Prologue

Austin Texas was quite nice when she thought about it. A beautiful and lush capital city with nice people and nice scenery. She supposed the getaway to Austin would be nice when she thought about it. A nice get away to think and contemplate her next course of action.

Licking her lips and pressing her foot down on the accelerator, Darcy drove into Travis county and went in search of the apartment Erik had loaned to her for a year until she decided what to do with herself. After spending a few moments scrutinizing the map of Travis county and going through the streets of Cedar park, Darcy breathed a sigh of relief as she found the apartments she was looking for.

She had expected something dull and dreary, but much to her surprise these looked quite upper class and well kept. Maybe she would enjoy her time here after all. Parking in the visitors spot and grabbing her things, Darcy headed inside the main office to grab the keys for her new apartment. There was a woman sitting at the front desk who looked up and smiled at her kindly.

"Hi, I am Darcy Lewis here to collect the keys for apartment 18A," she said dryly. The woman in question smiled and rose from her desk. "Well it is lovely to meet you. Erik's niece right?" Wearily, Darcy nodded. It had been pointless to foist off the lie, but Erik insisted saying that people down in Cedar Park were particularly nosy if you were a stranger.

The woman came back a few moments later, with a set of keys, papers to sign and some pamphlets.

"If you would be a dear and sign here and here," she pointed with a ball point pen. Darcy did as she was asked, was given her keys and a polite farewell. Jumping back in her car and driving around the many apartment buildings until she came to hers, Darcy was thankful that her apartment was on the bottom floor. Licking her dry lips, she hopped out, grabbed a few bags of her belongings from the boot and headed inside.

Although the place hadn't been used for a while, the furnishing was quite nice, if a little dusty. Darcy set her things down on the ground and decided to relax on the leather couch. She had a headache and a slight stomach cramp, but it was better than what she usually felt. Rubbing her temples and taking a deep breath, Darcy knew she would have to start thinking about what she wanted to do in a matter of weeks. The longer she left it, the guiltier she would feel and that was saying something. The situation was bad enough.

Her eyes started to feel watery and an ache began to develop in her throat. She didn't have much control over her emotions these days and understandably so. When she thought about it, Darcy knew she had done some pretty stupid shit in her life, but this definitely topped it. It was so cliché. If she let things continue like this, she'd end up being a single mother, busting her back to pay the bills and feed her child.

Oh, but if only things were so simple. This was not any normal child. She cringed. Since when did she start thinking about it in terms of a human being? A baby? So far it was nothing more than a dividing cell full of DNA. She wondered, if the father had been some nameless and faceless man from a bar, maybe it would have made it easier. But no.

The father was something else entirely. An alien being, a malevolent entity, a God. The tears were pouring out. If anyone else knew what she done…

She swallowed hard.

They wouldn't find out. She'd go to Planned Parenthood in a couple of days and confer with a nice health professional on her options, have an operation and be done with it. Then she would forget about it and wipe it all away as an unwanted memory of the past.

So why did it feel like it was the end of the world?