Experiment in Terror 05 On Demon Wings (7 page)

sweetie?”

What
, I tried to say but my lips were too dry.

The movement suddenly stopped and the stretcher was

stil . The doctor and demon girl left my side abruptly, and I

was alone, strapped down, facing a door at the end of the

hal way.

“Hel o?” I cried out.

I lifted my head and shoulders up as much as they could

go and looked around me. There was an old man sitting on

a chair outside the door, hands resting on a cane, his eyes

concentrated on his feet. There was no one else around. I

looked down at my legs. I was stil in my Port-Town uniform;

skinny jeans, black polo shirt, black apron. There was a

sticky, wet sensation on my jeans when I shifted, especial y

around my crotch. With whatever happened to me, I

wondered if I had peed my pants in fright.

A weird skittering sound, like light nails brushing against

steel, came from my right, from the ground. I turned and

looked to see a large creature that looked like a wood bug

undulating past me. It was the size of a dog; its grey,

segmented shel of a body moving back and forth with each

step of its many spindly legs.

My breath stuck to my lungs and I was unable to let it out

until the wood bug skittered past the old man and around

the corner. The old man, his attention stil at his feet, paid

the giant insect no attention.

What the fucking fuck was going on? This had to be

another dream. I had to stil be on the floor in the bathroom

at work, that wasp stil crawling on my face. Even though

what happened earlier was terrible, it was stil preferable to

what was happening here.

A low, steady creak came from the front of me.

The door I was parked in front of opened and who

stepped out of it but Dex Foray. He was holding a bundle of

something wrapped in thick, white cloth, holding it like a

baby.

Seeing Dex’s face both scared and calmed me. He

looked much like he did the last time I saw him. Handsome

in a rough, dark way. Eyes like mahogany-glazed coal. It

would have fil ed me with hatred so frighteningly

uncontrol able, but I couldn’t feel anything but confusion and

fear.

“I didn’t think she’d make it,” he said in his gravel y

voice. He was talking to me, I think, but looking at whatever

he was holding in his arms. “Thank you, Perry, for doing this

for us.”

“What are you talking about,” I whispered. I tried to get a

better look at him but was distracted by a redness that was

spreading on the sheet beneath me. I hadn’t peed my pants

– that was blood that covered my lower half.

“Oh, God. What happened to me?” I squeaked. I tried to

break free of the restraints but I was held firmly in place.

The leather cut into my skin as I struggled, but I didn’t care.

“Relax, Perry,” came a voice from behind. I tilted my

head up to see Abby standing over me. Abby, Dex’s ex-

girlfriend. Dead ex-girlfriend.

Unlike the last time I saw her, she wasn’t mangled into a

mil ion bloody pieces. She looked like a normal, pretty

col ege student. Straight blonde hair with a red tint. A pink

dress that flared out from the waist. She looked completely

normal.

Until she smiled.

There were wasps crawling on her teeth.

She promptly shut her mouth and swal owed until the

moving bumps under her lips disappeared, then walked

over to Dex. She put her arm around him and peered at

what could only be a baby in the blanket.

“It has my eyes,” Abby said in her Fargo accent and

looked up at Dex. He was now staring straight forward at

the wal , not moving.

“Would you like to see?” Abby asked me, taking the

bundle out of Dex’s stiff, frozen arms. She walked toward

me with delicate precision, her shoes echoing extra loud in

the strangely silent hal . As she came forward, I looked at

the old man with the cane, wondering if he could help free

me. He was now looking at me, his eyes black, his mouth

wide open in a silent scream. It seemed to carry on forever,

his gaping, empty mouth with no sounds coming out, the

blackness of his throat, until Abby was al that fil ed my view.

My horror was indescribable.

“Of course you want to see the baby,” Abby said, and

lowered the bundle until it was right in front of my face.

It was a baby, al right.

A baby covered in a very fine coat of black hair al over

its little body. It was nestled deep in the white blanket. I

stared at it, mesmerized. Horrified.

The baby moved a bit onto its side and the change in

position caused a single wing to flap out of the blanket. It

was as thin and delicate as a bat’s, wrinkled in its folded

state and covered with throbbing veins. The baby lifted its

head and opened its eyes.

They were a dark black-brown, like Abby’s, like she had

said. The baby did have her eyes.

The baby then opened its mouth to reveal shark-like

teeth. It regarded me with contempt and, in a rush of

guttural, vibrating words that reached deep into my skul ,

said, “I’m stil inside you. You can’t get me out.”

The old man’s scream final y found its way to me,

blasting down the hal like a radio that has just switched on.

