I’m a Paramedic. We Were Called to a Pregnant Woman’s House Outside the City

Our shift was already well underway. Twelve hours of nonstop pressure. Luckily, the night was shaping up to be quiet, at least as quiet as it ever gets when you’re a paramedic. So far, we’d only had two calls.

An elderly woman slipped in her bathtub and fractured her femur. Calls like that were always hard. The elderly are helpless. Vulnerable. Thankfully, her husband had called 911 in time.

The other was a traffic accident. No serious injuries, fortunately. One of the drivers still had to be transported to the hospital for observation.

After that, nothing. No more calls. We pulled into a gas station to take a break. Just me and Ruby.

Ruby was almost ten years younger than I was. When I first got her as a rookie, I wasn’t thrilled. Training a young woman, being the one who had to show her the things the human body can do to itself when it breaks… it wasn’t something I was eager for.

But four years had passed since then. And Ruby had adapted. To wading through blood. To arriving too late. Or too early. To the silence that settles in after a shift is over.

Those things became routine for us. Our crosses to bear. We carried them. And aside from each other, there wasn’t really anyone else we could rely on.

“Ambulance eighteen, we have a call.” The radio crackled to life, pulling me out of my thoughts. “A pregnant woman has collapsed.”

“This is eighteen,” I replied immediately, grabbing the radio. “What’s the situation?”

“We have limited information,” the dispatcher said. “The husband called it in. Can you respond and check it out?”

“Copy that,” I said, flipping on the siren to signal Ruby, who was outside by the gas pump, drinking her coffee. “We’re en route.”

We tore through the streets with the sirens screaming. The adrenaline always hit me like a wave in moments like that. We were flying, because in our line of work, time is everything. By then, I knew most routes by instinct.

The MDT guided us all the way to the edge of the city. The road turned rough and uneven, and the GPS started giving us increasingly unreliable positioning.

“Ruby, ask dispatch for a more precise address,” I said, keeping my eyes on the rutted road.

“Dispatch,” Ruby leaned closer to the radio. “This is Ambulance 18. Can you confirm the exact location?”

“Copy, Ambulance 18,” the dispatcher replied, her voice crackling through the static. “The husband says if you follow the old road, the first dirt road on the left leads to it. First mansion down that way.”

“Copy that, dispatch,” Ruby said, glancing at me.

“What is it?” I asked, scanning the darkness for the dirt road.

“A mansion?” Ruby shot me a sideways look. “We’re heading to rich people, Jacob. Hope you dressed classy.”

I let out a tired laugh and finally turned onto the dirt road. Farther ahead, the outline of a massive building began to emerge. In the darkness, it barely revealed itself, like a sleeping mountain.

“Rich people don’t live in places like that anymore, Ruby,” I said, gesturing toward the old structure. “That kind of thing went out of style.”

Ruby just smiled.

The mansion looked both ancient and imposing. Its massive walls stretched upward into the night sky. Every window was shuttered, yet a faint glow leaked out from behind them, like the eyes of some enormous creature watching us.

“This is creepy,” Ruby said flatly.

“A little…” I replied as I pulled the ambulance to a stop in front of the mansion.

The flashing red and blue lights washed over the mansion’s grimy, time-worn walls. Shadows twisted and stretched like phantoms. For a brief moment, the thought crossed my mind that I didn’t want to go inside.

Then, as if something had sensed our hesitation, the massive front door swung open.

A young boy ran out toward us, waving frantically.

“Hurry! Hurry!” the boy screamed in terror, and when he reached the ambulance, he began pounding on its side with his small fists.

Ruby jumped out without a word, and I heard the rear doors of the ambulance swing open.

I stepped out as well. The moment my boots hit the muddy ground, the boy grabbed my arm and started yanking me back and forth like a rag doll.

“Please, hurry!” he shouted. “Hurry! My sister! Please, hurry!”

