elsa."

"One day, you would look back in the past and hearing the echoes of inner voices as mine is messaging you. I was right. It was necessarily to listen my word, at least. You're adults for heaven sake! I've always believed the forgiveness is an answer and healing wounds of the past without holding grudges."

"I wish ya were right, Elsa. But there's nothing I can do about it." Judy heaved a jaded sigh from the top of her brittle lungs. Afterwards the middle-aged mother with her daughter headed towards the library's exit without turning their backs.

"How's this poor blonde pressumed to be so stubborn? I completely get it how deeply hurt she's by somebody she used to love than herself and her own life. But the forgiveness...forgiveness is a key for redemption." One of the inner voices echoed in Elsa's conflicted mind when the library's door slammed promptly, ringing wails into her sensitive ears.

"Mommy, why don't ya speak to Daddy?" The brunette spoke as she grasped her mother's hand as soon as they walked through the dim light hallway of the gothic chateau, passing a couple of stranger people who wandered in the long corridor as they went in different directions whether descending or imposing the stairs, entering in different rooms or otherwise exiting them. Moreover, Elsie was beyond inquisitive behind her parents' relationship as she had opulent questions, swimming in her mind though it broke the middle-aged mother's heart, feeling dozens of arrows shot in different parts of her body. Arrows, which were inevitably venomous and tormented her.

"Sweetheart, we've our own times when I and your Daddy don't want to talk to one another. They just need some time and I don't want to brainwash ya." The former woman of the cloth heaved a weary sigh as her chunks clicked against the carpeted flooring, sourcing sounds in the almost muting silence that arched in the corridors of the gothic chateau. What the singer wasn't capable of was actually let the cat out of the bag about her love interest, due to the fact, it might not only affect her worldview detrimentally about Timothy, but also not perceiving him as the father she's doted on ever again, besides having nightmares as he's either the protagonist or antagonist in her dreams. Her smile wiped off her childish, creamy face.

"Mommy, I really want to know more about him." Elsie insisted as she didn't give up as easily as Judy expected. Little did she know how strong-willed for the upfront circumstance she wants to hear even confront as a demon, regardless what does her mother think. "Please, Mommy!"

"You should rest for a while, Elsie! You seem pretty tired as we take a nap for a while." Consequently they went upstairs as they paced in the hall of the third floor until they reached their room where she shares it with the former man of the cloth. At last but not least, the blonde opted to assure her daughter without further with her prying questions over her biological father and why their relationship was indisputably intricating as well.

"Huh?" Afterwards she opened her room's door by shutting it after she stepped inside by closing it behind herself and locking it, as a result of gaining more peaceful catnap during the wee hours of the afternoon. In the meantime, she kicked off her shoes as she released her daughter from her hand grip by letting her to amble up to the king-sized bed, sitting on the edge of it by taking her Mary Jane shoes off.

"It's alright, sweetie! The afternoon naps are the best medicament for relaxation. They're so worthy." Thereafter the former sister of the church sat on the bed by planting a loving, sweet kiss on her inquisitive daughter's cheek by stripping almost each garment of hers until she wore nothing else than her lacy wine red lingerie that hugged her curvy, slender yet body by unclasping her bra in a swift motion and placing the discarded clothes on the chair by putting on her satin red slip which she used to wear as a piece of garment in the cold, relentlessly desolated nights in Briarcliff when she used to be a head nun of the mental hospital. In the interim, Elsie was already under the velveteen blanket as she blanketed her body and preferred to follow docilely her mother's advice for the afternoon catnaps rather than overlooking it. "It's considered as a bonus sleep. It's doubtlessly beneficial not only for the kids, even more for the adults. Ya are still growing, darling!" A rasping chuckle escaped her lips by joining Elsie in the bed and cuddling as mother and daughter, ensuring her maternal love and security which she yearned for years even in her mortal life.

"I love you so much, Mommy!"

"I love you too more than anything, Elsie! My only sweetie!"

Whilst the love child and Jude were napping in the room, the former holy man was descending the stairway to the first floor as he wanted to soothe his nerves after the tough morning clash he had with his right hand as her high-pitched yelling haunted him.

