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?”

the wooden staircase until my shoulder violently collided with the unforgiving concrete floor of the cellar.

Gasping for breath, the wind entirely knocked from my lungs, I looked up.

“Samantha!” I screamed, the sound tearing at my vocal cords. “What are you doing?!”

Her face hovered in the rectangular frame of light at the top of the stairs, utterly devoid continue reading …