Chapter 305: DASHA: Me and the Devil
A curse had befallen her child.
That was the only explanation, the mother thought as she watched him from a distance. What the hell was wrong with her? This was her son—
’That is not your son.’
The mother clutched her coat tighter around her body as she sat on the bench, her eyes locked on the boy who was alone in the park. The other children were playing, laughing, and chasing each other, but he wasn’t.
Dasha Pang, her little...boy. He was bored of the monkey bars. He was bored of the slides and the nearby skatepark. All of it bored him. He attempted it once, succeeded, then did it thrice and never again.
Dasha was crouched under tree and crushing ants under his fingers. He would walk, stop, crouch, and crush. He picked the carcass of the ant and study it until he was satisfied. Last week, it was with the grass. A month ago, it was with trees. A year ago, with toys. He was too curious.
Her heart twisted painfully. This was not normal. She had heard other parents speak of their children’s mischief. This was something else entirely. Every time they locked eyes, she saw darkness. She remembered when he was born, when she felt a chill running down her spine. The type of chill that a human being could never forget in their long life.
She screamed and told everyone to get him away from her. To kill that thing. The doctors spent hours calming her down and figured that it was a mental breakdown caused by a sudden, immediate explosion in postpartum depression. She convinced herself that it was. For a while, she truly believed it.
Until three years passed.