Free Strange Animals by Chad Kultgen

hall in their neighboring state, where several gay marriages were to be officiated by the mayor. He urged every newly anointed soldier of Christ to act as a general for Christ as well and recruit as many people as they could to join them in this march, in this protest, in this fight to save marriage from the clutches of Satan himself.
    Once the plan was outlined, Pastor Preston directed everyone to a sign-up sheet he had posted in the back of the room. James indicated that he would attend. He found this to be one of the most exciting moments of his life.
    As he left the meeting, James overheard Brad and Gail discussing their uncertainty about what they had witnessed that night. They claimed to be Christian, but this was a little too much for them. James didn’t engage with them. He couldn’t understand how anyone could ever question anything done in Christ’s name. Jesus had suffered and died for every sin man would ever commit, and all that was being asked in that moment was to drive a few hundred miles and stand in front of a building holding signs that championed the plan God had for us all. He knew in that moment that these people were hypocrites, and he dismissed them, knowing that God would deal with them in the end.
    Before he went to sleep, James read the following, and he felt at peace: Corinthians 11:13–15: For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

chapter     
    eleven
    Karen woke up after sleeping through her alarm for fifteen minutes. In the past few weeks, her fatigue had become more chronic and more severe. As she sat up in bed, she was immediately nauseated. She could smell the grease from the eggs that Paul had obviously made for himself before leaving for work. As she stood up, she noticed that her underwear was wet.
    Once in the bathroom she removed it and noticed a discharge coating the inside lining. She inspected it and found it was thicker than anything she’d ever seen, and without even bringing it to her nose she could smell that it was salty and metallic. Karen’s disgust, mixed with the nausea she was already feeling, forced her to vomit in the toilet.
    She drew a bath and stood naked in front of the mirror. Her breasts had definitely grown. Her stomach was now visibly betraying her secret pregnancy, and she could start to see a smallline forming down the center of her stomach, from her belly button to her vagina.
    In the bathtub, she felt her stomach and tried to imagine what exactly was happening inside it. She knew the facts. She knew there was a grouping of cells that had begun to specialize. She knew there were different organs and limbs and fingernails and hair and things that she considered to be human growing inside her. Despite her adamant stance that abortion was a perfectly viable means to end a pregnancy, she found herself wondering what this child would look like if it lived into adulthood. She allowed herself to think about it in detail.
    Karen imagined that it was a boy. She imagined him having dark hair like her and Paul. She imagined him growing up to be of average height and build, wearing glasses. She thought he might have longish hair, curly, that would suggest a sense of happiness, a carefree attitude. And it was as this thought, about the psychological well-being of her unborn child, crept into her mind that she forced herself to stop thinking about it. She could let herself indulge in the idea of what this child might look like, but once she started imagining what type of adult he would become, she felt she was treading on dangerous ground. Instead, she ran some more hot water in the bathtub and convinced herself that her idea for the website was sound, that it was something the world