Picture Story: A Mother's Love (Patreon)

(Please note: one of the characters in this story is a minor, so don't expect any sex or nudity!)

Hilda's unexpected pregnancy had been a whirlwind! From conception to birth, it had lasted a mere ten weeks instead of the normal nine months that gestation normally takes. But then, her baby wasn't entirely "normal." Little Ava had been born with crimson skin, a tail, and cute little horns on her forehead. She looked like an adorable little devil! Yet Ava did not stay that way. Hilda fell asleep nursing Ava in her arms, and when she woke up, her child looked like a perfectly ordinary human infant.

Ava's complexion - while no longer tinted toward the red end of the spectrum - was still a lot darker than Hilda's, hinting at the ethnicity of her father. Hilda searched her memory for any dark-skinned coworkers with whom she might have hooked up at the office New Year's party, but drew a blank. She had no idea who Ava's daddy might be! The circumstances of that party were still pretty fuzzy.

It seemed that Ava's accelerated growth was going to continue even outside the womb. After a few days, she was the same size as a baby over a month old. By the end of the second week, she was already crawling around! Ava also seemed to want to eat solid food, so Hilda began to feed her baby food in between breast feedings. She added diapers, wipes, and baby food to her normal shopping list for subsequent trips to the supermarket, and was shocked by how much everything cost. Baby supplies were really expensive!

At first, Hilda was worried about how she would make a living and take care of Ava. She couldn't exactly claim maternity leave at this point without raising awkward questions, and she had already used up most of her accumulated vacation time to conceal her accelerated pregnancy from her coworkers. The Covid pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The lockdowns forced everyone to stay at home, so Hilda was able to stay in the apartment and care for Ava. The company she worked for set it up so that she could work from home on her computer, so money wasn't a problem.

Still, those stimulus checks really helped out! Ava continued to develop at an unnatural rate, and kept outgrowing her clothes. Hilda was constantly ordering new clothing online - and baby clothes were not cheap! Not to mention toys! Hilda was not sure what sort of toys to get, so she showed pictures to Ava on the websites and bought the things she got excited about. One of her favorites was a cuddly stuffed frog. Ava was already walking at three months old, and she would carry that frog around with her everywhere!

Ava started talking around the same time that she took to her feet. With no one else around, Hilda realized it was up to her to teach Ava how to talk. It didn't take long for Hilda to discover that her daughter was quite precocious. They were holding extensive conversations by the time Ava was five months old. She asked questions about everything!

"Mommy, why are plants green?"

"Mommy, who pays the electricity bill for the sun?"

"Mommy, where does the water go when you flush the toilet?"

A couple months later, Ava was learning to read. Hilda realized that she didn't have any books suitable for beginning readers to use for teaching Ava. At first, she used some of the old fashion magazines she had lying around. As much as Ava seemed to enjoy looking at all the pictures, Hilda knew that wasn't good enough. She started ordering children's books online, and began to educate Ava in earnest. Home schooling was really the only option. Even if schools were not locked down, there was no way that Hilda could enroll Ava without drawing unwanted attention to her preternatural rate of growth. She didn't want her daughter to end up as a guinea pig in some sort of government lab!

Yet as time passed and Ava continued to grow, Hilda could tell that her daughter was frustrated about being cooped up in the apartment all the time. When the mayor finally began to ease some of the lockdown restrictions, Hilda took advantage of the new freedom to give Ava a taste of the outside world. Mostly they went on shopping trips, but Hilda also took her daughter to the Met, the Guggenheim, and Times Square. It really touched Hilda's heart to see her daughter embracing every new experience with wonder and joy. Ava's favorite place of all was Central Park. Her little girl reveled in that little slice of nature nestled in the midst of the skyscrapers.

During their excursions, they mostly managed to avoid encountering any of their neighbors. That was intentional. Hilda did not want to answer any awkward questions about how she came to have a daughter who looked nine years old when she was herself only twenty-two. Unfortunately, the super's nosy daughter, Rita, saw them leaving one day. After that, Hilda noticed Rita surreptitiously watching them from time to time. It worried her, but if she confronted Rita about spying on them it might make matters worse. 

Ava's thirst for knowledge soon exceeded Hilda's ability to satiate. Fortunately, the internet provided access to a vast sea of information, and Ava dove into that sea to plumb its depths. Yet Ava preferred to have physical books to hold in her hands as she read; she ordered as many as their budget would allow.

"Mommy, have you heard of Schrödinger's cat?"

"No, dear. What kind of cat is it?"

"Umm... I don't know. But Schrödinger said that if he put a cat in a steel box with a vial of deadly hydrocyanic acid, released by a Geiger counter from the decay of a radioactive atom, that cat would be in a state of quantum flux - both alive and dead at the same time - until you open the box."

"That sounds dreadful! Was this Schrödinger some kind of psycho?"

"It was just a thought experiment, Mommy! He didn't kill any cats."

Hilda loved her daughter very much. She also loved being a mother! Yet Ava was growing up so fast, she was worried that she would not get to fully experience the joys of motherhood for very long. Based on her appearance, Ava had reached her early teens... maybe even her mid teens. How much longer would it be until she was an adult?

One day when Hilda went grocery shopping, Ava opted to stay home to finish an article on paleobotany that she was reading online. When Hilda returned, she found Ava waiting for her at the front door. The girl looked very upset.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

"Mommy, I did something very bad!"

"Aww... did you use my credit card to read an article behind a paywall again?"

"No, Mommy... I think that I sucked out Rita's soul!"

Hilda blinked. "You... did what?"

"Rita came into the apartment while you were out... she must have used her dad's master key! I don't think she knew I was here..."

Hilda followed her daughter into the living room.

"When I asked her to leave, she said that there was no way I could be your daughter... she said that she was going to call the police, and have child protective services take me away from you..."

The sight waiting in the living room made all the blood rush from Hilda's face.

"I got really scared, and, and... I lost control and reverted to my natural form... and I guess I just reacted defensively. I sucked out her soul and left her body as an empty husk!"

"Your... natural form?" Hilda asked softly, staring in shock at the 'empty husk' standing in front of her couch.

"Yeah... I think that you might have seen it when I was born. I have tried to hide it from you, because I didn't want you to freak out, but... I'll show you."

Hilda had almost forgotten about the adorable little devil baby that she had given birth to all those months ago. She had almost convinced herself that she had imagined it. Yet the proof stood before her now.

Ava was trembling.

Hilda stepped forward and pulled her daughter into a hug. "Don't worry, honey, we will figure something out." She kissed Ava's cheek. "Mommy will always love you, no matter what!"