The boy wore simple clothes made of old, heavy fabric. He looked like he had stepped out of another era, more like a medieval farmhand or an Amish child than a kid from the modern world.

The flashing red and blue lights twisted his face into something grotesque. He couldn’t have been more than ten years old, and even then it was obvious something wasn’t right about him. As cruel as it is to admit, my eyes passed over him with a reflexive grimace.

“Hurry!” the boy nearly screamed. “It’s almost here! Hurry, please!”

“Where are your parents?” I asked as I started moving with him toward the mansion.

He tugged at my arm, spit running from his mouth in his excitement, pulling me toward the open front door.

Ruby caught up to us. The EMS bag hung from her shoulder as she watched the scene unfolding between me and the boy, her expression tight and uneasy.

“Edmund!” a voice suddenly boomed from the doorway. “Get away from there! Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Only then did I look up.

A man stood in the doorway. Like an apparition. It was hard to make him out in the darkness, but warm light spilled out behind him from inside the mansion. He was bald, older, probably around sixty, and dressed in a long black wool garment, like a priest’s robe.

At the sound of the man’s voice, the boy froze and fell silent. He was still gripping my hand, rocking slightly from side to side.

“Jacob?” Ruby asked cautiously.

Without warning, the boy let go of me and took off running, like a dog slipping its leash. He vanished into the dark night, between the trees, screaming for help. Screaming about his sister.

“Please, come inside,” the man said calmly. “Forgive Edmund. He’s a difficult case. It didn’t quite…”

His sentence trailed off.

Ruby and I exchanged a look.

We hurried up the mansion’s steps, and suddenly I was standing in front of a massive black wooden door nearly ten feet tall. Warmth and light poured out from inside.

The man turned and headed in.

Ruby and I followed.

The man dressed like a priest didn’t seem to be in any hurry. I could already tell Ruby was tense, she looked like she wanted to break into a run, just like we’d been trained. Get to the patient as fast as possible. Assess who’s sick, how bad it is, how much help is needed. But the man only walked at an unhurried, almost leisurely pace. Maybe it was his age. Or maybe he didn’t think the situation was all that serious.

Ruby and I followed him in measured silence.

The mansion felt even larger on the inside than it had from the outside. And just as I had suspected, it was empty. No furniture. No decorations. No paintings on the walls. Just an empty crypt. Only the lights were on, glowing yellow, dull and lifeless. Mansions like this were no longer inhabited by the old aristocracy.

Our footsteps echoed through the vast, hall-like space as we moved across it. Ruby glanced at me as we walked. I only looked back at her briefly, I didn’t want her to think I was just as uneasy as she was. We needed to stay calm.

“Excuse me, sir,” Ruby finally broke the silence, impatience creeping into her voice. “Shouldn’t we be moving a little faster? We were told a pregnant woman isn’t doing well.”

The bald, thin man stopped short, as if genuinely surprised. Then, like a robot, he slowly and deliberately turned to face us. He tried to smile kindly, but on his tired, sunken face, the expression was unsettling. His deep gray eyes didn’t settle on Ruby. They locked onto me instead. As if I’d been the one who spoke.

“Now that you’re here,” the priest said calmly, “she’ll be just fine.”

He flashed us a wide grin. His yellow, unkempt teeth stood out sharply against his pale face. I couldn’t help the grimace that crossed my own, there was something deeply unpleasant about the man’s presence. Then he turned away and shuffled forward along the same path as before.

“What the fuck?” Ruby whispered, falling a step behind. “Jacob, this is bad. This guy, the mansion, the kid… all of it.”

“I know… I know,” I said quietly, trying to soothe her. “But this is where they sent us. We have to check on the woman.”

“Pff. Don’t be naïve,” Ruby muttered. “There’s no woman here.”

“She’s here,” the priest cut in, stopping beside a long, semicircular staircase that led up to the second floor.

Ruby stared at the old man. I could tell he was getting under her skin, but there was nothing I could do about it.

“She’s upstairs?” I asked, partly to reassure Ruby, partly to convince myself.

