They'd lied to her when they said the ultrasound wasn't too bad. Though the midwife offered to block the screen from her sight so she wouldn't see the result as she always had, there was something in the back of her mind that compelled her to look and see what she was carrying. It was probably the parasitic creature she'd seen in the diagrams - she'd been told that some develop the telepathy before birth.
Out of the nine billion people around the world, almost two billion still considered the parasites to be the next evolutionary stage and eight countries declared them a protected species. As soon as people were aware that they were hosts they'd either panic or rejoice, after all they'd be bringing the next generation into the world or so everyone had thought.
Twenty five years after the first recorded parasite was born, the majority were now fully grown by human standards and far less human than they'd been at birth.The horns were the first thing to grow, spiralling out from their face alongside their tusks (and every tooth eventually grew to be a husk, forcing their mouths to remain open at all times) and distorting whatever humanity their faces had possessed
If the host was particularly unlucky the parasite would begin to grow the horns in utero, rupturing them from the inside out. Aborting the parasites was not only illegal but punishable by death. Still some went that way when ultrasounds began to show the slightest sign of early, rapid growth.
She'd been a host for almost seven months, with the average birth occurring at ten months and never wanted to look at the ultrasound before this one. Though it was likely that the parasite just wanted her to feel affection for it and be more likely to raise it rather than deliver it to the eager hands of the government, some slim part of her mind wanted to believe that it might care for her as its mother.
In all her years she'd never seen a parasite up close, barely glanced at them on the news and tried to live life as normally as she could even after she was confronted with the reality that she was a host as unwillingly picked as all the rest. Now there she was, lying on an uncomfortable hospital bed, stomach covered in cold slime and a lump on the screen with miniature wings flapping gently, the spikes soft for now but known to harden to diamond-sharp blades if the host's heartbeat gets too fast, preparing it to tear its way to safety.
Out of the nine billion people around the world, almost two billion still considered the parasites to be the next evolutionary stage and eight countries declared them a protected species. As soon as people were aware that they were hosts they'd either panic or rejoice, after all they'd be bringing the next generation into the world or so everyone had thought.
Twenty five years after the first recorded parasite was born, the majority were now fully grown by human standards and far less human than they'd been at birth.The horns were the first thing to grow, spiralling out from their face alongside their tusks (and every tooth eventually grew to be a husk, forcing their mouths to remain open at all times) and distorting whatever humanity their faces had possessed
If the host was particularly unlucky the parasite would begin to grow the horns in utero, rupturing them from the inside out. Aborting the parasites was not only illegal but punishable by death. Still some went that way when ultrasounds began to show the slightest sign of early, rapid growth.
She'd been a host for almost seven months, with the average birth occurring at ten months and never wanted to look at the ultrasound before this one. Though it was likely that the parasite just wanted her to feel affection for it and be more likely to raise it rather than deliver it to the eager hands of the government, some slim part of her mind wanted to believe that it might care for her as its mother.
In all her years she'd never seen a parasite up close, barely glanced at them on the news and tried to live life as normally as she could even after she was confronted with the reality that she was a host as unwillingly picked as all the rest. Now there she was, lying on an uncomfortable hospital bed, stomach covered in cold slime and a lump on the screen with miniature wings flapping gently, the spikes soft for now but known to harden to diamond-sharp blades if the host's heartbeat gets too fast, preparing it to tear its way to safety.
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