Parasite in the Shadows

By Deisy Toussaint

Translated by Toshiya Kamei

Something tears you up inside. Huge claw marks run across your belly, struggling to burst out. Your bowels are undone. Howls pierce the air. You start to bleed profusely and panic. The shadows invade your room until it’s almost dark, until you’re only lit by a dim moonbeam intriguing the chilling gloom.

You try to walk through the squelch of pain. You reach for the chair. Stumble. Your legs give away. Out. You slide to the floor.

Your pupils dilate when something breaks out of you. A dreadful being crawls out. Your breath languishes. His feet reach the ground. He glares at you as he devours the umbilical cord and the rest of the sack that contained him.

With love in your eyes, you reach for your baby with bloody fingers. As you’re about to gasp for your last breath, your spawn scurries into the shadows.

Deisy Toussaint is a Dominican journalist based in Santo Domingo. Her work has appeared in anthologies and journals such as Mujer en pocas palabras, El fondo del iceberg, and miNatura. She is co-author with Óscar Zazo of Operación Azabache: La invasión (2017).