I dreamt I lay beside my boyfriend, not knowing hed been dead two daysnow Im carrying his ghosts child.
Episode 1
I swear I saw him. Touched him. Kissed him. Felt him. His breath was warm, his lips tasted of mintjust like always. He even wore that oversized grey hoodie he hated, the one that made him look like a “tough sweetheart.” He was real. He held me all night. Whispered “I love you” in my ear. Promised wed marry next year. I remember every secondthe way his fingers trailed down my arm, how he cried when I cried, how he made love to me so fiercely I thought my soul might split in two. And then he vanished.
I woke alone. But I wasnt afraid. I thought hed gone for a run, like he sometimes did. His cologne still clung to the sheets. My skin still burned where hed touched me. But something was wrong.
I called.
Again.
And again.
Then my best mate, Emily, burst into my room, face ashen. I didnt understand why she was crying.
“Lily” she whispered. “You dont know?”
I laughed. “Know what?”
“James is dead.”
I blinked. “Dead how?”
She sobbed harder. “Two days ago. Car crash. During the storm.”
No. No. No.
I screamed. Shoved her. Called her cruel for saying it. Showed her the text James sent me the night before. The voicemail where he said, “Coming over. Miss your body next to mine.” She stared at my phone, trembling.
“Lily he couldnt have sent that. He was already in the morgue.”
The world tilted.
My knees gave way.
I ran to the bathroom, grabbed the towel hed used, still damp. The hoodie hed left on the floor. The bite mark on my neck.
Hed been here.
He *had* to have been.
But the truth was James was buried yesterday.
And somehow, Id made love to him last night.
Days passed. Nights grew unbearable. I couldnt sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him. Sometimes standing at the foot of my bed. Sometimes whispering in my ear. One night, I heard his voice: “Dont cry, love. Im still with you.” I tried to record itall I got was static and my own terrified breathing.
Then my period didnt come.
Twice.
I blamed stress. Grief. Trauma.
Until I vomited five times in one day.
I took a test.
Two lines.
Positive.
I collapsed.
The only person Id been with was James.
But he was dead.
Buried. Decaying. Gone.
Yet something grew inside me.
Something that kicked at night.
Something that glowed beneath my skin when the lights were off.
And every time I sobbed, saying I couldnt handle this
I heard him whisper from the shadows:
“Youre not alone. Our son is coming.”
Episode 2
I dont remember falling asleep. Only waking in the bathtub, the pregnancy test still clutched in my hand, those two pink lines mocking my sanity. I hadnt spoken to anyone in daysnot even Emily. My phone buzzed endlessly. Her name lit up the screen. I ignored every call.
How could I explain I was carrying a baby from a man weeks in the ground? Whod believe me? *I* didnt fully believe it. Until that night.
Id just drifted off when something pressed against my belly from *inside*. Not a normal kick. It felt deliberate. Like it was *summoning* me. I bolted upright, gasping, hands on my stomach. Then I heard it again.
Jamess voice. Inside my head.
“Dont be afraid, love. I chose you.”
I screamed and scrambled from bed. Lifted my shirt in the mirror. I couldve sworn I saw a pulse of blue light under my skin. It flickered then vanished. My legs gave out. I crumpled to the floor, sobbing.
The next day, I forced myself to the hospital. Told the doctor Id conceived after my boyfriend “visited.” Lied about dates. Lied about everythingexcept the symptoms.
“Strange dreams. Skin that glows. Hearing voices of someone not there.”
The doctors expression shifted from concern to quiet suspicion.
“Well run tests,” she said carefully. “Stress can warp the mind, especially with pregnancy hormones.”
She pressed her stethoscope to my belly. Her face froze.
“I cant hear a heartbeat. But somethings moving.”
She ordered a scan. As I lay on the cold metal table, the technician went pale. She kept adjusting the machine. Said nothing until I asked what was wrong.
“Theres a fetus,” she whispered. “But its *glowing*.”
I left without waiting for results. That night, I dreamt again. James stood by our old spot at the lake, wind tugging at his hoodie.
“Our son isnt like others,” he said, voice softer than the breeze. “Hes me and more.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He only smiled sadly. “Youll understand soon. But you must protect him.”
I woke to find the curtains wide open, though Id locked everything. The hoodie from my dream was folded neatly at the foot of my bed. I touched it. Still warm.
Then I knewwhat grew inside me was real. Was *his*. And it was changing me.
The next day, I finally called Emily. I needed help. She rushed over, holding me tight. I told her everything. Showed her the glow in my belly. The dreams. The voice. The baby.
She didnt laugh.
Didnt scream.
Whispered, “I need to take you somewhere.”
She led me to an old house hidden behind her grans church. Inside sat an elderly woman with long grey braids and pale eyes. She looked at me once and said:
“Youre not the first. But you must be the last.”
I asked what she meant. Her answer froze my blood.
“You carry the child of a bound soul. That babys both a blessing and a warning. His father shouldnt have returned. Now that doors open. And others are crossing.”
“To take him?” I asked.
“To take *you*.”
Suddenly, the lights flickered. A icy draft swept through the windows.
And from the shadows Jamess voice:
“*Run.*”
Episode 3
The room turned arctic. The old womans eyes widened in fear as shadows stretched unnaturally along the walls like claws.
“Hes here,” she whispered, clutching a rosary of bone and seashells.
Emily shoved me behind her.
But I wasnt afraid of James now. I feared the *others*.
The ones the woman said were coming because hed broken the rules.
She scattered ashes in a circle, told me to stand inside.
“Dont step out, no matter what. Hear me?” she warned. “Youre a bridge now. Between life and death. And bridges get crossed both ways.”
I stepped into the circle. My belly pulsed with that eerie light. The baby kicked harder than ever.
Then came the voices. Dozens. Hundreds.
Screams. Moans. Pleas. Laughter.
All pouring from the dark.
“James, please,” I whispered. “Whats happening?”
Then I saw him.
But not as before.
His eyes were hollow, full of sorrow and fear.
“Im sorry,” he said. “I never meant to drag you into this. I just missed you so much. Wanted one more night. One more moment. I didnt know I was opening a door.”
I stepped closer, tears streaming.
“Why me? Why the baby?”
He looked at my belly, then at me.
“Because our love was stronger than death. But love like that breaks the rules.”
Suddenly, something else slithered from the shadowsa twisted figure with half a face and burning eyes. It hissed at me.
James stepped between us.
“You cant have her!” he roared. “You wont take our son!”
The thing laughed.
“You broke the rule, spirit. Touched the living. Now, we feast.”
The room shook.
The old woman began chanting in a tongue I didnt know.
Emily gripped my hand, crying.
“Lily! Dont leave the circle!”
I screamed as the monster lunged.
James tackled it mid-air.
The woman shouted:
“NOW! Choose, girl! Life or love?”
James turned to me, bleeding, fading.
“You have to let me go, love. For our son. For you.”
I shook my head, weeping.
“I cant lose you again!”
“You never lost me. I live in
