The pain that ran through her body was getting worse and worse, reaching the point of paralyzing her, she felt it moving inside her, twisting, tearing her viscera.
It had been eight months since she woke up in the middle of the forest, half naked, covered only by a light robe, with her hands tied behind her back and gagged, she found herself alone in the middle of nowhere, as best she could she stood up and walked for hours until she found a small farmhouse, the people who lived there assisted her and called the police, she was taken to the county clinic, the doctors said she had no signs of abuse, no serious injuries, the tests showed that she had been drugged with belladonna.
She did not remember how she had gotten there, she did not remember anything prior to that day, only her name, Sara, the people on that farm had given her shelter, a couple in their forties with two children, Ricardo and Patricia were their names, the children Javier and Lucia. They were good people, they raised chickens and grew some tubers, in the eight months she had spent with them she had become accustomed to their day to day life, she collaborated with them on the farm to repay them for their help, she appreciated them as if they were her family, they were the only thing she knew as family.
Shortly after arriving, the nightmares and flashbacks began, she started to remember images and sensations she didn't understand, a campfire, shadows that seemed to move around her, people shouting her name, an intense burning in her back and a musky smell. Over time they became more intense and painful, she dreamed of being naked in the forest, lying on the grass, seeing figures hiding behind the trees, watching her and shouting her name, they were terrifying, guttural screams, many voices around her, then a shadow would envelop her, an overwhelming anguish would seize her, it was as if something was burning her from her back, a horrible burning that burned her body. Then she woke up.
A month after arriving at the farm, she began to feel nauseous and faint, and it was then that the doctors at the clinic told her that she was pregnant. They had told her that when they found her, she showed no signs of abuse or recent sexual intercourse, so they did not test for pregnancy.
Her belly was growing, along with it her anguish, she felt her insides twisting and burning, burning. The nightmares and flashbacks became more vivid and frequent, but there was nothing new in them, they were always the same, only the feeling of being watched and her pain were more intense. She could notice that the tattoo on her arm was starting to get darker as if its greenish-gray color, started to turn black. It was an owl, like the rest of what was happening to her, she didn't understand how it had gotten there, she couldn't imagine what had led her, at some point in her life, to get that horrible thing tattooed, she felt it looking at her, she loathed it.
Until the moment came. She woke up in the middle of the night, she was lying on her bed, paralyzed by the pain coming from her belly, something dirty was growing in it, then she felt again the intense burning in her back, but this time she was awake, she was not dreaming it, she realized that it stank, it was that musky smell she had felt before, it was her own smell.
Little by little her drowsiness disappeared and with it her doubts, she could remember everything. The moment he had been waiting for since that night eight months ago had arrived, his burden would end, his mission was almost accomplished, in the midst of his intense pain, he stood up and left the room, the house was completely dark, a rancid stench of mold and rottenness invaded everything, mingling with his own stench, he walked down the stairs to the living room, reached the threshold of the door, which remained open, and turned around, an image of the living room, lit up, with breakfast served on the table, struck his now lucid mind, he remembered Richard's voice fearfully saying, "Who are you? ", she remembered Patricia running to her husband's side exclaiming, "What is this...!", between sobs, the children had said nothing, they only cried paralyzed at the sight of her.
She stretched out her right hand and took hold of the end of the axe that lay reclining next to the door frame, in the same place where she had left it that morning eight months ago, as she looked down she could see the shed door pin, which she had ripped out as she went in to take the axe. The moonlight rising through the trees illuminated the dark room and in front of her she observed the rotting, decaying bodies of the family; they had served their purpose, that morning they had served as sustenance for her eight months of waiting.
Those eight months lying in that bed, between daydreams were over, that night before the fire she had sworn to fulfill the call of the ancients, to carry the condemnation that was coming for man, she would be the bearer of the one who would come to recover what had been lost.
She left the farm and went to where everything had started, she stood up in the exact place where the bonfire had been, "Saaaara..., Saaaara..., Saaaara...", sang the voices coming from among the trees, everything was already consummated, it was time to complete what she had started that night, she lifted the axe over her head taking it with both hands by the end of the cape.
-The time has come for your return! - she shouted and let the axe head fall like a pendulum on her belly.