The ame-onna stole her baby.
She sobbed over the empty crib for nights, until even her husband left her alone. And as the nights passed, she began to feel different. Powerful. Capable to undo the crime against her.
She snuck out of her room. No well-wishers lurked in the hall. Good. She retrieved a large laundry sack from the laundry room, and then hurried out into the night.
Alert, she searched the dark streets.
There. From one of the houses, a baby cried. She clutched the sack to her chest and crept to the house to reclaim what was hers.
Author’s Note: This is based on the ame-onna, a yokai from Japanese folklore that steals newborn children. Mothers whose babies are stolen by an ame-onna sometimes transform into one themselves.
Drabbles that pack a lot of emotion into so few words are real gems. This story is so sad and creepy at the same time that we just had to publish it.