6
"What do you mean … no baby?" Ianto tried to look confused, "You said…"
"Ianto I'm not. I got my monthly this morning" she even slumped like it was sorrowful to her.
"I'm not leaving" he repeated, "If you want to leave… OK. Take the car .. .oh no wait… It's fucked."
She glared at him. Then glanced at the shed.
"Not enough fuel in the ATV" he said as he guessed her intent, "Maybe the Simms can lend you something, I think they have Grandy's truck, we can go check after the meal."
She smiled as she agreed and they did walk the twenty minutes to the house to find the truck was currently not there, their daughter and two oldest children had borrowed it.
"She's back tomorrow love" Mrs Simms smiled as she placed the teapot down, "We have little Millie until then as she still has the grizzles."
Ianto was cuddling the little girl as Lisa tried not to grimace, the snotty face as appealing as a cow turd. God she never wanted one of those.
Ianto recognised that too.
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Ianto whistled as he started up the steps, flicking the little shoe onto the table with a practiced wrist snap and Crypto barked to say he was not really interested.
Ianto smiled, a rare pleasure as he carried the box up and closed the door to the bedroom and then walked to the second small room that had been a nursery once upon a time before his Mama was grown and gone to let the room become a walk in wardrobe come whatever.
"Come on Lucifer" Ianto said as he opened the box to release the little black cat who glared at him before peeking out to survey the room then with a withering look he settled back in the box.
"I don't blame you mate, I don't like it out here either" he soothed, stroking the cat before rising and closing the door on his way out. A couple of days and the poor thing might forgive him.
Someone has to… after all he will never forgive himself.
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"Ianto, something is out there"
He grunted as he rolled from the bed he had not long since crawled into and he looked out the window with growing alarm, the homestead for the Simms barely a blip in the dark, all lit up and then he heard it.
"Shotgun"
He pulled on his pants and reached for his own gun on the wardrobe, "Lock the door behind me."
"Why can't I come?"
"Lisa, you might not want to stay but someone else might want this place instead. What if this is another group wanting somewhere to dig in?" he hissed, annoyed as he watched her wriggle into his bed.
He snorted and left her there hoping the truck would be back in the morning and she could leave, his need to protect her strangely absent since her admissions.
He jogged towards the homestead and then slowed as he heard something that chilled him to the bone.
That scream could not be human.
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Ianto was tired, bone weary and he knew there was still more to do.
"Tomorrow" he told the empty house, "We will finish it tomorrow"
He made a bowl of porridge and ate a few mouthfuls before placing it down for the excited dog then he headed up to the room he had been sleeping in, staring at the bed she had wriggled into when he had exited it and he found the socks he had been looking for, walking across to his Grandy's room where he let the dog in before closing the door and opening the middle door so the cat could come cuddle if he had forgiven him yet.
He settled knowing sleep would probably not come.
Not now nightmares are real.
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The scream came again, this time to his left and he knew there was more than one, his eyes adjusting to find something running away so he lifted the gun and fired off his own shots into the air.
"Ianto?"
"Are you OK?" he called back and he raced for the swinging torch.
"They came out of nowhere, after the livestock I think. Jesus wept, did you hear the noises they were making? What the hell, did you see what they were?" he was speaking in a rush, his hands shaking, "I think I got one by the barn."
They moved in that direction and soon found a blood trail, following it to a body slumped in the long grass.
They both stood staring at it with confusion, especially at what appeared to be the remains of a floral dress all torn and dirty like an animal had been placed in it and then released. They looked at one another and then Ianto handed his gun to the old man who was trying to hold the torch steady and reached out to roll the thing over.
The cry was definitely human as the old man looked at the remains of his daughter, her inhuman features weird and alien to look at with her lips and nose long since torn away and the snarl through the black torn skin sickening.
"What the hell" Ianto said with horror, "What happened to her?"
Nearby two howls started and Ianto knew before he looked up at his old friend that they were likely to be the two grandchildren that had left with her for the jaunt. He saw from his friend's horrified face that he had come to the same conclusion.
Whatever she had become, they had as well.
What had they come on contact with?