Chapter 2
Night after night, I tried everything I could find online to seduce him. Dennis was never interested. He never responded to my touch, never gave in to any attempt at intimacy. The rare times he did show any reaction—flushed cheeks, a slight stir—he’d abruptly make an excuse to take a shower, or retreat to his study to “work,” leaving me alone in bed, humiliated. Starting today, I’m done waiting. If he wanted to make a dead woman pregnant, fine. I’d help him achieve that dream—in the most terrifying way possible. As Dennis walked our guests out, I slipped back into the bedroom, quietly but quickly. “Ann?” His voice floated in from the living room, warm and gentle—deliberately so. My entire body shuddered. “Are you okay? Not feeling well?” He touched my forehead, the picture of a concerned husband. That same man who’d been whispering to a corpse in our basement not half an hour ago. The whiplash between the two sides of him made my skin crawl. “You seem fine,” he said after a moment, sitting beside me on the bed. “How about we go to that clinic and get your uterus checked? You’re not getting any younger. Gotta make sure everything stays in good shape.” He gave me a soft smile. “I know it’s been hard on you, but once I figure out how to make this work, you’ll carry our child. I promise.” “Okay,” I smiled back, forcing my voice to stay steady while my fingernails dug deep into my palm. He reached over and ruffled my hair, almost playfully. “As long as you behave, you’ll get the best of everything.” Behave? What an interesting choice of words. What did “behaving” mean, exactly? Being a docile surrogate? Quietly giving birth to his dead lover’s child, then what? Getting “taken care of,” the way he took care of my cat? As soon as he turned away to grab his coat, I pulled out my phone and sent a message to an old friend from college—someone I could still trust. “Can you help me install some cctv in the basement? When no one’s home. I’ll text when I leave the house. Just be fast and discreet.” He replied almost immediately. No questions. Just a simple, “Got it.” Meanwhile, Dennis was zipping up his coat and answering a call. “Nick? Yeah, I was just about to take Anna to that clinic you recommended.” “Wait—what did you say? There’s what on the forum?” he responded. I saw his expression shifted into panic, but he caught himself quickly when he noticed me watching from across the room. And just like that, his mask went back on. “Ann, I’ve got some company stuff to deal with.” Dennis rushed into his study and locked the door behind him. A few seconds later, my phone lit up with a notification. The anonymous forum post I had made earlier had just received a new comment: [Poster! hurry up, tell us! How do you get a dead woman pregnant?] The username was SweetAnnon. Dennis had taken the bait. He couldn’t help himself—he was desperate to know how to make a corpse carry his child. Most of the other comments were from normal people, horrified or confused: [Poster! says nothing. Starts off with a creepy line and just ghosted. What kind of horror story is this?] [Making a dead woman pregnant? Maybe fix infertility first. I’m dying laughing.] [And here we go—two lunatics in one thread. Isn’t there some guy on this forum obsessed with this exact thing? Perfect match!] Dennis was infamous on the forum. Every day, he posted offers of huge payouts to anyone who could provide a method. Not a single day missed. Now users were starting to connect the dots. [Wait… this has to be bait, right? Targeted at that guy?] [No way. Hahaha—this Poster is trolling him for sure.] [Check the latest reply—LOL they totally fished that SweetMace dude out!] With Dennis now active in the thread, the post exploded in popularity. People started egging me on, clearly entertained by the twisted game unfolding in real time. [C’mon Poster, spill it. I need to see if your plan is crazier, or if his is.] [If this actually gets him to send money, please update. I’ll post one too!] From the other side of the wall, I could hear Dennis pacing frantically in the study.