by P. K. Tyler
Asmodeus seduced Adel with her dark fantasy, encouraging her malicious desires. Hate and resentment swirled around her consciousness, plunging her back into darkness.
“What do you want?” the woman screamed as Asmodeous stalked closer, knife in hand.
“Only what belongs to me.”
“Please, I’ll give you anything you want. I can help you. My father’s a therapist.”
Rage raced through Adel. Even in her dream state the insult landed on the softest part of her self-respect. She wasn’t crazy. Not even close. She was the victim. She was the one who had been wronged. How dare this woman suggest that there was something wrong with her. Brennen had done all of this. He’d done all of it for this bitch who dared insult Adel’s sanity. As bad as her father could be at times, he’d never have done something like this.
Asmodeous used Adel’s indignation, throwing her body toward the woman as she stabbed her in her mind. Asmodeous released Adel from fantasy, but it was too late, she was lost to herself, stabbing the woman over and over again while screaming her lover’s name. The knife slipped through flesh and bone over and over, spraying blood across the designer kitchen. The dream and reality merged, directed by the evil within Adel’s soul.
Her arms shook. She looked through bloody strings of hair hanging in her face at the slack face of a woman she only knew as the thief of her happiness.
A beautiful face adorned with a bare, pink shade of lip gloss and just a small bit of mascara lay splattered with blood, her makeup streaked with tears. Adel didn’t want to lower her gaze to the woman’s stomach, but couldn’t help herself.
The large round stomach lay still.
Take what’s yours, Asmodeous whispered in her mind.
Adel reached out with a quivering hand and touched the mound. Inside, something moved.
She jerked back, the baby was still alive.
This horrible thing she’d done, this evil she’d committed, could be salvaged, she could still save the baby.
And keep it for yourself. You deserve it. You deserve the life he denied you.
Adel wiped the blood and tears from her eyes with the back of one of her hands and braced herself to cut into the woman’s supine body.
Asmodeous continued whispering to her, feeding the ember of hate still lit within Adel. He wrapped his black tentacles around her soul, caressing it and seducing it to give into temptation.
Adel sliced through the flesh near the woman’s pelvis just beneath her pregnant belly. She cut along the bottom of the protrusion, careful as she slit the skin and muscle not to press too hard. When she had a clean cut, she reached one shaking hand inside the dead woman’s body. Warm blood and soft tissue enveloped her hand. She slipped inside the woman’s body up to her elbow.
Inside the dark body, she wrapped her fingers around something small and delicate, an arm or a leg, and pulled. She wrenched the baby from it’s mother’s womb through the incision.
Chapter Five
The woman’s stomach looked like a deflated air mattress. Asmodeus whispered from within Adel’s mind, You need to sever the cord. The woman’s body is still warm. A brief pang of guilt struck her heart, but looking at her newborn baby, a promise the soothing voice made and kept, calmed her. Adel gently placed the baby in the warmth of the deflated womb. Yes, that’s it, he said, she was just a temporary womb, a carrier. This baby is yours. Take her. Sever the cord that binds her to this nesting place. Take back what’s yours.
She searched the kitchen for something to tie off the cord, finally finding a thick, plastic tie wrap and a pair of kitchen shears. When she’d severed the final connection to the woman who tried to take her place, she picked up the blood slick baby and held her close, standing slowly and carefully so as not to drop her. She looked around the kitchen, contemplated washing the baby by the sink for a moment then it occurred to her that there would be a nursery. This baby had been expected, her arrival well-prepared for.
Idly wondering if Brennan had helped in the preparations, she stepped around the woman's corpse. Funny, even after months of watching the woman who'd stolen her man go about her daily tasks, she'd never once even tried to learn her name.
Speaking of names, she'd have to give her baby girl a suitable name, right after her bath. There was still plenty of time.
Adel checked the bottom of her shoes for blood before stepping off the tiled kitchen floor and onto the carpet but found little. Still, she’d have to take them off so Brennan would come upstairs instead of into the kitchen. Her clothes were a vibrant mess. Bringing a baby into the world does that to a woman, though. She wasn't complaining.
