“It’s yours,” I said as I firmly held the pregnancy test in my right hand. I heard him mutter something under his breath on the other line. “Tyler?”

“Uh… Yeah?” 

I shook my head. “Well, aren’t you going to say anything?”

“Are you sure?” His voice cracked.

I stared at the pregnancy test clenched in my hand. The positive symbol, clear as day, had burned into my retinas after looking at it for what felt like an eternity. “Yes… I’m positive, Tyler.”

“Well… how do you know it’s mine?”

I stood and paced back and forth in my bathroom. I listened to my neighbor above me turn their shower on, tracking the sound of the rushing water as it fell down toward the pipe behind the bathroom mirror. My cheeks began to run hot. What I would have given to have Tyler there with me at that very moment, just so I could see his stupid face. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

He paused. “Katie, we only did it once.”

I leaned my head back and shook my cell phone, my mouth agape as I screamed in utter silence. I slammed the pregnancy test onto the bathroom counter, causing the mirror to rattle. “It only takes one time, dumbass.” 

“Yeah… but…” He paused.

I knew exactly where this asshole was going. Still, I felt the need for him to clarify, as if that would somehow make things better. I sat back down on the toilet seat and closed my eyes. The bathroom walls felt like they were caving in. “But what?” 

“I dunno. Maybe it’s not mine?”

Oh, he did not just say that. “I didn’t fuck anyone else.”

He started to mumble something and began to apologize, but I quickly interrupted him before he could finish his bullshit spiel. 

“What the hell do you think I am? You think I’m just some slut you picked up at a bar?” Heat flooded through me. My throat tightened. How could I have let someone like him inside me? Every positive thing I had once seen in him had been washed over with disgust and hate.

“I didn’t say that, Katie.”

I leaned back and tilted my head toward the yellow glow of the bathroom ceiling light, which flickered as a train rushed by outside, blaring its horn. I listened to the water that was running down my bathroom pipes above my head as my neighbor continued to take their shower. I exhaled, slowly shaking my head in disappointment. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting. After all, I’d only met Tyler a few weeks ago. Yet it felt like I had been betrayed by someone I could trust and depend on, someone I had known for years. How could I have been so naive? 

Something broke inside me. My lips trembled as I spoke. “You know what, Tyler? Just forget it. Forget I said anything. I’ll deal with it. You and your precious little brain won’t have to worry about a goddamn thing.”

“Katie…” Tyler began.

I ended the call and tossed my phone onto the bathroom counter. I pressed my sweaty palms against my face and let it all out. I sat there for some time, holding myself. 

Then came the knocking.

It was soft at first, barely caught my attention. I wiped my face and quietly left my bathroom. I waited in my living room and listened, glancing first to the open window, its white curtains lifted as a gust of air passed by. I had left it open so that the winter cold could air out my small apartment. I focused on my front door. I doubted I’d heard anything. Still, I decided to check just in case. I walked to the door and looked through its peephole. No one was there in the dimly lit apartment hallway. 

I brushed it off and sat down on my leather couch. The sound of my phone vibrating on the bathroom counter made my stomach turn. I knew he would be calling back. I had no intention of answering anytime soon. Let him sit on it for a while. Let him think about what he said and what he’d done.

On the coffee table in front of me sat a small glass of water and the Mifepristone pill from the clinic. My heart beat faster. I had a few friends who’d gotten an abortion before, yet still I wasn’t comforted by this fact. I had never taken it before. 

Another gust of wind blew, cold air pushed my curtains into the air. The breeze brushed past my face. I shivered. 

I grabbed the pill and rolled it around in my right hand. I couldn’t do this, not with a guy like Tyler. I liked him, but he wasn’t even remotely close to father material. Worst of all, I hated children. Hated how much they smelled and how noisy and dirty they could be. I was never meant to be a mother in this life. So why should I make a child suffer?

I thought of my sister. What she had said to me about a year ago one evening during a family gathering. We were at the dinner table. Small sticky fingers grabbed at me. I looked down and saw one of my nieces as she smiled back, wiping her nose. Then another one of her kids, a seven-month-old, threw up next to my dad’s dinner plate. My sister looked at me across the table with this exhausted, hollow smile. She then whispered, “You’re so lucky you’re free, Katie.”   

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, the pill lying firmly on my palm. I counted to three.

One.

Two.

Three.

I quickly put the pill into my mouth, grabbed the glass of water, and swallowed. I felt it go down my throat and opened my eyes. There. It was finished. At least for now—there was one more pill that I had to take tomorrow. 

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Someone was knocking on the door again. I got off my couch and headed for the door.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

I didn’t bother to look through the peephole again. I unlocked the door and swung it wide open. A cool breeze pressed against my back as I leaned into the hallway and looked around. No one was there. All the other apartment doors were shut, and the area on my left next to the stairwell was empty. Confused, I shut the door and locked it. I turned back around and headed toward the bathroom to grab my cellphone.

Two heavy knocks slammed against my door.

I jumped and quickly turned around in my tracks. My back stiffened as a third knock slammed against the door, causing it to shift in its place. 