The man grinned at us again, teeth bared.

“Yes…” he said sweetly. “Upstairs. She needs help.”

I glanced sideways at Ruby. It was obvious she had absolutely no desire to go up there.

“You’re not coming with us?” I pressed.

I was nervous now. I had a strong feeling that something here was deeply wrong. We had no way of knowing whether there was actually someone upstairs who needed help.

“Ah… my legs aren’t what they used to be,” the man said, still smiling.

I didn’t respond. I just studied him. His cassock hung all the way to the floor. Slippered feet stuck out from beneath it, and he stood there as if he’d been nailed to the ground.

“Father!” a voice called from above, from the very top of the stairs.

Ruby and I both snapped our gaze upward at the same time. The priest didn’t move.

A young man stood at the last step. He was wearing a tuxedo, old-fashioned, but elegant. His hair was neatly combed, his thin mustache carefully groomed. He looked like one of those refined gentlemen from old British television shows.

“Leave it to me,” the young man said. “I’ll escort them.”

With that, he hurried down the stairs.

He stopped in front of me and, without a moment’s hesitation, extended his soft hand.

“Reginald,” he said, gently shaking mine. “A pleasure, and thank you for coming. This way, please. My wife isn’t feeling very well.”

I glanced back at Ruby. Her face said everything, I was sure that if I didn’t insist, she’d already be back in the ambulance, calling for backup.

But we had to go up there.

We had to find out what was going on with the woman.

Yes, these people were strange. Like they were a few hundred years out of step with the rest of the world. But we weren’t in danger…Not yet.

Reginald moved through the empty hallways and rooms like a ghost. We still weren’t moving as fast as we normally would have, but the size of the mansion itself felt unnaturally vast, as if it kept stretching farther the deeper we went.

We were making our way down a long corridor when one of the old wooden doors beside us suddenly creaked open. Reginald reacted instantly, stepping in front of it as if to block our view.

“Vivian, why are you out here?” he scolded, his tone sharp and dismissive.

Ruby slipped closer to my side, trying to see past Reginald and catch a glimpse of what I was seeing.

A blonde little girl stood in the doorway. Her hair was messy, only half-contained beneath a white headscarf. From the dim light inside, it looked like the room was some kind of bedroom.

“I… I thought it was time already,” the girl muttered quietly.

“Not yet, sweetheart,” Reginald said, gently stroking her cheek.

As cute as the girl might have been, her cleft lip made her appearance deeply unsettling. In the darkness behind her, another small figure with an oversized head sat up in a bed, peering out curiously.

“That’s enough, children!” Reginald raised his voice. “Back to bed. All of you!”

With a firm, unquestionable motion, he ushered the girl back into the room and shut the door behind her.

“Kids…” Reginald muttered, shaking his head theatrically.

“Yeah…” I said, grimacing.

Reginald didn’t respond. He only tested the doorknob once more to make sure it was locked, then continued on without offering any explanation.

“Jacob, this isn’t right…” Ruby whispered again. “We should call dispatch. Get the police out here.”

“For what, Ruby?” I hissed back. “There’s nothing concrete to call the cops for. Yeah, they’re weird, and this whole place gives me the creeps, but what am I supposed to say? That there are creepy kids in a bedroom?”

Ruby shot me a hard look. I knew she was right. I could feel it, in the air, in the walls that something here was very wrong. But what could I do?

“You coming?” Reginald called out, already far ahead of us. “We’re almost there. My wife really needs you.”

Ruby didn’t take her eyes off me. Her stare was both commanding and desperate at the same time.

“We’re coming!” I called back. Then, more quietly, “Come on, Ruby. Let’s at least check on the woman. If anything gets even more suspicious than this, we call for backup.”

Ruby’s lips trembled. I knew she wanted to say something, argue, protest, but there was no time. I just wanted to get this over with and leave this place behind.

“And… here we are,” Reginald said as he turned left at the end of the corridor.

