When he disappears, I’m suddenly standing alone in a black fog. The only thing I’m aware of is the little fluttering sensation in my stomach.
I look down and see my belly. My child moves inside me and tears spring to my eyes.
This should be a happy moment.
But it’s not happiness I feel.
It’s sadness, laced with fear.
Fear that’s growing, morphing, intensifying. It climbs up from my belly and into my throat like it wants to choke me out. It’s got tentacles on my ribs and they’re squeezing so hard that I can’t breathe and I’m suffocating and it hurts like I’m being stabbed and oh, God, I’m—
I must’ve been sleeping for hours. The room is dark and oppressive now. L.A’s skyline sparkles proudly down below me.
I turn to the room and wince at the crick in my neck from my awkward sleeping p
