Seed

by Ania Ahlborn

“I saw it, Daddy,” she told him, lowering her voice so her mom wouldn’t hear. “I saw it before the lights went out. I saw it just like you.”

She knew there was only one way to get rid of the prickle that had burrowed into her heart: get up, stand over her sister again. Stand over her and wait until she stopped breathing.

“Don’t be scared, Mommy,” she said. “At least you still have Abigail.”

oh???

This was never your family, it whispered. It’s always been mine.

“I’ll do what I want with you,” she hissed. “And I’ll take your family too.”

“He’s here to play,” she told him. “He said you never finished the game.”

Mr. Scratch. That’s what Charlie had called him. Twenty years ago, it hadn’t had a name.

“Let me guess, that’s a risk yer willin’ t’take, right? People always think they’ve got to be riskin’ something to get to the end of the story. But let me tell ya: it’s your story. The end of the story is gonna get ya whether you want it to er not. You think you gotta go chase fate? Fate is chasin’ you, chief. But you know that, right? Better than any old body.”

“I ain’t never seen anyone, not anyone outrun the devil.”