My sister kicked my preg/nant stomach “just to hear the sound it made.” When I tried to confront her, my parents immediately shielded her. “Erica, talk to us, honey. Did she even say anything to you?” they pleaded— as my sister sobbed her way over and kicked me again, harder this time. I blacked out. When I didn’t wake up, they scoffed. “Enough pretending. Get up. Erica’s been through enough.” My father snapped, “Stand up now—or I’ll let her kick you again.” Then my husband walked in. Panic spread. The doctor followed. One quiet sentence changed everything: “The baby isn’t moving anymore.” My husband turned to them—and that’s when their real nightmare began.

Then, darkness.

The back of my head smashed into the sharp corner of the solid oak coffee table. There was a blinding flash of white light, a sound like a gunshot inside my skull, and then silence.

I was floating in a dark, cold ocean. Voices reached me, muffled and distorted, like they were coming from underwater.

“…get up, Sarah, stop acting…” That was my father.

“…she’s faking it, look at her…” That was Erica.

“…call 911, oh god, there’s blood…” That was… who was that?

I drifted back toward consciousness. Pain radiated from the back of my head, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. My stomach felt like it was on fire.

“Hurry up,” my father’s sneering voice cut through the fog. “Get up, Sarah. Stop ruining the evening. Or I’ll just have Erica kick you again to wake you up.”

I felt a shoe nudge my ribs roughly. A dismissal. A kick to a dead dog on the side of the road.

Then, the atmosphere shattered.

A demonic roar filled the room. It was a sound of pure, primal rage.

“GET AWAY FROM HER!”

It was Michael. He had returned from the kitchen where he had gone to get ice for my head, only to find my family standing over my unconscious body, mocking me.

I forced my eyes open. Michael was standing over me, a terrifying figure. His fists were clenched, his chest heaving. He looked like a man who was about to commit murder.

My father took a step back, fear finally flickering in his eyes. “Now, son, calm down. It’s just a family dispute.”

“Don’t you dare call me son,” Michael hissed. He knelt beside me, his hands gentle as they checked my pulse, my head, my stomach. “Sarah? Sarah, stay with me. The ambulance is coming.”

He looked up at my parents, his eyes burning with a cold, blue fire I had never seen before.

“If you say one more word,” Michael whispered, his voice trembling with the effort of not killing them, “I will rip your throats out with my bare teeth.”