She turned the corner out of the kitchen and into the living room. When Brennan came home, he'd come into his finely furnished home and pass right by pictures on the walls of his perfect family. As she crossed the living room and crept up the stairs, she imagined him going straight through and turning into the kitchen. The first thing her father did when coming home was go to the bathroom to wash his hands, but Brennan rarely bothered with such mundane tasks. She’d have to talk to him about that. With a newborn, it was important that he kept germs to a minimum. But now that he was a father, she was sure he would try. They just needed to get past this latest development.
A dark warmth spread through her mind and body, leaving behind the bittersweet taste of granny smith apples, fresh cut and ready to bake. Brennan's jaw would drop when he saw what remained of his tramp, her chest and face riddled with stab wounds and a big, gaping incision.
Adel faltered at the top step, but a seductive voice reminded her, He was yours, this baby was yours. She took them from you. You simply took them back. Well, the baby, anyway. Don't worry, Adel. We'll get him back, too.
She continued up the stairs, but the thought of him finding her first bugged the shit out of Adel. She looked for the baby's bedroom so she could put her down and set the stage downstairs. The first door at the end of the stairs was a guest bedroom with a twin bed and dresser and little else. The whole room was done in floral: bed clothes, window dressings, every fucking thing was goddamned flowers.
Brennan wouldn't have let her decorate any house he had to live in in such a girly fashion. Why her?
Adel started shaking but remembered the precious bundle in her arms. Setting her anger aside for the sake of her baby, she briefly considered laying her on the bed, but it didn't look safe. She could roll off. Oh right, she knew newborns didn't roll, especially the day they were born, and especially since she...
That voice, so comforting, wouldn't let her think beyond that. Find the crib. Set the scene downstairs. Everything's okay. Everything will be just fine. Brennan will be home soon. Don't worry, just make sure everything is ready for when he arrives.
The next room down was the nursery. She gently laid the baby in her pastel-pink, gingham crib. The decor in this room reminded Adel of a country kitchen bleached out by the sun, but she didn't have the time or resources to do anything about it now. Later she’d decorate her nursery the way she wanted, with deep rich colors, strong like she’d raise her daughter to be. First, she had to set the scene.
Adel went back downstairs, dipping her shoes into the blood but careful not to drip any on the floors. It was too thick and coagulated to get a nice, even coat, but it would do for her purposes. Adel used an empty plastic grocery bag to carry the shoes to the foot of the stairs without dripping blood where she didn’t want it. She made a few bloody prints on the beige carpet on the first few steps, then left them both on the fourth step.
It looked odd, the blood just appearing there like that. Too late to fix it now, though. It was enough, she thought, to lead Brennan to her and their baby upstairs and keep him away from that bitch in the kitchen.
Adel took a deep, cleansing breath before entering the baby's room. She didn't want any negative feelings disrupting her time with her little one. The baby still lay in her crib under the store-bought quilt, just as Adel had left her. She hadn't moved at all. Such a good ba
by.
She brought her precious daughter into the adjacent bathroom, a Jack and Jill style that connected to the master bedroom. Adel shut both doors and turned on the bathroom's heater. It wouldn't do for her baby to get cold. She laid a towel on the floor and placed the infant, now wrapped in the quilt from her bed, on top of it.
Because of the umbilical cord, she wouldn't be able to bathe her in the tub itself. She didn't want to get the area too wet and risk an infection. A tingle of awareness threaded through Adel's thoughts. Infection. Death. Too late?
But that voice, so soothing, came back to comfort her when she needed him most. It's okay, Adel. You're doing a great job. What a wonderful mother you are. The baby won't get an infection. Just get her cleaned up so you'll be ready for Brennan when he comes home.