I crept toward the door and swallowed before any words could escape my dry mouth. “Hello?”

No answer.

I leaned in and looked through the peephole. Something white was lying on the ground in front of the door. A delivery package maybe? I thought maybe it was FedEx swinging by quickly. But why would they knock like that? 

My eye still peeking through the hole, I unlatched the lock and carefully opened my door. 

I stood there for some time looking down at the thing on the ground. My skin crawled, tiny fingers climbing all around me as I bit my nail. My anxiety had gone through the roof. Yet above all else, I felt pissed. It had to be Tyler. 

On the dirty gray carpet in front of me lay a white object, perfectly placed like some gift. It was made of wicker, painted white, and stood on four small wheels with two rounded handles sticking out of one end. Half of it was mostly enclosed by the wicker for protection while the other half was open and filled with a white stitched blanket. It was a vintage baby carriage, and there was something underneath the blanket.

My anger flared again as I continued biting my nail. Why the fuck would he do this? Without thinking it over, I quickly pulled it inside and slammed my front door. I could hear the neighbor above me shift in reaction through the creaking floorboards. I left the carriage in my living room and stomped into my bathroom to grab my cellphone. I pressed the dial button. 

“Hello? Katie… I need to talk—”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I snapped. “I’m already dealing with a lot and you decide to pull this shit on me?”

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to respond like that. Can we just talk, please?”

“Respond? This is how you respond? Did someone drop you on your fucking head, Tyler? You don’t do shit like this to people.” 

There was a moment of pause. His breathing was heavier now. “I’m sorry.”

I shook my head as I stared at the baby carriage by my couch. I then went over and checked the front door to make sure it was shut and locked as I held the phone tightly against my face. “Where did you even find this thing? It looks ancient.”

“What do you mean?” Tyler said. 

“I’m not in the mood to play games, dude.”

“Katie… I’m being serious. What are you talking about? I didn’t get you anything.”

I paused for a moment. I tried to speak but nothing came out. Tyler was never a good liar and I could usually hear it in the way he spoke. He was telling the truth. It finally dawned on me, something I should have figured out immediately before calling him. How could he have even done this? He lived about twenty minutes away from my place and he had no idea I was even pregnant until the phone call. After all… we did use protection. 

I looked down at the blanket inside of the carriage. I slowly walked over and crouched down next to it. My face was only inches away from the blanket. I could hear Tyler saying something on the other line as I slowly lifted the blanket.

I gasped as I stumbled backwards onto the cold hardwood floor. Tyler was yelling for me, asking me if I was okay after hearing me in distress. 

Inside the white wicker carriage was my pregnancy test. 

It was impossible. I had left it on the bathroom counter. I quickly got up, ignoring Tyler, and rushed into the bathroom. The pregnancy test I left on the counter was gone. I knew it was the same one, yet still I looked around, hoping it wasn’t true. 

After nearly destroying my organized bathroom, I stumbled out into the living room and stared at the carriage. 

“Katie! Are you okay? Answer me, dammit!”

I grabbed the phone and held it against my right ear. “How fast can you get here?”

“I can be there in a half hour. Why? What’s wrong?” 

My lips trembled. “Just come, please.”

*********

The apartment was getting too cold. I had to shut the window but continued pacing back and forth in the living room, waiting for Tyler to get here and comfort me. I looked down at my phone—forty minutes had passed. Where the hell was he? I continued biting one of my nails, unable to look away from the carriage. The pregnancy test still lay in its bed. 

I wanted to erase the thought out of my head, but I knew what I had felt when I lifted that blanket out of the carriage. The blanket was warm to the touch like an animal had been lying in it, and it smelled of vanilla. 

Tyler failed to answer my fifth call. Enough was enough. I rushed over to the carriage and inspected every inch of it. Maybe whoever was doing this would leave me a clue or something. Was someone punishing me? The only other person I could think of was my mother. She was a very religious woman and had always been against abortions, but even she wouldn’t be so cruel. Besides, my parents didn’t know about the pregnancy and I planned to keep it that way. 

There was nothing else in the carriage besides its little padding. No labels, no notes, nothing. Frustrated, I rolled it away from me and stood back up. I jumped and shuddered as another train passed by, blaring its loud obnoxious horn. My apartment was only two blocks away from the train tracks. Each time one would pass by, it would shake my windows and the pictures of my family hanging on the walls. I went over to the window to look outside into the cold winter of Maine. The town I lived in was small but the street was busy. People outside were rushing in and out of stores, covering their faces from the freezing gusts of wind. 

I lay down on the couch and looked at my phone again. Still nothing from Tyler. I pulled up my contact list and scrolled down to my father’s number. My thumb carefully hovered over the dial button. I wanted to call him. Have him drive all this way from New York. Anything to feel his arms wrapped around me again and give me comfort during all this. I glanced at the carriage. I couldn’t. If anything, he would be ecstatic to see the carriage. He had always wanted me to have a family of my own. His own grandson or granddaughter to love. Sadness filled my heart just at the thought of him. I couldn’t do that to him. He would never look at me the same if he knew what his favorite daughter had done.

