Prologue

The house was larger than it looked on the outside, where it appeared to be nothing more than a shack on wooden pilings. Once inside, rooms begot rooms that extended in a seemingly haphazard fashion, suggesting little forethought on the part of the builder. Yet, the pilings under the house were spaced with precision in an effort to protect the dwelling from occasional high surf and the unforgiving tidal surges of tropical storms.

In one of the rooms, a small white woman of about twenty lay on a single bed in the final stages of labor. Perspiration soaked her fine reddish-blond hair, dramatically darkening its color and pasting it to her head. Her cries of anguish filled the room. Two additional women, one black and one white and about the same age, worked in tandem in preparation for the delivery. The black woman, who had nursing and midwife training, periodically reached for a small cross that hung on a gold chain around her neck.

The white woman had none of her training, but was present because her moral code demanded it. As a person of privilege she needed to give back in some capacity. For the first time in all of her years of service, however, the white woman’s expression was set with fear.

Standing in the hallway outside the room, a young black woman silently watched the unfolding drama. She was approaching the six month of her own pregnancy, and she trembled with unease.

“Eugenia,” the white woman said, “I can see the head.”

“The dragon stood before the woman…” Eugenia murmured, and again clasped the cross around her neck.

“Please, we can’t be distracted,” the white woman whispered in reply, although she too was uneasy. “I refuse to believe…” she whispered to herself, trying to hold on to some sense of normalcy.

“Please, oh please God, don’t let it eat my baby,” the girl wailed, her eyes begging the other women.

“There now, you don’t know what you’re saying. Your baby will be fine. We’ll take care of it,” the white woman said and then gazed intently at Eugenia.

With a final cry the exhausted girl bore down and the infant was in the white woman’s arms. Her eyes flared in shock and disbelief.

“Carolyn?” Eugenia began, and then stopped. She saw there was no umbilical cord.

The new mother’s eyes glazed over and she whimpered. Her complexion paled to a pallid gray within moments. Eugenia exhaled slowly, trying to prepare for the all too certain nightmare to come.

“My Lord in Heaven,” Carolyn gasped. The head of a second baby appeared. The young woman was delivering twins.

In the hallway, the mother-to-be backed away from the door with such force that it appeared she was shoved.

“Oh, my God…Momma!”

Eugenia didn’t answer, although she now knew her daughter was observing from the hallway. She stared with amazement as the second child was born. The cry of the first turned into an unholy shrieking. It squirmed in Carolyn’s arms. She placed the firstborn on the bed besides its brother to keep from dropping it.

“No, Carolyn…” Eugenia cried.

The first twin swiped at its brother, and blood sprayed.

“Dear God…”

The firstborn swiped again, missing this time. Both infants wailed.

“Carolyn, take the second child to another room,” Eugenia said.

Carolyn reached for a spare baby blanket from a nearby pile and wrapped the second twin. She gathered him to her chest, away from the flailing arms of the firstborn. Neither infant had been cleaned and blood and mucus were everywhere. Carolyn could not believe the sight.

The first twin continued to howl. Eugenia raised her voice above the cacophony to call her daughter in the hallway.

“Child! Help Mrs. Tryon, she must save the baby.”

The young woman in the hall did not acknowledge her mother. She was riveted at the scene unfolding in front of her. The new mother was lifeless on the bed, all color drained. Her firstborn was hungry, and it had started to eat.

“Eugenia?” Carolyn was also paralyzed.

“Sweet Jesus!” Eugenia searched frantically for something among a pile of instruments. She picked up a pair of scissors. “This can’t go on.”

Carolyn’s entire frame shook when she noticed the scissors. “Eugenia…can you?”

Eugenia peered at Carolyn, her eyes a chasm of dread.

A shrill squeal came from the bed, and both women turned to see the firstborn glaring at them while poised above the young woman’s body. Blood smeared its lips.

Then, it smiled.

“Yes, dear God,” Eugenia answered. She set her face and deliberately strode to the bed. She spread the scissors, exposing the cutting edge. The blade slashed swiftly, just once, and blood sprayed the far wall. The scissors slipped from Eugenia’s hand and fell to the crimson bed sheets. Carolyn shuddered but reached determinedly for the scissors and did the same. All the while, she hugged the second infant to her breast with her other arm.

The room, blessedly, fell silent.

“My God,” the young woman planted in the doorway whispered.

“Let’s move, Cassie,” Carolyn said to her, “this baby might be hurt.”

* * * *

A young man startled awake after dozing for a few minutes at most. Vague images, terrifying in nature, remained from an impossibly short nightmare. The visuals, really not much more than fragments, threaded into his consciousness. Ink black eyes tinged with red…teeth like blades fresh from the whetstone, ripping and tearing…a cavern of death… He knew the images well, as they’ve been a part of his existence for the last eight of his twenty-one years.

“Jeremy? What’s the matter?”

Jeremy realized he had propped himself up on his elbow in bed. His girlfriend, in bed with him, looked up at him with a concerned but still amused expression.

“Oh, man. I’m sorry.” He eased himself back down and caressed her. They were in his dorm room and his roommate promised not to return for a few hours. The passion of their lovemaking still lingered. Jeremy was aware that their relationship was moving into welcomed, but uncharted, territory. He needed to come to terms with the contents of his dreams, and that meant telling her about his past.

“I just dozed off, and, I don’t know, it caught me by surprise.” Now didn’t seem the time.

“Hmm, am I that boring?”

“What do you think? Do I look bored?” He resumed kissing her.

Much later, Jeremy was on the phone with his father giving him updates about classes and how he felt he was getting serious with his girlfriend.

“I’ve got to tell you something else, though. I started having the dreams again.” After a few moments of silence, Jeremy continued. “I think it’s happened again.”

His father sighed. “I’m sorry son. You know I’d give anything to make this go away. You seem to be attuned to these events. God knows why.”

“I know, but just in case I need to—”

“You know you can count on me.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“You know who you can talk to, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I was thinking that too.”

“Not to throw a monkey wrench into this thing, but…this girl, the one you’re getting attached to…have you told her?”

“No. I’m still trying to figure out how.”

“Are you sleeping with her?”

Jeremy blushed, embarrassed even though no one else was in the room. “Yes, Dad, I am.” He had always been honest with his father, no reason to change now.

“Then you need to talk to her. Whatever you say will be the right thing.” Silence followed for a few moments. Jeremy sensed a lightening of the atmosphere. “By the way, your mother wants to know, when can we meet her?”

* * * *

“Is the child safe?”

Eugenia sipped a cup of tea and returned it to the saucer on the coffee table before answering.

“Yes, he is.” She sat in the living room of a small house outside of Charleston, visiting Aunt Tessa. Her close-cropped hair, rapidly turning white, graced her dark face. Aunt Tessa wasn’t really an aunt, at least not in the familial sense. They were more likely second cousins twice removed. Emotionally she was Eugenia’s aunt, her mentor…the woman who taught her and supported her.

“The body of the other…the demon child?” Aunt Tessa asked.

“Gone. As far as we know.”

“Let’s pray it is gone. We don’t want it back.”

Eugenia nodded, and breathed a sigh of relief. She was feeling more in control.

Aunt Tessa stared earnestly at her. “You did the right thing.”