Adel ran the bathwater until it felt warm against her hand, then flipped the lever for the shower. She found a first aid kit with some gauze and water-proof tape. Adding a healthy dose of clear antibacterial cream to the gauze, she taped it over the baby's cord, just to be safe. After taking all her clothes off and leaving them in heaps on the closet floor, she knelt down by the baby and kissed her tiny nose.
"Mommy's going to wash up first so I don't get any of this nasty stuff on you, sweetie. You stay right there and be a good baby for Mommy."
She stepped into the shower, singing about sunshine and love. Harsh thoughts tried to creep in. "Please don't take my sunshine away." Brennan. The police. Adel bared her teeth, "No. Don't take her away." They won't take her away. Everything's going to be okay.
Adel finished her shower, taking the time to make sure every bit of blood and gore rinsed clean from her hair. She swished water to clean the tub then plugged up the stopper, switching the lever back to the bath spout. When the water rose up just enough to cover her hips, she carefully unwrapped the baby and lifted her into the bath with her, singing "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine..."
"You need a name. Not sunshine, that's not really a name. But something like that, something that represents light and ... hope! That's what I'll call you, Hope."
Adel washed Hope carefully, then gently laid her back down onto the towel, minus the messy blanket she'd wrapped her in. She climbed out of the tub and got another towel to dry her perfect daughter with, then wrapped her in a clean, dry towel and brought her back to the nursery. Adel left Hope in her crib again, just long enough to check the master bedroom for a robe, which she found. She towel-dried her hair and returned to the nursery just as she heard a key in the door downstairs.
Daddy’s home. A shard of fear shot through her, but the voice reminded her, Hope’s daddy, not yours. Everything’s okay.
"Susan! What's this shit on the floor, is that blood? And whose shoes are these?" He clopped up the stairs, muttering curses under his breath. Not much had changed since the last time Adel had heard his voice. Her father didn’t stomp his feet or swear. She pushed the thought aside, needing Brennan to be so unlike her father. He’d be better for Hope.
She adjusted her robe to reveal one bare breast. She'd washed her baby and swaddled her in a warm towel. Now, it was time to feed her.
Brennan turned at the top of the stairs and strode right past both the guest bedroom and the nursery, going straight to the master bedroom.
"Susan, I..." He opened and shut two doors. The third one he opened was the bathroom door on the master bedroom side.
From the rocking chair by the window where she nursed their baby, Adel watched him through the open door on the nursery side.
His jaw dropped open in surprise and he stood mute, the first time she'd ever seen him silent.
Adel smiled, glanced down at Hope, then met his eyes again. "Welcome home."
Brennan's gaze traveled over Adel's face and lower, toward the baby she held to her breast. She warmed to the look until his lips twisted in disgust.
"What the fuck is wrong with you? Is that..." His eyes grew even wider and he took a few steps into the room, staring at the limp baby in her arms. His hands curled into fists and shook at his sides. "Where's Susan? What did you do?"
Adel's face heated. She placed the baby back into the crib and covered herself, tying the robe tightly. "Let's go downstairs. It isn't good to argue in front of little Hope."
His mouth hung open again. "Are you serious?" He stepped closer to the crib, sidling around to the opposite side as Adel. Brennan placed one hand on the baby's stomach, just long enough to tell it wasn't moving. His whole body shook, his voice a low growl. "You killed my baby."
Her knees went weak with worry, a momentary panic until the voice assured her everything was fine. "No. That bitch took my baby. Our baby, Brennan. I took her back, is all."
Brennan gripped the crib's rail as tears flowed freely from his eyes and dripped onto the pastel sheet. He mumbled and whispered some more, but Adel couldn't hear him clearly. Before she could ask him to repeat himself, his arms shot out above the crib, reaching for her throat.
She jumped back and avoided his lunge, but his weight thrown against the crib toppled it over. Adel screamed unintelligibly as the baby rolled over the side railing onto the floor. The mattress landed on top of her with a soft thump.
