The baby kicked hard in Mary’s stomach, making it jump visibly.
She winced and stretched her legs out under the kitchen table, trying to find a more comfortable position. The task was impossible. At 36 weeks of pregnancy, she’d reached the point where comfort was nonexistent. She glanced up at the clock and sighed, then grabbed the large vitamin pill on the table. She chased it down with orange juice, and fought the immediate urge to throw it back up. Everything was hard these days. Her eyes went to the clock again. Joe would be home for lunch any minute, and she hadn’t made him so much as a glass of tea. Bracing her hands on the table, she pulled herself out of the chair. The baby shifted and settled against her bladder, but she ignored it. She’d just used the bathroom. Flies buzzed around the small kitchen, and she swatted at them as she went to the refrigerator. Chilled air hit her when she opened the door, making her wish again that they had enough money to get the damned air conditioner repaired. It was summer, after all.
As she pulled out the iced tea, she heard the front door open. “Hello!” Joe called out, then appeared in the kitchen doorway.
“Hey sweetie.” Mary smiled as he put his arms around her, his hands snaking down to caress her swollen belly.
He kissed the back of her neck and murmured against the salty taste of her sweat. “How ya feeling?”
“Not too bad.” She handed him the glass of tea. “Tired, heavy, uncomfortable … the usual. Were the twins still playing out front?”
“Yep. Out there jumping rope when I came up.”
Mary nodded. She hoped Jessie and Rachel would stay outside for a little while so they could talk. “Do you want a sandwich or something?”
“Nah. I’ll grab some crackers or chips when I go back. C’mon and sit.” He pulled a chair out for her, then sat in the one across from it.
“Okay,” Mary sighed and sat. She wiped the sweat from her forehead. “We need to talk about--”
“Yesterday,” Joe finished, nodding. “I know.”
“It’s not normal” Mary took a deep, shaky breath. “Children … just don’t do that sort of stuff … unless … unless there’s some severe psychological problems. I--I just don’t know what to think. I mean … they’re only twelve for god’s sake.”
Joe raked his fingers through his red hair.
The scene had replayed through Mary’s mind dozens of times, but she still found it hard to believe. The girls were only allowed to play in the area between the fire hydrant and the street sign, where she could keep an eye on them from the apartment. But yesterday, when she’d glanced out the window, they were gone. She went outside and followed the sound of their laughter into the alley. She found them behind the dumpster.
And stared in disbelief.
Jessie and Rachel, with their blond hair in perfect pigtails, their innocent, smiling faces, wearing matching sundresses…
And between them, a dog with its belly split open.
It was still alive, lying on its side, twitching uncontrollably and whimpering pitiful little mewls of pain. Its eyes--or where its eyes should have been--were open bloody gaps. Rachel sat cross-legged next to the dog’s head, holding up an eyeball between her fingers, studying it. Jessie squatted next to the hole in the dog’s abdomen, her hand inside up to her wrist. Both girls had been smiling. Laughing.
They remained unaware of their mother’s presence for a good minute, completely engrossed and captivated with the dog’s mutilation, whispering words she couldn’t hear. The bile rose in Mary’s throat, and when she’d shouted--or rather wanted to shout--it actually came out as a ragged whisper, the girls had looked up at Mary and smiled as if nothing were wrong. Rachel dropped the dog’s eye to the ground. Jessie pulled her hand out with a squelch that almost made Mary throw up. She’d seen the jagged piece of glass next to the dog, too--covered in blood, like their hands. Grabbing the girls, she left the dog lying there and rushed them into the tub upstairs, not saying a word because she didn’t know what to say.
“We need to get them some help,” Joe now said, as if he’d watched the episode in her memory.
Mary nodded and wiped away a sudden gush of tears.
“Maybe this type of ‘lashing out’ behavior stems from something from before we adopted them.”
“Something before they were two? That they’re just now showing a reaction to?” Mary shook her head and rose unsteadily from the chair.
“It has to. I mean, what else could it be?”
“I don’t know. It’s just so hard to understand.” She moved to the window and pulled back the curtain. A cramp clenched her abdomen, and she hissed quietly, not wanting to alarm Joe. It wasn’t ‘time’ yet, but it was coming soon.