He screamed for the both of us.

~~~

Moments later, I was in an operating room with an exquisite

pain tearing through my insides. The same doctor who

pushed my gurney earlier lifted his head sharply. He was

between my legs, blood on his arms. He looked at

someone off to his right.

“Patient’s awake!”

I felt a commotion behind my head, a few beeps from

machines, and a mask was placed over my mouth. My eyes

rol ed back.

“Perry?” I heard Ada’s voice sink into my brain like a soft

feather.

I groaned and tried to move. The stiffness scared me

and I had a flashback of being tied down with leather

straps, but after a few attempts I was able to lift my arms.

Barely, but I could tel they weren’t constrained.

I forced my eyes open. I was staring up at the ceiling

again, the same perforated white panels. Dread fil ed my

heart. I thought that had been a dream.

I brought my head to left, in the direction I had heard

Ada’s voice, but was immediately met with a crushing

pressure inside my skul and my vision fil ed with a swarm

of spinning black dots. I shut my eyes hard as a moan

escaped my lips.

“Easy, easy,” another voice said. It was female,

measured and soothing. “You’ve been through a lot. You’re

in the hospital. You’re with a nurse, me, I’m Sheila. And

you’re with your sister, Ada. Your mother just stepped out

for a moment. She’l be back. Just rest. There’s no rush.”

I let out a deep breath and tried to open my eyes again. I

felt my hand being grabbed by slender, slightly-sweaty

fingers and Ada’s anxious face fil ed my vision.

“Perry, it’s me,” she said softly. Her eyes were wet and I

could see her heavy eye-makeup had created sticky trails

of dark tears.

“Ada,” I said slowly. “What happened? Where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital. You fel down at work and…

and…”

She trailed off and looked behind her. She kept hold of

my hand while a woman came into my view.

She had squinty eyes that portrayed a wealth of

kindness and a ruddy complexion that came in your fifties.

“Perry. I’m Sheila.” The apples of her cheeks raised

pleasingly as she talked. “What was the last thing you

remember?”

“I was at work,” I told her. I must have sounded unsure

because the last place I
really
remembered was a hospital

just like this one. “I was cleaning the bathroom. I had these

real y bad cramps again, this terrible pain. I fel over onto

the ground.”

I didn’t mention the wasp. That would have been a bit too

weird, and in this case, probably irrelevant. If it even

happened at al .

She smiled as if she were confirming everything I said.

“Yes. Your co-workers found you in the bathroom. The door

was locked so they had to break it down. They found you on

the ground, unconscious. They said the lights were off. Do

you remember turning off the lights?”

“No,” I said softly. “They just turned off. At the same time I

had the pain. I don’t know why.”

She nodded and leaned a bit closer. Ada stil had hold of

my hand.

“Do you remember waking up during the surgery?”

Sheila asked quietly.

“That was real?” I blurted out.

Sheila exchanged a glance with Ada and gave me a sad

smile. “Sometimes we don’t know how much anaesthesia

to give. Because you came here in an unconscious state, it

made things difficult. We couldn’t be sure what was wrong

with you until we did the ultrasound.”

Ultrasound?
At the sound of that my veins felt replaced

with vinegar and it wasn’t because of the IV my other arm

was hooked up to.

“Did you know you were pregnant, Perry?”

Pregnant!?
My eyes widened and Sheila looked a bit

chagrined.

“You didn’t know,” she said to no one in particular.

“Pregnant?” I managed to exclaim. “I wasn’t pregnant!”

“Yes, I’m afraid you were, Perry.”

No. I wasn’t! I had my period like a month ago. Oh my

God. That would be impossible. I would have been almost

three months pregnant. “That’s not…you’re wrong.”

She was wrong. And crazy. How could she think I was

pregnant? The idea was ludicrous.

“We weren’t wrong,” Sheila said. “And I’m sorry to say

that you lost the child.”

“Child?” WHAT CHILD?!

I heard a whimper from Ada and I craned my head back

to look at her, ignoring the spots at the corner of my vision.

“Ada. What’s going on? Why are they saying this? You

know me…I wasn’t pregnant!”

She wiped the corner of her eyes and looked at Sheila

before saying anything.

“But you could have been. Couldn’t you have? You had

gained some weight. You were sick al the time, you felt

pukey, you were tired and cranky.”

“I’m always that way! Plus I had my period.”

“How many times?” Sheila asked, straightening up.

“Twice,” I told her.

“Were they heavy or light?”

“Very light…but, that stil counts…”

Nurse Sheila brought out the chart from the bottom of the

bed and started flipping through it. Her face was stil fairy

Godmother-ish but was acting more authoritative.

“Unfortunately, your period is not always the best sign of

not being pregnant. It’s rare, but in cases like yours, it does

happen.”

Oh my God. My hand ripped out of Ada’s and flew to my

mouth. How could I have been pregnant? My worst

nightmare had actual y come true and I wasn’t even aware

of it.

“So…I’m not pregnant anymore. Did you give me an

abortion?”

Sheila put the chart back and gave me a dry look. “No,

dear. We did not give you an abortion. You had a

miscarriage. We had to make sure that it was removed

safely and properly. That’s what we had to do; it wouldn’t

have been safe for you otherwise.”

She looked between Ada and me and added, “It’s

nothing to be ashamed of. It occurs more than you think,

especial y first pregnancies and especial y when the mother

isn’t looking after herself. But I assume the baby isn’t

something you would have wanted.”

Wel , no, it wasn’t. Or wouldn’t have been. But it didn’t

mean it wasn’t a shock to my body, my heart and my mind. I

felt a mil ion things but the one that stood out the most was

that I was very, very afraid.

As if catching a bit of that feeling, Sheila came over to

me and patted my arm. “You’re with your family now. You’l

be as right as rain. I’l go get your mother and the doctor, in

case you have more questions. You have nothing to worry

about.”

She left the room and walked out into the fluorescent lit

hal way.

I looked at Ada. “What happened?”

“It’s like she said. Shay and Ash said they found you on

the floor. You were total y passed out. They said…there

was a whole bunch of blood around you.”

“Oh no,” I closed my eyes. How embarrassing this was,

how bad it looked for the company.

“Perry, be happy you’re alive,” she admonished me.

“How could I have been pregnant?” I repeated, even

though it was starting to make sense to me. It did explain a

lot of what had been going on.