The Devil and I.

The Shift.

I visited Newt when he left the hospital, it was a whole three weeks before he was allowed home. He was so happy to be home with Dolly and back in his own bed. Even though the hospital cleared him Dolly wouldn't let him lift a finger. When I got to his home he was reclined in his armchair with Dolly in the kitchen cooking lunch, I had offered to help but because I was bigger than the last time they saw me Dolly made me sit down and stay there.
"Are you going to get any bigger?"
Dolly yelled from the kitchen,
"Oh don't Dolly I feel like I've swallowed a planet."
We all had a laugh at that. Morgan didn't come today because he was busy "working" but he did send his best to Newt, he dropped me off and was going to pick me up when I needed him. We hadn't spoke about David since the day he came to my house. Even though we had some ideas about what his note meant we wasn't one hundred percent sure. The whole thing creeped me out and whenever I thought back to that day I feel empty inside again. 
Newt stood up before I even noticed him doing so I didn't realise he had moved till I felt his hand on my stomach.
"My god Em, I knew you when you were a kid and now you have your own kid on the way."
"Going to get tearful on me Newt?"
We both laughed but it stopped when the baby moved and we both felt it. I looked down and Newt moved his hand. We both looked at each other and laughed again. Dolly came in with a plate of hot bacon sandwiches all for Newt because myself and Dolly doesn't eat bacon.
"What happened?"
"The baby just moved."
"Oh my god! Let me feel!"
She ran over and put both hands on my belly and as if by magic the baby moved again. Dolly squealed and grabbed Newt's hand both were very excited.
"Oh Emily!"
"I know."
After the excitement died down Dolly practically forced Newt to eat the sandwiches, he complained about how she is always fussing over him but they started laughing. I text Morgan
Emily: Update baby has just moved.
I put my phone in my coat pocket. Seeing my friends had made me brighten up a lot after what happened with David and now I've felt mine and Morgan's child move. It felt like bubbles moving around inside my stomach, I've never felt it before.
After half an hour the doorbell rang and Dolly went to answer it Newt looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. I heard Morgan's voice. He came into the living room with Dolly following, he tapped Newt on the back and came to me and hugged me.
"You felt him move?"
"Him is it?"
"Well do you want a girl?"
"Does it matter?"
"No as long as it's healthy."
The spawn of the Devil? I doubt it wouldn't be healthy, it should be strong. I've seen Morgan he is strong so there is no reason his child wouldn't be.
"Ready to go home?"
"Sure."
We said our goodbyes to Newt and Dolly and got into his car. When we got home I went straight to my mother's room,  I knew I'd have to gut it to make room for the baby part of me wanted to change the room now but another part of me never wanted to remove or rearrange anything in here. Logically I knew she wasn't coming back she didn't need this room but emotionally it felt like the only tangible thing she left behind. Morgan yelled me from the living room, the sudden sound of his voice startled me so I took five minutes to calm down but by then he was already right next to me. He looked into mother's  room and then at me,
"I know Emily but it can wait."
I nodded and went into my bedroom, I swear these jeans have just got tighter and tighter all day. As I walked in Morgan pulled me back in, I was shocked by the forced in which he pulled me but even when I was looking at him for an answer I knew something was wrong.
"Morgan?"
"Stay there."
"What's wrong?"
"He was here again I can smell him."
David. He was in my house again. My skin and brain began to tingle and feel fuzzy. Only one thought went through my head: "Oh no". Why can't he just leave me and my house alone? Morgan turned back to me and look enraged,
"I'm going to fucking kill him!"
I ran and pushed him back towards the window.
"Please Morgan calm down! Please!"
He ran his fingers threw his hair and looked me in the face rather than looking at the door. He lowered his shoulders and his whole body relaxed. We went downstairs to the living room I sat on the sofa because being this big was killing my back but Morgan paced the floor,
"Morgan I want to get changed I don't feel comfortable in these clothes."
He stopped and looked at me with a softer expression and got on his knees in front of me,
"If I got you some leggings will you feel better?"
I nodded and he went upstairs, he didn't use the stairs he did a kind of Aladdin genie disappearing act, and back within five seconds. He helped me get out of my jeans and into the leggings.
"Feeling better?"
"Yes thank you."
He grabbed his phone and dialled a number my first guess was that he was ringing David.
"What the fuck was you doing at Emily's house?"
I heard a voice respond but couldn't make out what was said but Morgan stiffened again. He turned and looked at me at first it was frightening and by seeing the fear on my face he soften his expression. He ended the call quite abruptly and sat on his knees in front of me again, what he did next surprised me, he put his head in my lap and let me stroke his hair. His shoulders dropped and he put his arms by my legs on the sofa, to anyone it would look like a sweet scene but I knew different something had happened. After a couple of minutes he lifted his head put his hand on my stomach and smiled as the baby moved again, this was the first time he had felt his child move. I will never forget the look on his face although he was smiling he looked shocked, happy and worried all at the same time. Upon seeing the worry I put my hand over his and grasped his fingers.