Fatigue settled over me as I stared up at the white popcorn ceiling. There were chips of paint all across it. I listened to my neighbors as they walked above me. Every now and then they bickered at each other. I was never able to make out the words, but there were times I wondered if I should say something. 

By the time the train had finished rolling by, I was already dozing off. I had read that the pill can cause fatigue and dizziness in some people, so I assumed I was one of them. Even with that awful thing inside my apartment, I couldn’t resist the exhaustion pulling me under as I lay there on my couch. 

Rain. That was the first thing I heard. It was pouring outside. Winter was gone and the rain and thunderstorm had come in to take over. I shoved myself off the couch to the sound of raindrops inside my apartment. It was dark inside, too dark to see. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight. I stumbled forward through the thick night air and looked around for the source. Something was leaking inside my apartment.

Outside my window I saw a flash of lightning and then the sound of gigantic thunder. 

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

I moved toward the wall behind the TV. My left hand pressed against the gray drywall. The wall was wet and soaked in water. I watched as droplets slowly made their way from the ceiling and climbed their way down the wall. Then near my height, I saw part of the wall push forward slightly. Another strike of lightning and thunder shook my dark apartment. 

I gently touched the part of the wall that was being pushed toward me. That’s when I first heard it. A soft whimper from somewhere inside my apartment wall. I leaned closer to listen and felt the goosebumps crawl up my skin.

It was crying louder now. Still muffled by the drywall, but it sounded like a newborn crying. 

Without hesitation, I held my cellphone against my right cheek and shoulder for some light and quickly dug my fingers into the wet drywall spot, where something was pushing toward me. 

The newborn continued to cry.

“I’m coming!” I yelled frantically as I dug more and more into the wet wall. Chunks of drywall landed on my cold feet. The baby’s cry was louder now and clearer than before. I was getting closer. 

Another round of lightning and thunder roared outside my apartment. 

I shoved my arm inside the hole I had made. My hand gently swiped around where I couldn’t see, hoping to find where exactly the baby was. Without reason, I felt I had to find it. I needed to save it.

I pushed further in. Something moved across my knuckles. I stopped and waited for it again. I felt the baby’s tiny little fingers grab my right hand’s pointing finger and gently grip it. I gasped. Instant relief flashed through me. I smiled and leaned my head against the wall. The baby had stopped crying. It was no longer alone. Now I just needed to get it out of the wall without harming it and figure out where it came from. Did it somehow fall down from the apartment above? Was it hurt?

I was about to pull out more wet drywall with my other hand, but that’s when I noticed what was above my head – what had replaced my entire ceiling. I looked and saw the storm swirling a few feet above my head. Lightning and thunder now roared inside my apartment. Droplets of rain splashed onto my face. I no longer had a ceiling. It was replaced by storm clouds and what looked like a tornado slowly forming into the center of my room. 

The baby cried again and gripped my finger harder. I turned and continued pulling out more drywall until I heard something new.

“Hi.”

The voice came from inside the wall I was tearing down. It didn’t sound like a voice I recognized at all. I wouldn’t even say it sounded like an adult’s voice. Not a child, but something was off with the way it sounded. Like it was from a bad cartoon character. 

I froze, unwilling to remove myself from the baby’s grip. The storm still swirled above me. My hair and face were soaked in water and bits of drywall. I felt the baby’s grip loosen, and then another one replaced it. A hand much larger and wearing what I could only describe as a puffy glove. It pulled me toward the drywall. I tried to remove myself from its grip, but it was too strong. Whatever this was, it was going to pull me inside with it. The baby continued crying again as the other hand tugged. I felt hot cuts digging into my wrist as I pulled back with all my strength.

The sound of thunder blared into my eardrums as I continued pulling away from whatever terrible new hell this was. I screamed and begged for it to let me go but it wouldn’t. Instead it clawed at my wrist and pulled me forward. My right shoulder slammed into the wet drywall. Then came the sound of a loud horn and bright flashing lights blinded my vision as the thing pulled me further in.

“Katie!”

I screamed and clawed my way forward as I sat up. I struggled to breathe as Tyler knelt down beside me, holding me tightly. I collapsed into him. The storm was gone. 

“You just had a bad dream,” Tyler said as he petted the back of my head.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped. “I thought it was so real.”

“It’s okay, I’m here now,” Tyler said. He then kissed my forehead. He looked around the living room, focusing on the TV. “Remodeling, are we?” He grinned. 

“Wh—what?” I said. I was out of breath when I spoke. 

Tyler pointed toward the wall behind my TV. 

The weight of the world shifted beneath my feet. The blood drained from me. Several chunks of drywall were removed from my wall. I thought it was just a dream. How could any of that have been possible? I turned to Tyler as if expecting him to have all the answers. As he knelt there beside me, I couldn’t help but wonder if even this was real too. 

“Tyler, how did you get inside my apartment?”

Tyler turned toward me with a look of confusion. “You don’t know? I actually thought it was kind of weird but figured you were just tired and forgot.”

“Know what?”

