The baby’s screams reached a pitch that could’ve burst her eardrums. Erika stayed away, huddled back in the far corner of the cabin and covering her ears with the flats of her hands. There seemed to be no end to those shrill cries, each one pushing her further and further into madness. She only knew one way to make it stop.
Kill it now, came the voice in her head.
Erika twitched, uncovering her ears for a moment to see if the voice was real. She put her hands back where they were—back to where the cries became mere muffles of a noise that was beyond annoying. “I’m not going to hurt a baby.”
Just do it.
The idea made sense, there was no denying that. But could she do it?
Losing patience fast, Erika shot to her feet and crossed the room in a flash, bursting through the door and into the woods where an icy mist reached up toward the branches. She shivered, rubbing her bare arms and trying to decide if it was better to be cold or deaf.
Neither. Just kill the damn thing and move on.
“Shut up,” she mumbled, walking around the cabin to keep warm.
She could barely hear the baby now, which at least gave her a minute or two to think straight. It was still inside making its noise, but Erika could only hear it if she tried. If anything, it was the voice in her head she wanted to silence now.
It’ll solve your problems.
“No, it won’t.”
I saw a hammer in the toolshed. All you need to do is—
“Shut up!”
Erika grabbed her ears again and spun on the spot. She marched up and down in long paces to and from the cabin, mumbling anything she could think of just to drown out the sound of the voice. It was her own voice, but with more malice and less reason. After all, Erika wasn’t just some messed-up serial killer. She actually had thoughts and feelings, only killing when she had to. There was some justification in that, wasn’t there? Sure there was, she thought. Nobody could punish her for covering her tracks.
But she couldn’t kill a baby.
Oh no, no way. Although it would make things easier…
She gave this a little consideration. Why had she taken Robin Young? It was an act of revenge, that much was clear, but did she really intend to keep it? The last few minutes were evidence enough that she had no idea how to take care of a child. She supposed, deep down, that she didn’t want to cross paths with Morgan Young again. A line from one of those dinosaur movies popped into her head: they’d stolen eggs from a velociraptor and were discussing throwing them away. Erika remembered the blue-shirted doctor saying, “What if they catch us without them?” That line had always stood out to her. Now she knew why.
Who’d have known that a movie from a couple of decades ago could have such an impact on her decision now? Morgan Young would come for his child—no matter how unlikely—and if the baby was dead, then she’d have nothing to bargain with.
This thought led right into another.
Robin Young was just a bargaining chip.
A branch snapped in the woods. Erika spun around, expecting to see an animal, but nothing was there. The direction the sound had come from had only a bunch of trees and a sheet of mist to offer. There was no chance she was going out there to find out what it was.
What if it’s a cop?
What if it’s Morgan Young?
What if—
“I know you’re out there!” Erika bluffed, mostly just to silence the voice in her head. She licked her cracked lips and waited for a response. None came. “Come any closer and I’ll kill the baby. You hear me, asshole?”
Was she talking to Morgan or herself? She had no idea, but what she did know was that it was true—no matter how much she told herself it was wrong, if anyone tried to breach the cabin, she’d have no choice but to follow through on her promise. Hurting babies wasn’t among her favorite pastimes, but if she was pushed…
Erika kept her eye on the woods and went back inside.
The screaming continued.