by Gina Ranalli
She marched towards them, naked, her belly already twice what it had been in the shower. When she was standing over the prone teenager, the buzzing rage the only thing in her ears, she made a large sweeping gesture with one arm and the insects took flight at her command, vanishing through the open door and back into the darkness.
Gillian closed the door after them and then leaned her back against it, regarding her mother with a smirk.
"What's next, Mom?"
Teri patted back a lock of hair that had come loose in her struggle with Tess. She smoothed the front of her cheerful pale-yellow blouse and said, "Now, my love, we wait."
CHAPTER 37
When Tess attempted to climb to her feet, Teri caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and kicked, the top of her brown pump catching Tess beneath the chin, rocking her head back and causing her teeth to clack together, her tongue caught between them.
Tess fell to her side in the fetal position, dazed, her mouth filling with the coppery tang of blood.
Above her, Teri said, "You can't go anywhere now, Tessie. You're in it to win it." Teri laughed then, and Tess groaned, trying to push herself up. Teri kicked her again, in the stomach this time, harder than before and Tess suddenly had no air in her lungs as the agony became her entire world. She rolled her head towards the ceiling, the room foggy and she blinked several times, trying to speak.
"Hush now," Teri told her and stomped down on Tess's face with the full force of her weight. There was a loud crunching sound and Tess's pain was replaced by black.
When she came to, the first things of which she was aware were the sound of crying and heavy breathing. Or was it panting? Same difference, really...
She had the worst headache of her entire life and her stomach coiled in on itself, threatening to bring up what little there was inside it.
Her eyes fluttered and finally stayed open long enough for her to realize she was staring up at a ceiling. Her neck ached something fierce and she wanted to sleep. But there was still that annoying whimpering sound. Who was doing that and why couldn't they just shut the hell up and let her get some rest?
Was it...
Her numb mind fought to come up with a name.
Emily!
Everything came back to her then and her heart began an instant painful race to burst from her chest.
"Oh, my God," she wept, trying to sit up. The pain was excruciating and she fell back again.
She was still in Josh's living room, lying on his sofa. She turned her head to the right and had to blink several times to even begin to comprehend what she was seeing.
Most of the furniture in the room had been pushed to one side and there was a woman lying in the middle of the floor. A fat woman.
Tess saw the blonde hair and realized, no, not just any woman. It was Gillian and she was not fat-she was pregnant. Very, very pregnant and by the way she was breathing, Tess could also tell that she was in labor.
"What the..."
But how could that be? How long had she been out? Certainly not that long. Not long enough for Gillian to go through an entire pregnancy and-
"It's best if you just stay where you are," a woman whispered.
Teri had appeared, looming over Tess like an ancient malevolent goddess, wearing the same clothes Tess remembered from before.
So, she hadn't been out long.
"What-" Tess began but was instantly silenced by Teri violently pulling a fistful of her hair.
"Shut up and be still," the woman hissed, leaning over so that their noses were almost touching. "If you even attempt to fuck this up I will feed your precious daughter to them."
Teri pulled Tess's hair again to illustrate some point that Tess was confused about. What she wasn't confused about, however, was pain. She wanted no more pain. Didn't think she could handle any more and so she nodded feebly.
Releasing her grip on Tess's hair, Teri smiled, straightened up and turned her attention back to Gillian on the floor.
Tess followed her gaze with her own and lifted her head an inch or so off the sofa for a better view. On the far side of Gillian, previously obscured from Tess's view, lay Josh, also naked, but either asleep or unconscious. Passed him, against the far wall, Speck sat slumped on the floor, her eyes mere slits in a face swollen with insect bites. She gazed dumbly at the scene taking place in the center of the room, Emily cradled in her lap, face buried in Speck's armpit.
Tears leaked from the corners of Tess's eyes and she snuffed back blood, a fresh surge of pain pounding her head. She gingerly reached up to touch her face. It was caked with blood, both fresh and drying. At the very least her nose was broken but that didn't seem so bad.
Not really.
