Hell's Child

The Blood On The Walls

It was the summer of 1990, a warm evening in mid June. My wife of ten years lay flat on her back in soothing slumber. From beneath the covers her ballon shaped belly made a nice hump in the covers. 9 months pregnant and ready to have her child. Donna slept peacefully, dreaming of her new child.

"AHHHHHH!!!'

I shot up out of my deep slumber... out of a dream about talking birds and drunk animals. Why I my mind would conjure up such odd creatures, for when did my thoughts consist of such abnormal entities?
I shook out of my thoughts to turn to my wife who was bent over her bulging pregnant belly in clearly agonizing pain.
Labor pains...
"Hunny!!  What's wrong?  Is it the-"
"THE BABY TONY ITS THE DAMN BABY!!!!! " she shouted out in painful irritation.
"Alright honey,  let's keep our panties on straight and get you to the hospital. " I quirk.
She snaps her head fast in my direction and glares at me intensely.
She clearly didn't appreciate the joke.
I shoot up out of bed and swiftly shuffle over to our bedside table and pick up my phone to call the ambulance. 
As I talked to the receiver at the end of the line I began to feel a slight pressure on my chest...
Something wasn't right.
How could something be wrong in the light of such a beautiful momentous occasion??
We were having our first child togther!
Yet,  something about the situation,  the atmosphere....
Felt disoriented and off.
Like it was warning me.
Whatever it was in the universe that picked this time to call on me.
                    ......................

The ambulance soon arrive's at our house and a team of EMT's carried my wife, Donna, into the vehicle. I follow swiftly behind and climb into the back with her. Along the way, I hold her hand and stroke it lightly with my thumb to give her a sense of comfort and security.

Get this fucking thing out of me... god fuck it..... why is he touching me...

I glance over at Donna from looking out the window, and she is holding her stomach in as if it helps the pain and her face is contorted in a grimace. She notices me looking and gives me a slight smile. As if too say i'm okay. She then turns her head away to a more comfortable position to the side.

I roll my eyes. He is such a pathetical bastard....
After about ten minutes we soon arrive at the hospital. I look up at the sign to the entrance that reads

Asterical Newcomers Clinical Health Center

Asterical...

Asteric?

Aster?

No...

Wait..

Astera

It's like the name was called out to me in an invisible whisper from the beyond. That's when I knew.

"Donna!! Astera!!! Her name should be Astera!! Our daughter!"

She looks at me and gives a slight nod, she was almost at the edge of passing out.

Astera...

I look up at the towering hospital and gave it a slight thank you. As soon as I did though, I felt an overwhelming pang of pain in my head. At first, it was subtle, then it grew worse. It started piercing my temples and my ears began to ring. I held my head in my hands and groaned in displeasure. Everything around me started to quake and it felt as if the whole ambulance was closing in on me.

I began to scream.

"STOP!!!"

It seemed as if no one heard me. In fact, when I attempted to look up, I couldn't really tell since my vision began to blur, but I was quite sure no one was there. I was alone. Not even in the ambulance, but in a small dark room.

Everything had stopped.

I sat up and looked around. I couldn't see anything around me, it was pitch black.

I begin to walk forward, though I didn't know why. It seemed as if my body moved on its own.

Suddenly I felt the ground beneath me get wet. I pick up my foot and touched the bottom of it. The consistency wasn't quite of water, but thicker. All of a sudden, the room illuminated in a bright white light from the far distance. I squinted at the light, temporarily blinded. Once my vision cleared I got a good look at my hand.

Blood.

Then the world around me collapsed into darkness again.

I woke up by a hospital bed. My wife lays down in the bed, asleep, her stomach now flat.

We already had the kid?

A nurse walks in with a rag dripping from moisture and looks at me, a bit startled.

"Oh, Mister, you are awake."

I look up at her quizzically.

"What...what happened?"

The nurse gives a slight chuckle and hands me the rag.

"You passed out on the ambulance, sir. Our fellow EMT members state you had a terrible migraine and knocked out cold. I have given you some medication through an IV while you were asleep, you should be fine now. May I get your name though, sir?"

I take in a deep breath, steadying my head.

"Antonio. Antonio Luna."

"Mister Luna, would you like to see your daughter? She is in our Maternity."

Donna stirs a bit in her slumber, as if she heard the nurse from her deep slumber, and opens her eyes wearily.

"Yes, we'd love too." She whispers.

"Wonderful, I'll bring her up for you."

The nurse strolls out of the room. I scratch my head.

A migraine....

Even though the logical part of me wanted to believe the nurse and stick with the sensible answer, another part of me knew, just knew, it wasn't a migraine.

It was a vision.

The nurse comes back up into our room not 10 minutes later. In her arms she is craddling a
small bundle in a light rose colored blanket.
"Would you like to give her a name?"
My wife chimed in cheerily.
"Astera. Astera Bella Luna."
"Beautiful...." the nurse remarks.
She then walks carefully over to us and I sit on the edge of the bedside close to Donna. She sits
up so we can hold the new member to our family together.
Finally....
The nurse steadily hands over our daughter. Donna and I hold her gently and Donna strokes
her face lovingly. I reach to pet her hair when all of a sudden I stop.
Her hair is jet black.
My hair is dark brown. So is Donna's. As far back as I can remember, may family line has only
had dark brown or red hair. Donna's family had predominately brown and blonde hair. How was
it possible....
"Love, look, she's opening her eyes." Donna says.
I look at Astera. She begins to open her eyes slowly.
Donna screams.
I jump in surprise and then to look at what she had been so spooked about.
When I look down on our child,  something is very,  very wrong. 
Her eyes are pith black,  with little white dots for pupils. 
"Demon!!  Cursed!!  A bad omen for our sins,  oh hunny what have we done to deserve this monstrosity??? "
I wretch back from her in surprise at the words that are coming out of her mouth. 
"D-donna!!  H-how could you say such horrible things about our daughter?? She just.. she must have some medical condition. "
The nurse runs over to see what is the matter. She takes a good look at Astera and hold her face in her hands.  While she ia doing that I get a glimpse at her name tag.
Nurse Zel.
"Uhm... Miss Zel,  is it?  Can you tell us what's wrong with her?? "
The nurse glances over at us with a genuinely concerned glance,  her body beginning to tremble slightly.
"I-I don't know.  I have never in all my years of nursing have seen something quite like... this. "
She stepped back and began to inch her way slowly towards the exit.
"L-let me go get the doctor. Maybe he will know what's wrong. I-i'll be right back. "
She skipped slightly and seemed to almost run out of the room.  Donna turns to look at me again,  the look of almost hatred and pure disgust as to what she has just witnessed.