Free Brood XIX by Michael McBride Page A

child.
    Her heart fluttered and whatever control she
had maintained over her emotions fled her. She started to cry and
pawed at the wall in search of a light switch.
    "Emma? Emma! Mommy's here!"
    She flicked the switch and the overhead bulb
bloomed. The sudden influx of light was blinding, forcing her to
bat her eyelids. She saw snippets of the room, like a slideshow of
the same image flipping past too quickly. The walls and the ceiling
were covered with cicadas. A rocking chair in the right corner,
situated across the low table from its much smaller twin. Books on
the table: arithmetic and phonics. A television with a DVD player
on a stand, stacks of movies underneath. Piles of teddy bears and
dolls. A steel eyebolt was set into the middle of the floor. The
thick chain attached to it led up under the covers on a four-poster
bed with a lace canopy. A sleeping form under a mound of linens. A
spill of short blonde hair on the pillow.
    Short...blonde...hair.
    Vanessa's heart shattered. She grabbed at the
pain in her chest. The room started to spin. This wasn't her
daughter. Emma had always had the most beautiful ebon hair.
    Vanessa fell to her knees and crawled toward
the bed.
    She had been so sure, so convinced that Emma
was here.
    The cicadas...why else would they have led her
to this house? To this very bedroom?
    She hauled herself up onto the edge of the
bed and pulled the covers off of the child. Her size was
incongruous with Vanessa's memory. This child had to be at least
four or five inches taller than the Emma that lived in her memory,
the chubbiness in the arms and legs completely absent.
    With a moan, she swept the child's hair away
from her face.
    She had to know for sure.
    The little girl stirred and furrowed her
brow. And then she opened her eyes. The most beautiful shade of
blue she had ever seen. They were the same eyes that stared back at
her from the mirror every day. Her eyes.
    Emma's eyes.
    "Emma!" Vanessa sobbed. She drew her daughter
to her chest and held her as tightly as she could. She inhaled
Emma's scent, savored the sensation of her daughter's cheek against
her own, reveled in the texture of her dyed hair.
    "Mommy?" Emma whispered.
    "I'm right here, baby. I'm going to get you
out of here. Take you home."
    Emma's whole body shook and she started to
cry. Her lips parted and Vanessa noticed that Emma only had four
front teeth in both her upper and lower jaws. Only gums behind,
where the teeth had yet to grow in.
    "I'm so sorry I let you out of my sight."
Vanessa adjusted her grip so she could lift Emma out of the bed. "I
promise...I will never let it happen again. Ever."
    "Mommy!" Emma screamed.
    The cicadas erupted in song, so loud in the
confines that even the air appeared to tremble.
    A shadow fell over Vanessa from behind. She
saw the expression of horror on Emma's face, the terror reflected
in her eyes.
    Clinging to her daughter, she threw herself
to the side.
    A knife flashed through her peripheral vision
and embedded itself in the mattress. It was trailed by a thin,
feminine arm.
    Emma screamed directly into her ear.
    Vanessa rolled over to shield her daughter
with her body. She glanced up at her assailant from the corner of
her eye.
    Sandra Matthews towered over her, only it
wasn't the Sandra she remembered. This woman's hair had gone
prematurely gray and was tangled and unkempt. Her eyes were wild,
her teeth bared. She held the knife above her shoulder, the muscles
and tendons showing through her emaciated arm.
    The cicada song ceased, leaving an oppressive
silence that made the air feel somehow heavier.
    "Let go of my Chelsea right now," Sandra
snarled. "Get your hands off my daughter!"
    She took a step closer and raised the
knife.
    Vanessa turned her face away, looked directly
into Emma's eyes, and cringed in anticipation of the searing pain
to come.
    * * *

    Trey thundered down the stairs into the
basement when the screaming started. There was just enough
illumination from the seams around the