October 1970

Siberia

Darkness.

Deep reds and blacks.

Tight.

Constricting across the face and throat. A tiny chest will seize up as the entire world around it ceases to be.

The noises of the unholy. Light will take the place of blessed, safe seclusion.

Air. Cold. Burning against stained flesh that will be dragged onto earth for its first breaths. Hands, scarred deep from a life of toil and pain and loss, will grip the limbs of the new life. They will carry it into the reach of the fireplace's light.

No-one gathered there will make a sound. The newborn won't move. The newborn won't cry.

It will be expected, but it doesn't soften the blow. For the child to survive would be a miracle. Miracles are few and far between in the hungry winters at the centre of coldest hell.

Those same, scarred hands will reach to the child's face, casting back the thin gauze that will cover its features. Slick with blood and clear fluids, it will be cut away and cast into the fire. Eyes set deep into a skull older than a century will pass over the lids of a creature that didn't live to see a single minute on the same planet.

On the bed, breaths will force themselves from ragged lungs. The mother will be tired. So tired.

Her body will be exhausted.

Her mind will be burned out.

Her soul will be depleted.

She will know that her last act on earth was to give her child life. Her life.

She will look to her husband. He will have stood by her through the night. Never once looking to the silent child. All that will matter to him will be the comfort of the woman on the bed.

She will try to tell him that she loves him.

She will try to tell him that she is sorry.

She will try to say goodbye.

But she will be so tired. So very tired.

The dark will come to claim her before she can tell him anything.

The crone with the deep-set eyes will place one scarred talon on his shoulder. She will mutter.

"What a waste. What a waste."

Words without feeling.

Words without sincerity.

With its first breath of frozen air, full of death and fear and confusion, the child will begin to cry.