Savage

Chapter One - Naskia

"Seely!" I scream, staggering toward her. "What are you doing?"

"Stay back, Naskia." Her voice is a stranger's, clipped and emotionless. "Get back in bed."
"Why? What's going on?"

Vessa's wails fill the small room.

"I said get back," shouts Seely, wheeling toward me. Her face twists into an unfamiliar expression. "Don't move. I have to make a call."

Seely whips from the room without another word, abandoning me with our crying newborn. In that momentary lapse, I stumble forward with one hand clutching my stomach and the other reaching for Vessa.

The first thing I notice is that she looks more like me than I expected. Dark green eyes, like fresh pine needles, and a tuft of soft brown hair. An amazed laugh bubbles from my lips as I stroke her cheek. She is perfect, beautiful in every sense of the word. My hand cups her face and then trails over her smooth chest. She wriggles slightly, and just like that, the feeling of absolute love and astonishment sucks out of my lungs, replaced by a scorching fear.

It feels like every organ in my body is failing. I am being burned from the inside out, a violent fire raging through my bones and destroying everything in its wake. I can't breathe, can't see, can't hear, can't think. Because it can't be. But it is. And my insides are dying, disintegrating into ash and leaving a hollow pit inside me. An empty nothingness that seems to grow by the second. A nothingness that leaves me cold and broken.

"I told you to stay back, Naskia."

I force my head to turn. Seely stands at the doorframe with her hand clutched around her Orator. She looks at me before tapping her fingers over the tablet's surface.

I stare blankly at her. The numbness still claims me, begging me not to acknowledge what I must. But then, my mind jolts as realize what she is doing. Who she is calling.

"Seely don't." My voice is weak, hesitant.

Her eyes jolt to mine, fingers hesitating.

"What?"

"Don't call them." This time I force my words louder, making them vibrate through the room. I realize my hand is still pressed to the baby's abdomen, but I don't move it. I am afraid that if I let go, Seely will hurt him.

"Don't be ridiculous," says Seely, her brown eyes growing darker. "If you're worried about it hurting you, it's too young to do any damage."

"I'm not afraid," I say, surprised by the veracity of my words. "We have no idea what they'll do to him."

"Him?" Seely's eyes narrow and her upper lip curls into a snarl. "Naskia. Don't be foolish. This thing is a natural killer. Terminating it or confining it are our only options."

"Those aren't options," I say, my voice hoarse as though I've been screaming.

"Naskia." Seely's voice is almost reprimanding, like I am a misbehaving child.

"Please." I fall onto my knees, whether from exhaustion or desperation, I'm not sure. My eyes blur with tears, but I manage to look from my baby to Seely, and in that moment, it seems the only dangerous one is my wife. "Don't hurt my baby."

"It's a Brute, Naskia!" screams Seely. She sucks a breath through her teeth, forcing her voice to lower. "If we don't call the police, this thing will eventually kill us. Is that what you want? Because that is exactly what will happen."