We stopped in front of a door. It looked just like all the others we’d passed, except for the massive, dull-eyed man standing guard beside it.

“Hello,” I said when I noticed the hulking brute.

“Ugh,” he grunted in response.

He wore huge, crooked suspenders over his clothes. The scarring on his chin suggested he’d only recently grown out of his teenage years, yet his size and filthy, smeared face made him look much older.

The large man stared into nothingness with his mouth hanging open. Ruby pressed close to me, scanning everything with the tense alertness of a frightened cat.

“Oh, right,” Reginald said, placing his hand on the doorknob. “Before we go in, please put on gloves and masks. You do have them with you, correct?”

“Of course we do,” I replied suspiciously. “We would’ve put on gloves anyway.”

“Yes, yes,” he nodded playfully. “You know, pathogens and all that. We’ve tried to keep the room sterile inside…”

I stopped listening to Reginald’s rambling. Ruby set her bag down and pulled out a pair of medical gloves. We both kept an eye on the dull-witted man as she did.

He was leaning against the doorframe, casually picking his nose, then eating what he’d just pulled out.

So much for sterile.

After I put on my medical mask as well, Reginald nodded in satisfaction, almost cheerfully, then pressed down on the doorknob without any warning. We waited, almost holding our breath, finally expecting to reach the person we’d actually been called for.

But the miracle didn’t come.

Again.

The door opened into an antechamber. Gray wallpaper, a damp, musty smell. The chandelier cast a warm light over the room, and suddenly I had the same feeling I used to get back when I was younger, helping out at AA meetings.

Chairs lined the walls. Old plastic chairs. People were sitting in them. The men all wore dark, heavy fabric clothing; the women were dressed in long black skirts. It looked like some kind of Amish discussion circle.

But their faces were wrong.

Melted noses. Clouded eyes. Mouths without lips. Missing noses or ears.

An aberrant, twisted congregation holding a group meeting.

Ruby was practically stepping on my heels. Even so, I could see the terror on her face. Her hand trembled near the radio clipped to her white uniform shirt. I had the distinct feeling that if even a single one of them moved, Ruby would be ready to call it in immediately.

“Looks like a lot of people live here,” I said to Reginald, who gently ushered us farther into the room.

“Oh, they don’t live here,” Reginald explained. “They’re… they’re just part of the family. You know… they came because of the baby.”

“Of course…” Ruby muttered nervously.

The twisted gathering stared at us. They watched blankly as Reginald moved through them like a gentleman, and we followed behind him slowly, barely breathing.

Reginald walked up to the next door and opened it once more. The room beyond was dim. Only a small lamp was on, outlining the shape of a bed hidden behind some kind of curtain. Like a canopied bed.

“Jacob?” Ruby whispered behind me, her voice trembling with fear.

“Yes, Ruby…” I whispered back, as quietly as I could. “I hear it too.”

A woman’s painful moaning drifted out of the room. It was faint, a whimpering kind of pain, like someone trying to speak while burning with fever.

“Right this way,” Reginald said from the doorway. “Ah, it’s so dark in here…”

With that, he flipped on the light.

Now it wasn’t just the silhouette of the bed behind the curtain. Something enormous lay on it. Like a pile of pillows stacked into a single mound.

Ruby and I stood frozen in the doorway. Every instinct in me screamed to turn around, grab Ruby, and run out of that haunted mansion as fast as I could.

“My dear,” Reginald said, stepping toward the curtain. “The doctors are here. Or whatever they are. They’ve come to help.”

Then he pulled the curtain aside.

I’ve seen a lot in my life, but neither Ruby nor I was prepared for this.

A woman lay thrashing on the bed. She moved with difficulty, her head lolling from side to side. Only the remnants of her clothing covered her body, enough to suggest she’d once worked in a bistro or somewhere similar. Her hands were bound to the bed, like a slave’s.