"Of course, I won't forgive you! After everything you did to me. This bastard ambition of being a Pope and leaving the rare bird to rot in a mental hospital as you took everything from her should bring you an enormous shame, Timothy Howard! I think ya want to manipulate me and use me as a rag doll temporarily until ya get sick and tired of me by throwing me away somewhere where you won't set a foot ever again." First inner voice, imitating the blonde's hostile speech caused him to halt in the middle of the first floor's long hallway as he held his temple with both hands, abiding stoic. His long, dexterous fingers worked on tipping the flesh of his forehead, lowering his head as his chocolate brown eyes which lost its glossiness after the conflict between him and Judy, eyed emotionlessly, glassy the carpeted flooring as its bar sign glowing in violet letters partly illuminated his facial features even his muscles.

"That's it ya, hypocritical bootlicker!" A second voice dwelled into his mind, agonizing him with vague headache as it pulsated into his ears as a heavy heart beat.

"Do not touch me, asshole! I didn't know ya how one man as a sheer innocence and benevolence oozed from him can drastically change and transform into nothing more than a puppet of the his dreams and the fucking church rather than to realize what kind of hopes do ya eventually delivered me. False hopes, Timothy Howard! It was ya who deserved to be locked in the shithole for doing this. Don't you realize how immensely you broke my heart? Huh?" Third inner voice muttered inside him as he rubbed his temple with his adroit fingers delicately.

"You should just stop!" The former Monsignor grumbling by grunting, chewing his plump, berry-coloured dry lip until a feminine voice echoed in the hall, snapping him out of his train of thoughts and delusional inner voices as they worked on his cells, chivying him.

"Tim, are you well?" The black-haired woman appeared beside him as she took her first drag of her mint cigarette by blowing severe dim in the corridor by cupping his jawline as she tilted his head to lock up his chocolate orbs into her aqua blue. In the meanwhile, she offered him a mischievous, composed smile, crawled on her pale as ghost complexion. "Is anything wrong?"

"Ah, nothing! It's just my inner voices talking to me and it gives me a headache." The former member of the clergy retorted as his voice abided calm though a tad huffy as it sent shivers down his spine by the way she cupped his jawline, in spite of the hostess didn't have any intentions to kiss him.

"It's alright. Ya can come in the bar and have a drink. It will calm yar nerves. Tell me more about these inner voices in your head." Afterwards they walked inside the bar as Timothy was the first one to let Esther pass by holding the door for her, as a result of strolling up to the bar as Elsa was seating on the high bar chair, awaiting.

"Do you think you'd believe me, Esther? They're Jude's ones."

"It doesn't matter. Spill the tea!" Once they seated alongside one another as Timothy was sitting between Elsa and Esther, the German lady offered a boosterish smile, whilst the French bartender appear by startling the former holy man in the least predictable moment.

"Ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba! Ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba! I found a reason to keep livin'! Oh, and the reason dear is you! I found a reason to keep singin'! Wow-woh, and the reason dear is you!" The Velvet Underground's song I Found a Reason currently played in the background of the almost empty gothic bar as it sunk solely in the sounds of chattering clients and the gothic songs that usually played, fetching atmosphere inside the forlorn bar.

"I would like some Bermudez rom for me, please!" The young man ordered for himself an alcoholic beverage as the black-haired woman took a second drag of its cigar length by blowing dim, diffusing around her. Meantime the French barman obediently did what he has being told as he prepared an empty scotch glass, thereafter grasping the deep green rom bottle by popping it up by pouring some liquor in the scotch glass until it filled the middle. In a split second, his glass was filled with alcoholic liquor by handing it to his recent client. "Thank you!" Timothy nodded humbly by gripping the glass of rom in his hand, feeling its coldness contacting his creamy palm.

"Is there anything wrong, Timothy?" Elsa inquired concerned by noting how desperately the younger man gawking blankly, jaded his scotch glass of Bermudez rom, sipping it.

"Not exactly!" He imitated a fake gasp by clearing his throat as his adroit fingers caressed the glass as if it resembled the touch of a mother fondling her newborn child's soft head. He slightly lowered his head. "The inner voices bother me."

