*
It wasn’t an unusual day. It was perfectly ordinary and Ellona was happy. She put a hand against her enlarged stomach and spoke to the little one forming within. She’d been married to her childhood sweetheart for only a year when they’d fallen pregnant. She couldn’t have been happier. Life was everything she’d dreamed it would be.
The kettle sung in the kitchen, but Ellona couldn’t remember having put it on. Her memory had been playing tricks on her since she’d fallen pregnant. She smiled, put down her book and headed to the kitchen. She removed the pot and put it on the counter. As she did so, she accidentally knocked it over, causing boiling water to spill out and burn her hand. Throbbing pain forced her to the sink where she poured water over the wound.
The deep moaning sound of deforming wood soon stole Ellona’s attention. She followed the noise and stared in horror as the ceiling darkened to black. The timber twisted and warped as it began to drip blood to the floor. Beside the red liquid, something black also fell.
Ellona dashed for the front door, but it refused to open. Surely this wasn’t what she feared, not so far north. ‘Anything but that,’ she begged Maker. ‘Please.’
The black liquid rained from the ceiling, heavy droplets of darkness covering everything. Ellona felt her sanity slipping as it oozed across her skin. She put a hand over her belly and picked up a kitchen knife. She put the tip against her flesh, but screamed and withdrew her hand. Thick ropes of black mist stretched out from the walls and squeezed her fingers around the handle.
The whisp laughed, but the sound came from within her head, whispering voices filling Ellona’s mind.
‘Do it . . . push it . . . take the life . . . cut it out.’ Ellona’s throat bled as she screamed. Agony consumed her as she sliced through her own flesh and dug the knife into the heart of her unborn child.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
PIECES OF EMQUIN