The Curse Of The Spirit Wraith

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1.

My cousin's wife, Mabel, was dead.

Her eyes were bloodshot and bulging out of her head.

Her lower body was still frozen in the agonizing position of labor.

My cousin, Cody, was slumped on the floor, shaking with terror.

As soon as I burst through the door, my Aunt Pearl grabbed my arm with a grip like iron.

"Why did this bitch have to die?" she shrieked. "How dare she! All I did was try to shove that little monster back inside so her brother could come out first! How could she just die on me?"

"Caleb! You're a doctor!" she yelled, shaking me. "Cut her open right now! My grandson is still in there! Do you know how many eggs I wasted feeding her just to get a boy?"

Mabel's belly was deflated now.

The loose, thick skin hung over her waist like a hollow sack.

Acting on medical instinct, I stepped toward her.

My brain went numb at what I saw.

Amidst the blood-soaked sheets, sticking out from between Mabel's thin, skeletal legs, were two tiny, deformed legs.

They were covered in the biological features of a male infant.

2.

"Filthy bitch. She was a curse while she was alive, and now she's ruined my best bedding," Pearl hissed.

She began kicking the blood-stained quilt into the fireplace.

I tried to stop her out of respect for the dead, but Cody threw Mabel's clothes onto the floor in a heap of trash.

"Mom, just burn the bitch too," Cody spat. "She's bad luck. I slept with her a thousand times, and all she gave me was that disgusting freak of a monster."

"Burn her? What a waste of firewood!" Pearl snapped.

She threw a bucket of water into the fireplace to salvage the half-burnt quilt.

Her eyes settled on the bundle in my arms with pure disgust.

"And that thing Caleb is holding! Our family doesn't raise freaks! Toss the brat in the river with her mother. Save us the cost of a shroud."

The baby girl in my arms let out a weak, pathetic whimper.

I was about to scream at them when Elder Miller walked through the doorway.

"What a sin," he whispered, leaning on his cane. "What a terrible sin."

Elder Miller was the authority in our mountain town, even more respected than the mayor.

He dealt in the old ways, the folk magic.

Whenever someone got sick, they called him before they ever called a real doctor like me.

I was shaking with rage. "Elder Miller, Mabel was having twins. My aunt shoved the smaller one back in. She killed them both! I'm calling the police!"

"You ungrateful brat!" Pearl grabbed a heavy fire poker and swung it at me, just like she used to when I was a kid.

"Don't forget who raised you after your mother died! You want to call the cops? I'll beat the life out of you first!"

"Enough!"

Elder Miller slammed his cane against the floor.

"Mabel died a violent death. That brings a curse upon the bloodline. You treated her like trash in life, and now you want to kill her only daughter? Do you want Cody to die too?"

Pearl didn't believe him at first. "The bitch is dead. How can she hurt my son? I'll burn her to ashes right now!"

Cody scrambled to grab a jug of diesel and doused Mabel's body.

But no matter how hard he clicked his lighter, the flame wouldn't catch.

Fear finally began to creep into their eyes. "Elder... what's happening?"

Elder Miller had expected this.

He hobbled over to Mabel's body, his hands trembling as he looked at her.

"A child who dies in the womb carries the heaviest spite. He was already formed, a twin, a shadow. By forcing him back in, you created a Spirit Malice."

"Mabel died in agony. Her soul has merged with that malice. This is becoming a Mother-Son Blood Wraith."

He turned to Pearl, his voice low. "I gave you a fertility charm that everyone in this town uses. Why did your house turn out like this?"

Pearl's eyes darted around. "I... I just wanted to be sure. I got another secret recipe from my old neighborhood and made her take both. I didn't know..."

"Help us, Elder! You can't let anything happen to my Cody! He's the only male heir left!"

Elder Miller looked defeated. "When a Blood Wraith is born, the whole village pays in souls. We have seven days. If we can trick them for seven days, the curse won't settle, and the Reapers will take them."

His murky eyes drifted toward me.

It wasn't my imaginationDthe red silk cord around my wrist suddenly grew searing hot.

"Caleb," the Elder said. "You're the only one here whose hands aren't stained with Mabel's blood. The storm washed out the bridge, so you can't get back to the city anyway. Help your family. Repay them for raising you."

"If we survive this, I'll make sure your mother's remains are moved into the ancestral graveyard with honors."

I was a foundling.

My mother had been a social outcast, buried in a lonely, unmarked grave.

Elder Miller knew that was my only weakness. I had to agree.

3.

Mabel's body had already succumbed to rigor mortis.

Her legs were locked wide apart.

She couldn't fit into a shroud, and the coffin lid wouldn't close.