“Oh well.” He pointed toward the front door. “Your front door was left wide open.”

*****

“Come home with me,” he said as he stirred the black coffee before handing it down to me. 

I shook my head. “I don’t understand. How is any of this possible? I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

Tyler sighed as he sat down next to me on the couch. “It’s stress. I think between being pregnant and taking the abortion pill, your mind is just exhausted.”

I took a small sip from the cup. “The dream… maybe. But this—” I pointed toward the carriage. “This is real, Tyler. If it wasn’t you then who the hell would’ve done this and scared me like that?”

Tyler’s dark brown eyes moved left to right as he spoke. His hands gently caressed mine. “Look, I know I was being an asshole earlier. I’m sorry, really. I was just in shock… honestly.” He then looked down at my hands. “Can I tell you something?”

I gently nodded.

He took a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders. I’d never seen him so comfortable with me before. It felt nice and warm, something I deeply needed at that very moment. 

He then cleared his throat before he began, his hands never leaving mine. “A few years ago, back when I was living in a small town in the outskirts of Maine, I met a man at this… god-awful bar.” Tyler laughed to himself. “There wasn’t much to do in that small town and we were the only ones drinking. So, he invited me to have a chat with him and the first round was on him. Me being myself, how could I say no to free whiskey?” Tyler grinned.

“Anyways. He said his name was Michael. We started talking about work and stuff. Then his wife started to call him. He kept ignoring her calls and I asked him why. He said to me he couldn’t go back there yet. He said his home no longer felt like home, not with the way he and his wife had been fighting. That’s when I noticed the bruises and cuts on his knuckles. He tried to hide them when he realized I was looking, but it was already too late. I don’t know what I was thinking at the time, but somehow I found the courage to confront him about it.”

Tyler scratched the back of his head. His body language had changed. He no longer looked as relaxed as he did before. I watched him carefully as he stared back at me.

“He told me he never laid a hand on his wife. He needed to get out of the house and when he walked to his truck, he heard a man singing in the woods. Michael said he wasn’t much of a spook, but he and his wife lived miles away from anyone else, so to hear another man singing in the woods near his house… well, that would unsettle just about anyone.”

Tyler stared down at my hands in deep thought until I spoke. “So what did he do?” I asked.

“Michael said he fell onto the ice and then as fast as he could he got into his truck and left his wife at the house. Next thing you know, here he is at the bar drinking whiskey like it’s water and ignoring her tenth missed call. I found out a few days later he and his wife had disappeared. The police found footprints leading into the woods, but it was winter and they were never seen again.” Tyler then turned closer to me. “The reason I’m telling you this is because you have the same look on your face that he had that night. At the time I thought he was crazy, that maybe he was lying about not hurting his wife, but I’ll never forget the look on that man’s face. He believed what he was saying, and I see it in you now.”

He gently lifted my left hand and kissed the top of my bruised hand. “I see your hands, the cuts and bruises. I see the fear in your eyes, Katie. The same look he did, and I didn’t believe him at first. I want you to know I believe you. That’s why I want you to come home with me.”  

His arms wrapped around me. His warm breath felt nice against my cold neck. “Let’s go back to my place for the night, get you away from whatever the hell this is, okay?”

I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around him and kissed his right cheek. “Thank you,” I said with a smile and relief. 

******

I wasn’t sure what I expected. I had never been to his place before, but surely not all men lived like this? When he opened his front door to let me into his cabin home, the first thing I smelled was leftover dried pizza and beer. I won’t lie, the smell was nauseating at first, but it wasn’t enough for me to go back to my lonely apartment. 

“Mi casa es su casa,” Tyler said with arms wide open, almost like he was proud to live in such a mess. To think this was the man I had opened my legs for… what was I thinking?

I gave a fake smile as I exited the dark winter cold and entered the warm smelly cabin. “Gracias,” I played along. 

He scratched the back of his head and kicked a pizza box under the couch. “Sorry about that.” He glanced around the living room. “I wasn’t expecting company.”

“It’s okay.”

“Sure,” he said and started to pick up the boxes. “Oh, the bathroom is down the hall on your left, if you need it.” 

“Is it as messy in there as well?” I asked with a giggle.

Tyler yelled back from somewhere out of sight in his kitchen. “Nah, I promise I’m usually not this bad.”

I walked down the dark hallway. The walls were carved out of pine log panels, giving the entire cabin a nice soft warm feeling. A much bigger step up from my apartment. As I entered the bathroom and shut the door, I struggled to remember what it was that Tyler had even said he did for work. This cabin seemed too nice for either of us. 

“Okay,” I said as I stared back at myself through the large bathroom mirror. Somewhere in the kitchen I could hear Tyler turn on some loud classical song that I didn’t recognize. The walls gently hummed as if the entire cabin was singing along. I turned on the cold water and splashed my face, hoping to clear my mind of everything that had been happening.

My phone started to ring inside my white purse.

I felt my stomach knot as the phone screen lit up. Mom was calling. I let it ring for a few times until I finally had the nerve to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Katie.”

“What, Mom?”