Before she could check Hope for injuries, Brennan rushed around the toppled bed and kicked Adel, landing a solid blow to her ribs. She rolled away and hit the wall. Spikes of pain ran up and down her arm. She stood, determined to save her baby from Brennan’s fury. Somehow she had thought it would dissipate now that they had brought a child into the world, but it was only worse now.
Brennan stood between her and the baby still under the mattress. Still shaking, his face red and wet, he growled, "Get out. Just get the fuck out!"
"Not without my baby."
He yelled again and rushed her, slamming her into the window. It shuddered in its frame but held firm. Brennan grabbed Adel's face, gripping her hair, and slammed her head into the window twice more before she could get her knee up into his crotch.
She picked up a pink, porcelain piggy bank from the dresser to her right and slammed it against his head. It shattered and he staggered back a few paces but still blocked the crib.
If she threw anything else at him, he'd fall over on the mattress and the baby underneath. Adrenaline pumped through Adel's body as panic and a need to get her baby to safety overwhelmed her. Draw him away, to the kitchen. She turned and ran out of the nursery and down the stairs.
Brennan’s heavy footsteps reverberated on the steps beneath her feet as he chased her down.
She jumped the last few steps and turned hard, stumbling toward the kitchen. As soon as she reached the corner, she turned and jumped across the corpse she knew would be laying there. Adel hadn’t quite cleared the blood that had spread out across the floor and she slid through it, slamming into the wall and struggling to remain on her feet.
Brennan rounded the corner and tripped over the woman’s head, landing face-first in the hole where his baby used to be.
Adel giggled. She couldn’t help it. He was like a dog caught in the midst of its own shit and she just felt like rubbing his nose in it.
He lifted up onto his elbows and rolled onto his side, staring in open-mouthed horror at the shredded corpse.
Finish him. Adel’s gaze swept the kitchen and landed on the block in the corner that held the knives. She’d have to walk right by Brennan to get to it, but he was distracted anyway. So she went for it. He wasn’t distracted enough.
Brennan reached out and grabbed Adel’s ankles and jerked.
She fell back, landing hard and hitting her head on the sticky linoleum. Her vision went gray for a moment. She blinked rapidly and shook her head. Adel tried to sit.
He climbed on top of her and put his hands around her throat. For an instant, she thought her father had come back from the dead to punish her for her latest transgression. The soothing voice assured her, Even if he could come back, I wouldn’t let him near you. Finish this. Her eyes popped wide open and she frantically searche
d the room for any weapon. The block that held the knives was way too far for her to reach. There was nothing nearby. Unless there was something in one of the drawers.
Adel’s face felt warm, the blood rushing to it and trapped there. She couldn’t breathe, could barely think.
She pulled out the lowest drawer, jerking hard enough to pull the whole drawer off its tracks and completely out, but saw nothing but dish towels within. She swung the drawer around with all the strength she could muster and smashed it into Brennan’s face.
Blood spurted up as the corner caught him in the mouth.
He screamed, but she raised her makeshift weapon and brought it down on him again, aiming higher this time and hitting him between the eyes.
Brennan moaned, his face turning to the side as his eyes closed and he fell off of her.
Adel coughed and heaved, and spent a few moments catching her breath.
He'll wake up, then he'll come after you, that once soothing voice warned her. He'll take your baby. He'll kill you. End this now.
Over and over she beat him in the head with the dresser drawer, getting better at aiming the corner at his temple until her arms grew weak and his face resembled cherry pie without the top crust.
Adel wiped moist warmth from her face, smearing blood over her hands instead of tears. The police will be here soon. You need to leave. Now. She quickly washed her hands and face, then went upstairs, to the overturned crib, and lifted the mattress. The baby laid on her side, still swaddled in the towel. Adel's vision wavered as she fought to remain conscious. "Shhh," she whispered, as she picked up the baby. "Everything's gonna be okay. Mama’s here."
She glanced down at the robe still covering her body. She’d draw too much attention wearing nothing but the blood-spattered, white robe. She passed through the bathroom and the master bedroom, into the closet where women's clothes hung on one side.
