Pregnancy

Grey-black smoke roiled around Lois' head, and despite her best attempts she could smell it, could taste the bad-penny smoke in her mouth, and all the while the Scarecrow's words echoed through her mind...what do you fear?

Her heart beat faster, pounding in her ears, and her vision blurred around the edges. A hint of nausea rolled through her stomach, and the worst part is the feeling was familiar. Lois could feel her knees shake and her breath come in weak gasps that drew in more of that toxic vapor, as she fought off the memories of the last time...

...a drunken one night stand, and she couldn't even face him the next morning. She had just seen the broken condom and had to flee, out of the house, to the pharmacy, and waited outside for an hour, pacing back and forth for it to open so she could get the morning after pill, stomach roiling, heart pounding in her chest, she had been stupid, so stupid, I can't, I can't I...

...on the toilet, chewing on her manicure, waiting for the stick to change color or...not. Goose pimples covered her arms and legs, and her hands were shaking, pussy still burning. She shouldn't have fucked that guy. She should never have gone to that party, had that much to drink, she knew better, she...she watched, watched where the strip was blank, willing it not to change, not to not to not to...

...bolting out of sex ed, a mumbled excuse, the video still playing on the screen, the taste of vomit on her lips already. She had thought she was okay, when it started. Just a little animation, a cartoon sperm meets a cartoon egg, but then they had started to intercut it with real footage, cells dividing, a twitching fetus, the woman's belly swelling...

"Yessss...you see it...but we must go deeper...what is the root of your fear?"

...her mother, belly and breasts grotesquely swollen, but her limbs and face were thin, so thin, like the baby was sucking the life out of her. The woman looked at her with tired, hollow eyes, stroking her distended stomach. "It's so close now, Lois," her mother said. "Almost time. You're going to be a big sister..." and something moved beneath the taut skin, and her mother grunted and grimaced as Lois' sister struggled from inside...

"Intriguing. Maesiophobia...but what else? What is it about this that excites you? Look down."

Lois shivered, heart beating so rapidly in her chest, almost hyperventillating, and yet she looked down...and screamed.