And her stomach…

Her stomach was the size of a massive sack. Her skin was stretched paper-thin, the veins beneath it looking as if they were about to rupture. The light reflected off it like a taut, translucent membrane.

It was so large that a full-grown man could have fit inside it.

I couldn’t speak. I just stood there, staring. And I wish, dear God, I wish…that Ruby had stayed frozen too.

“What the fuck…” Ruby gasped in horror.

I reached for her hand, trying to stop her from moving, but she recoiled in fear. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her back into the crowd behind us. While we stood there, stunned by the woman on the bed, those things from outside had crept up behind us.

“Fuck you! Let go of me!” Ruby screamed.

Chaos broke loose.

Everything accelerated.

I spun around, grabbed Ruby’s arm, and pulled her close to me. With my other hand, I shoved away a short, lipless figure that lunged toward us. The crowd stayed clustered in the doorway, unmoving. I kept hold of Ruby, backing away from both the door and the grotesquely swollen woman.

“Alright! Everyone, back!” I shouted, trying to mask my terror.

“Easy now…” Reginald said calmly from beside the bed. “Just help my wife. Nothing bad will happen. It’s your duty to help those in need.”

“Like hell it is!” I snapped. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re doing here, but we’re leaving. Now.”

Reginald stared at me, eyes wide. Shock washed over his face, as if it had never occurred to him that I might refuse.

“You can’t do that!” he burst out. “This woman has carried the Lord of Worlds for three years! You can’t abandon her now!”

Ruby and I kept backing away until we were nearly against the wall. The crowd responded to the argument by pushing farther into the room.

“Jacob…” Ruby whispered beside me, pointing at the woman on the bed.

Only then did I see it too, and so did Reginald, who had been standing at her side.

The woman’s stomach rippled. Her face twisted in agony, sweat beading on her forehead as her skin went pale. The signs were unmistakable.

It was starting.

“No! No!” Reginald cried out in panic. “Not yet!”

He pressed his head against the stretched membrane of her stomach, listening for movement inside.

“Aaaahhh!” the bound woman screamed in pain.

Blood exploded from between her legs, spraying everywhere. It came out with such force that the yellow, sweat-soaked sheets instantly turned red. Thin streams of blood spilled onto the floor, flowing from the bed like a spring.

Ruby and I couldn’t move. The scene was pure horror.

“Fuck…” Reginald whispered.

He suddenly jumped back from the woman as if something were chasing him, then bolted through a door at the far end of the room, slamming it shut behind him.

The crowd erupted into wailing, like mourners at a funeral. They clawed at their faces and heads, screaming and sobbing.

Ruby stood frozen, but we couldn’t stay there. I nudged her shoulder gently and gestured toward the door Reginald had escaped through.

I tried to slip between the bed and the crowd while they were lost in their collective hysteria.

Then something appeared.

Between the dead woman’s legs, a hand emerged, grabbing her thigh and pulling itself free.

A figure began to crawl out. It had no skin. Its flesh glistened red, with bones visible in places, like a half-digested human body.

Half of it was already outside her. The crowd screamed.

Ruby and I were living through the worst nightmare of our lives.

“Jacob… help me…” the thing said, its voice coming from the woman’s body.

That was when panic took over.

We had to run. Now.

I bolted for the door, dragging Ruby with me. The crowd surged forward, pouring after us like a living tide. Everything blurred, spinning out of control.

I slammed into the door.

Locked.

I caught one terrified glance from Ruby.

Then I threw myself at it again. The rotting wood gave way, and I crashed into the next room. Ruby stumbled in after me.

But something was wrong.

Ruby staggered. Blood spread across her white uniform. A knife was buried in her side. Her face went pale, and maybe fueled by adrenaline, she managed a few more steps before collapsing in the middle of the room.

“No!” I screamed.

A one-eyed, pig-faced figure stood in the doorway, glaring at me. I hit him so hard I saw blood spray from his nose onto the doorframe.