“Why the hell would you do this?”

I shook my head. “What are you talking about, Mom?”

I listened as she grunted and then spoke again. “Why the hell did you send me your positive pregnancy test along with your abortion medication papers? Honey… what is this? Are you trying to upset me?”

“I—” 

“Because you sure as shit upset your father. You know how we feel about this. Please tell me you didn’t have an abortion?”

“Mom—”

I could hear her crying on the phone, her voice trembling. “What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to say to your father? I have never seen him drink like this before. He’s so upset and so am I… Are you proud of this? I mean why on god’s green earth would you send this?”

“Mom!” I yelled into the microphone. “I didn’t send you that, I swear.”

“I just don’t know anymore, Katie… We didn’t want you to move out so quickly after high school. Now look what you’ve done. I need you to be honest with me here, honey… have you been taking your psych meds?” 

My lips trembled. I couldn’t find the words to say. I wanted to scream at her. I wanted to hurt whoever was doing this to me. What the hell did I do to deserve this? 

Before she could say another word that would only deepen the wound that had already been made, I hung up the phone and put her and my father on silence. It was one thing to be upset at me for the abortion. Something they had no right to know about, but to question my sanity. I gritted my teeth and slammed my hands onto the bathroom counter.

Somewhere deep in the cabin I could hear Tyler singing along with the music. My vision blurred as I stared at the sink. 

“Just breathe,” I told myself. I felt no reassurance but I couldn’t walk out of this bathroom in the mess I was in. That wouldn’t be fair to Tyler. 

“It’s gonna be okay.”

Tap.

Tap.

I looked to the mirror. Something had knocked on the wall behind me. I stood there and listened carefully.

I was about to give up and leave the bathroom when I heard the first whimper. A soft gentle cry somewhere behind the wall. 

Frustrated, I shook my head and clawed at my hair. I wanted to scream.

Another whimper. This time it was moving above my head and down the hallway. 

I opened the bathroom door. Tyler’s music blared through the hallway, yet I could still hear the baby moving along the pine-boarded ceiling and toward the kitchen where he was. I followed it, each step heavier than the last. I’d had enough. Whatever this was, I was going to cut it out for good. 

As I entered the living room, I could see Tyler was occupied and hadn’t noticed the crying among his music. He grabbed two glasses of wine and set them down onto the wooden kitchen bar. His mouth moved along with the lyrics of whatever song he was listening to.

Tyler swung his head gently as he poured the first glass while singing.

The newborn’s cries grew louder as it moved closer toward the kitchen. I could hear it shuffling its limbs across the ceiling floor. 

I’d had enough. I looked over at the stereo system Tyler had turned on and rushed over. Unable to find the power button, I yanked the power cord from the wall. The music slowly died and so, eventually, did Tyler’s singing.

“Do you see what I—” Tyler stopped while finishing pouring the second wine glass. “Katie, what the hell?” he said, glancing between me and the stereo. 

“Just listen!” I yelled and pointed up at the ceiling. 

Tyler waited and looked up at the ceiling and then down back at me. 

“Uhm… Katie, there’s nothing up there but an attic.”

No noise was made. The newborn had disappeared. 

I rolled my eyes and wrapped myself in my own arms. I felt hollowed out. Embarrassed. Like I had gone completely insane. 

Tyler must have noticed my distress. He carefully placed the wine bottle onto the counter and wrapped his arms around me while talking gently into my left ear. “Hey it’s okay, baby girl. I got you. You are safe here. No one’s going to hurt you. I’ll protect you.” He then gently kissed the top of my forehead. 

I leaned into his chest, doing everything I possibly could to keep it together and not make the scene any worse. I wanted to talk to him about the baby. I wanted to tell him that somehow my parents now knew, but I knew it was all too much for either of us right now. Right now I just needed his comfort and his love. 

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry for everything.”

“It’s okay,” Tyler said as he gently petted the back of my hair. “Let’s just forget what’s happened and have us a nice evening with some fine wine, yeah?”

I gently shook my head as I stared at the wine bottle. “I shouldn’t drink,” I said, my lips almost trembling. “I took that damn pill, and they told me drinking could cause me to bleed more.”

“Ah. How about just one? You’ve been through a lot, Katie. You deserve it more than anybody tonight, especially me.”

He was right. I’d always loved wine and after all, that is how we first met—at a tasting. I remembered being amazed by his expertise of tasting wine. Or maybe it was all bullshit, but that didn’t matter. It worked, didn’t it? “Okay, just one though.”

He smiled. “I promise, just one.” He then walked over to the counter and grabbed both glasses. He handed me the one in his left hand. “No more scary stuff. I won’t allow it, not in my house.” 

I nodded and smiled. We then both drank our glasses to the very bottom. 

Tyler began to fill his glass with another round. 

Something nearly hidden on a barstool under the counter caught my attention. I slowly walked toward it and gently pulled out the barstool. I felt nauseous.

“What’s wrong?” Tyler asked.

I set the wine glass down and lifted both objects into the air in front of my face. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. 

“Katie…” Tyler said from behind me. 