With the dead infant still lodged inside her, nobody dared to touch her.

"Mabel, you're gone now," I whispered as I cleaned her body. "Being dead is better than living another day with these people. I promise, once the bridge is fixed, I'm taking your daughter. I won't leave her here."

I placed the baby girl next to her and wiped the diesel off her skin.

Only then did Mabel's eyes finally drift shut.

Behind me, Cody was pacing and cursing. "How much did this funeral cost? She doesn't even deserve a coffin!"

"Just break her legs!" he shouted. "Snap the bones so the lid fits! Why are you being so useless?"

He glared at me. "And you, stop acting like she was your wife. Once this is over, take your creepy little urn and get the hell out of my house!"

"Don't think you're getting a cent of the government relocation money for this land!"

Arguing with him was pointless.

If it weren't for my medical ethics, I would have used my scalpel to show him exactly how Mabel felt when she died.

The baby girl, who hadn't had a drop of milk since birth, began to cry.

As I picked her up, I saw Mabel's blood-red eyes snap open again.

My mother used to tell me that a vengeful spirit takes as many lives as the number of blood streaks in their eyes.

I counted four streaks in Mabel's pupils.

A moment later, a pool of dark blood began to seep from under the cheap wooden coffin.

"Don't look..."

A man's voice, deep and cold, whispered directly into my ear.

4.

I fed the baby some formula I bought from the local general store.

Only then did I remember that my "sister" was also hungry.

I mixed some ash with rice and a drop of blood from my finger, placing it at the mouth of a small black urn.

This was Silas, the spirit my mother had picked up for me. She told me he was my future spouse.

I had been feeding him with my blood for eighteen years.

We were tied together by two red silk cordsDone on my wrist, one on his urn.

My mom said we were betrothed.

But in eighteen years, I had never seen a ghost, let alone a husband.

Until that voice spoke this morning.

It felt strangely familiar. My heart finally began to settle. He was finally here.

5.

According to Elder Miller's instructions, I had to stay on the bed for the first half of the night and under the bed for the second.

If I could survive the first night, it meant Mabel still had a shred of mercy left.

Cody's bedroom reeked of iron and rot.

As a doctor, I walked the line between science and the supernatural.

Exhausted, I fell into a light sleep while holding the baby.

In the middle of the night, the red cord on my wrist burned me awake.

Whenever there was a violent death at the hospital, the cord would hum, but it had never been this hot.

Click.

The sound of a lock turning came from the door.

"Cody... Cody, why did you lock the door?"

"I gave you a son. The Miller line has an heir now. Don't you want to see him?"

It was Mabel.

Her voice was muffled, as if her mouth was pressed against the floorboards.

Cody and Pearl had locked me in from the outside so I couldn't run away.

Cold sweat drenched my shirt.

Another click. The lock snapped off from the outside.

Mabel's face appeared, pressed flat against the floor.

She crawled like a shadow, moving with terrifying speed.

As she passed the bed, I saw the jagged white bone sticking out of her shattered knees.

"Cody? Cody Miller, where are you hiding?"

"I have our son. Don't you want to hold him?"

"Cody, it hurts... it hurts so much... where are you?"

She circled the room, her face sliding along the wood until she stopped right beneath the bed.

My heart was thumping against my ribs.

The burning on my wrist was the only thing keeping me from screaming.

Twelve o'clock. Midnight.

Mabel sat up. Using her mangled legs, she hopped over to the vanity mirror.

She began to brush her hair, just like she used to when she was alive.

I remembered the Elder's warning.

Moving as slowly as possible, I crawled out from the covers and slid under the bed, clutching the baby to my chest.

A few minutes later, Mabel stopped brushing her hair.

She hopped back to the bed and sat down.

Her two blood-stained legs dangled near my face, with the tiny, tumor-covered infant legs of the twin hanging between them.

I couldn't tell if I was more disgusted or terrified.

"Not here either..." she whispered.

"Where did you go, Daddy?"

Time felt like it was dragging through sludge.

When she couldn't find Cody, she began to sing a nursery rhyme.

"Bridge of stone, bridge of wood... build a path with bone and blood..."

"Bridge of stone, bridge of wood... build a path with bone and blood..."

Finally, the rooster crowed in the distance.

I started to let out a breath of relief, but then a long strand of hair dropped down in front of my eyes.

More hair followed, pooling on the floor.

I looked for the source of that familiar voice, but Silas was silent.

The hair spread like a dark web.

Then came Mabel's hairline, then her cracked, bleeding forehead.

And finally, those eyes split by four streaks of blood.

"Caleb... I found you..."