I Never Knew Her

Archive Entry

My beloved Intan was never the same after our child was born, its limbs limp and lungs still. I told her these things happen but she shoved me away with a wild look in her that startled me.

A few nights later, I saw her sneaking into the forest north, near Damai. Worried, I followed her to a grove filled with things I wish I could forget. Butchered goats, blood-filled bottles, eerie chanting…

Then, I saw it. The jar. And inside, the child I thought dead, gray and misshapen.

“Intan!” I gasped

“You don’t know what it means to be a mother,” she spat.

I tried to snatch the jar away but she fought me. In our scuffle, the jar dropped and shattered to pieces. The thing twitched on the ground, very much alive and mewling with hunger.

I tried to flee but Intan grabbed a glass shard and slashed the back of my calf. I got as far as I could before collapsing, too weak to move.

I hear it now, searching for me, eager to suckle. I pray someone finds this and stops her where I could not.