It couldn’t be, but I knew right away what they were. I didn’t see it, but I knew it would’ve felt the exact same. In front of me I stared at two large white padded gloves. So large and thick it looked like they came straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon. Something even a clown or an animated character would wear. 

“Katie, I can explain,” Tyler said, his hands gently laid on top of my shoulders.

I screamed while dropping the wet gloves to the floor and moved away from Tyler. “Why do you have those?” My voice trembled. 

Tyler tilted his head. His smile didn’t change, but something behind it did. “You know what, Katie? I had this whole thing planned out. A nice story to mix in with the rough.”

“Tyler,” I began, but he quickly cut me off.

“No,” Tyler said, holding up his finger to silence me. “Just shush for one goddamn minute would you?” 

I felt a sharp pain tear across my heart as he continued. 

“I could’ve given you a nice story. Something about my ex or some other bullshit to spew, but honestly? I’m tired. And let’s face reality, you’re a hell of a lot smarter than the others, so what’s the point?”

The word others landed in my chest like a stone.

He must have seen my face change because he then raised both hands. “Easy now little girl. Don’t do anything stupid.” He grinned. 

I took a few steps back, readying myself to run outside. He had a few neighbors I saw as we drove by earlier that night, only an acre or two from his place. I could make it. That was if he somehow got to my phone first. My hands felt around for my purse and I was relieved to still have it on me. My phone was only a few seconds away from being dialed. 

The room turned around me. Confused, I leaned against the wall on my left as my whole world shifted in front of my eyes. My vision began to blur. 

“Take it easy, Katie,” Tyler said as he slowly walked toward me with his hands raised in midair. “That drink was a bit strong, even for you.”

I could barely see his face. The lights above me appeared to flicker in and out. I heard him breathing heavily as he got closer. “What the hell did you do to me?”

“Shhh. It’s going to be okay. You’ll wake up in a few hours and by that time, we’ll be ready.”

I looked toward him, shaking my head. I felt drool coming out of my mouth as the world started to cave in front of my very eyes. “We?”

The world had turned black.

********

I was lying on top of Tyler’s mattress when I came to. My mouth felt dry and my lips were chapped. A droplet of drool had rolled down across my neck. I tried to speak, but my voice stayed silent. 

The room was mostly dark with the lights turned off. As I turned my head to my left I noticed three candles were lit by the end table closest to my head. The small flames flickered back and forth with the warm air.

Something moved to the dark corner on my right. I turned my head to see. My neck felt stiff and the rest of my body felt unresponsive. 

Tyler was standing there in the corner holding a lit candle with his left hand. He was leaning over something on the right side of the bed. His back faced me. 

When I finally could speak, each word stung in the back of my throat. “Tyler… what is this?”

Tyler sighed. “I’m sorry about all of this. I don’t always get to choose the girls. But you… You, Katie, I thought you were special. I guess I was wrong.”

“What are you talking about?” Once my vision had adjusted I could see he was leaning over a white wicker bassinet. 

Tyler had finished clipping on a new little stuffed bear to the white wicker bassinet he was leaning over. Inside lay a pile of white roses and a hand-stitched pink baby swaddle. 

His back still turned toward me. “Do you like it? I helped him make it.” His head turned slightly so that he could see me out of the corner of his left eye. 

I was able to feel my legs and hands again. I carefully rolled myself over to my side and started to push myself away from him. My hand over my face as I gasped as Tyler turned toward me. His white shirt was covered in blood around his stomach. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I screamed, but the scream came out more of a hollow rasp.

“Can’t you hear him?” Tyler pointed up toward the ceiling. 

That’s when the crying started. Somewhere above our heads there was a baby crying above the ceiling. 

“I don’t understand… Tyler… what the hell is all this?” My voice broke. 

Tyler crawled onto the mattress toward me. Above us the baby was now crying even louder than before. 

“It’s our son,” Tyler nodded. “He speaks to me. He wants to live, Katie.” He shook his head and stared back up at the ceiling. “I can bring him back. We can bring him back.” He looked back down at me, towering over me. “What happens tonight won’t make sense to you. You’re not the first that’s tried to abort my children. You won’t be the last. Besides, none of that matters anymore, not when you have a guardian angel like I do.”

Something opened the bedroom door behind me. I trembled in fear as I turned to look, but there was only the empty hallway. 

Tyler crawled closer to my face. He tried to speak, but I managed to find enough strength in my left arm to swing at his face and dig my nails across his right eye. He screamed as he stumbled backwards and fell to the floor, gripping his bloody eye.

I rolled off the bed and fell to the floor. I used the dresser next to me to climb back up onto my feet and stumbled into the darkened hallway. 

“You bitch!” Tyler yelled from the bedroom. 

The baby in the ceiling was following me. I could hear it almost slithering against the wood. That’s not my kid. 

It was hard to see as I walked down the hallway. All the lights had been turned off. Only a few candles were lit in the kitchen and living room. I immediately grabbed my coat so I wouldn’t freeze out there and stumbled against the front door. I turned the door knob, but it wouldn’t give. I looked down in confusion, assured I could just unlock it, but that was when I realized something I hadn’t noticed when I walked into his home. The lock was on the outside of the house. 

