Read Online Fairy by Shane McKenzie - Free Book Online

ghastly squealing. She took a knee in front of the kids, placed a hand on either one of their knees.
    â€œDid your mom or dad ever tell you where Billy came from?”
    They looked at each other, both brows furrowed.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Greg said.
    Alicia jumped up, and Judy flinched, covered her face. She was sure the girl was preparing to attack her, to shut her up about the fairy. But Alicia ran past her, went straight for Billy’s casket and kicked it over. The wooden box tipped to its side, the lid falling open.
    Greg didn’t move, just breathed heavily through his nose and stared at his younger brother’s body. The muscles in his jaws rippled and tears continued to spill.
    The funeral director got ahold of Alicia, restrained her, the girl’s legs kicking, her hands contorted into claws that swiped at the air.
    â€œHe’s a monster,” she said. “It’s his fucking fault… it’s all his fucking fault! ”
    Billy lay on his side, his arms stiff on either side of him. His eyes were wide, glassy, and they stared out of the coffin at Cecilia. His skin, though covered with powder and makeup, had the same raw chicken hue as the fairy’s. And the boy was grinning, and not just a slight smile that could have happened from the tightening of the skin, but an awful rictus that took up almost half of his face. The tiny nub teeth were as black as burnt wood.
    Cecilia’s stomach twisted and her lungs refused to inflate. She clambered backward, knocking over chairs, her eyes pasted to the boy’s face, the fairy’s offspring. Her belly tingled from within, the coldness spreading through her body, turning her skin to gooseflesh, chilling the sweat that coated her.
    Alicia continued to scream and kick at the air, the funeral director doing his best to hold her. She cried for her mother, for her father, and cursed Billy.
    Cecilia spun and ran, powering through the pain, and she never slowed until she was in her car.
    I have to get this baby out of me. I have to get it out.
    But instead of driving to a clinic, instead of driving to a doctor, she found herself heading home. Some deep, potent instinct refusing to allow her to harm her baby. My baby will be different , she told herself. I’ll make sure of it.
    The sonographer squeezed the clear jelly over Cecilia’s swollen belly and rubbed it in. The cool gel made her flinch, but her eyes were on the monitor. Her heart felt ready to blow as she anticipated some mutated creature staring back at her. She imagined four eyes, wings, clawed hands.
    Cecilia bit her lip, gripped the table and held her breath. Sweat trickled from her hairline and ran down the sides of her face, filling the creases of her neck.
    The last time she had come, they’d shown her the heartbeat. Everything looked normal, they had said.
    And she felt fine, but her nightmares were full of winged creatures and dead babies, dried placentas and Billy’s smiling face.
    â€œWhere are you, little guy?” the sonographer said as she slid the wand over the hardened belly flesh. “Ah, there we go.”
    Cecilia braced herself. She imagined the sonographer screaming, dropping the wand and crashing over the monitor as she ran from the room.
    â€œLooks like you’ve got a little girl on the way,” the woman said. “And she looks absolutely perfect.”
    â€œA g-girl? I’m having a daughter?” She stared at the monotone image on the screen, reached out and traced the outline of the tiny person curled up inside of her. “Judy. Her name’s Judy.”
    â€œAnd she’s beautiful. Congratulations.”
    A warm sensation filled her to the brim, and she knew immediately it was love for her baby. She studied the image, smiling, and a tear squeezed free from the corner of her eye. My baby will be perfect, she thought. Not like Billy. She saw no sign of any deformities, no resemblance to her “father”, no