“That’s why we need to get them help right now before--”
“They’re gone, Joe.” She turned from the window, her eyes wide. “They’re not out front playing, and I don’t see them.”
Joe stood up, his lips pressed together. “I’ll go.”
“I’ll go, too.”
“No, you stay,” he said, walking swiftly to the front door.
“It’ll be quicker to find them if we both go.”
Joe frowned at her, and Mary knew what he was thinking: that she looked drained. And she was. The pregnancy, as surprising and miraculous as it was, had taken its toll. They weren’t supposed to be able to have children, a fact that had led to their adoption of the twins.
“I’m fine, Joe. Come on.”
He sighed and nodded. They left the townhouse and locked the door behind them. Mary shook off his hand when he tried to help her down the front stoop.
***
They stood for a moment on the sidewalk, looking in all directions. The girls’ jump ropes lay in the gutter.
“Jessie? Rachel?” Mary called.
Joe cupped his hands around his mouth. “Rachel!”
It was too late now, but Mary wondered if they’d been wise to allow two twelve-year-old girls to play outside without direct supervision. How foolish and inadequate those instructions seemed now.
Before Joe could suggest she stay home again, Mary said, “Go see if they’re with that Lee girl a block over. I’ll check the jungle gym at the park.”
“Okay.” He took off running.
She couldn’t move as fast as him, but Mary could still put on a good burn when she had to. Supporting her stomach with both hands, she accelerated to the point of jogging. In two minutes, she reached the park, her maternity dress clinging to her sweaty breasts.
“Jessie, Rachel!”
Panic squeezed her heart, and she suppressed the urge to vomit. Stay calm, she told herself as the swings and slides came into view. Empty. Joe’s probably found them by now.
But deep down, she knew otherwise. They’d never just … disappeared before. Mary pictured them lying in a ditch, or bound and gagged in someone’s van. What were they wearing? My god, I don’t even know what clothes--
“JESSIE! RACHEL! PLEASE, JESSIE!”
Mary doubled over as pain stabbed through her abdomen. “Get a hold of yourself,” she whispered. She couldn’t afford to go into labor right now.
A child shouted in the distance.
Rachel.
This time she did run, full-out. Her stomach muscles constricted, and the pain was almost unbearable as another contraction ripped through her. But she pushed herself anyway, holding her stomach. With each step came agonizing jolts, making her moan.
She saw them. The girls, with their brightly colored T-shirts, stood out from the group of homeless people like daisies in a sea of garbage. They were congregated under a large oak tree with twisted and gnarled branches that seemed to reach out for her children. Mary counted six bearded men seated on the ground, wearing clothes caked with grime.
She opened her mouth to shout, but snapped it shut as Rachel’s high-pitched voice screeched: “Eat it, motherfucker! Come on! I want to see you take a bite!”
The man at whom she shouted was naked from the waist up. He reclined against a mound of blankets and held a squirming puppy dog over him. The frightened animal whimpered and released a stream of urine onto the man’s filthy bare chest. With a jolt, Mary remembered the conversation she’d overheard between the girls the other night. That guy at the park, he’ll eat anything--anything! I heard he bit off a turtle’s head.
Stepping closer to the homeless man, Jessie bunched her tiny fists and echoed her twin: “Eat it, cocksucker! I want to see some blood!”
Mary swooned. “My--my babies …”
She started forward in jerky, stumbling steps, then stopped when Joe called from behind her, “Mary?”
“J-Joe!”
She watched her husband run to catch up. When he looked over her shoulder, his jaw dropped.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Rachel screamed.
The others joined in the chant.
“YES, YES, YES!”
Mary turned in time to see the homeless man take a huge bite from the dog’s stomach. It squealed in agony as blood sprayed his face.
“Oh, dear god!” Joe whispered.
At that moment, the baby rammed a fist of pain through Mary that reached all the way up into her throat. She sunk to her knees, whimpering and holding her stomach. She was faintly aware of liquid gushing down her thighs as fuzzy darkness crashed onto the world.