"What they're exactly telling you if you don't mind to tell us?" The middle-aged singer asked by biting her bottom bloody red lip as she was eager to find out what burdened the former Cardinal.

"I remember perfectly every detail of these inner voices, speaking to me in my head. They're Jude's, of course! They're fulfilled with her ire. There's no mercy in them. I understand what kind of an asshole I was to her back in our mortal life then." Timothy took a deep breath by sipping of his alcoholic beverage as he felt the alcohol liquor burning the corners of his mouth, body and organs, resurrecting them by feeling mildly, gradually relaxed with each sip of it. "She doesn't want even to forgive me. She obviously hated the breakfast we shared together earlier today. She didn't want even to speak to me and she addressed me asshole which is pretty apparent. You can figure out for yourselves what Judy said."

"Oh, I do believe if you don't like things you leave for someplace you've never gone before! Ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba! Ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba!"

"Do not call yarself an asshole! I was a murderer and an incarnation of the evil. The devil. The sins of the humanity. It's okay to be an asshole because even the afterlife is another opportunity to give evidence ya weren't a terrible person with criminal deeds." Esther exhaled dramatically at Timothy's pessimism and self-criticism in calling himself an asshole.

"I wasn't a holy saint either when I was a mortal. I have taken the lives of some living souls. I craved for fame and glory."

"It's not as atrocious as mine deeds, Elsa and Esther! I murdered with my two bare hands 2 innocent souls. I believed Jude's foes as they manipulated me even this Nazi warcriminal blackmailed me. I took everything away from the love of my life as she had no longer a clerical title, belongings, our precious daughter as Elsie was constantly with me and her babysitter. Literally it's much worse and I delivered her false hopes which I can't even forgive myself anymore. It haunts me like ghosts. I can hear even echoes in my head. You don't understand who's the horriblest person in this bar. It's me."

"Just do anything about the question of the redemption." Esther advised by taking another drag of her mint cigarette, emitting dim of her mouth and tender nostrils. Furthermore, Timothy shrugged his shoulders reluctantly by licking his lips greedily, gamely with his wet tongue as its circled its searing, sweet taste of the sinful beverage.

"Hans Grupper used to work as a doctor in Briarcliff? Is that even true, Timothy?" The German emigrant couldn't keep her tongue behind her teeth once she heard the keywords which ideally framed Dr.Arden, himself. Even more she eventually figured out for herself why Jude was stiff-necked and somewhat irked. In fact, the both singers shared something in common and it was their potent, ceaseless abhorrent to the warcriminal.

"Unfortunately, yes. He changed his name into Arthur Arden, according to Sam Goodman, who's known as a Nazi hunter. Jude was telling me the truth in the entire time as it sparkled in the middle of the darkness without even giving a try to side with her against Arden, no matter if I'd give a damn to let him expose Briarcliff and let his blackmail plan work."

"Honey, I found a reason to keep livin' and you know the reason dear it's you
And I've walked down life's lonely highways, hand in hand with myself! And I realize how many paths have crossed between us!"

"Oh! You weren't a lucky pal to work with an asshat who amputated my legs when I used to be younger." The middle-aged lady confessed with her husky, firm German accent, accentuated on her pronounciaiton by inhaling inwardly, coldly as she scarcely blinked her eyelids. Further, her confession of her grim past when she used to live in Germany haunted her as well.

"What? W-what he did?" Esther and Timothy gaped with agape mouths the elder singer, stammering as they struggled to spell the syllables as they were more than mortified by the Nazi warcriminal's barbarous deed towards to the former freak show owner as she pushed her gown's satin hem up to her mid-thigh, revealing her wooden prosthesis as she lowered her other free hand by tipping with fingers its wooden material of her prosthesis.

"He amputated my legs when I was younger. I've always detested him with burning passion."

"I didn't know he can be such abominable piece of shit." Esther muttered out by taking a puff of her cigar length again and again, swaying her hips in the music's rhythm idly.

