“Dudley”—Emily’s voice threatens him in a low, demonic octave I have never heard before—“call for help and I’ll find a way to make you die.”
“On that note.” Marshall takes a breath and turns to his right, his head pointed as far from Emily’s bulging privates as one can get. “Ms. Messenger, I bid you the best of luck.”
“Luck?” I balk. “Luck isn’t a part of your lexicon!” I riot at him. “Mother!” I shout to the sky in hopes of celestial intervention.
“Skyla,” Em pants her way through another contraction. “It’s coming!”
“I need a blanket. I need something to wrap the baby in.” I glance around and take off my dress. The fog licks at my skin, but it feels as if every last inch of me has been Novocain-ed, numb with shock.
“You little witch,” Chloe bleats, stripping off her own sweater and tossing it at me. “You just wish Gage would see you as the hero in all this. Skyla and her superpowers to the rescue.”
Marshall lands the jacket to his suit next to me and I quickly move it underneath Emily’s hips, creating a dark, clean surface.
“I love you, Mr. Dudley!” Emily grunts as her head spins in slow counterclockwise circles, her mind far past delirium.
“Oh, shut up.” Chloe tries to break free from Emily’s death grip, but it looks as if she’d sooner lose a finger. “They were about to take off their clothes anyway. I heard the whole awkward convo leading up to what they were hoping would be an extraterrestrial hookup. I can’t believe Gage ever thought you were so innocent. You’re nothing but a common street whore.”
A flash flood of liquid vomits from Emily’s vagina and the baby’s head crowns. Dark hair glistens in the night and a small laugh gets caught in my throat at the miracle of it all.
“A whore!” Chloe riots into the night as if trying to one-up Emily and her constant cries of agony. “I can’t wait to expose you! Now that Gage has come to his senses, the entire world will see you for what you really are—a hungry cocksucker who would kneel at the feet of anyone with a penis!”
Emily bears down and the head glides out, a tiny face with eyes shut tight, lips crimped together, and I can’t help but smile and laugh through tears.
“One more time,” I shout and Emily digs deep and bears down with all of her might, allowing the baby to inch forward enough for me to slip my fingers under its arms and pull it out with ease.
I hold it to the moonlight a moment as the fog christens it with a kiss.
“It’s a girl!” I shout, quickly pulling her to me and suctioning out her nose with my mouth, spitting to the ground without giving it a single thought.
“I’m going to fucking die!” Chloe thunders as if we were holding her hostage. And I suppose Em is.
The baby lets out the distressed cry of a lamb at the sound of Chloe’s voice, and I land the precious babe over Emily’s bare chest.
Marshall clicks his shoe to mine. “There’s one more treat on the way.”
No sooner does he say it than the placenta, the large dark, glibbery, crimson mass that reminds me of a human liver spills from her and the umbilical cord separates from it.
“Crap,” I mutter as blood sprays everywhere, my flesh quickly hosed down with the sanguine liquid, my face, my hair, my mouth. “Marshall!”
“Tie the cord off, my dear. The baby is divine.”
“God.” I look around for something that will work and note the hairband around Chloe’s wrist and snatch it from her before tying off the umbilical cord with it.
“You freaking got blood on me,” Chloe howls as if this entire episode affronted her. “Typical Skyla. Always stealing what’s not rightfully hers. You stole my butterfly room, myhusband. It’s nice to know your mother really does care about righting the wrongs in the universe. Do you know what she told me the other day? She said Gage Oliver has always belonged to you. What a gift those words were to hear after years of living under your tyranny.”
Chloe meant you as inher, but I heard you as inme—and who knows what the hell my mother meant.
“I have a gift for you, Chloe.” I pick up the slippery mass of bloodied tissue and peg her right in the face with it. The satisfying slap it evoked will ring out in my mind for years to come.
“You bitch.” Chloe holds out her hands as she glances down at the mass slithering down her chest and screams into the night as if she were singing an aria.
Soon enough, the medics are here. Someone, somewhere, had the wherewithal to call for assistance. Marshall helps me up, taking off his dress shirt and quickly wrapping it over my shoulders as we make our way out of the woods.
Logan and Gage run up just as we emerge, the look of curiosity on their faces quickly morphing to panic as they ride their eyes over my bloodied body.
“What the hell.” Logan takes a step forward, his eyes still mapping out the carnage splattered over my skin before he pulls me in. “Who did this to you?”
I catch Gage just as he casts a hard glance to the ground. The look of remorse is clear on his face, and I wonder if it’s because he’s not the one holding me. If he wanted to hold me, he would have done things a lot differently.