***
The darkness lifted and Mary looked around in confusion. She was lying on a bed, her legs up. Where was Joe? Two women in pink hospital scrubs conversed nearby. A hospital? But--it wasn’t time yet!
What’s happened to my baby?
She remembered running to the park, looking for the twins. Joe was …
Pain shot through her in a bright, violent wave, pushing a scream past clenched teeth. The nurses looked up, startled. “She’s coming out of it.”
“I’ll increase her drip.”
Mary clawed at the bed, thrashing her head from side to side. She wanted to talk to them--find out what was happening, ask where Joe was. But the pain allowed nothing.
Warmth suddenly raced through her body. Her ears burned and skin prickled as medicine rushed through her veins. The pain eased, but before Mary could ask about her baby or Joe, darkness swept her away.
In time, awareness returned.
She awakened into a nightmare.
***
The chains that restrained her spiraled from her wrists and ankles to a place high above in a dark cavern, stretching to dizzying heights beyond her view. The thick metal links made a squeaky jangling sound as she twisted and jerked, trying to free herself.
Excruciating pain galvanized her body. She threw her head back and screamed against the agonizing fire that raced through her. After a moment, it eased and her muscles unclenched a bit. She looked down at her body, naked and covered in sweat, and saw the flesh of her swollen stomach move with the child inside her.
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”
It was a Bible verse. She vaguely remembered it through her haze of pain--Luke, maybe. The speaker squatted before her on the rocky floor, one of a thousand tiny, scaled creatures that surrounded her and stared with orb-like eyes. As if a silent signal passed through them, they surged forward. They climbed her naked body, digging their claws into her flesh. They tangled in her hair, perched on her shoulders, hung from her breasts and sat along her raised arms.
“Blessed, blessed, blessed …”
Deep and guttural, the chant dissolved into a chorus of words she couldn’t understand. Their faces were the jumble of a dozen animals melded in chaos: pig, goat, rat, snake.… One hung onto her neck and raked a putrescent tongue across her lips.
It dropped off her and looked up. Grinning. Its sharp bullwhip-like tail snapped around and lashed her in the abdomen. Pain exploded through her in a white, hot burst, and Mary screamed in surprise. The creature shrieked a hideous laugh and whipped her again.
“All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life.”
The voice echoed off the cavern’s dank walls. An odor of decay and sulfur choked her, and two red-coal eyes approached within a billow of smoke.
“Mother.” The voice crawled through her soul. “Mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear.”
Her baby. It wanted her baby!
An enormous red dragon materialized and towered over her. Its many heads moved and bobbed on tentacled necks, the crowns and horns upon them winking like stars.
The demons climbing her moved aside as her stomach rippled. The baby dropped, its bulk falling lower in her abdomen, pushing her pelvic bones apart. Sharp, vivid pain pierced her. Another raw scream ripped through her lips.
“And the woman shall birth the whore who is one of three who shall ride the scarlet beast and bring forth the Wrath of the Deceiver.”
Pain! The baby’s outline pushed hard against her flesh. Mary shrieked in horror as tiny hands erupted through her stomach. Talons sprouted from the bloody fingers and sunk into her flesh. The baby began pulling itself out.
Another jagged pain tore through her, this one so raw and stunning that it stole her breath completely. She couldn’t even scream when the baby fell from the torn slit in her abdomen and into the waiting arms of a chitinous being with eyes on stalks. A cheer went through the masses as they carried the child away, holding it overhead.
Her voice refused to come as if her vocal chords had been ripped from her throat. That clawed monster that had come out of her couldn’t be her baby!
“My baby! Where’s my child?! MY child! MY baby!” She wasn’t sure if she’d said the words or just thought them, but the dragon turned to her, its heads waving like hair underwater.
“Silence, cow!” it roared, eyes glowing. “Your work is done.”
Blurry. Tears stung her eyes as the dragon lifted the child-creature into its arms. As it turned away, Mary’s head began to swim. The dragon’s final words chased her into the darkness that claimed her.
“The cow has done well. Your work is just beginning, guardian.”
