Short Ghost Stories: The Man with the Axe in his Back

‘What’s wrong? Who are they?’ Boy Genius asked.

The Genius Mother watched the black car carefully, with eyes narrowed. At first she thought they were going to run her down, but judging from the path of the car, it seems she was mistaken. She watched the black car drive by in silence.

‘They are Agents of a Foreign Government. I did Top-Secret Military Research for that Country five years ago, but I have since left them against their wishes.’

‘Are they going to kill us?’

‘No.’ The Genius Mother’s voice was confident. ‘They wouldn’t dare. I’m more valuable to them alive than dead, so I doubt they will try to kill— ‘

Two shots rang out, before she could finish her sentence. The first shot hit the Genius Mother in the middle of the chest, and the other hit her in the side of the neck. She fell over silently, landing heavily in the snow, as her assailants sped away in the black armoured car.

The Genius Mother laid on her back in the snow, a steady bloom of red appearing beneath her like a growing flower. She was beyond help—the first bullet had shattered her sternum, and the second had nipped a major artery. Even without the encroaching cold, sapping her strength by the second, she was going to bleed to death within minutes.

As life slowly leaked from her body, it also sealed the fate of the Boy Genius in her Womb. Even without her Womb as a life-support system, his six-month old foetal body will never last a second in this weather. His lungs had not yet been properly formed.

As the two of them lay dying in the snow, they had their final conversation.

‘What can I do for you, Mother?’ The Boy Genius asked, hoping he could do something to alleviate her pain. ‘Is there anything I can do, to ease your passing?’

The Genius Mother paused for a while, before replying to him telepathically.

‘…I still want to give birth to you,’ she eventually replied. She was happy that even in their final moments, his last thoughts was still of her. ‘My Love, I still want to give birth to you. Come out of me, in whatever way you can. It is my last wish.’

‘…I understand.’

The Boy Genius immediately started moving around in her womb, knowing that he only had a minute to spare at the most. Using all the strength he could summon, he plunged his semi-translucent hands above him, his barely-formed fingernails thrusting into her Uterine wall. He started digging, the flesh of his fingertips and fingers eventually wearing away, until he had scraped them to the bone.

The Uterus broke, gushes of blood pouring into the wound and mingling with the embryonic fluid. However, the Boy Genius did not care, for he could not yet see with his unopened eyes. He continued tunnelling through her, tearing his way up with the bony stumps of his arms until he ripped straight through the flesh of her stomach.

He exploded into the world in a shower of blood and gore, his Mother anticipating every moment as she felt him burrow through her. It was the moment she had been waiting for.

Covered in strips of flesh and streaks of blood, the six-month old foetus crawled up to the Genius Mother’s face. Boy Genius placed his red, semi-translucent, barely-formed head beneath his Mother’s chin, while she summoned her last bit of strength to wrap her left arm over his small, wrinkly body.

With them finally in each other’s embrace, a smile spread over their faces. At last, they were Together Forever. Happily, they died in the snow, amidst a chilling landscape of white and scarlet.