I was in the sitting room watching *Tales by Moonlight* on the old television. I also wanted to sneak into the kitchen for the biscuits I had hidden earlier. So I stood up at the same time Esther entered the kitchen.
I stopped just outside the door, hidden in the shadows.
She took a clean glass cup from the cupboard. Filled it with water from the plastic gallon. Then she looked around carefully, like a thief. Slowly, she raised the glass to her lips, took a mouthful, held it in her mouth for three long seconds, and spat it back into the cup.
My blood turned to ice.
She stirred the water gently with her finger, smiled to herself, and carried it upstairs.
I couldn’t move. I stood there until I heard Mummy thank her.
From that night, I began watching Esther like a hawk.
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The next few days were filled with small, strange things.
She would stare at Mummy’s belly when she thought no one was looking. Not with the usual gentle curiosity people show pregnant women — but with something colder. Calculating.
One afternoon, I came home early and found her in the kitchen mixing Mummy’s prenatal vitamins into a cup of tea. But instead of using the spoon, she used her finger again. The same finger she had put in her mouth the previous night.
I cleared my throat loudly. She jumped, almost spilling the tea.
“Daniel! You scared me,” she said, recovering with that same long smile. “Your mother’s medicine.”
I didn’t smile back.
At night, I started having nightmares. In them, Esther would stand over my mother’s bed with a black plastic bag, pouring white powder into her water. I would wake up sweating, heart pounding.
Then my baby brother arrived.