***
She awakened upon a bed that felt like a cloud. Between its softness and the sunlight streaming through a window, Mary wondered if she had ascended from Hell into Heaven. It took a moment to realize she was in a hospital room.
A warm hand stroked her forehead, and she turned to see Joe. “Ya done good, kid.”
Your work is done.
“What?” She tried to sit up but didn’t have the strength. Her stomach was tiny. “Joe, what--”
“The baby’s fine. You’re fine. You had a C-section.” He smiled. “You didn’t take well to the anesthesia, but it’s over now.”
So the cavern and the dragon had been a hallucination caused by an allergic reaction to the medication…that sounded logical. Yet it had seemed so real. “You--you were there?”
“Watched the whole thing through a window.” He nodded, smiling at her. He looked tired. “It was amazing. The doctors were crawling all over you.”
“Crawl--?” Mary shuddered. She realized she was crying. “What … what is it?”
“A girl. A beautiful, wonderful little girl.”
“When can I see her?”
“I’ll ask. She’s in the nursery right now.”
A warm glow of pride began to fill her. “Our baby. She’s our baby.”
“Yes. And she’s perfect.” Joe leaned forward and kissed her. “I’ll go find a nurse.”
“Where are the twins, Joe? Have they … have they seen her?”
The smile fell from her husband’s face, and he looked down. “The twins are with your mother right now.” He sighed and looked back up. “Things will work out, honey. I know they will.”
“Work out? J-Joe, they were with … that man!” Tears fell down her cheeks as she recalled the revolting scene from the park. “They were yelling, and--oh my god! And the dog, the other day. … What’s wrong with them?”
“Calm down, hon. Try to relax.”
“Don’t tell me to be calm. Those are my girls, and I …” Mary sobbed, overcome with shock and exhaustion. “Is the baby going to be safe with them?”
Joe held her gaze for a long time, then said, “I think things will be just fine.” He kissed her hand and held it to his chest for a moment. “I’ll go find a nurse.”
***
They named her Lilith, after Mary’s grandmother. Mary crooned the name when the nurse brought in the infant. A small shadow of prenatal peach fuzz still clung to her face. Mary held her like a fragile piece of china.
“She’s adorable.”
“I feel like I should be giving you frankincense and myrrh,” Joe said.
“What?” Mary frowned until she got the reference. “Oh.”
The next half hour was one of the most joyful of her life. Each little breath, noise and frown made her laugh and comment in appreciation. The nurse showed her how to breast feed, and lectured about proper diet and hygiene. The stitches along the C-section incision made it painful to move, but Mary ignored the pain. She delighted in every small dimple and movement, watching the baby’s face for reactions, so conscious of the fact that this was her daughter, that she’d made this, and that Lilith had come from her body--was a part of her.
Then she found the birthmark. On the back of Lilith’s neck was a small, pink circle with a line on the side, like a tail. She looked up at Joe in disbelief.
“How can this be?” she whispered.
Jessie and Rachel, besides having identical faces, also had identical bodies--right down the marks on the backs of their necks. Small pink circles with tails.
Joe peered over her shoulder. “Oh, I already saw that. Surprised me, too. I asked the doctor and he said it was a vascular … vasculive … something like that. It’s a type of birthmark that’s extremely common. He said it would probably be gone by her first birthday.”
Mary searched his face. “And these vasculive marks all look the same? Like this? Just like Rachel and Jessie’s?”
He shrugged. “Guess so. I guess the twins just didn’t outgrow theirs. Maybe it’s a sign that they’ll all get along well together.”
Taking a deep breath, Mary rubbed the spot gently. “I don’t want her to be anything like them.”
***
One Month Later
Mary reclined in the bathtub, luxuriating in the hot water. The sounds of her family floated in: giggles and playing as Joe tucked the girls into bed.
They’d been absolute angels since the intervention of Dr. Michaels. At first, they’d resisted his efforts, but time and skillful counseling had uncovered the truth:
“They’re very scared that the baby will replace them,” Dr. Michaels had reported to Mary and Joe. The warm leather of his office chairs and plethora of professional certificates had set Mary at ease. “That’s why they’ve been acting out--mutilating the dog in the alley and so forth--and yet they also want desperately to love the baby. It all goes back to a worry that you will prefer your natural child over them and ‘give them away’ like their biological parents did.”
