This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/DullPhilosopher8491 on 2026-07-28 18:38:59+00:00.

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I never wanted kids, I know, weird way to start the story but just hear me out.

I lost my mother when I was very young. Everyone says it was postpartum depression. She had bipolar disorder, and staying on medication while pregnant left me a sickly child. She couldn’t cope and decided to take her life.

So when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a late teen, I vowed to never have kids. Having to know your mother through the memories of relatives is the worst and I’d never want to put my child through that. Laura, who was my mother’s best friend and kind of my second mother, never spoke one ill word about her. She always says I remind her of my mother, especially when I smile.

I had planned to get tubal ligation as soon as I saved up for the procedure but I had one drunken night and now here we are. To make matters worse, I didn’t even know his name. I just wanted to get the virginity stuff out of the way and I gave it up to a charming guy with the most beautiful head of hair I’d ever seen.

I had just started college, there was no way I could juggle that with the baby. So I decided to get an abortion. Imagine my surprise when my belly started growing and I was still pregnant. Laura scheduled a suction aspiration for me at the clinic. On the day of my appointment, I got in a car accident where I almost lost my leg. By the time I could limp back to the clinic, it was too late. I cried more about missing that appointment than I did when I almost lost a leg.

I mourned the life I could have had and tried to celebrate the one that was growing inside me.

Laura kept her promise of making sure that I wouldn’t be doing this alone. When I expressed my concerns about what happened to my mother she said “your mother wasn’t as sick as everyone thought ” I never understood that but I chalked it up to pregnancy brain. “you’ll understand that soon enough” I assumed she meant motherhood.

She was so excited when she found out I was having a girl. She was even there during labour.

When I gave birth, they spanked her a couple of times but she never cried, she coughed. They gave her to me, I waited for that warmth, for my heart to melt but I was met with cold, old eyes.

I asked the nurse if there’s something wrong with her and they said she’s fine, everything checked out.

She gripped my finger with a strength of a baby much older than 30 minutes.

She kept looking at me, unblinking.

When we got home, Laura helped us settle in, still not a squeak from my baby. I’ve decided to name her Lily, after my mother. It’s funny because she named me after her mother.

I had to play a guessing game whenever I fed or changed Lily because she never cries. The doctors insisted she was fine and newborns blink less than adults .

Laura insisted that’s how I was like at Lily’s age and it’s nothing to worry about.

She checked on us almost every day and offered a hand whenever I needed. It wasn’t that much as Lily is like a doll, never cries, no cooing and unblinking.

The most she does is follow me with her eyes.

Last night I felt a presence looming over me and when I woke up, the shadow like figure disappeared into the living room. I hurried out because that’s where her crib is. When I got there she was sitting perfectly upright in her crib, eyes fixed on the bedroom door.

Waiting.

As far as I know, babies don’t start sitting at least four months in. Despite my unease, I took her to the bedroom with me. I patted her on the back to put her back to sleep. She dozed off.

She looks so normal with her eyes closed.

I couldn’t sleep so I checked the monitor. Nothing was happening for a while but then there was static, there was a figure

towering over her. I recognised her immediately. It’s Laura. She never went anywhere without that cashmere scarf and that bag.

She left hours ago and she calls when she’s coming by so why was she here at this time. I was about to put the monitor down and call her when someone else joins her, I could recognise that hair in the darkest of rooms.

How is he here? And why is Laura… My thoughts are cut short when Lily sat up like she’d done it a thousand times.

He bends over and blows something black into her.

He then stares straight into the baby’s monitor. I yelped and dropped it.

I’m trying to find my phone under the pillow and I can feel it behind me.

I spent my whole life believing postpartum depression killed my mother, I wonder if it ever stood by her bed.

Because whatever followed us from Lily’s crib

…just exhaled against my neck.