Unholy Birth

by Andrew Neiderman

  “You can’t really believe all that, Kate.”

  “Of course, I was always an ideal candidate, wasn’t I? Strong, perfect health, always taking good care of myself. A perfect candidate. How did you describe me to Dr. Aaron that time, Vitamin Kate? Remember? She eats right, exercises, uses all the best skin products…”

  “You won’t believe what you’re saying yourself when you calm down.”

  “I told you. I am calm.”

  I backed out of the parking space.

  “You’re not. If you drive off, you’ll only get into trouble, Kate. Be sensible. Wait for me. I’m minutes away.”

  “I’ll see you later, Willy. Maybe. I have no idea about my future now,” I said and closed the cell phone. It rang again almost immediately, but I ignored it, turned onto the street and headed east in the general direction of our home. I really didn’t know where to go.

  For a moment I thought about going home, being with my parents, but the incredulity I would find on my mother’s and my father’s faces dissuaded me. I didn’t need any more of that. Where could I go, to whom could I go where I would be believed and taken seriously?

  I stopped for a traffic light. The cell phone rang again.

  And then I heard someone at the passenger’s side door. He had his hand on the handle and was looking in at me, the man in black. I nodded and hit the button to unlock the door. He slipped into the seat.

  “Thank you,” he said. He nodded at the street in front of us. “Take your second right.”

  I did as he asked.

  “Thank God you’ve been able to come to your senses,” he said. “Few take control of their lives the way you are doing. Most feel so helpless. I’m sorry about all the phone calls, the threats. Follow the street out. We’re going to take the 10 Freeway east,” he added.

  “What about Trinity? What about my security?” I looked into the rearview mirror but didn’t see them.

  “They’ve been detoured,” he said smiling. “Don’t worry about them.”

  “Who are you exactly?”

  “I could tell you I’m part of a secret organization with its genesis back to the period soon after Jesus wandered the desert and was tempted. In one sense I suppose that’s true. We’re God’s policemen. Some of us are refugees from the wars worldwide; some of us are truly the saved. You’ll become one of us, perhaps. Everyone has a different reaction to it all. What’s ever in your nature to be, you will be. No matter what it is, at least it will be your choice. No one will be using you anymore.”

  I checked my rearview mirror again.

  “Someone’s following us I think.”

  He turned to look. I could see the driver’s face.

  “It’s Eve!” I cried. She drew closer, close enough for me to see the angry, determined expression on her face as she leaned over the steering wheel to peer ahead at us.

  “Accelerate. Hurry!” he told me.

  I did so.

  We went through a red light, but Eve had to stop because of the cross traffic.

  “Turn here, quickly,” he screamed. “Pull over here. I have to drive,” he said the moment I had done so.

  I pulled over and we switched seats. He drove off, turning down a few different streets, the tires squealing with the sharpness and speed of his turns. I looked back, but didn’t see Eve.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll lose her.”

  Minutes later we pulled onto a main thoroughfare and headed toward the freeway entrance. When we got onto it, he accelerated until we were going nearly 100 miles an hour.

  “I don’t see her,” I said, looking back.

  “Good.

  I turned around and snapped in my seat belt. A sharp pain made me shudder and moan.

  “You look very uncomfortable. He’s kicking away, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sure. He knows it’s almost over. This is one that won’t be born. Tell me, describe it quickly. I need to know everything that’s happening.”

  “I think I’m having…. I don’t know for sure, but it feels like contractions. I think I’m going into labor.”

  I moaned and then I screamed again with the pain.

  “Hold on,” he said. “We’re almost there. You’ll be all right. We’ll end it before it starts. Don’t you worry about that.”

  When we took an exit, there was another car waiting for us. It followed us onto a side street.

  A few minutes later, we pulled into the driveway of what looked like an office building.

  “What is this place?” I asked him.

  “It’s our battlefield. We always win here,” he said. “Don’t worry.”