“What the fuck.” I clenched my teeth and searched through my coat and purse. My phone was gone.

Tyler was now out of the bedroom and slowly making his way toward where I stood. 

Although I still felt dizzy, I managed to run past him and grab a knife from his kitchen counter. I held the handle tightly with both hands, the blade trembling in my grasp. “Stay the fuck away from me!”

I pointed the knife toward him. Out of the corner of my right eye, I saw the candles flicker as if a gust of wind had swept the room. Something dripped onto the back of my hands. I looked down at it. An image flashed through my head of something awful crawling above me, drooling above my hands as its arms reached out toward me. It wasn’t drool. It was water. I looked toward the ceiling. The ceiling was gone. The same storm that had appeared in my dream at the apartment, though I doubted it was a dream at all, was now forming in the cabin. Thunder roared as clouds swirled above our heads and strikes of lightning flashed through the clouds like a strobe light behind a wall of fog. Droplets of rain dripped all around me and inside the house, wetting the walls and floor beneath my feet. 

Tyler laughed while still gripping his bloody eye as he stared up at the storm. “It’s too late, Katie. He’s coming. The storms, that’s how the angel whispers to me.” His lips parted with a grin as he stared back down at me. “That’s how he travels into our world.”

I stumbled backwards against the kitchen wall. My back became soaked from the wet dripping wall. I still held the knife out, pointed toward the man I had once made love to. A man I thought I could trust to keep me safe, but now I knew he was part of this all along. He was the one that left the crib by my door.

“Our son is dead,” I uttered the words.

Tyler slowly shook his head. His eyes never blinked. He pressed his right finger against his own lips. “Shhh. Just listen.” 

Among the rising storm, I could still hear the newborn’s cries.

“Can you hear him? He wants his mother, Katie.” He stepped forward, his face and hair drenched in water. His white shirt soaked in blood clung to his skin like a rubber glove. 

“Stop!” I yelled. My voice was shaking, but I stood my ground with my back against the wall. I would not hesitate to defend myself.

Tyler moved closer, his hands still raised in midair as he grinned. 

I swiped against the empty air between us, warning him of what’s to come should he get any closer.

“Easy now,” he hissed. 

“Stay the fuck away from me!”

Tyler lurched forward from only a few feet away, his eyes filled with rage.

I moved away from the wall and swiped the blade across his hands, cutting his palms deep. He moaned in anger as blood dripped onto the wet floor. Before he could turn around toward me, I thrust the blade into the middle of his back and stepped away from the kitchen. 

“Ahhhhh!!!” Tyler screamed. “Fucking bitch! What the hell is wrong with you?” He thrust himself away from the wall and with both arms, he attempted to pull the knife out of his back. 

I looked over at the kitchen counter. The padded gloves were gone. I rushed over and grabbed another knife. This time before giving him a chance to lunge at me again, I struck the blade into his stomach. 

He clenched his teeth and blood splashed across my face as I pulled the knife out and thrust it back in. I pulled the knife out again and treaded backwards into the living room. Thunder roared above our heads. 

Tyler fell to the wet floor on his knees. His hands covering the two new holes I had made in his stomach. 

I couldn’t help it. Even after all he had done to me, I still felt sorry when I saw the fear growing in him as the light faded. 

“Katie…” His left hand landed against the floor, splashing water across his face. “I want my boy.” He looked up at me, his expression desperate. Blood poured out of his chest and onto the floor. His eyes shifted to something above and behind me, up toward the storm. “Please…why won’t you help me?” 

Tyler then fell to the floor with one last attempt for air and was no more. 

I slowly walked over to his corpse. I needed to be certain, certain that whatever this was wasn’t going to come back to me. That all of this would end tonight once and for all. 

Tyler was dead. His lifeless body lay there in a giant puddle of water and blood. His eyes still locked on to the corner of the storm above us. I looked up towards it. The storm was still present. What the hell was this? 

I then thought of the padded gloves and remembered that they were gone, but Tyler wasn’t wearing them. Were they even his? And what did he mean by guardian angel?

I had no intention of finding out. The newborn had gone silent when I killed Tyler, but the storm was still present. Something felt off, like I was being watched this entire time. Something was waiting… for what?

I rushed over to his coat hanging on one of the kitchen stools and checked for his keys. It was empty besides his wallet. I looked over toward his lifeless body and shuddered. There was clearly something in his right jean pocket. 

I crouched down and slid my hand into his pants pocket. A moment of relief washed over me as I pulled out the truck and house keys. I had a way out, finally. 

A warm breath that reeked of rot caressed the back of my neck. I felt the hairs on my neck stand up.

“Hi.” The voice barely carried through the storm. I felt the presence behind me.

I spun around.

Nothing was behind me.

I quickly turned back around and pulled the keys out of his pocket. His stomach growled and moved. Without warning, with my head only a few feet away from him, his stomach ripped open. Blood splattered across my face.

I screamed and landed backwards.

