Susan found that returning to work was relatively easy; it was almost as if she had never been away. Some people hadn’t even noticed her absence and this suited her.
She was still staying with her Mum and Dad, though getting her own place was high on her list of priorities. What had happened in Australia had a surreal quality, as though it happened to another person, while the real Susan had stayed and worked away in England.
A week after she came back a letter arrived, postmarked Australia, with David’s name and address on the back. She put it aside, unopened.
She and Anne were still good friends, but she felt their relationship had suffered from the little she said about Australia, particularly about her text message. She gave a half-baked, disinterested story, explaining it away as mere curiosity about something she read in an old paper while travelling. Perhaps Anne believed her, perhaps not, but it slid away. She told her little bits about the things she did in Sydney and Melbourne and this seemed to satisfy Anne’s need for an Australian story.
Susan was never highly regular with her periods; she remembered one in Sydney and started to expect one a couple weeks after she got back.
During all her time with Mark, after that first day in the sea, they had almost forgotten about contraception, the passion and ferocity of their lovemaking had been all-consuming.
She had half thought of it in Sydney, when her period came. Then it was with a mild sense of relief, as she thought, “Well I am clearly not pregnant.” But it had never led to any active planning by her when they met again. If the issue had been considered by Mark it was never raised.
After she was back for three weeks she had a definite feeling of unease, but thought, “Oh well, I am often a bit late.”
As her work was busy it was pushed aside.
Then, one Saturday morning, still in bed, she realised she was back for four weeks. It jumped to the top of her mind; it was now over six weeks since her last period. This was really abnormal.
Her mind screamed out, It can’t be true; as it filled with growing panic and disbelief at this possibility, her with his child inside.
She looked in the mirror at her naked body. Why had she not noticed before? It seemed like her breasts and nipples were starting to change, breasts softening, nipples enlarging and changing colour. At that point she knew what her mind was refusing to believe.
It was true. She was infected with the Devil’s Spawn. She was carrying Mark’s child.
This horror movie refused to end. She was trapped inside it. She had tried to excise it from her mind. Now it possessed her body instead.