  The second car pulled in right behind us and two women in nurse’s uniforms got out to rush to me. One opened the door and the other helped me emerge. They led me to the front entrance.

  The tinted windows made it look like a deserted structure, but when we entered, I saw an immaculate light red tile floor. They hurried me down a hallway to what looked like a hospital operating room. The contractions grew stronger.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked one of the nurses. She looked like a woman in her fifties. She was tall with firm hands.

  “We’re going to end it, terminate,” she said. “Perform a dilation and extraction.”

  “It’s what they call a late-term abortion,” the other nurse added. “You’ll be fine.”

  I looked from the one woman in a nurse’s outfit to the other and thought they were sisters, perhaps even twins.

  They guided me to the gurney and one began to help me undress, while the other set up an IV drip.

  “This will help you relax,” she said, reaching for a syringe on the table beside me.

  “I’m afraid,” I said.

  “Don’t be. Everything is under control now, thanks to you,” she said, smiling. She wiped my arm with the alcohol pad and then injected me. Almost immediately, I felt myself start to drift. I didn’t pass out immediately. It was as if I were leaving my body, rising slowly above it all.

  I could feel them adjusting my legs, getting my feet in the stirrups.

  “It will be over soon, dear,” the first nurse said.

  I heard a door open and, looking through what seemed to be a cloud of fog, saw the man in black now dressed in a doctor’s frock step up to the table.

  “Not a moment too soon,” he told the nurses. “Get thee behind me!” he cried.

  I thought I heard laughter followed by a horrendous howl that echoed as I descended into the darkness.

  18.

  WILLY WAS WAITING FOR ME at the house. I was still in what is described as the twilight zone, vaguely aware of my surroundings and people talking, but it was all still distant. I couldn’t even say who helped me to my bed. I fell asleep quickly and when I woke, it was twilight. The shadows seemed to be seeping in through the windows, crawling slowly over the walls and the floor. I felt no pain, but I did feel a numbness. When I touched my stomach, I was surprised at how flat it felt. Then I turned to my left and saw Willy sitting there, crouched over, her elbows on her knees, her head in her hands.

  “Willy,” I whispered. “Willy.”

  She lifted her head slowly to look at me.

  “How do you feel, Kate?”

  “Like I’m floating, drifting.”

  “They told me you would. It’s the sedatives they gave you.”

  “Who?” I asked, struggling to remember everything.

  “The ones who have been calling, who came for you. The Guardians, as I heard them call themselves,” she said. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you, Kate, but by the time I arrived at Dr. Malisoff’s medical building, you were gone and I had no idea which direction you had taken. You didn’t answer the cell phone. I thought that you might have gone home, so I headed here.”

  It all began to rush back to me.

  “He was waiting for me, the man in black, the one who had tried to run down Eve in front of Dr. Aaron’s office. Eve was then suddenly behind us,
” I said. “Her face looked distorted, especially around her eyes.”

  “She couldn’t have been behind you, Kate,” Willy said softly. “She was with me. I didn’t leave her behind as I had promised. I thought I might need help with you.”

  I just stared at her for a moment.

  “I saw her,” I insisted.

  “Okay.”

  “Stop humoring me, Willy. I saw her.”

  “All right, Kate. All right.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “She’s gone, Kate. We talked it over and we decided it would be better if she left. I gave her a generous settlement payment. She was disappointed, but she accepted it.”

  “I’m glad. She was part of it, one of them.”

  Willy shook her head and lowered it again to her hands.

  “After all that has happened, are you still going to sit there and try to convince me otherwise?”

  “No,” she said. “I’ll admit I don’t know what she knew and what she didn’t about all this. I just don’t think it was what you think it was and what they, the so-called Guardians, think it was.”

  “Really? You want to go talk to Dr. Malisoff and ask him about the fantastic pregnancy, see what he has to say? Go ahead,” I said, raising my voice as high as I could. I still felt very weak.

