Turn for the Worst

Chapter 19

Arthur sits out on the porch, sipping a beer, watching his neighbours rake their leaves, have coffee on the porch, some of their children ride their bikes as it will likely be the last few nice days of pleasant weather. There is a slight chill in the air, which does get Arthur thinking about Emma in the basement. She's not useful to him if she catches pneumonia, that could very well kill her.

He ponders over the question that Emma had screamed at him. Why was he doing this?

His main reason was to give this family one more child. Megan and Ben play together on the front lawn, kicking a soccer ball between themselves, giggling when one of them kicks the ball too far. They then race each other to get it first.

Arthur liked this life. It certainly wasn't perfect, but he had an amazing blessing, a family. Two beautiful angels that made him feel like a good person, despite his gambling and his...fantasies. Emma fulfilled that purpose as well. It had been a long time since he and Gwen had had an intimate night together. She was always working late or was too tired to do so. The spark they had was out, had been like that for a long time, but with the beautiful blonde in his basement, it captured some of that excitement and thrill, despite the fact that she was not a consenting partner. Arthur knew a long time ago that his ideas of being intimate were twisted and he never sought help because he would be locked up for being a sex offender for sure. Everyone would judge him and he'd ruin his family's already delicate life. He remembers times when he got too rough with Gwen and left her afraid and sometimes bruised. It would take her a while to even sleep in the same bed as him again, despite his apologies. She wasn't into anything that he was, and so he buried it inside himself, trying to be a normal man, but once in a while, especially after a few beers, the urges came out.

There was also the prospect of having another child. When Gwen told him about the surgery, Arthur had lost it, breaking half the glassware in the house and going on a drunken stupor around the neighbourhood. The neighbours called the police as they thought it was a domestic disturbance. Arthur was fined for it and Gwen left with the kids to her parents' house for a week until Arthur told her that he was in rehab and trying to control his anger. Surprisingly, she did come back and he hoped things would go back to normal. Yet, the prospect of not having another child hurt him. He wanted to bring another life into the world, but now that Gwen had stopped that, he had to find another way.

He thought about adoption or surrogacy, but those cost a lot of money and with him unemployed, it would be unlikely that he would be considered suitable for adoption with his arrest. Plus their tiny house and mediocre living space weren't good either.

Arthur thought long and hard about what he could do. He thought about knocking up a waitress or something, someone who could keep the child until it was born and was still technically his. He did what many surrogate searchers look for, "the perfect woman." He spent many nights looking and when he came across young Emma, he knew he'd found the one. Her unique traits were perfect, especially if she has a girl. He originally intended to just drug and have his way with her once, but at that moment, a sick fantasy re-emerged and he took her home. He felt thrilled and excited at what he was doing, and yet scared. He knew this was way worse than putting their family into huge debt over adoption, but... he kept going. He had Emma now and if she could give him what he wanted... he might let her go.

Megan and Ben go to play at the neighbours and their father tells them to be home by 5. Arthur goes inside and prepares some food for Emma as well as ice packs to help with what happened when he attacked her. He sneaks downstairs and checks on Emma.

...

Emma's throat burns as she opens her eyes. She doesn't know how long it's been, but she's very weak after being severely deprived of oxygen. Her entire body aches and she's practically drowning in her tears. The tape over her mouth prevents her from breathing fully, so she tries to take deep breaths in through her nose. Her mind races to recall what happened before. She remembers what this man had said, that he wanted a baby from her.