Watch Your Step

Mating Season //

1722

March 1

It's almost nighttime, I was on my way home, when they abducted me. The people closed their windows early and the muddy roads were deserted. Only the flapping of a crow's wings would be heard as the thick mist swallows the town. I suppose there's no point in calling for help. Besides, they're all a part of this. Everyone in this town agreed to this, since they found out that I couldn't bear a child.

No one could survive this ritual. Hence, they only sacrificed women who can't carry a child in their womb. Frankly enough, they called it the Mating Season. I was abducted because I was one of the sacrifices. Most of my predecessors would die from the shock, some would be eaten alive, and even if they survive the hatchlings would tear open their stomachs like shells of an egg. But there is hope for hopeless women like us and I am writing this to prove that miracles are possible.

March 2

Little did the townsfolk know that I was waiting for this. It was two months before the mating season when I found out that I couldn't get pregnant. I had not known where or when I was born but I believe my life has already ended when I discovered this fact. Quite literally. Therefore, I had to keep it a secret because I know what fate would befall me if they knew. Not until I made a plan. I know the truth will come out sooner or later. And so when it did, I was ready.

The black plague hasn't spread yet across town and I had time to gather information. I spied on the inner-workings of our town, specifically what they did to women who can't bear children. The heinous sacrifices to the monsters in the lake. Yes, there are monsters in the lake, brute, scaly creatures that prey on women to breed. The only solution our people came up with was to sacrifice women who couldn't produce offspring so the monsters won't spawn. These stupid people believe that they're one step ahead of those creatures living in the lake.

I grew up in this town and I have witnessed these rituals in practice almost every year. The women they sacrificed were just labeled as witches. I used to believe their witches too but never have I dreamed that I'd be one of them.

There were four of us. Aside from me, was a plump woman, a scrawny one, and a ginger girl who looked like the youngest among us. I assumed they were also abducted against their will, now scared to their wits, all a lost cause because they're cursed.

The common misconception was that the hatchlings won't be born if the female can't bear a child. And even if they survive the putting of the seed without getting eaten, they won't survive when the hatchlings come out of their wombs. That's why no one could survive this ritual. But I knew better.

Our globe is getting warmer and these creatures depend their sexual orientation to the temperature of the Earth. They can't produce females when the temperature is warmer — like the reproduction mechanism of turtles and alligators — which was the main reason they snatch female humans to breed. And here's the naked truth the people in my time weren't seeing, when the females do survive, the babies would survive too.

March 3

This was the third day of March, I believe, two days since I was abducted. We haven't seen sunlight because we're blindfolded and we're only being fed with our arms tied behind our back. The last ounce of mercy they gave was to sedate us before we begin with the ritual. But I need to be awake to accomplish my plan.

If you could count me as a witch, I would only be thankful for my knowledge of herbs to make three concoctions. One to feel numb, two to repel the sedative they're going to inject us with, and three to apply on my skin so the monsters wouldn't eat me. I've had it with me since I was abducted and I could easily untie the ropes with my improvisation — or you might call it witchcraft.

When the man who's supposed to get us ready for the ritual left the room, I removed my blindfold and replaced the sedative with an anesthetic. I would've given the other women the same anesthetic but it was elusive in my time. More than that, it's too risky and we do not have the same plans. I purposely want the monsters to put their seeds in me.

May 4

I kept my eyes closed as they stripped us of our clothes and laid us down on a wooden pillar. Spread-eagled, while they tied each of our hands and our feet together. Adequately enough to hold us in place and for the creatures to snatch us easily. After we were erected, facing the lake with our bare breasts and bodies, the offering was complete. Until I heard a murmuring.

I took a peak in my left eye. The plump woman has gained consciousness. I heard the townsfolk argue what to do with her but they were cowards. She was now crying and screaming but this will only attract the creatures even more. The cowards dare not come any closer. Instead they retreated, as if they even thought twice of their cowardice.

Help us! Somebody help us! The crying woman begged as corpulent tears ran down her corpulent face. But the townsfolk had done their merciless jobs. They had gone home with their spears and sins.

What haunted me more than the monsters was how the fat woman screamed "Help us!" Not "Help me." At the last moment of her life, she wasn't just thinking of herself. From that, I knew she was a kind woman but I'm glad I never knew her name. It would've never stopped haunting me.

One by one, the creatures emerge out of the water. Dozens of them with their scale that has a ghoulish shade of decay and fins protruding on different parts of their body. All of a sudden, these hideous beasts that ride the nightwater shrieked for the feast upon them.

It was a fleeting avalanche of soul-annihilating memory. Some of their faces seemed to hold their expression that brought up a remote feeling of terror but it was evident enough that they had one goal. I remember in that second all what had been. Whilst I did not scream, nor try to make a sound as they kidnapped us, I did my best to fortify my sanity. Because I knew beyond that frightful harbor, the trees, the lake, that my wish would be granted.

I was dragged underwater and I covered my head to protect it from concussions. However, I still passed out because I ran out of air in my lungs. I remember dreaming, walking on the green valleys and holding little hands on each of my sides. They were my children, my lovely, beautiful children. And I have never been more joyful.

When I had come to my senses, my memory was as murky as the waters in that secluded marsh. But what utter regret scorched me was why I had ever awoken. When I saw the monster snarling on top of me with both of its arms caging me and its saliva dripping to my face. Its sharp teeth smiled at me and I saw in its beady eyes who's the predator and who's the prey. I had a few scratches here and thither but the anesthetic I injected to myself still hasn't worn off. I had no grasp if it's day or night, I could move but I dare not to.

My periphery loomed down and saw something open. What came out was a rod of flesh, long and slithering. Then it entered me, but I felt no pain.

March 10

I made it back to the inn. I had never expected that the visceral pain, the feeling of carrying something deep inside me would feel this much pleasure. I could not wait to see them.