My family locked me in the basement to give birth. Days later, they returned to find a dark red liquid seeping from the door. As my mother screamed, a voice whispered behind her, “Looking for me?”

reply was steel disguised as silk. “Proceed exactly as planned.”

A glacial dread coiled in my lower gut. When I dried my hands and stepped into the living room, the three of them were staring at the muted television, wrapped in a silence so thick it was suffocating.

Near midnight, an unbearable thirst drove me from my bed. I crept down the grand staircase continue reading …