Brood

The whiplash of lightening preceded the boom of the rolling thunder, as I raced down the dark hallway into the spare room, looking frantically for a place to hide. Seeing a wide and sturdy cupboard directly in front of me, I threw open its doors. Then, as my mind finally registered what I was actually seeing, a blue looking, not breathing, human baby, a cuckoo clock began chiming stupidly somewhere in a nearby room. Then the scrape of slippers hit my ears, as Karen, Vanessa and Joanne burst through the doorway and began jabbing me with their bony elbows, before becoming very still, as they too, stared at the forsaken, lifeless newborn.