by R.A Cullison
I walked down the dark alley to where I was told to go. Every hair on my body was standing on end. My heart was galloping in my chest. I tried to relax but I was on edge. I knew something bad was going to happen. I didn’t have Matt he was at home with April. I stood in the spot waiting for the caller to show up.
A shadowy figure appeared at the end of the alley. “Do you have the files?” he asked. This time it was Victors voice for sure.
“Victor?” I questions.
“Very good you remember my voice.” he began to walk faster towards me then stopped and smiled. I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around there stood my worse nightmare.
“Noah!” I gasped.
“Hello Nora, did you miss me?” he gave an evil laughter. His eyes fell on my belly and back to my face. Next thing I knew Victor was behind me holding my arms. Victor ripped open my shirt exposing my bare belly. He rubbed it gently, “AH, father was right, it worked.” I looked at him in horror. “do you honestly think that this baby is Matt’s?” A cold chill rushed over me.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“When you were out at my fathers mansion? You gave into me so easily. And now your carrying my child.” I looked at him in horror.
“What are you talking about?” I was staring at him. He had a evil grin on his face. He was staring at my belly. “Any woman your with will be come whatever you are?”
“See that’s why we needed these files. Your father found the cure for it. And you have the cure in your blood and now in my..” he sniffed and listened. “my son.. My son will be like me. You are immune to it but he will be like me.” he closed my jacket around my belly.
A car pulled up behind him and 2 men got out. Victor pulled my arms tighter behind my back. “Easy Victor, she is carrying my child.” They both began to laugh.
I shot up straight off the couch, breathing heavy. Matt wrapped his arms around me.
“Whoa another nightmare?” he asked.
“Yes, this time it was about the baby.” I began to weep into my hands.
“Tell me about it. It might help.” he pulled me back into his arms and sat back on the couch.
“I was meeting the guy about the files and Noah was there saying he was the father of the baby.” I shuddered.
“Could he be?” he asked. I turned and looked at him.
“What?” I pulled away from him, he better not of been serious.
“You said that when you woke up you were naked it and in bed.” he looked confused and a little hurt.
“No I am sure you’re the baby’s father. I know each time I had sex. A woman know.” I stood up. “What time is it?” I have to go meet them with the files. I just hope the dream isn’t about to be reality.” I slipped on my sandals and grabbed my hoodie.
I entered the alley like I was suppose to. Chills shot through my body. It was like déjà vu to me. Only thing different is that I had my dagger that Dorsella gave me with me. I watched a dark four figures walk towards me. I could tell that by the two in the middle were walking that their hands were tied as they got closer I could tell that they were blindfolded as well.
“Do you have the files?” he asked. This person wasn’t Noah or Victor.
“Yes.” I held them up. “Let my parents go and you can have the papers.”
“Not so fast, We will let your mother go first.” He untied her hand and took off her blind fold. She walked towards me almost running.
“What about my Dad?” I asked.
“That will be a equal switch at the same time.” he had my Dad by the back of the neck. I turned and faced my Mom.
“My car is parked by the curb, go to my house and stay with April so Matt can come here.” I whispered. She looked at me wide eyed and darted towards the car.
“Same time.” he ordered. They untied my Dad and took off his blind fold. They must of really giving him a good beating because both of his eyes where dark purple and blood shot.
“He wasn’t suppose to be hurt.”
“That happened before we made that agreement. I haven’t touched him since.” he gave a evil smirk.
“Same time?” I questioned. The man extended his arm that was clapping my Dad around the neck. I held out my hand to take my Dad’s hand and with my left I extended the files. The exchanged happened fast I didn’t have time to blind it was that quick.
“There, the switch is done.” the man said looking down at the thick stack of papers.
“Yes, now you will leave us in peace?” I question or maybe it was an order.
“Of course. If the papers aren’t in here then we will be back.” he warned.
“Check.” I suggested.
“Check?.. Ok” the man next to him laid out his hands to hold up the files while the other man searched them. It didn’t take him long before he found the papers. “here we go.” he stuffed the paper back in the folder and picked the huge stack back up. “Bye Nora!” they turned and started back down the alley. “OH yeah one more thing.” They turned towards me.
“Your coming with us!” the other man ordered. The other guy started back to me. I started to back up.