Mary had felt crushing guilt when she realized the girls’ fears were not entirely unjustified.
Since then, she’d made an extra effort to shower Jessie and Rachel with attention. Suppressing her misgivings, she’d included them on everything: allowing them to help her feed and bathe Lili, even change the diaper.
It had worked. There were no more incidents--no more cruelty to animals, no more running off, and no more of those fights at school. They even stopped complaining when Mary took them to Sunday school at the church. Although Mary herself had mixed feelings about Christianity, she enjoyed the church community and hoped it would be another stabilizing force in her daughters’ lives.
“Nighty-night,” she heard Joe say. “It’s time for little devils to close their eyes.”
Mary frowned. She wished he’d stop with that ‘little devil’ business. It brought back memories of the hallucination she’d had in the hospital. Thank God memories of those dream-demons faded a little each day. …
Joe knocked on the bathroom door and peeked around the edge, smiling. “Hi. Girls are in bed. How ya feeling?”
Mary grinned. “Horny.”
“Good. Meet you in the bedroom.”
They had been planning this for days: their first time together as husband and wife since Lili’s birth. The doctor had urged them to wait until her incision was healed completely, but they were impatient and Mary felt fine.
Wearing only a towel, Mary emerged from the bathroom to find Joe already in bed. Candles burned on the nightstands, casting flickering shadows off the bulge of his erection beneath the bed sheet. Although the windows were open, the room was still stuffy.
“I can tell I’m going to need another bath.”
Joe pulled the sheet away, grinning. “Come have a seat. The serpent wants to talk to you.”
“The serpent is going to have to get on top. And take things slow and easy. I’m healed but still sore, okay?”
“But I want the forbidden fruit to dangle over me.”
Mary put her hands on her hips. “C’mon. Up. And no more damned Biblical references.”
Frowning, he moved so she could lie down. He looked genuinely irritated, which surprised her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m sorry.”
She frowned, debating whether to get to the bottom of it. But she sighed and decided to put it out of her mind as Joe began kissing her breasts.
She’d barely begun to get into it when he moved on top and pushed inside her. Pain flared in her abdomen from his sudden movements, and she gasped aloud. They were both out of practice, and he may have just been overly eager, but that had hurt.
She was about to tell him to slow down when the bedroom door opened, swishing on the carpet. She looked around his hip and saw the twins in their identical pink nightgowns. “Jessie, Rachel--!”
They attacked with carving knives.
Joe turned just in time to catch Rachel’s between his ribs. He gasped and fell across the bed. Mary screamed as Jessie’s knife plunged toward her belly. She caught her daughter’s wrist in both hands.
“Oh my God, what are you doing?”
“NO GOD! NO GOD!” Rachel shrieked, and scrambled over Joe’s body. She grabbed Mary’s hair and shook her. “You’re in our way! Your work’s done!”
Your work is done.
Mary kicked up with both knees, sending Rachel face-first into the headboard. This allowed Jessie to push the knife closer to her body. Without thinking, Mary twisted the girl’s small wrist and threw her to the floor.
“Off of me! Joe! Oh my … God--oh my God, oh my dear GOD what have you done?!”
The girls squealed and covered their ears.
Mary jumped off the bed and ran for the open door. She hesitated a moment, sobbing in disbelief at the sight of her husband lying on his side in a bright red puddle of blood, turned away from her. She wanted to go to him, but the girls were moving, and she needed to protect Lilith.
“Harlot!” Jessie spat. She lunged from across the room.
Mary pulled the door closed the instant before she reached her, trapping the girls inside the bedroom. Rachel joined Jessica a moment later, yanking at the door in an effort to open it, but Mary held tight.
“Somebody help me! Please, somebody!”
She was quickly losing her grip on the doorknob. When had her daughters become so strong? In one swift motion, she released the knob and leapt across the hall to the nursery.
The door opened behind her, and a knife whooshed past her ear. Mary darted into the nursery, slammed the door shut and locked it.
