Then again, nothing made sense. Nothing at all. But maybe things soon would, if only she had the courage to keep going. And maybe, just maybe, she would find a way to go back and fix everything – including Mike.
“Well… here goes nothing.” With a heavy sigh, she leaned forward, finger hovering above the Play button. Jace squeezed her fingers reassuringly.
Click.
Celeste – you need to take a deep breath. What baby? And how could a—
Willow recently gave birth to an infant. We didn’t tell a soul, out of fear that it would destroy her reputation. And mine. That’s why we moved to Montana. To hide the child and start fresh. But there’s something… terribly wrong with it.
When?
When what?
When was the child born? Mike pressed. I need the time and date.
She came just after the clock struck twelve, on the 13th.
“Huh,” Lilah muttered. “We’ve been celebrating it on the wrong day for all these years.”
Jace arched an eyebrow.
A Sagittarius, Mike whispered, intrigue dripping from his tongue. Born on the unluckiest of numbers, under the Saturnalian house of death during the retrograde.
Yes – and ever since it was born, terrible things have been happening. Terrible, terrible things. At first, I didn’t believe what my daughter was telling me. I thought she was just struggling with the transition, or perhaps punishing me for the life I made her leave behind. But just last night, the baby began to cry in the sink and the skin on my hand melted off. Melted! Off! Food rots in its presence. Flowers wilt. Decay surrounds it! So much decay! And this morning, it killed the family cat! For no reason! The poor thing was only twenty!
Tell me more about the child. What happens directly before these episodes? What about right after? Does she have teeth? Are any of them pointed? Are there any deceased relatives who might be using the child as a way to get retribution for previous disagreements?
Willow, there you are! Come here! Celeste shouted.
A girl’s voice sounded. Yes, Mama?
Lilah let out a gasp. “That’s her!” she cried. “That’s my mother!”
Jace nodded grimly as Celeste’s voice continued through the speakers.
Willow, I want you to tell Mike everything you can about… it.
Um, well, she usually scrunches her face right before… you know… and then she gets all glassy-eyed—
But her teeth – what about the teeth, the shaman pressed.
W-Well, she doesn’t have any teeth. She’s just a baby.
And the cat? What was she doing to the cat?
Sh-she has these… these fits… I think she might be sick—
Celeste’s stern, muffled voice sounded from the background.
I know, Mama, but – I don’t think she attacked the cat. Not on purpose, at least. I th-think she makes things age faster. I’m not exactly sure… but the cat was standing in her crib when it happened and… and… Her voice broke off as she started crying.
Celeste’s voice cut in. And then one second later the poor thing became a pile of bones!
My God, Mike whispered. It’s worse than I thought. You must get rid of the child – at once!
Get rid of it? Celeste asked, her voice suddenly timid. How would we—
By any means necessary. Make a mash of green potato stems and cassava root and mix it into the child’s milk—
Mama, please— Willow’s voice cut in.
Be quiet! her mother snapped.
…If that doesn’t work or if the child refuses due to the bitterness of the stems, raw elderberry seeds will do. Grind them up for extra potency.
Celeste softened her tone slightly. But, Shaman, it’s just a baby. Don’t you think—
You are not dealing with an ordinary child, Celeste! You are dealing with forces far beyond your wildest imagination. Negative energy that you could not even begin to fathom. You want proof? Ted Bundy, Pablo Escobar, Joseph Stalin! All Sagittarii! And none of them were born under the house of Saturn! The child – if it really is a human child – could be harboring a malevolent demon inside of it. Do you hear me? Unless you are willing to meet the same fate as that cat, you must dispose of it. If not, terrible things will happen to you and your child. Mark my words—
This time, it was Jace who leaned forward to punch the Stop button.
“I know I shouldn’t say this, but I’m suddenly feeling slightly better about what happened to that monster.”
He turned to Lilah, half-expecting her to utter some sort of assent, but instead she opened the truck door and abruptly vomited onto the highway shoulder.
“Oh God, are you okay?” he asked, leaning over the console. No one deserved to hear their grandmother speak of killing them. Not even Ted Bundy himself. What the hell was wrong with these so-called adults?
Lilah slid back into her seat, nodding feebly as she wiped her mouth with her jacket sleeve. “Yeah. Keep playing. I need to hear this.”
“Fine, but I’m fast-forwarding through this part,” he muttered. He held her hand over the console as he hit the fast-forward button, then waited for her to nod before hitting Play.
“Go ahead,” she sighed, bracing herself for the worst.
Click.
…beyond even me, to be quite honest. Clearly, the woman and her daughter are dealing with forces that are darker than dark. It is fascinating, however; if we are dealing with some sort of demonic possession, the expression of its powers is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s as though the child is affecting time itself, though the only temporal entity I’m familiar with is Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and time. Though the killing of the cat falls in line with that theory, Celeste mentioned nothing about the child having four arms and blue skin. Furthermore, as I’ve been ruminating in the hour since my conversation with Celeste, I can say with eighty percent certainty that the child does not appear to be a Tiyanak – she would have retractable fangs, at the very least. But as I gather more and more troubling details about the situation, particularly the innocent animal she killed—”
“Can I say something?” Jace asked, leaning forward to pause the cassette tape. “First and foremost, this guy is clearly a nut. And this whole ‘dead cat’ thing is ridiculous – Celeste herself said that the cat was twenty years old, right? Isn’t that like a hundred in cat years? What if the thing just died of natural causes?”
Lilah was rubbing her temples. “Even if that is true, what about Mike?”
“Maybe something else happened. Maybe he was sick. Maybe he had a heart attack.”
“I think we can safely say it was the unfortunately-placed tree trunk that killed him, not a heart attack.”
“But he was completely uninjured when the cabin returned!” Jace challenged. “You said yourself that you accidentally killed a moth this morning, but then it came back! What if something else was going on with Mike? Something that had nothing to do with you?”
Lilah shook her head so hard, her hair whipped around her face. “It was me, okay? I killed him. I killed that cat. For all I know, I killed my adoptive mother all those years ago as well. I’m a danger to everyone around me… including you.” Her eyes widened. “Which means – I have to go.”
She bent down to gather her things.