The Borrowed Womb
My best friend, Jayde Shepard, and I got pregnant at the same time.
She gave me a chubby baby charm, saying she’d had it specially blessed for me to help the baby grow strong.
However, just three months in, my belly had already swollen to an unnatural size, like I was about to give birth at any moment.
I went through every test at the hospital, but everything came back normal. With no answers left, I turned to the internet.
An anonymous user replied: "You’re wearing a cursed charm. She’s using your womb to grow her child. You’ll suffer the pregnancy, but your baby’s fate will be stolen."
I thought about how, ever since I got pregnant, she had quietly taken several of my clients.
A chill ran through me.
That night, I took off the charm and hung it around the neck of the pregnant sow in our yard instead.