"I deeply regret for permitting him being part of Briarcliff's dutiets. I shouldn't let a barbarous monster to work under the facility's roof." The former man of the cloth gulped in a single sip the rest of his Bermudez rom's beverage by slamming the glass on the bar's wooden desk. What he profoundly, immensely regretted was allowing the plague of his inescapable remorses plague his conscience, mind and body, incapable of halting them unless he lifts ounce off his shoulders.

"You can't change anything about your past but ya can have a fresh start without looking back in the face of the evil's past. Or otherwise, the consequences are determinally crude and implacable for ya by torturing ya even more unlike now. "

"Oh, I do believe you are what you perceive! What comes is better than what came before! Oh, I do believe you are what you perceive!"

"Do you want one more drink, sir?" The French bartender questioned graciously by wearing a sympathetic, composed smile, distorted across his lips.

"No, no, thank you!" Timothy replied plainly by abiding affable.

"Tim?" Esther evoked out, taunting the former holy man.

"Yes, Esther?" He swallowed a lump in his throat by turning to the black-haired woman as their eyes met, locking up her aqua blue irises in gleeful, beaming eye contact without breaking it promptly. "Don't get me wrong! I'm trying to change the things by improving them nowadays though it doesn't look like there's any progress. It's just waste of time." His fingers idly played, caressed gingerly the already emptied scotch glass as if he was a little boy. The hostess listened attentively, assimilating the self-criticism and pessimism of the young woman as her bile rose up in her throat. What she loathed more than anything was when somebody was playing the crucial role of a prey, embodying its self-pitness, bitter sorrow.

"Never give up, no matter how much do you passionately want anything, Tim! Just don't give up even if it's impossible task for ya to redeem yourself for Judy's sake!" The German woman advised wisely by rubbing idly her head with her fingertips as her words were ribboned in peculiar, doubtless wisdom by attempting to embolden the former Monsignor. She earned his inquisitive, studious look he wore on his young-looking, hardly wrinkled face.

"Elsa's right, Tim! Never distrust yourself. It's never too late to redeem yourself in the name of your sins, your rare bird and Elsie." The owner of the gothic castle took a final drag of her cigarette, seconds before stubbing it out in the ashtray at last.

"What comes is better than what came before! Ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba! Ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba! And you better come, come-come, come to me!"

"Well, ladies! I'm going to leave as I'm about to take a nap and my exhaustion tortures me." He set free a yawn by clamping with his mammoth, milky hand his mouth as Esther arched an eyebrow when he emphasized the word nap. "Thank you for your counsil and understanding which I really appreciate it though I don't deserve it at all!"

"You don't need to thank us! We appreciated the time we spent in listening to your confessions." The blonde admitted by giggling lightly, girlishly like a schoolgirl after she spent a while by talking to her crush.

In the interval, he got from the high bar stools by walking away from the bar as the both ladies winked at him in scoffing manner as they were alone in the bar, listening to music and drowning themselves in deep, logical discussions.

As Timothy paced in the halls of the first two floors until he went upstairs to the third floor, he stepped beside the room where he shares it with Jude and their daughter by tapping on the door lightly a couple of times, taking a deep breath as his heart vigorously, frequently hammered in his chest as he felt his heart falling into his stomach, due to the impending bias of rejection.

No answer. No reaction was followed of his harmless, faint door taps. Judy and Elsie were deeply slumbering in the wee hours of the afternoon.

One of Timothy's inner voices cautioned him that there's nobody inside the room where's he's roommates with the blonde and their creation. Whilst a second one rather clarified him there was somebody inside the room without even efforting to open it. As he has musted up with knocking on the doors by signalizing the others to acknowledge his presence, it was his second nature as well and he couldn't deny it.

He lowered his hand to the doorknob by pressing it. It was locked.

Consequently a few more door raps as they were stronger drew the former nun's attention as she came to her senses whilst Elsie was asleep yet for their own luck.

"Oh God! Who's this?" The former sister of the church talked under her breath in low, dissatisfied voice as she rubbed her drowsy eyes with her frail, bony fists by unwrapping the blanket out of her flimsy skeleton by getting of the bed, hopping up in comfy, fuzzy black slippers as she braced herself in a cherry red peignoir without searching for its belt as she didn't want to tarry by keeping its unknown presence for her outside the room waiting too long. "Just a second!"