“Open this door, pig, or you’ll suffer worse than you can ever imagine!”
The voice was Rachel’s, but somehow older and more guttural sounding. Mary recognized it immediately. The small creature from her hallucination who’d first said she was “blessed among women” had had that voice.
“Please,” she begged as the girls battered the door. The wood splintered with each blow, as if they had hammers for fists. “Don’t hurt me, don’t--” she glanced over as Lili began to cry. “Don’t hurt my baby.”
They snarled and hit the door again.
“Not your baby! She’s one of three!”
“The Trinity is complete, cow!”
“We are the bringers of the Armageddon! Each marked with six!”
Mary screamed and covered her mouth. They were talking about the birthmarks they all shared! The twins were insane!
She had to save Lilith. Mary grabbed the baby from the crib. Unmindful of her nudity, Mary pulled the curtains back and pushed the glass upward along its tracks. The street sat empty and dark in the night. There was a five-foot drop to the ground, but she thought she could make it--she didn’t have a choice.
“Please, somebody! Help me, anybody!”
The nursery’s door buckled inward. Moaning with panic, Mary clutched the baby to her chest and climbed through the window. She sat on the ledge, debating how to jump down safely, when the door opened with a crash of splintering wood.
No time. She jumped.
Her left ankle twisted on the ground, and Lilith ejected from her arms to tumble across the grass. Mary wailed, and the baby answered her.
A voice hissed above her: “Bring her back! ”
She looked up.
They were her girls--no mistaking those blond pigtails--but their faces were the menageries of animals she’d seen in her dream of the cavern: the pig snouts, snake tongues, goat ears and rat whiskers. At last, the realization came to her that it hadn’t been a dream or hallucination. The cavern, the dragon, the demons…it had all been real.
As fast as she could, Mary scooped up the baby and limped into the night.
***
“Help me, someone! Please god, help me!”
Darkness covered the world: no streetlights, no stars, no light at all save a bloody moon. No cars moved, no lamps lit any windows, and no one answered her pleas. But the homeless people were still out; they sat in the doorways and the darkened alleyways like crows, staring at her nakedness. Mary steered clear of them and ran onward, gasping each time she put weight on her ankle. She didn’t dare stop long enough to pound any doors. As she fled, she stole glances behind her to see if she were being followed (she wasn’t) and down to see if Lilith was injured from the fall (she didn’t appear to be).
Mary sobbed and gasped, traveling the nightmare border between panic and shock. And grief: Oh god they killed Joe they killed Joe they killed him!
She saw a man in a tan trench coat near the fence bordering the city park. His back was turned to her as he peered through the iron railings into the trees. Cigarette smoke curled around his fedora hat, deepening her impression that this was a well-appointed older gentleman out for an evening stroll. Someone normal.
Mary went into hysterics as she came close. “Sir--please! You have to help me! My husband’s been murdered, and--”
As he faced her, he smiled and threw off his hat.
Joe.
The hilt of Rachel’s knife still protruded from his lung, but he seemed unmindful of the scarlet river streaming down his naked side. As he cast off the trench coat, his eyes began glowing like rubies.
“It would’ve been easier if you’d just gotten on top,” he said.
His body began to grow and change then, right in front of Mary’s eyes. His neck lengthened to that of a giraffe’s. Joe’s crop of red hair melted as his skin turned red, and scales appeared across his body. His head and neck split in two and split again, continuing until there were seven heads. In moments, Mary faced the dragon that had taunted her in the cavern, the animal that she had since read about in the book of Revelations: Satan.
Sinking to her knees, Mary held the baby to her breast and sobbed over it. She hardly noticed when it latched on to her breast and began nursing.
“Come,” the dragon thundered, “give me the child. Then take your place upon the beast. Don the robes of purple and scarlet; adorn yourself with gold and pearls; and drink from the golden cup until drunk on the blood of the saints.”
“Come on, Mary. Give us the baby back.”
“Yes, mother. Let’s go home and be a family.”
Mary gasped at what she saw. Joe--the real Joe--her husband--walked toward her. Uninjured. Smiling. Holding hands with the twins. Mary shook her head, tears coursing down her face. “No, Joe, oh God, what have you done?” She rose unsteadily to her feet, holding Lilith tight against her breast. “I won’t give her to you. I’ll never give you my baby.”
