Death and rebirth.

"MAMA!"

Aria and Lila screamed at the same time, both girls throwing themselves against Ivy's sides on pure instinct.

The footsteps kept coming.

And then the first one stepped out of the dark

Five meters tall.

A rotting giant, arms thick as tree trunks, fingernails worn down to black blades.

It moved with the slow, absolute certainty of something that had never needed to hurry.

Ivy's body was still recovering from labor three days ago.

She had no weapon.

She had no strength.

She had nothing.

She spread her arms anyway.

"Aria. Lila. Get behind me. NOW."

The monster was faster.

One massive hand came down and closed around Aria before Ivy could move.

Her daughter was yanked into the air .... eight years old and suddenly weightless .... her small arms thrashing, her hands reaching and reaching for someone who couldn't reach back.

"MAMA SAVE ME! I don't want to die! MAMA! MAMA!"

Ivy ran but it did nothing.

The distance between them was absolute.

She could only watch as the creature lifted her daughter toward its open mouth.

"DON'T! Please .... PLEASE don't hurt her! ARIA! Don't be scared! Mama's coming! Mama's RIGHT HERE...."

Crack.

The sound was small but that was the worst part.

Such a small sound… for something so enormous.

Aria went still.

"Mama…"

The voice was almost nothing. Barely breath.

"Mama… I love you."

"ARIA!"

Ivy's scream tore out of somewhere below language.

"No.... no, no, no! My baby! I'm SORRY! This is my fault! This is ALL my fault...."

She didn't even finish the sentence before the second hand came down.

Lila.

"Mama…"

Six years old.

Soaked through.

Her face a wreck of tears and rain and absolute terror.

"Mama, I don't want to leave you… we still have to have birthdays together… we still have to...."

"LILA!"

Ivy's foot slipped.

She hit the ground hard, palms scraping open on the gravel.

She threw her arm out anyway, fingers spread, reaching across a distance that meant nothing

This one didn't kill her fast.

It held Lila up like a toy.

Like something amusing.

The claws went through her shoulder.

Lila's scream split the night open.

"MAMA IT HURTS! MAMA!"

"LILA! I'm sorry! Baby, I'm SO sorry....."

Crack.

The second sound was identical to the first.

"Mama… I…"

Lila's voice was already somewhere far away.

Her head dropped.

*****

"AH...."

Ivy made a sound she had never made before.

Something animal.

Something that had no name.

It came from a place inside her that had not existed until this moment…

…and would never close again.

From behind the door, voices drifted out.

Jack ..... excited, delighted, like he was watching something entertaining:

"Did you see her FACE? They got crushed like garbage! This is AMAZING! Now it's her turn!"

Maya, satisfied...

"Finally. Those little things were so loud. I could not stand the crying."

Adrian said nothing.

Not a single word.

Not one sound.

As if the woman he had married and the three daughters they had made together were never here.

The largest monster turned toward Ivy.

Each step sent vibrations up through the ground and into her knees.

She was already out of strength.

Nothing left to run with.

Nothing left to fight with.

She just pulled the baby tighter.

Pressed her lips to that tiny forehead.

Tears fell onto the baby's face.

And she kept saying the same two words over and over:

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

The baby looked up at her.

Those eyes ....clear, new, untouched by any of this looked at her like everything was going to be okay.

The giant hand came down.

It wrapped around both of them.

Crack.

Crack.

The pain was total.

She felt her bones going, one by one.

And she spent every last second curving her body around the baby, using herself as a wall.

"Not her… please not her… she's so small… she doesn't understand ANY of this… please… PLEASE...."

The monsters didn't understand please

The smallest one.

The last one.

The one who had never gotten to say a single word.

Gone.

In the last seconds, Ivy's mind went somewhere quieter.

She saw Aria helping with the dishes .... not even asked, just doing it.

Aria with both small hands on Ivy's shoulders after a long day, pressing down like she'd seen adults do.

I'm going to protect you, Mama.

She saw Lila crawling into her lap at midnight, demanding another story.

Drawing pictures of the two of them that looked nothing like either of them and were the most beautiful things Ivy had ever seen.

Mama is the prettiest person in the whole world.

She saw the baby.

No words.

Just eyes.

Just that small, specific weight in her arms…

…that had only existed for three days and had already become something she could not imagine living without.

"God…"

Her voice was almost gone.

Almost nothing.

"Please… give me one more chance…"

"I SWEAR it. I swear to you… I will make them PAY for this…"

"PLS… I'M BEGGING…"

Then darkness.

****

"Ivy! I am TALKING to you! Are you spacing out AGAIN?"

A voice, familiar and cold belonging to a male.

Grating in a way that went straight to the back of her teeth.

Ivy's eyes snapped open.

The light hit her like something physical.

She flinched, pupils shrinking hard as the world came in fragments.

Orange warmth.

The buzz of voices.

A man's mouth moving.

Words she couldn't quite catch yet.

A thought flashed through Ivy's mind.

Where is this?

Was she dead?

Was this inside it?

Was this hell… or the other thing?

Then she felt it.

Her hands had moved on their own.

Searching for something to steady herself and what they found stopped everything.

A stomach, rounded and taut.

Unmistakably pregnant.

She went completely still.

Beneath her palm…something moved.

Small, deliberate and alive.

The room finished coming into focus.

Warm orange light.

The beige couch she had fallen asleep on a hundred times.

The family photos on the wall....her own face smiling back at her, Aria on one side, Lila on the other, all three caught mid-laugh.

This was her house.

Her living room.

The place she had been thrown out of and in front of her....

That face.

Painted with impatience.

Mouth still moving.

The moment she saw Adrian, her stomach turned completely over.

This man.

He had stood at that door and said nothing while her daughters died.

He had listened to their screaming and done nothing.

He had stood in the same house as Jack's laughter…

…and let it happen.

She stared at his mouth and watch it continue to move.

And the memory hit her so precisely it felt like a key turning in a lock.

She knew exactly what he was about to say.

Her lips moved without permission.

Barely a whisper.

The words came out half a second before his did...

"Ivy, you need to put this house in my name. It's dangerous out there. Only a man can protect this family."

"Ivy, you need to put this house in my name. It's dangerous out there. Only a man can protect this family."

Their voices overlapped perfectly.

Word for word. Not a syllable off.

The silence after was enormous.

Ivy's heart.... frozen since she opened her eyes slammed back to life.

It was real.

God had heard her.

That last broken prayer, screamed into the dark with nothing left to lose.

They had actually heard it.

She was back.

Fifteen days before the end of everything.

Before the virus.

Before those sounds she would never stop hearing.

Which meant....

ARIA.

LILA.

Were they here?

In the house right now? Alive?

She had to find them, hold them and tell them nothing would ever touch them again.

That this time would be different.

That she would burn the whole world down before she let history repeat itself.

She was already pushing herself off the couch....when something stopped her cold.

A voice inside her head.

Not her own. It was clear, flat and electronic.

Like a notification from a system she had never signed up for.

Ding!

{Hello, Host. Welcome back.}

Ivy froze.

Every muscle locked.

WHAT?