She couldn't worry about herself now anyway. She had to get Emily and Speck out of this madhouse before whatever it was that was about to happen, happened.
The first thing she had to do was stop shaking enough to formulate a plan. There would be plenty of time for shaking later. She also refused to let herself think about what all this meant. She remembered the flies and the way Gillian had seemed to control them. Which meant that everything that had happened, right from the start, had most certainly been Gillian's doing.
But how crazy was that? It was insane! People didn't control-
The doorbell rang, startling her from her thoughts. Emotions warred within her. Someone was here. Was that good or bad? She dared to hope it was good and slowly began to try sitting up again. Teri whirled on her.
"Don't move!" she commanded. "That's them."
She left to answer the door, leaving Tess to wonder who 'them' could be. Whoever it was, the fact that Teri knew them didn't bode well for the situation. Whatever the fuck this situation was...
Ignoring the 'don't move' order, Tess grimaced against the pain that enveloped her body and struggled to sit up, looking over at Speck.
"Speck! Can you get up?"
Eyes ticking in Tess's direction, Speck's mouth worked slowly. "B..broken ribs...I...think."
"What about Em? Is she all right?"
"I think I told both of you to stay still and be quiet," Teri said softly, her voice as pleasant as Tess had ever heard it. Behind her trailed two middle aged women, each with a baby sling strapped to the front of their bodies.
To Gillian, Teri announced, "The midwives are here, darling. And they brought the boys with them."
Gillian smiled, but the reply she made was an agonized moan.
"You're just in time," Teri told the women. "I think it's about to happen."
"Then there's no time to waste," the taller of the two said. "The boys should feed now."
Teri nodded and stepped back, giving them room to approach Gillian.
Still sitting up, Tess was surprised when it was Josh the women knelt beside, one to his left, the other to his right. What kind of midwives tended to the father instead of the mother?
The each reached into their baby slings, and tenderly revealed the 'boys', which weren't boys at all.
Both Tess and Speck screamed when the huge gray maggots were lifted from their slings, each one squirming and gray and the size of a miniature poodle. Ugly sucker mouths protruded from one end of each of the maggots, the thick pink lips opening and closing, alternately exposing and hiding double rows of small, spiky yellow teeth.
Teri slapped Tess hard across the face but Tess barely felt it, her eyes fixed on the sight of those ungodly monsters as the midwives attached each of them to Josh, one to his chest, the other to his stomach. There was an immediate gnawing sound followed quickly by a slurping sucking noise.
Gillian began to wail and the midwife closest to her turned around and positioned herself between Gillian's legs.
The second midwife-the taller one-continued to tend to the creatures eating-there was no other word for it-Josh.
Tess felt her mind slip a notch but knew that this was the time. The midwives and Teri were all focused on either Gillian or Josh and once this nightmare was over, she knew they wouldn't get anoth
er chance. Teri hadn't been making any empty threat when she'd said she would feed Emily to 'them.'
"She's coming fast," the midwife with Gillian said. "I can already see her head."
"If she's anything like Gillian," Teri said proudly, "She's going to have a healthy appetite."
"Mom," Gillian panted, her face streaked with sweat as she reached out a hand towards her mother. "Please."
Teri gave Tess a wary glance. "Move and Emily becomes puree."
Warning in place, Teri went to her daughter, crouching beside her and gripping her hand in both of hers. "She'll be here soon, darling. Not to worry. Mama is here."
Tess had no desire to see what this 'child' was going to be and no intention of heeding Teri's warning. She had no idea why she'd been allowed to live as long as she had but felt certain that she wouldn't live to see the morning if she stayed here and waited for the birth to be over. Neither she nor Emily would live if she stayed put.
Mustering all the willpower she possessed, she swung her legs over the side of the couch until her feet hit the floor and then she stood, quickly glancing around the room for a weapon. The only thing near enough was a paperweight in the shape of a green globe on the end table. It would have to do.
She quickly snatched it up, prayed her aim would be true and let it fly.
