baby swappers (working title lol)

(prologue &) chap'r one

PROLOGUE

"Did we do the right thing?" the question was posed to his wife, but Dominic Elefry faced the window, his bejewelled hand keeping the curtain back so as not to obstruct his view of their garden and drive. His face captured a troubled frown, aging it beyond his years.

Melissa Elefry sighed deeply, from her place on the little divan in Dominic's small office, her hands clutched a photo of toddler - their toddler. "There's no other choice darling. Simply no other choice."

Then Dominic spotted the sleek black car accelerating down the driveway before him, and let the curtain fall back into place. He turned to his wife and they shared a comforting smile. "Time to go."

The couple met the car on the driveway, a bundle of cloth hiding the face of a fat little baby was tucked warmly into Melissa's arms. Both waited, and the passenger door of the car slid open, a cloud of tobacco smoke arriving first and from that a dirty, scrawny figure. The car engine kept running.

The man slicked back his greased hair and took a deep suck on his cigarette before speaking.

"Amazing these things you people make, truly amazing." He shook his head in awe, and then dropped the butt onto the grass. "So," From his pocket he produced some printed papers. "You got the property?"

Melissa pushed the rag away from the baby's face and held it towards the man. His dirty face broke into a half smile.

"alright, just need to sign here... and here... Don't know how you just give these things away. Couldn't do it m'self."

"She's an orphan, its not the same-" As soon as the words left Melissa's mouth, she knew she had made a mistake. The dealer stepped back, thrusting the papers up.

"Hold up. We can't do this if it's not yours. No certainty of blood. Could be anything – any trace of dirty magic that you've concealed with a screen." He opened his car door again to retreat, shaking his head once more at the wasted trip, but Dominic grabbed him by the collar and threw him to the ground, holding him there with an unexpected strength.

"You'll take this baby or I'll slit your throat," He hissed, tracing the edge of a dagger across the dealer's chin.

"I – I cant!" He gasped, "I really can't!"

Dominic raised an eyebrow at Melissa, and she opened the back of the car, where a second baby was perched in a basket, grasping a small silver rattle. It beamed at Melissa, and she snatched it, swapping out the baby in her arms. The papers had already been signed, and she picked these up off the floor and stuffed them into the baby's basket, slamming the door and rapping on the side of the car.

"NO-!" The dealer's cry was cut off as Dominic slashed the blade over his throat, holding his body down into the ground so the spray of blood neatly missed them. The car rumbled, and then reversed back and turned out of the crescent, zooming off down the driveway even faster than it had arrived.

Melissa looked at her husband, holding the limp body on the grass with a look of disgust. The baby was watching as well, purple eyes transfixed.

"She's called Phi." 

"I'm sorry, darling?"  Dominic was wiping his blade on the back of the now-dead man's cheap jacket. He looked at the baby his wife held, who stared unabashed back at him. she shook her rattle.

"This baby. She can be ours, my love. Look at her." Melissa was totally enraptured by the baby. "Ophelia," she cooed.

Something felt very off about this, but it wasn't the time to launch into that.  The sky above was quickly clouding over, spits of rain beginning to fall.