Roselia watched the nurse walk towards her, carrying her bundle of joy. she was overwhelmed at this life-changing experience, tears slowly trickled down her face but she quickly wiped them away, she had waited for five long years for this moment to come, five years of pain and agony. And now she was finally a mother.
"Here's your baby Ma'am, and congratulations once again", the nurse grinning from ear to ear handed over her baby to her.
"Thank you so much", she whispered back as she took her baby in her arms, falling completely and irrevocably in love with him.
As Roselia cradled her newborn son in her arms, she felt a chilling sense of recognition wash over her. He was beautiful, with soft dark curls and little fingers that held her hand tightly, she felt an icy dread as she gazed into his eyes. Those eyes were familiar.
"No, no, no! "It just can't be! She wanted to scream as reality dawned on her, but it ended in a hoarse cry.
Her son had the same eyes as the boy from her dreams!
Roselia woke up screaming in the middle of the night, her body drenched in sweat, and shaking horribly. Her husband, Lorenzo, had his arms around her, trying to calm her down.
"Honey , it's just a dream, a nightmare, okay?, as he clasped her tightly to himself, consolingly.
But the dream had been so vivid, so real, like something so tangible. She shivered from extreme cold as she could still feel the boy’s accusing eyes resting on her, he could still hear his voice echoing in her mind.
For many days, she kept on having the same dream, each one more horrible than the last. In that very cold and dark place, the boy stood, he could be seven or eight, his beautiful and curly dark hair tussled by the wind, he always stood against the backdrop of those very strange inscriptions, his unflinching gaze speaking volumes as he watched her in disdain.
Every night, the nightmare continued, pretty much the same, Roselia would find herself on a dark and wet road, the boy facing her as he stood against a wall covered in some bizarre symbols and writings. He didn't say a word but his gaze was mournful, accusing. And when she woke up, she would try to match the image of the boy to someone she knew somewhere or she had met, in her waking life. But she was sure their paths had never crossed before, except in those dreams.
Roselia couldn’t understand why he was in her dream, every night or what it was he wanted from her. She heaved heavily, she was loosing it and everyone around her was so tired of her obsession with "the boy in her dreams", her husband felt she had developed some mental issues as a result of her childlessness.
Then, one night, as she stood in her dream before the boy once again, he spoke, for the very first time.
"Why did you leave me out there?" he asked, in a cold and raspy voice.
Roselia was bewildered at the question, her heart thudding fearfully and many thoughts racing through her clouded mind.
"I....I don’t understand what you are talking about," she stammered in a trembling voice. His eyes were like slits of fire, searing through her soft skin.
"You left me alone in the cold, in the darkness, on that rainy night".
You left me to die a long and painful death," the boy repeated, stepping closer. His presence was stifling her with an unnatural chill. "Why mother?", he asked sneeringly.
Suddenly, it all came rushing back, the memory she had buried deep within, locked away in the furthest corners of her mind. No one else knew, just her and her mother.
Seven years ago, Roselia was desperate to marry Lorenzo, a very suitable young man who had come asking for her hand in marriage. But there was a problem, she was pregnant for a total stranger, a one night stand affair. Her mother had sent her far away from home on the pretext that she was going for an educational training. The plan was for her to deliver the baby, abandon him somewhere and pick the next available vehicle back home, to marry Lorenzo.
Late one rainy night, under the cover of darkness, she had abandoned the newborn baby boy by a quiet roadside. She had walked away, not looking back, leaving him to the stillness of the night, and its dangers. The cries of the baby echoed in her ears as she disappeared into the shadows, but she kept walking. She told herself that someone would find him, that he would be cared for, but deep down, she had known the truth, the baby would not make it through the night.
Now was the son she had abandoned, staring at her from the depths of her dreams, his eyes a picture of melancholy. As he swirled around, he turned his back to her, his voice echoing in the still dark night. "You will pay for all you made me suffer. You will surely pay."
She had walked away from her newborn son seven years ago and now he had come back, as her newborn son, to haunt her. She was certain that his spirit had come back, for his pound of flesh. With her heart thumping wildly, she knew a huge storm was brewing, a premonition that something sinister was lurking beneath the surface.
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I am @edith-4angelseu and thank you for stopping by my neighbourhood.