The dragon opened its mouths. Smoke belched out, followed by thunderous growls. From its throats spewed frogs that landed on the pavement around her with wet splats. She jumped, trying to dodge the horrid creatures, when locusts swarmed from the dragon’s mouths. They tangled in her hair and stung her naked body. Mary shrieked, shielding Lilith as best she could. She turned and ran.
A peal of thunder shook the ground, and hail began to fall. Giant stones slammed into her back and shoulders, knocking the breath out of her.
Laughter and high-pitched giggles. The girls were chasing her.
Mary fled through the dark forest, her mind alive with memories of childhood Sunday school lessons. The apocalypse. End of the world. Satan’s reign. She recalled the horrifying feelings the stories had caused her. She looked down at Lilith. Her precious baby. There was no way her innocent child could be a part of this. It just wasn’t possible.
She ran hard, ignoring the sharp rocks beneath her feet and thorny vines ripping at her naked flesh. She didn’t hear them chasing her anymore. The hail and thunder stopped.
Trying to catch her breath, she stopped and bent over but still kept a lookout. The trees cast black shadows on blackness. Mary dropped to her knees, still clutching Lili to her breast. Pain flared as her knee struck something hard. She reached down and pulled the empty beer bottle from under her. Sobbing, she pushed it away.
Had to protect Lilith. Had to find a way. What if she had her baptized? Exorcized. Send her to Catholic school--
Mary screamed as a sharp pain ripped through her breast. She tried to pull Lilith away, but the child held on with razor-sharp teeth that were mere gums moments ago. Shrieking, she pulled harder. The nipple separated from Mary’s breast with a wet snap, and blood gushed from the hole. Lili watched her with wide, glowing red eyes and smiled as the baby chewed the bloody morsel.
“No, oh my god, no!”
But it was true. Lilith was like the others.
A sense of hopelessness descended over Mary like a heavy, wet blanket. She shook her head. No way to fight it. No way to hide. She laid Lilith on the damp ground. She’d leave her here. Let the world end. It wasn’t her duty to save the world.
Her hand brushed the beer bottle, and she froze. No … yes.
She smashed it against the tree beside her, breaking the glass in half. Holding the broken bottle by the neck, her hands trembled as she poised it over her daughter.
No, she couldn’t do this. It was her daughter! But it was also the spawn of Satan. She could--must--do this.
A man stepped out of the shadows. Mary froze with the broken bottle held over Lilith’s chest, eyes wide.
“Give her to me,” he said.
It was the homeless man from the park--the one who would eat anything, including a turtle’s head and a dog’s stomach. Mary shook her head, unable to talk past the knot in her throat.
“An angel … told me to come.”
His grime-caked features showed a mix of emotions: fear, confusion. Hunger.
Tears ran down her face. Give her baby to this man? The lunatic that ate anything? But, hadn’t she just been ready to murder her baby to save the world?
Torn between her love for her child and the horrors of this night, Mary climbed to her feet and left Lilith on the ground. She turned and ran.
Moments later, when the sound of her child screaming in horrible agony reached her ears, she stopped.
“No!” What have I done? “Dear God, I’m so sorry.”
She still clutched the broken bottle in her hand. Without another thought, Mary rammed the jagged end into her throat and fell to the ground.
As she stared into the night sky, the stars began to come back.
She closed her eyes and smiled. The nightmare was finally over.
***
The homeless man bent down and picked up the shrieking child. He watched as Joe and the twins approached.
“The cow is gone,” the man said. He handed the baby to Joe, who bowed and thanked him.
The homeless man began to change. His body transformed into animals--pig, goat, rat, snake--before twisting and elongating into that of the red dragon.
Now taller than the trees, the dragon looked down at its daughters and the puny man. Addressing the Trinity, it said, “I have opened a door that no one can shut. Men shall wear your mark and fall down at your feet. Now go; take your sickle and reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”
As the dragon returned to the great abyss, Joe smiled at his wards.
AMEN.