My Dad tried to get in between us when a huge black creature jumped in between us, blocking the mans path to me. I watched Matt raise up on his legs. Tallest I have ever seen him. I heard a growls escaping from his chest giving them warning to back off. They got the idea and ran back down to their waiting vehicle. Matt turned and faced us. My Dad was in between me and Matt trying to protect me from Matt.
“RUN!” My Dad ordered.
“Dad.” I said calmly.
“NO! JUST RUN!” he put up his fist to fight him. My eyes met Matt’s. He was amused and flattered that my Dad would go to extremes to protect me. Matt began to morph back down. My Dad watched him with shock and dismay. There stood his son-in-law naked. “Matt?” my Dad questioned.
“Yeah!” he answered.
“What? How? Ah!” my Dad questioned with confusion.
“Lets get you back to the house before we answer any questions.” I suggested. Matt disappeared around the side of the building then emerged dressed. All three of us piled into the mustang and drove home. My Mom was sitting on the couch visibly shaken. “Mom.” I walked over to her and put my arms around her.
“Is it over?” she asked.
“I hope so.” my Dad answered.
“April?” Matt asked.
“Still asleep, she woke up and I brought her down here, she is in there.” she pointed to the play pen. All four of us peeked at her. My Dad hasn’t seen her since she was 2 months old. I straightened up right.
“Dad?” I looked at him. His face went grim he knew what was going to happen.
He sighed, “you want to talk about the file huh?” he didn’t let me answer. He turned towards my Mom. “Carla, Nora and Matt I have a lot of stuff to explain.” we all exchanged glances.
“Explain what?” my Mom questioned.
“First, Nora isn’t my sister, she is my daughter.” we all watched my mothers expression.
“What? But the blood tests.”
“I faked them, she IS my daughter.”
“How? I thought you couldn’t.” my Mom’s voice was at the point of sounding hysterical.
“I went to use my Dad’s sample in the A.I but I couldn’t do it I wanted to try mine first. I thought it would be my only chance. But before I did that I did something stupid. I…..” he stopped. “I am getting too far ahead, let me start at the beginning. Before you and I got married, Carla, I worked for a lab that did human experiments. They tried to cure cancer and rare diseases.”
“One day a man came into the lab asking for our help to cure his son who had a form of.. ah.. lycanthropy. Which I thought was impossible. But this boy was a.. ah… werewolf.” he glanced at Matt and shivered. “I worked for a year on the cure a
nd by a miracle I found it. I was able to cure this young boy of that disease.”
“Cure it?” I asked.
“Yes, it’s a disease like cancer.” he got up and began pacing. “I took a sample of blood from the boy and did some breaking down of it. Then after I isolated the cell that caused the mutation I injected it into myself.”
“YOU WHAT!?” my Mom yelled in shocked.
“I know! but it helped change my body, making me able to have children. After you got pregnant with Nora I used the cure on myself. I didn’t know it would be passed to her and I thought everything would be ok. Until she started showing signs of the disease and it caused her to form cancerous cells making her very sick.”
“That was what was wrong with her?” she questioned.
“Yes, I had to do something before she died so I stayed up one night doing some massive researching and I found the cure and it worked. Look at her.” he pointed to me. Everyone’s eyes were on me. It made me nervous.
“Stop looking at me guys.” I ordered. Mom and Matt turned their gaze back at my Dad.
“What was the mans name? the one who needed cured?” I asked.
“Honestly I don’t remember. Its been along time ago.” he sat next to my Mom. She had the look of anger on her face and she was glaring at my Dad.
“You could of told me you were her father, it would of saved a lot of problems between me and her.” she looked at me.
“What are they going to do with the files?” Matt asked.
“I don’t know, but they will be really mad when they see that what they really want isn’t in there.” he sighed.
“This can wait until tomorrow. Maybe you two should go to bed you had a very trying day.” I suggested standing up.
“Your right babe, I’ll get April and lets all go to bed.” he walked over and picked a sleeping April out of the playpen. I kissed both my parents on cheek, told them good night and we headed upstairs. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I laid in bed. Matt laid April in her crib at the end of the bed It didn’t take me long to drift off to sleep.
When I got up it was still dark outside I knew I wasn’t asleep very long. Matt was lightly snoring behind me, I looked at him he was facing me. I slide out of bed and tip toed to check on April. She was still asleep with her butt in the air. I softly chuckled at her and covered her back up. I grabbed my robe off the chair and headed downstairs. I was half way down when I noticed a light flicker coming from the living room. I walked into the room see what it was. My Dad was on the couch wide awake watching tv.
