My doctor friend, Cora Reed, said she was absolutely certain I was carrying twins. I was overjoyed. But who would have thought that a car accident would take both my husband and the babies in my womb? Having grown up as an orphan, I suddenly became utterly alone in the world. Devastated by grief, Cora took me to her home to recover and heal. Just a few days later, Cora shared some incredible news. She was pregnant. Cora had always been diagnosed as infertile. She and her husband, Clark Reed, had been trying for nearly ten years without any success. For her to get pregnant now felt like a miracle from the heavens. I was consumed with both sorrow and happiness for her. When her children were born, I found their features bore an uncanny resemblance to me and my late husband. A car accident destroyed the little family I had been eagerly looking forward to. While lying in the emergency room, I thought countless times about why I didn’t die along with them. But Cora told me, “Daisy, as long as you’re alive, there’s always hope.” She was a doctor and fought hard to pull me back from the brink of death. Without any complaints, she took me into her own home to help me recover physically and mentally. Cora was also married. Her only regret was that, after nearly ten years of marriage and countless attempts, she and her husband were never able to have children. Sometimes, her husband said they should just give up. He joked that living a life with just the two of them wasn’t so bad either. But Cora never gave up. Having a child had become her obsession. When I was pregnant, I could see envy and longing in her eyes. “Daisy, do you think life is unfair? Those who don’t want children get pregnant easily, while those who desperately want one can never have one, no matter how hard they try.” As she said this, her eyes were fixed intently on my belly, and her expression felt unfamiliar to me. I didn’t know what to say to comfort her. And now… Because of the car accident, I was no longer able to have children. After moving to Cora’s house, she and her husband were extremely kind and attentive to me. They were afraid that I might break down emotionally and do something drastic. Their care moved me deeply. At night, I lay in the guest room. The moment I closed my eyes, the scenes of the car accident would replay automatically in my mind. I couldn’t fall asleep at all. That was when there was a knock at the door. The door creaked open. Cora walked in, holding a bowl of dark, murky soup. She placed it in front of me. “I figured you might still be awake.” She didn’t turn on the light. Guided only by the moonlight streaming through the window, she carefully brought the spoon to my lips. “Here, I made this calming soup just for you. Drink it, and you won’t have trouble sleeping anymore.” The smell of the soup was unpleasant and somewhat pungent. There was a strange, meaty aroma that rushed straight into my nostrils. “Why aren’t you drinking?” In the dim light, Cora’s voice was filled with concern and worry as she moved the spoon closer to my lips. I felt ashamed of my hesitation and guilty for doubting her. Summoning my courage, I took a sip of the soup. Then I took the bowl from her hands and gulped it all down in one go. “All done?” Seeing that I drank every drop, Cora smiled sincerely. “Mm,” I replied, choking back my emotions. “Cora, I really can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for me during this time. Without you, I don’t know if I’d even be here right now.”
The calming soup was truly effective. Shortly after Cora left, I actually began to feel drowsy and soon fell into a deep sleep. Even my dreams were wonderfully beautiful. In the dream, my children were born. My husband, our children, and I formed a happy and complete family. But I kept feeling uneasy, as though something was off. Although the kids called me “Mom”, their eyes seemed to be looking through me at someone else. And though my husband acted affectionately with me, he seemed to think of another person… The next day, Cora asked me how I slept the night before. I forced a smile and replied, “Pretty well. Thanks to that soup, I slept straight through till morning.” Cora nodded and felt happy for me. “That’s great. If it works, I’ll keep making it for you every day,” she said. Over the next few days, I drank the soup every night and had the exact same dream. I never woke up in the middle of the night, and when I opened my eyes, it was already morning. During the weekdays, both Cora and her husband went to work, leaving me alone at home most of the time. One afternoon, Clark called me unexpectedly. On the phone, he sounded anxious. “Daisy, could I ask you for a favor? I left an important document at home, but I’m stuck in a meeting and can’t leave. Could you help bring it to me?” This was my first time entering Cora’s bedroom to look for the document. The moment I opened the door, I caught a faint, milky fragrance in the air. I searched the bedside table but couldn’t find the document. Clark urged me over the phone to look more carefully, to check every possible spot, insisting that it must be somewhere in the room. Not wanting to disappoint him, I opened the wardrobe. A strong wave of that milky fragrance hit me as soon as I did. A few clothes fell to the floor, and as I picked them up, I thought I must be seeing things. They were baby clothes, newborn-sized, freshly washed and dried, still carrying the scent of detergent. Looking closer inside the wardrobe, I noticed an entire section stuffed with similar baby clothes. What was more, the outfits came in matching pairs of colors and styles. When I was pregnant, I had been expecting twins, so I knew very well that for twins, everything usually had to be prepared in duplicate. But Cora had been infertile for ten years. Why would she have so many baby clothes prepared? Could they have been meant for my children? My thoughts were a jumbled mess. Looking at the clothes, I felt a strange sense of familiarity. Then, it hit me. During my pregnancy, I followed a lot of baby stores on my shopping apps. I often browsed their new arrivals. Even after the car accident, I never unfollowed those stores and would still scroll through their updates occasionally. The baby clothes in Cora’s wardrobe were clearly from those stores’ recent collections. Some of the designs had only been released after my car accident!