In this moment, Timothy couldn't suppress by scratching unsettledly his head by exhaling muffledly, sharply until feminine, light footsteps approached the door, giving him a hope of being unlocked within seconds as he heard the clinking key rotating in the keyhole until another click was like exploding dynamite. The door opened as the middle-aged lady held it as their eyes met on the doorway.

"I didn't know you were napping." He cordially apologized as he placed a hand on his chest by pressing it on his throbbing heart in his ribs, darting his chocolate brown eyes to her honey brown orbs as his were filled with love, sheer warmness and unarguable viridity.

"It's okay. You can come." The sudden change in her demeanor left him beyond not only dumbfound, but also exceedingly astounded and bewildered, due to the fact, in the wee hours of the morning she behaved as if he was her worst rival and now what? Her demeanor was much different as if it was a different person, different woman standing in front of Timothy, himself. Or perhaps the same person with two faces, or rather versatile and wise, who figured out what her impulsive ire resulted to?

"Oh!" The former member of the church stepped up inside without an ado as Judy shut the door by closing it after him. "I didn't expect you to change your behavior in matter of hours, Judy!" He carried on as he couldn't repress his transfixed warm chocolate brown eyes on the young girl, who was peacefully sleeping as she barely snored. The faint, deep breaths inflated her chest. Her waterfall of chestnut tresses were spilled, ruffled on the pillow. A beaming, merry smile curled up in the corner of his lips as it acquired a crescent form.

"I'm so sorry for being so impulsive and overreacting earlier today." She was right behind him as she threw her arms around his neck, whilst her fingers worked idly, seductively on his shirt's buttoned collar by whispering sensually, honeyedly in his ear as Jude was telling him the deepest, most paradoxal secret of her own life or rather sharing with him her dirtiest avowals especially with the man of her dreams. The love of her life. "I was so fed up with being a heartbroken and wretched woman as you were the last hope when it comes up to love, romance," The middle-aged blonde mellowly paused as his heart leaped at her vivid words and apology. He couldn't be more grateful even better relieved and euphoric as he plucked up courage to confront her anger, being advised by Elsa and Esther and now facing Jude's softer side. Even the touch of her fingers by playing, tipping his shirt collar send electroshocking sensations through his body of sweetness, a tad embarrassment and pleasure. How long it has been when a woman has touched him even sexually pleasuring him especially the love of his life? "And sex!" A silent, husky chuckle escaped her naturally rosy-coloured, plumpish lips as she admired his natural, ethereal handsomeness he possessed at first sight and might allure numerous of ladies but only one can possess actually his soul, mind and body. It was his only right hand, rara avis. Judy. His alluring cologne flared the former holy woman's sensitive, vulnerable nostrils.

"It's okay. I'm the one who owes you a lot of apologizes for what I did to you." He fessed mellowly by turning her as he hugged her tightly, warmly as she snuggled her face into his toned, soft chest beneath his shirt's fabric as her arms were snaked around his broad, muscled shoulders. His chin rested on her head with its ringlet of bushy, glossy golden curls.

"We will be fine. I'd like to listen to ya and what news do ya want to deliver me, regardless how awfully worrisome they are. I promise I'll be calmer even if they are worst or the best." The older woman promised docilely without raising her voice as her heart melted, relishing its moment of being embraced and loved by the former Monsignor.

"I'll be as honest as my guilty conscience aches." Then the both adults couldn't help, nonetheless, giggle after they broke off the hug as Timothy's strong arm was clasped around her shoulder as she ushered him to go in the kitchen by having a serious, long discussion as it was high time for confessions and revelations at last so that to find a solution to their toxic relationship as its rusty, old chains verged to break by separating them as a bond though its efforts. "I truly mean it."

"Your guilty conscience is probably pain in yar ass after the shit happened." He opened the kitchen door by letting Jude set a foot inside the room as he stepped aside by giving her more space to walk up to the kitchen table, seating.

"Absolutely! But it's high time to work on my guilty conscience by cleaning the mess." He closed the kitchen door gingerly as the younger man didn't want to wake up their slumbering daughter as the both former clerical members of the clergy cackled lightly, coyly.