“Daddy?” he turned towards me.
“Hey Pumpkin.” he looked terrible with his bruised eyes.
“Why are you still up?” I asked sitting next to him.
“I cant sleep.” he turned his head back towards the tv, “Guilt I guess.”
“You and Mom arguing?”
“Yeah, she is pretty pissed at me. I don’t blame her really. I am surprised you’re not mad me too.” he lowered his head.
“I was. But I am just happy that we are ok and that I was right about you being my Dad. I always knew it.” I gave him a weak smile.
“Yeah. I should have been upfront about everything. I would be surprised if this didn’t cost me your Mom.” I watched a tear run down his cheek.
“No, she loves you. I am sure once she thinks about things she will be forgive you.” I placed my hand on his shoulder.
“I hope so, right now I am not allowed to sleep in the same bed with her.” He looked towards the bedroom door.
“You can sleep in the guest room upstairs.” I pointed to the door.
“Thanks Nora-bug.” he gave me a weak hug and headed upstairs. I turned off the tv and living room lamp. I noticed a light from under my moms room door. I wanted to talk to her so I walked over and knocked.
“Who is it?” she called out.
“Its me, Mom.” I answered.
“Come in, honey.”
I walked into the room, she was laying in bed reading a book. I shut the door behind me. “Mom, we have to talk.” she closed her book.
“Ok, what do you want to talk about?” she asked removing her glasses.
“Dad.”
“I don’t want to talk about HIM.”
“Stop it! He did what he had to do to save me and to have a child. Sort of like what you did when you thought Grandpa was my Dad.” she sat her glasses on the nightstand.
“This is different. He lied to me and to your Grandpa.”
“Maybe because he knew how you would act.. Like how your acting now. I wouldn’t tell you either if I knew it was going to cost my marriage.”
“It wont go that far. I love your father but he needs to be honest with me.”
“He knows that. Maybe you should talk to him. Don’t let him suffer. Tonight we all be through a lot of stuff and found out things that… well stuff that should have been told long ago. I don’t hold anything against him or you, but your hurting him.” I stood up. “I’m going to bed, he is in the guest room upstairs just in case you want to talk to him. Good night Mom.”
“Good night Nora.” she smiled at me. I head back up to my bedroom, climb next to my sleeping giant and fell asleep.
I got up early the next morning having new hope for the day. April was standing on the side of her crib.
“Good Morning, pretty girl.” I smiled at her. Matt was sitting on the edge of the bed. His hair was messy and he looked like he had a rough night.
“Dada! Dada!” April called towards him. He turned his head to face her. His eyes were alittle swollen and he looked pale.
“Matt?” he looked at me. “You feel ok?” I asked.
He sighed. “what do you think?” he said in a scratchy voice.
“Yikes. You sound terrible.” I walked over and placed my hand on his forehead. “Your warm. Why don’t you lay back down and I will bring you some medicine.”
he shook his head, “Nah, I’m ok.” he went to stand up.
“NOW MISTER!” I ordered.
“Yes Mommy. Sheesh.” he chuckled. He climbed back in bed. I went out to the hall to call for one of my parents. My Dad answered.
“Yeah, Pumpkin.” he called up to me.
“Can you come and get April? Please.” I smiled.
“Sure.” he started to walk up the stairs. He stopped half way up and clutched his chest.
“Dad!” I walked over to him. He had this terrified look on his face. He fell backwards down the stairs. I screamed as loud as I could. “DAD!” I ran after him. I heard doors open. Matt came running and so did my Mom.
“Carl!” my Mom yelled.
“Go call 911!” I yelled at her. I rolled him over to check his heart and to see if he was breathing. His lips were turning purple and his skin was becoming blue. I pressed my ear against his chest, he wasn’t breathing. I tried not to panic, “Matt stay with April.” I began doing CPR. My Mom ran back to where I was working on my Dad. I wasn’t about to let him go. “Mom I need you to stay with April and tell Matt to come here.” I continued to do compressions of the chest and breathing for him. Matt ran down the stairs 2 at a time.
“Honey.” he looked at me. “I think he’s gone.”