  “It’s not necessary. I’m not challenging any of that. Unfortunately, we got caught up in something that was other than you think, than they think, something not less bizarre, but something else nevertheless.”

  “Oh really. And what would that be, Willy?”

  “It was experimental, but it wasn’t Rosemary’s Baby, Kate.”

  “Experimental?”

  “They’re perfecting a way to accelerate fetal development.”

  “What are you telling me?”

  “I didn’t know any more about it than you did up until very recently. I thought it was that pseudocyesis thing, too, but after your ultrasound, I got on the phone immediately with Dr. Aaron and that was when she told me about the process. They were hoping it would all be over before we realized it, you realized it.”

  “And you believed that?”

  “Yes, Kate. They have obvious difficulty getting any woman to participate in such research. Women who go through the insemination process are easier to utilize.”

  I stared at her.

  “But that would be horrible deception and maybe could even risk the woman’s life.”

  “Let’s just be grateful that it’s over and you’re all right.”

  “I can’t believe you bought that story, Willy.” I turned away from her. “Maybe you want to believe it. Maybe it makes you feel better.”

  “I didn’t do anything to put you into this situation, Kate. No matter what fantasies you create, I didn’t sell my soul to anyone. What good fortune we had was just what it was, a lucky break.”

  “Oh, is that right? All of it comes from my fantasies, huh? Tell me this then. Why did Eve lie about what happened to her brother?”

  “She didn’t lie. Those investigations take time. It wasn’t black and white. She found out the results just about the time you did and she’s been sick over it. It was another reason why it was so difficult to let her go.

  “And I don’t believe this Dr. Yan was part of any conspiracy either, Kate. She was used just as we were. She accepted the referral and conducted her analysis with the same assumptions. I had her checked out. Our attorney made the inquiries for me. You can go over and see her for yourself later on. I’m sure she is just as disturbed about all this as we are.”

  “What about these people, the group you call or you say call themselves, the Guardians?”

  “They’re just a bunch of kooks, if you ask me, but I suppose if a poll were taken, more people would reveal they believe in the existence of Satan than don’t. The Catholic Church certainly does. I imagine most of these people in the group are Catholic, although I don’t know for sure.

  “Everything else we thought about them or we would told about them appears true. They’re well organized. They’re determined, driven, and believe anything they do in the name of their God is okay. What’s new about that?

  “Eve and I were talking about all this one day and she told me that Pope Urban II, the Pope that started the Crusades, changed the penance for killing and basically declared it was acceptable to kill another individual as long as that person was not a Christian. Killing Muslims became acceptable in the eleventh century.”

  “It doesn’t surprise me that Eve would know about that.”

  “Oh and that makes her Satan?”

  “She was trying to discredit them.”

  “Please. You’ve got to get hold of yourself. You’ve got to stop this.”

  I turned away. The tears were building under my eyelids, rising to stream over and down my cheeks. Willy came to me and took my hand.

  “I know you have gone through hell, pardon my pun. I’ve been thinking about starting a lawsuit.”

  “I could never describe this in court,” I said. “I’m sure without any hard proof, everyone would think I was crazy and I don’t imagine the Guardians would make for credible witnesses. Maybe we’d make the front page of the Enquirer, but nothing else.”

  “Exactly and those are the reasons keeping me back from doing it. All that really matters now is you get stronger, get well. I’ve already contacted your gynecologist and made you an appointment for next Monday so we can be sure you have no other problems, no lasting effects.”

  She leaned over to kiss my cheek.

  “I don’t expect I’ll be attempting another pregnancy, Willy,” I said.

  “Oh, you never know. In time…”

  “I couldn’t see myself doing it.”

  “But you wanted a baby so much.”

  The tears came now. I couldn’t hold them back. Yes, I did, I thought. Yes, I did.

