Dark On Me

The young elementary school teacher woke up with a soft moan, her hand reaching for her stomach instinctively, scrunching her face up as a soft pain started to fill her her stomach. She took a few breaths, in and out, before adjusting her position on the couch, attempting to get comfortable.

When the pain had passed, she slowly turned on the TV and flicked on a random movie, watching the period drama a for around half an hour, before a swift kick from her unborn baby reminded her that he wanted to be fed.

Mary smiled softly, touching his foot through her skin, attaining more kicks as the unborn child made it obvious he wanted to be fed now.

"Alright, alright," Mary chuckled, and got up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen, silently opening the cupboards and reaching up for one of the mugs, gasping as another pain suddenly hit her stomach. She'd been having braxton kicks contractions for a few days and had been quite uncomfortable in her late stage of pregnancy. Could this be it?

Mary softly leaned over the counter, taking slow and even breaths, one hand leaning on the hard counter for support, the other on her stomach, breathing out a sigh of relief when the pain lessened a few minutes later. She exhaled a few times, walking over to the fridge to get something to eat.

She slowly ate her cheese salad baguette with orange juice and berries, watching the period drama again, absentmindedly stroking her stomach as the pretty gowns swirled with the women's movements.

Mary gasped again as another pain hit her.

"Okay, we've done this before, little one. You wanna come out?" Mary asked the baby inside of her. Mary waited for the pain to stop as she looked down at her watch, making a note of the time, before looking down at her stomach.

She slowly ate and drank, keeping a weary eye on her stomach, waiting for around forty minutes, before the light pain happened again.

"Alright," Mary hissed. "Your intentions are very clear now, little one. Not long to go, hang in there, alright?" Vaguely, she felt a light punch from inside, as if the baby was answering his mother.

Mary waited out the contractions all afternoon and night, keeping a careful eye on the time each time she felt what were not obvious contractions. So, she decided to take a hot bath to try and alleviate the pain, due to the fact they were now regular and although not painful just yet, she knew what was about to happen.

Mary stayed in the heated water for just under an hour, breathing trough the contractions which were not 17 minutes apart. She groaned and hissed out, breathing and moaning loudly as she gripped the bath rail. Her face scrunched up in moderate, but growing, pain. She managed to wait it out in the water, before managing to get out and dry off, putting on a pair of black sweatpants and a loose white t shirt, walking slowly towards the bed and attempting to lie down. It'd been six hours and she was sure she was in labor now, she just had to wait it out until Francis came home. It was dark, it wouldn't be long now.

Two more contractions passed with still no sign of her husband and daughter. Moaning in pain, she reached up for her cell phone, unlocking it and attempting to call him three times, getting no reply every single time, before seeing the text message from Francis from this morning.