1.7 - It All Falls Apart

 Life progressed pretty normally for a while. Shae and Derek went to work each morning and came home in each other’s arms each night. He made her ridiculously happy, so much so that mentions of the Realm came less and less often. 

Illdrid stayed at home. Eventually she started to feel safe again, safe enough to leave the house. Her pregnancy was progressing rapidly and she worried that she still wasn’t prepared. So she decided to take one last trip to the library to see what else she could learn.

This time she stayed away from the computers. They gave her the creeps. She went right for the books, found one, and curled up again in a chair. This time, a cat jumped up onto her lap. She was concerned, for a moment. But she enjoyed its warmth. So she kept it there, occasionally petting its soft fur.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain. And knew. The baby was coming. She jumped up and rushed home. It was closer than the hospital. She hoped that Derek and Shae would be able to get her there safely. She just wanted her baby to be safe.

“Shae!” she screamed as she burst through the door. “Derek! The baby is coming!”

Shae rushed out of the bedroom and hurried Illdrid toward a chair. “It’s okay.  We’ll get an ambulance and get you to the hospital.”

Illdrid shook her head. “No, I don’t think I’m going to make it.” She looked toward the open door and saw the cat from the library. It came inside and curled up beside the crib in the living room. There was too much commotion for anyone else to notice its presence She smiled. Maybe it was a good luck charm.

Hours later, a baby boy was born. Illdrid held him in her arms and cooed. He seemed very human, far too human to pass of as fae. But that didn’t make Illdrid love him any less. When she was ready, she took him out to his crib. “Dagon,” she whispered as she placed him inside.

“Not so fast!” A woman’s voice hissed from behind her. Illdrid spun around. Suddenly the cat was no longer a cat. It was a woman, and a rather malevolent looking one, at that. Illdrid screamed and attempted to shield her baby. “I told you I would have your child, one way or the other. Now are you going to hand him over? Or do I have to take him…by force?” The woman’s eyes shifted to Derek and Illdrid followed her line of sight. Derek hung his head in shame, as Shae jumped away from him.

“Derek? Why is she looking at you like that?” Shae asked.

Derek reached toward Shae, “I- I wanted to tell you. But I couldn’t. I had no choice. I didn’t want anything to do with his. She gave me no choice!”

Shae’s mouth opened in horror. She felt sick. Her hands went instinctively to her stomach, and the woman cackled. “Looks like the other Halfling is carrying a little monster. Wouldn’t it be fun to have daddy and baby under my control? But daddy is already such a handful. I’ll stick with the mostly human baby. Now hand it over.”

Illdrid grabbed her baby and ran into her bedroom. But the woman was already in there, standing by the window, with a grin on her face. “Silly Halfling. I am more powerful than you could ever know. I’ll be taking that child now.” The woman reached out her hands and Illdrid felt Dagon being pulled from her arms by a force she couldn’t see or understand. She held him tighter, pulled him closer, but she wasn’t strong enough. She was going to lose this fight; she was going to lose her baby.

And then, suddenly, the pull was gone. The woman was on her knees. Illdrid looked up in shock, tears streaming down her cheeks, and saw James standing over the woman, his teeth embedded deeply into her neck. The woman howled in pain, a completely inhuman sound, as her life and powers were slowly drained from her body. When she was nothing more than a shell, James kicked her to the ground. He looked up at Illdrid and grinned. “You haven’t been answering my phone calls. I got concerned,” he said with a shrug.

Illdrid was shaking and couldn’t muster a hint of a smile. Dagon was wailing. And this was all too much for her to handle. She slumped against the wall. “So you just happened to show up here at the right time?”

James chuckled. “No, of course not. You have a really conveniently placed tree outside. I have been creepily watching over you, to make sure everything went okay with the pregnancy. I thought, maybe, it could have been mine.  I never intended for you to find out. But…it seemed like you could have used some help!”

Illdrid nodded. His explanation made sense. “Thanks,” she whispered, hoarsely.

Shae, who had been watching everything from the doorway, rushed to her sister’s side. It had all happened so fast. She felt a mixture of horror and relief. It could have been so much worse. And Shae blamed herself. She had let Derek inside. Derek, who had no interest in protecting them. No interest in her, at all.

Realizing that Illdrid needed some time to collect herself, Shae took  baby Dagon from her arms. Illdrid let him go, after a moment of hesitation. She was in no condition to be caring for her baby. She was in no condition to be a functioning person. 

With the baby in safe hands, James knelt down beside her. “Come on. You should lie down.” He picked her up and placed her in bed. She looked so small, so vulnerable. He sank down beside her and held her for as long as she needed. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stay too long. He already felt the witch’s blood and magic coursing through him. He didn’t know what would happen once it was fully absorbed, but he didn’t want to risk it.

In the living room, Shae stood cold and unmoving as Derek begged on his knees for her to forgive him. She had placed Dagon in his crib after feeding him, and now she had to deal with the man she had let into her heart, her home, the man who had betrayed her.

“Please, Shae. You have to understand. She was a witch. I was bound to her. I couldn’t just disobey her.”

Shae looked down at him, furious. “You put our lives at stake. You lied to me. About everything. 

Maybe if you had been truthful, we could have figured out a way to overcome her. We would have been prepared today. But you just allowed her to come in here, to almost steal my nephew. That would have destroyed Illdrid! My sister!”

“I know, but – “

“No!” Shae shouted. “No buts. No excused. Get out of my sight. Get out of my house. I don’t ever want to see you again.”

“You’re carrying my child! I can’t just leave you in this state. We created something magical together. I want to meet my child.”

“Don’t even think about it. I promise you that you will never be allowed to meet this baby. Never. You do not deserve to be a father. No get the hell out of my house, before I ask that vampire to make you sorry!”

Derek growled, he felt himself transforming into a monster. He truly never meant to fall in love with Shae. But he had screwed up. And now, he didn’t want to hurt her any further than he already had. So he bolted from the house before she could see his truly dark side.
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Phew! Long chapter is long. And now I'm finally caught up to where I am with actual gameplay and don't have to spend hours staging photos. WOO HOO!