The Unborn
Chapter 4
Carly and Sam entered Sam's apartment that gray, haunting morning.
"Mom!" Sam called, holding her stomach, which now bore grizzly red stretch marks, and as large as a nine-month pregnant woman's. "Mom! I have to talk to you!"
"What do you want?" Pam Puckett called from the couch. The woman looked over at her daughter, and her jaw dropped. "What the..."
"It's Valerie," Sam answered.
Pam was shocked and speechless. "Oh no," she begged. "W-what do you mean? What is this?"
Lightning struck outside. Sam clenched her stomach, which was now throbbing.
"What's happening?" Carly cried.
"She's coming!" Sam yelled, the fear drenching her body. "Mom, please, do something!"
"Valerie," Pam called, walking over to her daughter. "Is that you, baby?"
Sam nodded, all expression drained from her face. Carly stared at her friend, her stomach growing sick, and fear forming in the back of her throat.
"I've missed you," Sam's mother said. "The saddest day of my life was when they told me you didn't make it."
"It was Sam's fault," replied a girl's voice eminating from Sam's stomach. The voice was sick and weak and echoing with a ghostly whisper under it. "She stole my life."
"Honey, you can't blame your sister for this," Pam comforted her daughter. "This isn't anyone's fault.
Sam jolted forward, feeling a surge of pain spike through her body. "That's enough!" Sam screamed to Valerie. "I'm not paying for this! You don't deserve to come into our world. No one should have to suffer because of you. And I'm not gonna bring you to Earth!"
"There's nothing you can do about it," Valerie replied, her demonic voice laced with rage.
"Valerie, stop this!" Carly yelled. "Sam would never do anything to hurt you. Why are you doing this?"
"The world should pay for what's happened," the voice answered. "They wanted me to die."
"You can't take your anger out on everyone," Pam pleaded. "Stop this...and we can be together. I'll die to be with you, Valerie."
Sam grew upset. "Mom," she whispered. "You're willing to leave Melanie and I alone? It's not your fault for what happened to her."
"...Yes it is," Pam replied, her voice sinking. "You see, Sam...your grandmother was in a concentration camp when she was three. The Nazis killed her family right in front of her...But they made her a deal." Pam saw the images she created about that dark day: those vicious men standing in front of that terrified girl. "They said if she gave up one of her children,...they would let her live. So, she enacted the ritual they told her to use...and an evil being accepted it..." The images continued to play out in Pam's head as she told the story: She remembered that night when her mother sat her down in the living room floor. A fire was burning behind them, and the woman was rubbing her pregnant stomach.
"I'm sorry, Pamela," the woman said. "But you're not going to have a sister."
"I cried," Pam confessed. "I asked why,...but she wouldn't tell me. Finally, I found her diary...and it was all there: the ritual, the Nazis,...everything... I couldn't face the world alone...so I found the ritual by talking to some cultists who lived in town, and enacted it myself."
Sam's stomach turned. The blond lay down on her back on the couch.
"I told the thing that appeared that if my mother could keep her baby, I'd give it one of mine," Pam said, tears welling up in her eyes. "...And it took Valerie."
The room fell silent. Sam's stomach continued throbbing, but the sorrow from what she was hearing was bringing her true pain. The girl sat up, feeling she had to understand. "So..." she said, her voice weak and trembling. "Why does she hate me?" Tears blurred over Sam's eyes as she spoke.
"Because you have what I always wanted," Valerie answered. "Friends, our mother, and happiness. Melanie never had your life...Mom never had your life. I want it!"
"I didn't get this life," said Sam, growing strong. "I worked for it. I was a friend to Carly and Freddie...I stayed in Seattle with Mom...And you can never have that...Because all you want is to take that away from everyone."
Sam then felt fire burn inside her stomach: Valerie was growing enraged. Lightning struck outside, and rain began to plow down on the Earth. The blond violently clenched her stomach, and began to scream.
Carly and Pam watched in horror. Sam dug her nails into the sides of the couch, her screaming growing more vicious.
Finally, the storm stopped, and Sam's painful cries were silenced. The blond lay back down on the couch, her eyes closed.
"Sam," Carly said, her voice scared and gentle.
"Honey?" Pam said, her tone identical to Carly's.
"She's gone," Sam replied, her voice relieved and, for the first time in a long time, peaceful. "...She couldn't stand the truth. Thank you, Mom, Carly."
"Don't thank me," Pam responded, her voice sad. "It's all my fault for all of this. I should be dead with her."
"No, Mom," Sam comforted her mother, her breath still heavy from the ordeal. "You were young...Grandma was young...You weren't ready for what you did..." The girl turned her head to the side, too exhausted to move.
Carly hugged her friend, her heart now light. "It's all over now," she assured Sam. The brunette began to cry, trying to hold the tears back, just for Sam's sake.
Pam put her arms around Carly and Sam, still blaming herself for all of this.
The next night, Sam, Carly, Freddie, and Spencer sat in the Shays' living room, playing Scrabble, their hearts calm in each other's company. Their laughs in peace again.
"Thank you, guys," said Sam, feeling a strong wall being formed.
"It's what friends are for," Carly assured her friend.
Hush, little baby, don't say a word...Mommy's gonna buy a mocking bird...If that mocking bird won't sing...Mommy's gonna buy you a diamond ring...If that diamond ring turns brass...Mommy's gonna buy you a looking glass...
Pamela stood in front of a damaged tomb stone, the rain pouring down from the black sky. The woman rested her body on her knees, and wrapped her arms around the stone. Lightning stuck, illuminating the name "Valerie Puckett: My Little Sunshine." Tears formed in Pam's eyes.