“NO! Help me!” I grabbed Matt’s hand and placed it on his chest. I breathed and he did chest compressions. After 10 minutes I was about to give up when I noticed his hand moving. “Dad!” I breathed for him again. “Breathe Dad! Breathe!” I ordered him. I bent down to do one more breath when his eyes opened and he began to cough. “Thank God!” I sobbed. I pulled him tight to my chest. “Dad!”
He laid there taking in deep labored breaths with his hand resting on my arm. I sat on the floor next him holding his hand to my cheek. Being thankful he was at least breathing. Matt ran outside to wait by the road to show the emergency crew where the house was. I sat there watching him, soaking in this moment just in case it was my last.
“Nora.” he said weakly.
“Yes.” I bent down to hear him.
“I love you.” he gave a weak smile. The emergency crew bursted through the door startling me. Matt helped me off the floor so they could work on him. I watched them move around him putting an oxygen mask on him and starting an IV. Matt helped them put him on the stretcher then he ran upstairs to get April so my Mom could ride in the ambulance to the hospital. I hurried into a dress and sandals, I wasn’t going to leave my Mom there to deal with this on her own.
I was sitting in the passenger seat crying, the situation finally caught up to me. Matt reached over and placed his hand on my leg.
“He will be ok.” he reassured me. I didn’t say anything but shake my head. April crying in the back made me realize that one day she and I might go through this with Matt. I turned my head towards him. He was focused on the road. I watched him bite his lip, curse under his breath at the slow drivers and squint his eyes.
“Matt, I love you. I want you to know that.” I felt like I had to let him know that.
“I love you too, baby.” he glanced over at me and gave me a weak smile.We pulled into the hospital parking lot finally, “Go inside I will get April.” I didn’t hesitate, as soon as the car came to a full stop and he put the car in park I was out the door.
I jogged into the building, praying most of the time that he was going to be ok. I went straight to the receptionist, “Waiting room?” I demanded. She pointed to it. I turned to see if I could see my Mom. She wasn’t in there. I turned back around, “Carl Treeman? He was brought in here by ambulance.”
“Are you related to him?” she asked.
“Yes I am his daughter.” I answered. She gave the woman next to her a odd look, it made my heart fall into my knee caps.
“Follow me, please.” she stood up and I followed her to another waiting room. My Mom was pacing the floors and chewing her nails.
“Mom.” I called out as soon as I seen her. She spun around and darted for me.
“Nora.” she sobbed.
“Do you know anything yet? How is he?” I asked.
“No, they haven’t told me anything yet.” she looked around the room. “Where is April and Matt?” she asked.
“Matt has April, I ran in as soon as we got here.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and lead her to a chair to sit down. “Relax Mom, your not going to be any good if you hysterical or worried.” she searched my face and then took a defeated sigh.
“Your right.” we both sat down in unison. About an hour went by Matt was finally there with April who was not asleep on my Mom’s lap. I knew holding her would ease her a little. I started to feel alittle funny, almost like I had the flu or something.
“Are you ok?” he gave me a concern look. “you look like your sick or something.”
“I feel funny, my stomach kind of hurts.” I rubbed my tummy. Both of them gave me a look of worry. “don’t worry about me or the baby we are fine.” the doctor walked into the room.
“Family of Carl Treeman?” Matt took April so me and my Mom could go talk to him.
“That’s us. How is he?” I asked.
“Well he had a major heart attack. He is on a respirator, IV and a heart monitor. He seems to be holding on but we wont know for another 24 hours.” he looked at his clipboard then at me and my stomach. “You saved your dads life.” A sharp pain ripped through my stomach. I doubled over clutching my tummy.
“Lets get her onto a bed.” he wrapped his arms around me to support me. Matt handed April to my Mom and picked me and carried me back to the examining area. Another stabbing pain, this time everyone started to freak. I reached down to hold my belly to find something wet. I pulled my hand up and it was covered in dark blood.
Nurses and doctors were running round me trying to help me. Matt was in the back with his eyes fixed on me. The pain was unbelievable.
“How far along are you?” a nurse asked.
“31 weeks, its not time yet.” my eyes met Matt’s. His big blue eyes filled with fear.
“Get her prepped!” someone shouted. “Nora?” I turned towards the doctor. “We have to get the baby out of you now.” I felt a stick in my arm
“Save my baby!” I shouted. Things began to get fuzzy around the edges and then dark.