The globe thunked into the back of Teri's head, a fine red mist spraying into the air and then falling back to stain the blonde hair as the woman silently fell forward onto her daughter.
All eyes turned to Tess, but she was already in motion, lunging at the midwife between Gillian's legs and wrapping her hands around the older woman's throat, squeezing for all she was worth.
"Speck!" Tess screamed. "The other one!"
Finally showing some life, Speck understood and none-too-gently flung Emily from her lap and threw herself forward onto the other midwife with a shriek of pain and triumph.
Her fist pounded into the woman's face once, twice, a third time until the midwife's mouth burst and blood flowed down her chin to her throat.
"The baby!" Gillian screamed, but Tess didn't bother to turn. She continued to throttle the woman beneath her, throwing all her weight into the task.
She caught sight of Emily, standing, looking at the chaos before her with a shocked expression.
"Run, Emily!" Tess shouted. "Run!"
And by the grace of God, the little girl obeyed, vaulting over bodies and running away...away until she was out of sight.
Even as the woman Tess was choking began to go limp in her hands, the one Speck was grappling with reached over with one desperate hand and pulled the nearest maggot free from Josh's body, thrusting it face first into Speck's neck. The thing latched onto the teenager throat and Speck released the woman in order to get the thing off her. She pulled, shrieked again when the creature tore a chunk of flesh from her throat, blood spurting and instantly drenching the right side of her body.
"No!"
Tess released her grip on the midwife and turned to see Teri sitting up, her eyes wide with terror as they watched Speck bleed, the thrashing maggot in her hands.
"No!" Teri shouted again at the midwife. "That girl is one of us! I sense it! We'll need her to breed!"
Speck flung the squirming maggot at Teri and clasped both her hands to her throat, blood pouring through her fingers as her face went deathly white. She looked at Teri with what Tess would have sworn was amusement.
"I'm not gonna breed for anyone," Speck coughed, blood splashing her cheeks and chin. "I'm fucking gay, asshole."
She collapsed onto the midwife with a final wheeze and then lay still. The midwife struggled beneath her weight but then Tess was distracted by the screaming of mother and daughter: while Teri fought to keep the gnashing teeth of the loose 'boy' away from her body, a baby was emerging from Gillian in a gush of blood and gore. From what Tess could tell, a very human baby.
But it didn't matter.
She had her own child to tend to.
Getting to her feet, she almost raced from the room to search for Emily, hoping the child had left the house all together, but the sight of Speck laying there in a spreading pool of blood made her hesitate.
She went to the girl and pressed her hands against Speck's wound, distressed at how quickly the blood was flowing but relieved that it was flowing at all.
"You'll be okay, Speck," she said, beginning to weep. "I promise everything will be okay."
As she tended to the teenager, she was revolted to see Teri and the midwife resume their sick ritual. Teri regained control of the maggot and the newborn-very human indeed, at least by appearance-was gathered up as the midwife produced a blade, piercing the creature and allowing the newborn to suckle its draining fluids.
The second maggot continued to feed on Josh's corpse, and had, in fact, dug its way into his stomach so far that only its tail end protruded.
Tess's mind slipped yet another notch and she struggled to her feet, gripping Speck under the arms and dragging the girl with her as she backed out of the scene.
All the other women were thankfully preoccupied with the newborn, cooing and whispering gentle reassurances as Tess made her escape.
She was allowed to haul Speck nearly to the front door and then, impossibly, Gillian strode towards them, still naked, her thighs streaked with blood and afterbirth, but miraculously thin and beautiful as ever.
"Going somewhere, Tess?" Gillian asked, her face breaking into a predatory smile.
"Please," Tess begged, tears mingling with the blood on her face. "Please. My little girl."
"Will be fine," Gillian said, her smile growing even broader.
Such a gorgeous woman, Tess thought. It's really no wonder that Josh was so taken with her.
The gorgeous woman approached and touched Tess's cheek gently, wiping away a bloody tear before opening her mouth wide and vomiting a black gush of flies into the other woman's face.
THE END!!!!
###
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