THE CRIB OF SILENT LIES

The view shifted, dropping low—a claustrophobic angle from inside the wooden crib itself, looking up past the white-and-blue-starred onesie of the crying infant.

From down here, the world was a monstrous, towering nightmare.

At the foreground, tiny Toby kicked his legs frantically, his small fists beating against the soft bumper pads. Above him, framed by the upper rail of the dark walnut crib, was his mother’s face. Elena’s eyes were wide with terror, her face flushed red, tears streaming sideways across her temples as Evelyn’s heavy, dark-jacketed arm pinned her down by the base of her skull.

"Look at what you've done to him!" Evelyn roared from above, her grey bun framing her severe face like a crown of stone. "Look at him, Elena! Admit what you are!"

Elena’s lips were pressed against the edge of Toby's star-patterned blanket. She could smell the sweet almond scent soaking into the cotton—the poison that Evelyn had placed there deliberately to frame her.

"Lucas..." Elena gasped, her voice choking on her own saliva as the pressure on her neck intensified. "Lucas... help me..."

Above them, the ceiling lights seemed to dim, casting long, menacing shadows across the beige wallpaper. The giant plush teddy bear in the corner looked on with vacant, glass eyes, an unseeing witness to the domestic execution taking place.

Evelyn leaned in closer, her face hovering inches from Elena’s ear. Her dark eyes were devoid of humanity, shining with the mad triumph of a ruler securing her throne. "He will be mine, Elena," Evelyn whispered, so low that only the young mother could hear over the baby's cries. "Just like Lucas is mine. You were always disposable."

Elena tried to fight back. She raised her right hand, her nails scraping against the dark blue fabric of Evelyn’s sleeve, trying to find a grip, trying to push the older woman's crushing weight off her neck. But three weeks of sleep deprivation and trace poisoning had robbed her of all physical strength. Her arm fell uselessly back onto the crib rail.

She closed her eyes, accepting the darkness closing in at the edges of her vision.

And then, a shadow fell over the room.