stabbing in the dark ~fransykes~

1

17 years and 8 months ago.

The women sobbed as she looked down at the negative pregnancy test balanced between her fingers. She gripped onto her hair which was beginning to turn grey, yet another reminder of how little time she had left before it was too late. He husband stood behind her, gently rubbing her shaking shoulder as he silently wept too.

"Maybe it's just not meant to be." The man said quietly, rubbing his blood shot eyes. The women chocked on her tears.

"How can it not?" She cried. "Since I was a little girl all I've ever wanted was a child, Dave, we can't just give up!"

"I know sweetheart but we've been trying for almost 10 years now, we can't keep doing this forever. You're almost 40 Carol, at some point we are going to have to start looking at more realistic options."

"Like what?" She cried loudly. "We've tried every fertility treatment that exists, we've spent all our life's savings on this and yet we still can't get pregnant."

"We just need to put our faith in the lord, when he thinks we are ready to be parents we will be. We just need to be patient." He smiled hopefully, looking down at his still trembling wife. Once she had stopped crying, he kissed her goodnight before going downstairs to make her a cup of tea.

Carol glanced down at the white pregnancy test before standing up on shaking legs and making her way across the hall to the master bedroom. On her way she looked into the empty nursery, one that they had decorated together a couple months after their wedding when they were still young and hopeful. She sighed as she reached for the shoe box that she kept at the bottom of their wardrobe.

Inside the box was a collection of all the negative pregnancy tests she had taken over the years. She looked at them in sorrow, tears collecting in the corners of her eyes. She didn't even know why she still kept them anymore, it's not like she would ever have a son or daughter to show them too.

As Dave is making his way up the stairs, a cup of steaming hot tea in each hand, the doorbell rings. He pauses, wondering who would be visiting them at this time at night. They didn't get many visitors seen as though they didn't live near to any family and their friends all had children to look after.

He walked back down the stairs, gently placing the cups of tea down on the dining room table before going over to the front door. He put his eye to the small glass covered hole in the door, glancing out only to realise there was no one there.

He rolled his eyes, thinking it was just some local teenagers playing knock-a-door run on them again. He turned around and made his way back to pick up the cups of tea, stopping in his tracks when the doorbell rang again. And again.

He sighed heavily in frustration, walking back over to the door in a state of anger to find the little bastards who thought it was funny to keep clicking his doorbell. He unlatched the door, twisting the key in the lock once before flinging the door open.

No one was there.

Or so he thought until the sound of a babies cry caused him to cast his gaze down at the door step. There, wrapped in blankets, was a tiny newborn in a basket. It's tiny face was red as it wailed helplessly into the cold nighttime air. The blankets around it looked thin, and they were black instead of traditional white.

"Dave? Who's at the door?" Carol asked as she approached her motionless husband. Dave tensed as he looked down at the baby, feeling a suddenly wave of discomfort and paranoia wash over him.

Carol looked down at the newborn and gasped, tears instantly pooling in her eyes once again. She looked up at the sky, smiling at the bright stars above her as if they were a sign from god himself. She crouched down and took the blanket covered baby from the basket gently.

She held him as if he was made of glass, cradling him to her chest where he instantly stopped crying. His eyes were big, round and so dark they almost appeared completely black in the dim lighting. His face was pale, as if death himself had painted it.

"This must be a sign." Carol gasped, looking into the babies enchanting eyes. She found herself instantly falling in love with the pale baby wrapped in black. "I think god has given us this baby."

"Carol no, we can't just take a baby, for all we know someone might be looking for it!" Dave sighed but his words fell on death ears as his wife looked down lovingly at the silent baby.

"If someone was looking for it they wouldn't have just left it on our doorstep." Carol argued. "They clearly want us to take it in."

"I don't know, I have a really bad feeling about this..." Dave said unnervingly, looking down at the baby that's eyes held something evil within them that his wife was too blinded by love to see.

"Bad feeling? Dave we've been waiting for a child for 10 years and now the lord was finally given us one, this must be an angel child."

Oh, how wrong Carol would be...

"Fine, but we will need to tell the police tomorrow just in case anyone reports a missing baby." Dave sighed, giving into his wife who was now stroking her finger up and down the babies soft skin.

Something felt off about the child, but Dave couldn't quite tell what. Every time he looked at it the air around him ran cold, like the child carried around his own personal winter with him. The same couldn't be said for Carol, who was intoxicated with the joy of finally becoming a mother after waiting for so long. To her, the baby between her arms was absolutely perfect.

She slowly walked up the stairs and into the nursery that she hadn't been able to enter for years. The walls were painted sunshine yellow and the entire room was covered in stuffed animals and toys of all variety. She placed the baby softly down into the crib, smiling at how tiny he looked lying there.

She slowly unwrapped the blankets that were around it and quickly put the baby into a nappy and some clean clothes. Luckily for her, she had already bought baby clothes years ago when her and Dave first tried for a baby. The child fit perfectly into a tiny blue newborn sleep suit that she found in one of the draws.

She looked down at the baby in content, noticing now in brighter lighting just how pale the baby really was. She could now see it's eyes were dark brown, mixed with flickers of green and gold.

"I'm going to call you Oliver."