Miscarriage

Havermouth, Four and a Half Years Before

** Trigger warning – this chapter features pregnancy loss. **

In the quiet, Aislen could hear the small settling movement of the house, the draft where old joins met imperfectly, the creak of boards, and the groan of joists. There was the buzz of the refrigerator in the kitchen, and the drip of water into the sink, the tick of a small insect body hitting glass as a blowfly trapped indoors sought freedom.

She breathed in and released the breath slowly, trying to settle into the peaceful oblivion beyond the small sounds and movements. Daisy sat opposite to her, and Aislen imagined that she could feel the air warmed by body heat, that she could feel the shift in the air from Daisy’s breath.

She focused on the bubble around herself and that around Daisy, holding both in place as she stretched her hands out to meet Daisy’s. The bubbles disappeared – they didn’t burst, but rather evaporated as if they had never been there in the first place, the mome