That night, when Cora came home, I had prepared a full table of dishes. While Clark was in the shower, I asked her, “Cora, is there something you’re hiding from me?” Her movements as she cleared the dishes paused for a moment. She quickly looked up at me and said, “What could I possibly be hiding? We’re best friends. I wouldn’t keep anything from you.” Seeing her play dumb and avoid the question, I stopped beating around the bush and got straight to the point. “Of course, it’s good news! Tell me, are you pregnant?” I half-joked and seriously asked, feeling conflicted inside. Losing my own two children had left me in unbearable pain. But the idea that Cora might be pregnant still made me genuinely happy for her. To my surprise, the stack of bowls Cora had been holding fell to the ground, shattering into pieces. “Are you okay?” I asked. I hadn’t expected her reaction to be so extreme, and I immediately crouched down to clean up the mess. “Hiss…” I accidentally cut my finger on a sharp shard of porcelain. Blood quickly beaded at the tip of my finger, dripping onto the floor. Without hesitation, I put my finger in my mouth to suck the wound and then continued cleaning up. After we finished tidying the dining area, Cora sat on the sofa, taking deep breaths before cautiously asking me, “Why would you think that?” Her reaction made me feel uneasy. “Well, isn’t it obvious? Your wardrobe is full of baby clothes, and all new ones. I just thought…” Before I could finish, Cora suddenly shouted at me, “Daisy! You went into my bedroom? Who gave you permission?” I froze for a few seconds. Just as I was about to explain, Clark came out of the bathroom after overhearing the commotion. “I gave her permission,” he said. “You?” Cora looked at me and then at him, suspicion flashing across her face. Worried she might misunderstand, I quickly explained what had happened that afternoon and apologized. “It was my fault. Please don’t be mad at me.” But Cora wasn’t appeased. She continued to ask, “Then what else did you look through while you were in my room?” I was completely baffled. “Nothing! The document was in the wardrobe drawer. I grabbed it and left. I didn’t touch anything else.” To be honest, her reaction was far beyond anything I had expected. We had grown up sharing the same bed and borrowing each other’s clothes. Even as adults, we were incredibly close. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have accepted her invitation to stay at her home without a second thought. Now that I thought about it, maybe even the best of friendships could strain under constant proximity. Cora seemed to let out a sigh of relief. She gave Clark a fierce glare and then turned to me with a somewhat apologetic tone. “I lost my temper. Please don’t take it to heart.” Later that night, when Cora brought me my usual calming soup, she finally admitted, “Actually, you were right. I am pregnant. And it’s twins.” “But after what happened, I was afraid it would upset you, so I didn’t dare tell you. I didn’t expect you’d find out anyway…” I forced a smile. “Congratulations, Cora.” After finishing the calming soup, I expected to have the same dream as usual. But instead, my stomach churned violently. I woke up drenched in cold sweat. I went to the bathroom and dry-heaved for a long time before finally settling down. I assumed this was just a physical symptom of my depression. I took out the medication prescribed by my therapist and swallowed a few pills with cold tap water. Slowly, the dizziness subsided. I had been careful to keep my medication well hidden. Cora, who was always busy with work, didn’t know how severe my condition had become. Logically, I knew I should be happy for Cora’s pregnancy. But at that moment, dark and cruel thoughts began to brew inside me. Unable to sleep, I got up and decided to sit in the living room for a while. That was when I heard a strange squeaking sound like mice. I hesitated for a few seconds. Cora’s bedroom door was slightly ajar. Worried that turning on the lights might wake them, I decided to use my phone’s flashlight instead. I followed the sound down the hallway toward the living room. The squeaking grew louder and clearer. Finally, at the corner where the living room met the dining area, I found the source of the noise. It was a nest of mice! In the dim light, the mice huddled together, squirming and scurrying, which made my scalp tingle. When my flashlight beam hit them, the mice scattered in all directions and disappeared into the darkness. Looking closer, I saw that the mice had been drawn to the corner because of two clay jars. Both jars were