Pregnancy Craving

In the Neolithic period of the Mediterranean, on the north coast of the African continent along the sea, a 19 year old woman named Basha lived. She had one child and was pregnant with the second, although both fathers were gone, one died of infection from a broken leg, and the other never returned from a fishing voyage. She lived in a medium-sized community with about 100 other people. Their main trade was fishing, but they also grew wheat and even had some olive trees, and a storehouse was guarded by their local chief. Basha lived with her mother and one other older woman who had no living relatives, and she liked her life. 

One day, this pregnant young woman woke up craving dates. She did not want to sell anything to buy some, but luckily since she knew of a grove south of her village that was mostly unattended. She left her baby girl with the elder woman and started walking to the grove of date trees. By midday she was growing tired and sat down in some grass to take a rest. She did not have the foresight to bring any food with her since she had planned to eat her fill at her destination, just some wild fruit wine which she contained in a wrapped wooden container tied to her side, which she drank now. Resigning herself to a short nap Basha was sure that afterwards she would have enough strength to make it the remaining distance. 

When the young woman woke up she found it to be mid-afternoon. Unhappy and surprised to find it too late in the day to complete her journey, she frustratedly started to head back. But past a bundle of overgrown trees she noticed something new. It was a glossy black cave nestled into the coastal forest overgrowth. She wondered how she could have missed it before since it seemed to be in her path. The seemingly damp surface appealed to her, as she was extra thirsty from the wine, and she made her way over to it hoping to find a small spring or something of the like. Basha found what she was looking for and knelt down near its opening, drinking from a trail of water which came from deeper in the cave. When she had her fill she looked up, and spotted something within the depths. 

There in the darkness was a pair of yellow eyes. At first Basha froze, thinking it was some big cat or other devilish creature ready to give her a hard time. But soon she realized that she was not just frozen with fear. She really couldn’t move at all. 

Basha began to panic. She did not know how much time passed as she was paralyzed there, only a few things in her frame of vision, one of them the creature at the back of the cave. As her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness she was able to make out a vague silhouette, on the head of which its eerie eyes remained staring. It did not move a lot, but when it did it was very unnerving to her. It reminded her of the cockroaches which would bury into the sand or dirt near her home. However as she stared she found it to be closer to the outline of a very tall man. 

The sun started lowering in the sky. Without warning, her body suddenly jerked, lurching forward all at once. She was taking steps into the cave, her world growing darker, her arms limp at her sides. Suddenly she tripped on something, and unable to catch herself, Basha fell onto her face and belly. She worried for her unborn child but hoped it was early enough along and not too bad of a fall. 

Something spindly started to seep underneath her body. A wave of anxiety coursed through her at the realization that they were very, very, long fingers. They began to wrap around her torso, their multiple joints and weirdly moldy material creating a cacophony of fleshy and pinching sensations beneath the young woman’s form. Finally they completed their journey and lifted her into the air. 

As she was picked up she was sure that she would be eaten. At first Basha believed it to be some kind of monstrous ape because of the human-like eyes and hands, since she just could not think of anything else in the animal kingdom that would fit its description. But that did not explain her paralysis, so then she thought she had fallen into a snake den, and it was just many snakes who wrapped around her and somehow afflicted her with their venom when she was not looking. However all her will to make sense of this situation vanished as soon as the creature tilted her toward him. Before Basha was a human- or something in the vague shape of one- who appeared to be stretched out and distorted horrifically. Its neck and head were elongated and the skin everywhere on its body appeared to be decaying. Its chest heaved up and down unevenly and its legs were folded beneath its form. They looked to be too skinny, and as Basha looked more she found that they were twisted and bent in many places, maybe even unusable or disconnected from the rest of it. 

What she had originally believed to be yellow eyes was not. They were two glowing patterns on its forehead. 

Its eyes were beneath those, and they were closed at first. Slowly, it began to open them. White revealed itself, then more white cracked with red and yellow, and then the tiniest speck of dark black. Beneath that a slit in its face cracked open revealing a set of human teeth too small for the gaping mouth. 

Then, it was as though Basha was falling. Although visually she did not see any movement, it felt like her body was gradually then rapidly plummeting, careening downward. There was whispering, sounds which were very unfamiliar to her and which burned painfully in her ears. They bounced around the walls and changed shape, becoming a set of strange outlines which appeared to tell a story. She failed to make sense of it because there were so many unknown figures. An animal creature walking around in the woods, then a golden calf stomping on its head. She saw the yellow pattern she confused for eyes, and watched its decrepit body crawl off. By this time, Basha thought she was dead. She mourned over the baby in her belly whose womb would also be its grave. 

The thing before her appeared to hear her thoughts. The bizarre vision ceased, and she was dropped onto the ground, and she passed out. 

When she awoke, it was gone. Basha was still convinced she was dead, and was calmly intrigued to find the afterlife so similar to her previous life. It took her wandering out of the cave, through the sparse woods back to her home, and into her house for her to finally be convinced that she was still on earth. The old woman carrying her baby was surprised to see her. She informed her that it was the next day and she had been sure Basha was not coming back. She sat down and took her baby into her arms, cradling and kissing her child. Tears streamed down her face and the old woman concernedly asked her what was wrong and what happened. She found herself unable to talk, so the old woman left to get her mother. They returned together and her mother kissed and hugged her, rocking both her and her grandchild in loving arms. The only choked words Basha could manage through the tears was that she was on her way to the date grove and got lost in a cave. And that was all she ever said on the subject. 

___

Months passed. Basha’s swollen belly had grown to the brink. She was healthy despite the absurd trials that had occurred earlier in the pregnancy, and was due soon. She was hoping for a boy. 

She considered the events that passed to be a hallucination incurred onto her by the water she drank at the mouth of the cave. She figured that it was dirty or poisoned and that is what gave her such a strange nightmare. Ever since that night she had been different, her mother finding her more careful and reserved. Whereas before she would have to chastise her for wandering off or being unobservant, now she needed some light encouragement even for attending bonfires or visiting a home. She was just glad that her daughter was alive and had learned this difficult life lesson, which in her opinion most did not live to learn. That the world could be dangerous and strange. 

When it was time to birth the baby, those who would help deliver it had hope that it would be an easy one. Basha was still young and had already carried one child very smoothly, so they all had faith that she would make it through the second time. 

Her second baby came out a healthy and strong boy. She nursed both of them, and treated her son as though he were her own. It was only a week until one night, while it was sleeping, Basha noticed something with a painful horror. On his forehead was the pattern that she had seen all that time before, yellow and unmistakable. She fearfully turned away, and just in time, since she could feel the edge of its hypnotism in her bones. 

She did not dare sleep that night, only waiting. Just before dawn broke she left her home with her newborn in her arms. She walked to the date grove, and halfway there, once again spotted the cursed wet alcove that never used to be found. Fighting the urge to flee, Basha kept her head lowered and walked to it.

All she saw with her head tilted down and her eyes pinned firmly to the floor was its mangled legs. She left its baby at the mouth of the cave and never returned.