Chapter 3
Things went back to normal.
The only strange thing was that Selena seemed to have this weird pull on everyone.
Ever since she became pregnant, my dad had been steadily wasting away.
He used to be chubby before, but in under three months, he became gaunt and worn.
His eyes had gone cold and lifeless, consumed entirely by thoughts of sex with Selena, even though she was heavily pregnant.
The other men in the town were all like him—losing appetite, restless, counting the hours until they could come to our house at night to have sex with Selena.
Even Aidan Morris, who had always had his eye on me, now just ignored me whenever he showed up at our place.
Aidan was a jerk in our town, plain-looking and kind of disgusting.
His favorite pastime was sneaking into young girls' homes at night and forcing himself on them.
It was said that many of the unmarried girls had been raped by him.
Their families, furious, had chased him through the town with guns in their hands.
They were angry because their daughters had been defiled, and it embarrassed them.
He once tried to creep into my room at night, but I had already heard about his deeds, so every night I kept my windows tightly shut, leaving him no chance to do that.
It was a relief that he had lost interest in me—at least then I could finally relax a bit.
The other women in the town hated Selena, and they turned that hate on me, too.
When I went down to the river to wash clothes, they would deliberately splash scummy water on me.
When they saw me on the street, they would point and whisper, loudly cursing Selena.
Even the kids joined in and picked on me.
Amanda and a bunch of kids would show up at my gate and throw rocks at me.
"Your mom is some kind of witch who eats kids. Get lost, we don't want you."
"Yeah, you're just as bad as she is."
"Get out of this town."
I often pretended not to hear their curses. Even when they left me with bruises, I didn't fight back. I just covered my head and tried to survive.
The reason was simple. Malnutrition had stunted me since childhood. I was a little shorter than my peers and had no strength to fight back.
Amanda was the most spoiled girl around. Her parents boasted they would take care of her so she could marry a rich man and lift the whole family out of poverty.
Whoever dared cross Amanda in town would quickly find her parents coming after them with fury.
Her parents' motives might be ugly, but I couldn't help resenting how lucky Amanda seemed to be.
Whenever I was beaten or scolded, Selena would stand in the yard and watch, her belly sticking out like she was entertained.
She never helped me, even though everything was happening because of her.
Slowly, I started to hate her.
Why should I have to take all this? I didn't do anything.
I began to plot to expose her true form.
The town slept beneath a suffocating silence. Not even a dog barked.
Everyone had fallen asleep, windows locked tight after all the strange things that had happened lately.
I held my breath as I saw her standing in the yard, her swollen belly glowing faintly under the moonlight. Then I followed her out.
She looked around and slipped out of the gate without a sound.
She moved too easily, too light on her feet for someone carrying a child.
Her shadow glided down the dirt road, and I trailed her until she stopped at Amanda's house. Without hesitation, she jumped the high wall like a cat.
I wanted to follow, but I was too short and too weak to climb.
All I could do was wait outside.
It was only a few minutes before she slipped back out.
However, when she stepped out, there was no baby in her arms like I had imagined—instead, her belly looked so much bigger.
She was only three months pregnant, but her belly jutted out like she was about to deliver immediately.
A chill wind swept by, stinging my eyes with dust.
I rubbed my eyes in a panic, but when I opened them again, Selena was gone, like she had never been there at all.
"Sarah, what are you doing out here?"
My mind went completely blank the moment I heard that voice.
It was her. My mom's voice—so close I could almost feel her breath on my neck.
She was the only one who ever called me by my real name—Sarah. To the rest of the town, I was nothing but a troublemaker.
Sarah was the name my mom gave me.
"Mom." The word tore out of me. The ache of missing her was stronger than any fear, and I just wanted to feel her arms around me again.
I didn't care if she was a witch or something. I turned around fast and froze. The anaconda that had been yards away was suddenly right behind me.
"Why are you here?" I said.
The instant I saw her, my mind snapped awake. I realized that everything that had just happened was an illusion.
"Weren't you just calling me 'Mom'? Why that look on your face now?" she said.
Selena walked toward me slowly, her body twisting in a way that made my skin crawl.
Her neck twisted and stretched, slick and flexible like it had been sculpted from rubber—horrifyingly wrong.
"You're a ghost," I cried out.
Panic engulfed me, and my world went dark as I collapsed unconscious.
When I woke up, I was lying in my bedroom at home, struggling to tell if what I had seen was a dream or reality.