tightly sealed with stoppers, so I couldn’t open them right away. Instead, I leaned in to sniff. “Ugh…” A pungent stench, reeking of blood and rotting meat, assaulted my senses. I couldn’t hold back and started dry-heaving again. It took me several minutes to recover. Once my mind cleared, I couldn’t help but think of the calming soup Cora brewed for me every night. A wave of shock and suspicion surged through me. I immediately went to the kitchen to check the pots and utensils. Eventually, I found a faint, lingering smell in a small saucepan. Although the scent was faint, it was unmistakably similar to the soup I drank every night. So, what exactly was in those clay jars? I made up my mind to remove the stoppers and take a look. But just as I reached for the jars, I heard another noise. Holding my breath, I realized the sound was coming from Cora’s room. “Be careful. Don’t wake her up…” As I approached their door, I heard the unmistakable sounds of intimacy, soft, ambiguous noises. Feeling awkward, I turned to tiptoe back to my room. But then I remembered something that made my feet feel heavy, unable to move. Hadn’t Clark left earlier, saying he had urgent business at work and would probably be out all night? Why was he back now? My mind was in a fog. The muffled sounds of their lovemaking continued, but throughout, only Cora’s voice could be heard. The man didn’t make a single sound. When I returned to my room, I expected to lie awake until morning. But my mind grew hazy, and I somehow fell asleep again. This time, I had another dream, just like the beautiful ones I’d been having before. But suddenly, in the blink of an eye, everything changed. In the dream, my two children’s faces were distorted. Their bodies became bloody and mangled as they wailed, their cries piercing and heart-wrenching, “Mommy, why did you eat us?” Their adorable faces melted away, leaving behind two grotesque lumps of bloody flesh. They lunged straight at me. “No!” I screamed, stumbling backward and gasping for air as I woke up. My entire body was drenched in sweat, chilled to the bone. Today was a weekday, and the house was eerily quiet. Without realizing it, I found myself back at the corner where I had discovered the jars the previous night, but the space was now empty. The two clay jars were gone. Could it have all been a hallucination caused by my depression? I thought it over and decided to try opening Cora’s bedroom door again. To my surprise, it was locked this time, which was unusual for her. This only deepened my unease. Suddenly, a sharp and urgent knock on the front door startled me. Peeking through the peephole, I saw a young woman standing outside. She looked very youthful, perhaps a college student. Anyway, she was someone I had never seen before. I asked, “Excuse me, who are you…?” I hesitated and cracked the door open slightly. She froze for a moment when she saw me. “Oh, step aside. I’ve got something urgent!” Without waiting for my permission, she pushed me aside, barged in, and rushed straight into the bathroom, shutting the door firmly. It took me a while to react, and I quickly knocked on the bathroom door. “Hey! Who are you? You know trespassing is against the law!” After the sound of the toilet flushing, the bathroom door opened. The young woman seemed much calmer now that she had relieved herself. She introduced herself. “I’m Stary. I’m Clark’s distant cousin. I got into a university here and decided to stay at his place for a few days before the semester starts.” Clark was Cora’s husband, but I had never heard Cora mention this before. Seeing me remain silent, Stary smiled brightly and explained, “This was a last-minute decision. I only let Clark know, and he agreed, but I guess he hasn’t had time to discuss it with Cora yet.” “And you…” She looked at me with curiosity. I briefly explained my situation. “Clark told me over the phone that there’s an empty room here for me to stay in,” she said. I initially suggested that she share my room, but she refused. She walked over to the door at the far end of the hallway, trying to turn the doorknob, only to find it wouldn’t budge. “That’s the storage room. It’s always been kept locked by Cora,” I told her. But Stary was undeterred. She rummaged through the drawers in the living room and came back holding a set of spare keys. “Clark told me where to find these.” While speaking, she unlocked the door with the key. Seeing that, I didn’t stop her anymore. As the door opened slightly, I peered through the gap, and what I saw made my breath catch in my throat!
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