  She crawled in beside me, cradled me in her arms and kissed my hair and cheek. I closed my eyes and in the comfort and security of her embrace, fell asleep.

  But I didn’t sleep well, and a dream I had became so vivid I woke with a start. Willy moaned and turned over on her side. I didn’t want to wake her. I didn’t want to tell her what I had dreamed anyway, but the visions, the sounds, and the feelings were still so strong, it was as if I were still in the midst of it. Maybe I was walking in my sleep, but I rose and quietly slipped my feet into a pair of sandals. I was only in my nightgown, but on the way out of the bedroom, I scooped up my light blue jacket and continued through the house.

  I wasn’t shaking and I didn’t feel weak. Somewhere, somehow, I had reached deep down into my very soul, my essence, what and who I was to draw up the strength I needed to go forward. The visions were still streaming past me, images, voices. It was too real to be imagined. It was too real to be anything but memories.

  As quietly as I could, I went into the garage and got into my car. The garage door made a lot of noise going up and I thought that it might bring Willy to the door to the garage, but I backed out quickly, didn’t close it, and didn’t put on the headlights until I was on the street. Then I accelerated into the night. I had a long drive ahead of me, but that didn’t discourage me. I was bolstered by my surge of energy and my revitalized strength. The adrenaline was flowing, I thought. I would do wondrous things.

  How I found my way, I did not know. Something invisible, something instinctive pulled me along. I was more like a wild beast captured by the primeval forces that governed a species rather than an individual. It was embedded in my nature, the nature I had almost denied.

  I had no idea how fast I had been driving, but in what seemed to me almost like blinking my eyes, I was coasting down the street upon which Dr. Aaron’s office and home were located. I saw a good half dozen or so cars parked in front. Although the office lights were off, the house we well lit up inside. I pulled into an empty space behind the first car on my right and shut off the engine.

  I got out slowly and closed the car door softly. Th
en I stood there for a few moments to be sure there was no one outside, no one watching, waiting.

  There was a small rise in the lawn as it ran toward the front of the house. I walked through the grass and kept out of the bright areas illuminated by the lawn lights and the lanterns around the door and front windows. I drew closer, my heart thumping harder and faster with every step I took.

  Suddenly, I heard the sound of the front door being opened and I rushed to get to the side of the house and into the shadows. When the door was fully opened, I heard music and laughter. The voice of whoever was stepping out seemed familiar when I heard him say good night. I waited for him to close the door and continue down the front steps and sidewalk. As soon as I saw him, I gasped and nearly gave myself away.

  It was Sterling Plunkett, alive and well. He paused for a moment to light a cigarette. I thought he gazed in my direction and I held my breath in anticipation of being discovered, but he put his lighter into his pocket and continued down to one of the cars. I watched him get in, start it up, and drive off.

  Had I crossed into the Valley of Death or was there some other explanation?

  Instead of walking toward the front, I turned to my right and headed for a lighted window. Carefully, I leaned forward and peered through the opened shutters. There, gathered around a bassinet, were Eve Stoner, Trinity, Kerry Barnes, Dr. Aaron, Dr. Matthews, and Eve’s sister Bea. They were all looking down and smiling.

  Other people came into the room, men in suits and ties, beautiful women, handsome young men, all dressed fashionably. Behind them came the man dressed in black. How could he be here? These people were supposed to be the enemy.

  The group parted to let him draw closer to the bassinet. He reached in and lifted the baby out. He didn’t cradle the infant in his arms, but instead raised him above his head. No one spoke. Then they all lowered their heads and began to chant what I knew to be the Lord’s Prayer.

  But backwards!

  “Evil from us deliver but temptation into not us lead and us against trespass that them forgive we as…”

  They broke into laughter, and then he passed the baby to Dr. Matthews, who kissed his face and passed him on to Dr. Aaron, who did the same. The baby was circulated among them all and never cried. Eve took him last, kissed him, and returned him to the bassinet.