The crowd kept pushing forward. An enormous woman with no nose charged me, I kicked her square in the chest. She flew backward, knocking others down with her. I jumped back into the room and slammed the door shut.

I braced it, then spotted a heavy wardrobe right beside it. I shoved it in front of the door.

“Help me, Jacob!” a voice cried from the other side. It was the thing that had just been born.

I leaned into the wardrobe, holding the door shut as fists slammed against it from outside. They howled and pounded like animals.

My eyes dropped to Ruby lying on the floor. The pool of blood beneath her kept growing. Panic flooded me.

“Ruby!” I shouted. “Ruby, wake up! Don’t do this to me!”

She didn’t move. The knife was buried deep in her side.

I left the door and rushed to her.

Her pulse was barely there. Her face was growing paler by the second. Blood seeped from around the blade. The jump bag was still by the bed in the other room.

“Dispatch! This is Ambulance eighteen!” I yelled into my radio. “Send backup! Anyone! Police, ambulances! A medic is down!”

The radio crackled, then went dead.

No response.

“Dispatch!” I screamed, already crying.

The door creaked as the wardrobe was pushed aside. Hands forced their way through the gap. A man’s blood-red face tried to squeeze through, screaming and snarling.

“Ruby, please… don’t do this to me…” I sobbed.

I didn’t get to finish.

The door burst open. The twisted figures flooded in.

A tall, thin man lunged at me. I tore him off and slammed him to the floor. Survival instinct and raw rage fought together inside me.

I misjudged a strike and crushed a woman’s throat. She collapsed, choking. Another man slammed into my side and knocked me away. A third landed a heavy blow to my face. I staggered but stayed upright. I had to.

Another figure grabbed my throat with both hands and started choking me. I drove my fist into his stomach. He doubled over, clutching himself.

Two men rushed me at once. One clawed at my face like an animal, filthy nails tearing into my skin. The other latched onto me like dead weight.

I backed up.

In the dim light, I didn’t see the woman I’d struck earlier, writhing on the floor. I tripped over her and crashed straight into the window. Under the combined weight of three bodies, the glass shattered, and we went through it.

I hit the muddy ground with a brutal impact. One of them caught on the gutter, hanging there like a decoration impaled by the neck. Another landed nearby, headfirst onto a rock.

I lay there, barely breathing, staring into the dark night. I couldn’t move. Pain surged through my body as I felt my dislocated arm start to throb.

“Reginald messed it up again,” a childish voice said gently.

Edmund crouched beside me. He was holding a snail in his hand, calmly studying my broken body.

“But I’m sure he’ll start over,” the boy said, then crushed the snail in his bare fingers.

And then everything went black.

When I came to, dawn was already breaking.

My body ached, throbbed, I was sure there wasn’t a single bone left in me that hadn’t been damaged. But my legs, no matter how much they hurt, still worked. I struggled to my feet. My hand was bruised purple, my fingers bent at unnatural angles. I could only breathe in ragged gasps, and a sharp pain stabbed through my side.

I reached for my radio, but my fingers brushed against jagged plastic.

It was shattered. I don’t even remember when it broke.

I started moving slowly, dragging my feet. But not toward the ambulance. Not to call for help.

I went back into the mansion.

I couldn’t leave Ruby up there. I had to see her. I had to know what happened to her.

But to my shock, everyone inside was dead.

I found the priest too. He was sitting on the stairs, his eyes rolled back, dried blood-tinged foam crusted at the corner of his mouth. I found a room filled with deformed children as well. They had ended up just like him. Every single one.

By the time I finally reached the horrific room upstairs, the world was spinning around me. But there were no living people there either. Every body lay sprawled across the floor, the bed, or whatever surface they had collapsed onto.

Ruby was gone.

Only a massive pool of blood remained, marking where she had once been.

But she wasn’t the only one missing.

Among the dead, Reginald was nowhere to be found. That’s when Edmund’s words echoed through my dizzy mind:

“But I’m sure he’ll start over…”