truth.
The clock on the mantle ticked away like a bomb in the silent room. Almost one-thirty in the morning. Dora would be home soon, and they didn’t like to make themselves known to others. Usually, they arrived when she was alone, or in the early morning hours when Dora was sound asleep. She’d be safe once Dora got back. She wrapped her arms protectively around her belly and watched the silent screen.
Minutes later, her head snapped up. The soft sound of a whispered voice floated toward her. “No… please,” she moaned. She placed her hands over her ears and began to slowly rock back and forth. Hot tears spilled onto her cheeks. She felt flushed, fevered. The baby kicked inside her, as if in warning. “Go away,” she whispered into the empty room.
Other menacing voices chimed in, whispering sly words she could not make out. Soon, the subtle, sinister sounds surrounded her. She closed her eyes and tried to will them away, but it did no good. Suddenly, the hushed voices turned loud, making the hair at the nape of her neck stand up. A trickle of sweat rolled down her back. As the angry voices rose in unison, terror engulfed her all over again.
Invisible hands began to prod and poke at her. Phantom fingers brushed against her face and hair. Soon the slapping sensations on her arms and around her head would begin. Lilli sat helplessly on the couch, shielding herself against what she knew was coming. When the first blows struck, she jumped up and tried to fight them off, but her fists encountered only air.
As she tried to defend herself against the phantasms, something she saw on the side table caused her to freeze in shock. She stood perfectly still, the blood in her veins turning to sludge, no longer aware of the unseen hands pushing and slapping at her. “That’s impossible,” she whispered to herself. She stared in disbelief. The pendant. The one she had thrown away in Morocco. It can’t be. But there it sat anyway, glittering malignantly. A bolt of dread shot through her. Somehow, the awful thing had found its way back to her.
“Charlie, please,” she whispered, “if you can hear me, help me.” She backed away slowly from the table.
At that instant, another voice spoke. It was different from the others, deep and sensuous, but she detected the underlying cruelty, a voice that made her think of velvet over steel.
“You seek help from one who no longer exists,” the voice said. “He could not help you when he was alive, how can he possibly help you now? It is my child who grows within you. Still you refuse to acknowledge me.”
Lilli remained silent, but her fear grew huge as the voice continued to speak.
“Submit to me, Lillian, and you will share in the joy of our child’s life. Resist, and you will not live to see it take its first breath.” A wispy, silvery mist appeared out of nowhere and drifted through the room.
Lilli’s eyes lit up with feral hatred when they latched onto the form taking shape before her, rising out of the mist.
She exploded in anger. “Fuck you!” she cried. “Stay away from me! Stay away from my baby!”
* * * *
Ahriman glanced at his reflection in the mirror over the fireplace mantle as he made his entry. Seeing his image was something he was unable to do in the spiritual realm. As he caught sight of the darkly handsome and imposing form he inhabited in the mortal world, he swelled with pride.
What was the matter with this woman? The stupid mortal seemed unaware of the privilege he’d bestowed on her by impregnating her. He caught the look of disdain on the perfectly chiseled features of his face reflected in the glass and immediately masked it with a more appropriate one as he moved toward the ungrateful woman.
“The baby will live,” he whispered close to her ear, as the spirits yanked Lilli off the ground, suspending her in mid-air. “And what of you? Choose.”
The voices of his faithful spirits chanted all around him. “Kill her—kill her, Ahriman.”
When the woman said nothing, but only continued to avoid his gaze with her rebellious eyes, Ahriman did not bother to disguise his deadly intent when he uttered his next words. “Do you think I would hesitate to put an end to your life? You are nothing. Less than nothing!”
Still he saw no sign of submission in her, only defiance. “So be it,” he hissed. “Die, then. The child is mine.”
With the slightest motion of his hand, he signaled to the chanting spirits. He regretted the fact that the woman could not see the grotesque souls. The sight of them would have served to increase her terror. He watched as the dark ones pummeled the woman, and laughed at her feeble attempts to fight off her unseen attackers. When she began to sputter and gasp, Ahriman picked up the handset of the telephone next to him and depressed three buttons. Then he placed the open line next to the woman, who was now making hideous gurgling noises, and waited.
Moments later, the sound of a screaming siren cut through the night, and he gave the final order. “Finish her. Quickly.”
Chapter 4
Dora stopped dead in her tracks as she took in the scene playing out in her living room, one worse than any nightmare she could imagine. What was left of her family, her only sister, lay on the floor, pale and unmoving, in a pool of blood. A paramedic was in the process of cutting into Lilli’s stomach.
“Stop,” she screamed, bolting for her sister. A uniformed officer stepped in front of her, holding her back.
“Please, that’s my sister,” she cried, alarmed to see the medic paid no attention at all to Lilli as he continued to cut into her. More blood gushed to the floor beneath Lilli. Her sister did not move or make a sound.
“Miss, stay back. There’s nothing you can do for her,” said the officer as he continued to restrain her. “She’s dead. They’re performing an emergency C-section to try to save the baby.”
A cry of despair escaped Dora. A moment ago, her taxi had pulled up in front of the house to the flashing lights of an ambulance, fire truck and police car. Her heart in her throat, cursing herself for having left Lilli alone, she shoved some bills into the driver’s hand and raced past the emergency vehicles into the house, only to be confronted with the terrible news this man had just imparted.
A hush fell over the room, and the air was thick with tension as the medic finished making the incision. Within seconds, he had the baby out. Dora could see, even through her frightened tears, it was a girl. The medic cleared the infant’s mouth, but the tiny body made no sound, not even when he slapped the infant’s bottom, twice. The slaps rang out loudly in the quiet room, but they were followed by absolute silence. The room was well-lit and Dora could not help but notice the bluish-gray pallor of the infant’s skin through the placenta clinging to it. One of the attendants uttered a single whispered word that pierced Dora like a dagger. “Stillborn”.
“No,” she sobbed, refusing to accept that both her sister and the child were gone. “Please, do something!” The medic turned to look at her.
Suddenly, the baby let out a keening wail, and everyone cried out in relief and surprise. Dora wept, for the sister she had lost, and out of relief that the child had been delivered safely after all. She watched as the attendants bundled up the baby to transport her to the hospital.
Still numb with shock, Dora could only look on as the ambulance attendants placed her sister in a body bag and put her on a stretcher to carry her out.
