From Work in Progress

“Later that night, they go to his dorm room and she shows him what to do. He watches her take one of the containers and go around the room collecting the smudgemutters. He watches her fill the bathtub with water. He watches her drown them, one by one, until they fade into nothing, returning, as she says, home, to the Umbra Ina. He watches her face, calm, eyes stony, lips grimacing slightly. He watches her belly, which does not yet show signs of the life within it, that somehow, he has had a part in creating.”