Being (Being Saga, Book I)

I

KSHH! KLSSH!!

Iela shattered a couple of plates and glasses as she teetered onto her creaky dining room table. She clutched her burnt almond knees wide open, like she was in stirrups, bracing herself. Her jeans cut around the meaty part of her calves, she had on no underwear and her shirt clung to her with sweat.

"Get a fuckin' towel. Hurry up!" she barked at a middle-aged Roxa, who was about ready to slap the mess out of her.

The aged woman's biting scowl took over the bottom half of her face as she hustled to a basket of folded laundry to get a towel.

"I know what the hell to do. You lie down and breathe until you can't no more."

Iela's breaths stuttered as Roxa pulled her jeans down some more.

"I can't believe this shit," she muttered. "Been tryin' since I was as old as you and ain't never. Now, here you go again..."

"Shut the fu—" she gasped as her eyes darted toward a black duffle bag near the front door. "Where's my bottle? Get my bottle."

"Not till I see the head—"

"Get it—"

"No! Now, shut up and push!"

Iela's eyes watered as she bit her tongue and her head fell back from exhaustion. Roxa tried to hide her satisfaction, but she'd never mastered concealing her truths and didn't plan on learning anytime soon. Iela was the most hardheaded person she'd ever met, her extenuating circumstances only making it worse.

"We shoulda went to the hospital. Or at least a church— Keep pushin'." The woman steadied Iela's knees as she matched her breathing.

"Fuckin' church," Iela griped. Just the thought made one of her elbows buckle and she had to catch herself.

"Almost."

Iela was biting her face off at this point. Her canines pierced the skin just under her bottom lip and she held her breath.

She gave one last inhale.

One last push.

"Ahhg!"

Roxa swiped the towel and was at the receiving end to bundle the child, but something was strange.

It was silent and still.

It didn't cry and move the way a new life should when entering an unfamiliar world. And that wasn't even the strangest part.

The child was glowing.

The skin over the area where her heart was sheltered had a light emanating underneath as if due to some form of toxic radiation.

Iela and Roxa stared in awe. The light was bright, but not so much that it hurt the eyes.

"...We gotta go."

Iela could hardly get it out, she was so shaken to the core.

"Yeah, to a hospital—"

"No."

She slipped a knife out of her pocket to cut the umbilical cord. Then, flinching and sopping wet, she tried to shimmy back into her soiled jeans but slipped off the table.

"We gotta get that sack out!" Roxa urged as she went to help her with her free hand. Iela refused and used the slimy table to get back onto her wobbly legs.

"It's not just for you!" Roxa exploded. "Look at ya. You can't take care of yourself, how you gon' take care of her?"

Iela's head dropped. She got lost in the blood in her lap and the tears began to fall. She quickly wiped her face, struggled onto one of her knees, but it gave out and she collapsed into a heap. Her cries crept into the silent room on tip-toe, knowing it wasn't invited. She wasn't someone who cried and found her own behavior a nuisance, but she couldn't stop it.