Fall From Grace (Slater #1) by Sammy King

flicker from the candle that sat on the small table beside her bed.  Laura felt a deep pain in her back and she shifted uncomfortably on her bed.  The pain began to increase and she moved her feet to the edge standing slowly.  As Laura stood, the pain rumbled its way around to the front of her belly and seated itself deep in her lower abdomen.  It seemed to suck the breath out of her body and her knees buckled under the increased pressure in her groin.  As another pain washed over her, Laura let out a guttural roar. She knelt on the floor and a flood of water flowed from between her legs.  She heard her door crash open and her Aunt and Father stood staring down at her.  In the candlelight that Aunt held she looked down and could see the blood that covered her white nightgown.  The pain was unbearable and she screamed out again.  Thomas turned and she heard the front door of their house crash open and closed again.  Aunt lurched forward and lifted Laura from the floor placing her back on the bed.  She took Laura’s face in her hands and came in close.
    “Child, listen to me carefully, stop screaming, you are about to have your own child” Aunt said.
    Laura nodded, but couldn’t cease the screams that escaped her lips.  Laura twisted her head and caught a flash of orange; the fox sat sneering up at her.  The look on its face caused Laura’s heart to grip in fear. She didn’t have time to reflect on the fox, as another pain took over her whole body, she screamed again, twisting the woollen blanket in her hands as she beared down her hips into the bed. After what seemed to be hours, Laura heard the door swing open and looked up to see Doctor James and her father bustle into the room. 
    The doctor looked down at the state of Laura, her face contorted in pain, her hair damp and stuck to her face and her eyes wild, flicking between the fox and the people who were shouting for her to keep quiet.  She could hear the screams, it didn’t sound like they were coming from her lips, but somewhere off in the distance.  The fox crept its way towards the bed, Laura tried to move away, it’s mouth snarling, it’s eyes narrowed, she could feel it’s breath on her face, it looked rabid and fear was lurching from Laura’s stomach to her throat.  She backed up as far as she could and felt the cool stone wall hard against her body.  Her hips pushed down and she felt herself tearing open, she could hear her Aunt fussing, widening her legs, but Laura couldn’t understand what they were saying to her.  She glanced at her father who stood in the far corner of the room, his face ashen and the deep wounds looking larger and more vicious; his eyes welled with tears as he twisted his hands nervously together.
    Laura felt her baby slip from her body, her mind crashed back into her head and Laura was able to gain her senses.  She looked down at her body, the fox had gone and the doctor held the baby in his hands.  He slapped the baby on its backside and pinched its foot.  But there was no sound. The baby wasn’t pink in colour, but a purplish blue.  Panic began to rise again as Laura watched the fox appear and then grow larger. Its hands becoming almost like that of a human’s, it stood as tall as the doctor.  Laura screamed for it to get away from her child. She screamed at the Doctor to make the baby cry.  Her Aunt tried to soothe her, but her panic was overwhelming, the fox turned its head to look at Laura small and withered on the bed, it sneered again.
    “You should have let me take you” it spat.  Its voice had changed to a gravelly angry voice that she recognised. 
    Laura blinked and watched as the foxes face transformed into human form, his girth growing, a beard falling down his chin onto his chest, his front teeth were gone, and the eyes of the devil stared at her, as he reached out to her baby.  In an instant Laura recognised who the fox had become, James Slater, the stinking man that had tried to take