“I know how bad this sounds,” Mia said, a sob erupting before she continued.
“It’s okay,” I told her as she bit into her donut again, tears running down her face. “Being a new mom is hard enough without worrying about the supernatural.”
She nodded. “I’m a witch. I did all the usual spells and charms before I had my child, hoping for a smooth birth and a healthy baby. The magic was with me because I got both.” Taking another bite from her donut, she grew lost in her world for a moment.
I looked at Carol and Beth. They nodded at me as if to say that only my powers could help in this situation, which, I hoped was not the case. I knew nothing about changelings, almost nothing, so it felt like too much for me to try to figure this out on my own. Yet, if I could, I would.
Mia continued, “My baby was perfect in every way. For weeks, it was her and me, happy as can be. I don’t want to say she was an anomaly. She still cried. I still never had time to shower, or to do anything except nurse, but she was a normal, happy baby.”
“Something changed?” Beth asked, getting that intense look she had when she was interviewing a client.
She nodded, grabbing a handful of chips and crunching. “Yeah, one day I went to check on her in her crib, and she was quiet and staring. She’d never done that. It was eerie. She looked at me, which is usually the moment she smiles and reaches for me, only she didn’t. She burst out crying. From that point forward, she hated me. She didn’t want to nurse. Didn’t want to be near me. Every time I set her down, she went back to staring.” Her gaze met mine. “I know I sound crazy, but that baby might look like my baby, but she’s not. Can you find out where my child is?”
I shifted, very uncomfortable, but then realized what I was doing. “I'll help as much as I can.”
She looked relieved, setting the chips on the table, and finishing her donut. “By the way, I only eat like this when I’m stressed.”
“Stress eating, I’m familiar,” I said with a grin.
She nodded and lay back against the couch. “I’m just so tired from being worried.”
Beth reached over and patted her hand. “Don’t worry, we’ve helped people in worse shape than you.”
She looked relieved. “What will you do first?”
Beth turned to me. “Emma is going to walk through your house and use her powers to try to figure out what’s going on. Is that all right with you?”
“Of course,” Mia said. “I don’t mind if you go into the baby’s room. I figured you’d have to go in there, but she’s in her crib.”
The way she said it almost made me suspect she was warning me about a monster.
I gave her my best reassuring smile, then stood and walked around the room, stretching my senses out. Internally, I whispered to my powers, “Help me bring karma where it’s needed.” My body tingled and I moved into the kitchen, but the feeling grew duller, almost like the childhood game of Hot and Cold. I headed into the living room where everyone stared at me in silence.
My cheeks flushed. “This would actually be easier if you guys chatted and tried to ignore me.”
Beth realized that I felt uncomfortable, and that I wouldn’t be able to do this with them all staring at me. She turned to Mia. “Other than the changeling stuff, how are you adapting to motherhood?”
I tuned her out as I headed out of the room and down a hall. The feeling grew, becoming almost itchy against my skin. Goosebumps rose, and I slid into a bathroom, but the sensation dulled, so I exited it. I moved through another room, the master bedroom, and the master bathroom before I accepted what I’d already suspected. The feeling was coming from the last room. No doubt the baby’s room.
My stomach dropped. I didn't want the baby to be a changeling. Not only would that be horrifying, but I had no idea how I'd fix something like that. I pictured my son, now a grown man, and my heart ached. If someone had told me he wasn’t mine, I don’t know how I could've come to accept it. He was mine the day I held him in my arms.
Reaching the door, I sucked in a deep breath. Karma’s powers had steered me in the right direction thus far. I had to trust they'd steer me right here too and help me to help this family the best way they could. Having these powers wasn’t always a blessing. Sometimes they made life harder. At the end of the day, they set the world right, and if I could be the funnel to do that today, I would.
Even if it sucked.
It took all my willpower to turn the handle and open the door. A blast of powers, or magic, or something unsettling hit me like a wave. Bile rose in the back of my throat, but taking even breaths didn’t erase the uneasy, almost terrified, feeling inside of me. Every instinct told me to turn around and run right out of there, but I didn’t. If this mom was a witch and felt this every day, and yet still cared for her child, I could do it this one time.
The pastel pink and blue room had a white crib in the middle and a bookshelf filled with storybooks lining the wall. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, highlighting a chest of drawers and changing table, but the feeling of dread didn't lift. I crept around the room, my eyes scanning every corner and crevice. I stopped in front of a dream catcher hanging from the wall and a chill ran down my spine. Something was wrong. It all looked normal, but something about the room made me feel uneasy.
I continued to the crib and glanced down at the baby. Her eyes were wide open, staring at nothing on the ceiling. She was wrapped in a sleep sack covered in ladybugs, so her arms and feet were secured inside of it. I couldn't move. All I could do was watch her stare into nothingness in the middle of the room, surrounded by darkness and silence.
“Hello,” I said softly.
The child didn’t react. She kept staring, and a shiver rolled down my spine. Was this creature actually a changeling? Could she be a very strange baby?
It was my job to find out. Lifting a hand, I reached out and hovered above the baby. Drawing on my karmic powers, I asked them to show me the truth. To set things right. To find the source of the trouble.
To my shock, my powers got nothing sinister from the baby, but they did sense something. My hand swung away from the baby, like a magnet drawn to something metal. I was pulled across the room and my hand closed around the dream catcher hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the child’s room. I cried out when I touched it. It wasn’t hot, but it almost gave the same painful feeling as a burn.