Thunder vibrated the wet walls.

Inside the newly formed hole of Tyler’s stomach were two glowing yellow eyes. The thing let out a newborn’s whimper as its tiny hands reached outwards toward the storm. 

With all my might and adrenaline, I pushed myself off the bloody floor and ran to the front door. I managed to slide the keys into the hole and unlock it from the inside.

The thing that crawled out of his stomach was making its way toward me, crawling underneath the couch as it kept crying. I watched as it moved into view and out of the shadows. Its little yellow eyes stared back at me. The top half looked like a human newborn, but its bottom appeared to be squished and deformed, almost as if it was trying to form a tail. Something dragged a few feet from its stomach. I felt sick to my stomach as I realized I was looking at an umbilical cord.

The thing screeched a horrible cry as it made its way toward me, almost slithering on the floor. Without a second thought I kicked the damned thing as hard as I could. I watched it slam against one of the wet walls. Blood splattered across the floor. The creature cried and struggled to lift itself back up with one of its broken arms. 

I opened the front door and rushed out into the winter cold. Snow stuck to my wet face as I made my way down the cement stairs and climbed inside of Tyler’s red Jeep. It was freezing inside. I shivered as I tried to insert the keys into the ignition. I was almost done, almost to safety. The adrenaline was still inside me as I shoved the key into the ignition and started the Jeep. I wept in relief as the engine roared.

A droplet of rain hit the back of my hands as I gripped the steering wheel. Suddenly, a flash of light lit the inside of the Jeep for a second. It took a moment for me to readjust. Another droplet. This one struck the top of my nose.

I slowly looked up toward the Jeep’s ceiling, well… what should have been the ceiling. The storm had followed me here. The small clouds swirled around and thunder roared once more. 

“Hi.”

I froze in my seat. I glanced at the rearview mirror. The voice that was behind my wall at the apartment was back. I could only assume this was what Tyler meant by his guardian angel. Whatever this thing was, it was sitting right behind my seat. Its tall black body hunched over in the back seat with its long arms dangling above its knees. Its yellow eyes stared back at me. Its blackened fur rose and lowered with each sulking breath it took. I couldn’t see most of it, but there was enough for me to see its rotting yellow teeth as it grinned. 

I quickly pushed the driver side door open, letting the cold fresh winter air make its way inside the cab. I was one step out of the Jeep when the angel took hold. Its thick white padded gloves gripped onto each of my arms, pulling me back inside the Jeep and slamming the door.

The Jeep itself locked. 

I screamed as I tugged back and forth as hard as I could, but this thing was far stronger than me – even with those large, soft padded gloves. Behind me, I could hear it giggling like a mischievous little child. 

This isn’t real. None of this can be real. “It’s just a nightmare,” I cried out.

“It’s just a fucking nightmare!”

The thing holding my body down giggled once more. 

“Wake up,” I screamed. Tears streamed down my face. “Katie, wake up!”

The entity behind me spoke, its rotted breath thinning the air between us. “You chose to be empty.”

“Help me!” I screamed. I knew it was pointless. No one was coming. No one would be able to hear me out here in the middle of nowhere, not in this Jeep. I shouldn’t have come. Not here. I was safer at the apartment. But this thing… It knew. Tyler knew. They had known to scare me enough away from my home and to comfort me somewhere I would eventually be alone, with no one to rescue me. Still, I begged for someone to save me from this horrible hell. 

Something wet and heavy slithered across my shoes.

I lowered my head to see.

The thing that emerged from Tyler’s stomach was down by my feet looking right up at me. Its yellow eyes held no emotion. Behind it, it dragged an umbilical cord soaked in blood. Its small hands gripped me as it let out a soft whimper. 

The entity spoke again, “It just needs a home.”

The newborn dragged itself up my shin, its fingers hooking into the fabric of my jeans. The umbilical cord left a warm wet trail behind it. I thrashed against the gloves pinning my arms, but they held me like I was nothing. 

It reached my knee. Then my thigh. It moved with a purpose only it could understand. 

I screamed in agony. It was all I could do.

I felt it then. The pressure. The tearing. All from within. I felt my insides shift, against my will. My body was making room for something new. The taste of copper filled my mouth. 

I screamed once more, but the sound that came out didn’t sound like me anymore.

The newborn whimpered inside of me as it finally settled in.

“Good girl.” The entity behind me spoke as its padded white gloves loosened and faded into the darkness. The last thing I remember that night was watching as the storm slowly faded into nonexistence. 

******

It had been six months when I left that wretched place and my apartment. I would look at myself in the mirror and I would no longer recognize the woman I had become. 

The child within me moved again. I felt its gentle hand pressed against my skin. 

I wiped the tears from my face. Every night I cried. Every night I would wake up from some terrible nightmare and I would drench my mattress with cold sweats. I wanted it to be over. I needed it to be over. 

I wanted this thing out of me. It was almost ready, I could feel it growing impatient. I tried. God knows I tried. Yet every time I even thought of ending it, I would hear the storm rumbling above me, forming once more. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. 

He was watching. He was always waiting.