"Morgan would you like to move in?"
He looked perplexed,
"I feel safer with you. Plus you practically live here anyway."
He looked deep into my eyes and nodded.
"From now on Emily I'm not letting you out of my sight."
He hugged me and kissed the top of my head. Over the next few days he moved his belongs into my home, the house felt full again and it felt good. I never realised how much I missed the constant noise like obviously Morgan stayed here a lot but there wasn't always a constant buzz, a constant hum of life within my home. I was living with the Devil. I was pregnant with his child. My life was far from normal but I wouldn't change it for the world.
"When do you think we should start on a nursery?"
Morgan stopped folding his clothes into a chest of drawers and looked at me leaning up against the wall in my bedroom.
"Do you think you are ready for that Emily?"
I stroked my stomach thinking about my next comment, I let go of a breath I was holding.
"She isn't coming back. I know that. I've know that for years, but all three of us can't stay in this room."
He slowly began placing his clothes in the draw, it was like he was figuring out what to say next so I waited.
"What do you want to do with that room?"
"Well the bed will need to come out, all her clothes and the wardrobe, it will need repainting and put a cot up."
"Where will we put the bed? The wardrobe? Your mothers clothes?"
"You just don't want to do it do you?"
He stood up and gently kicked the empty box to the corner,
"I just don't want you to force yourself to remove your mother's belonging when you clearly aren't ready for it."
"Morgan I'm over five months pregnant we only have about four months left and if I get any bigger I can't see myself being able to do much let alone decorate a room. I'm not letting my mother go I'm just moving on. She will always be here I don't need a room to signify that, no I need a room to put our child in."
He hugged me and whispered okay to me. Within the next five days of Morgan living with me he moved my mother's mattress to a skip outside and put her bed frame in the attic, while I sorted through her clothes. I used my skill of seeing to look at my mother's face once more. I picked up her flowery top which she kept even though it didn't fit her anymore.
I saw her making lasagna for me and my father, my father kept checking his watch but I was watching my mother cook asking her to teach me how to make such a delicious dish.
I put it in a box and picked up the next item. It was her dressing gown that she kept for years and it was still in great condition,
I saw her sitting in the living room laughing to a rerun of open all hours. Then I saw myself and my mother sitting on the sofa, hugging, watching a documentary. We had a blanket over us keeping us warm I fell asleep half way through and my mother kissed my head and hugged me tighter.
I hugged the gown and put it in the box. Morgan walked in and said,
"Why don't you wear some of her clothes? I mean they're bigger than yours so you might be more comfortable."
"Because I will look like a 50 year old woman."
He giggled slightly and picked up the gown I'd just put in the box and continued speaking,
"I mean this would cover the bump and keep you warm."
"Okay but let me sort through them and pick out the nice looking stuff."
He sat on the floor next to the box creating a pile of clothes that looked decent and not like an elderly ladies fashion. I swear she was only 49 when she died yet she dressed much older. Everything was fine until I saw an item of clothing I had never seen before, it was a black top and had been ripped as if someone had torn it.
I saw him. I saw David. He was pushing my mother clawing at her clothing asking about me. She denied all knowledge about me and he left. She sat on the kitchen floor and cried.
I dropped the top and looked at Morgan.
"What? Emily what did you see?"
"David! He...he...he..."
"Okay Emily sit down okay calm down. Tell me calmly what happened."
"I saw David, he was asking about me and mother was denying I lived here. He ripped her shirt with...with claw like fingernails. He left her and she cried. Where was I when this happened?"
"He was asking about you?"
"Yes."
I went to lie down in my own bedroom because my back was really being to feel the strain. I put my hand over my stomach feeling the baby move as if it could feel my own panic and was trying to comfort me. I still couldn't understand why David was tormenting me so, he kept turning up when he wasn't wanted. I was scared of him because of the way Morgan reacts to him it makes me feel like he is dangerous. He hurt my mother. He wanted something from me. I want nothing to do with him. I want to hide my child and keep Morgan away from him.
Morgan came and stood in the door way, he was watching me whilst holding the shirt in his hands and I was watching him kept refolding the shirt.
"What shall I do with this?"
I sat up and stood by the window searching the view outside to see if David was there lurking. There was nothing.
"What do you think we should do with it?"
"Burn it."
"Why do I feel like that is going to be your answer to everything?"
He shrugged and chuckled,
"It's my world Emily. I come from a world of flame and smoke."
"Do it then."
Like he did with his blood covered shirt mother's shirt went up in smoke.
"How are you feeling Emily?"
"Why was he here? Why won't he leave us alone?"
Morgan stayed quiet but I knew he wasn't thinking of an answer, his face told me he knew but he wasn't going to tell me the reason. I went back to my mother's room and picked up all the clothes we had picked that wouldn't make me look like an old lady and brought them to my room and put them on top of the chest of drawers, Morgan came behind me and hugged me. I needed it. I needed the Devil and it felt right. He lived with me and was going to keep me and our child safe, I know he would do anything to protect the little family he had built. Even the Devil needs love.