Jane didn’t answer me immediately.
She just stayed there… on her knees… shaking.
Emilia clung to my arm, crying softly.
The silence in the room felt heavier than the fear.
Finally, Jane lifted her head.
Her eyes were red.
but from something deeper.
Something… buried for years.
“They are not men,” she whispered.
A chill ran down my spine.
“…what?” I asked.
My grip tightened around Emilia.
“Collect what?” I demanded.
Jane looked straight at me.
The word hit like a punch to my chest.
“What are you talking about?!” I snapped. “I’m right here!”
She shook her head slowly.
“No… not like that. Not your body.”
A pause.
The room went completely still.
Emilia started crying harder.
“Mom, stop it… you’re scaring me…”
But Jane kept talking.
“Seventeen years ago,” she said, her voice trembling, “before I met you… I was nothing. No money. No home. No future.”
I frowned.
“That’s not true, Jane—”
“It is!” she cut in sharply. “You met me after everything changed.”
I froze.
“…what changed?”
Her lips quivered.
“I made a deal.”
My heart dropped.
“A deal… with them.”
The memory flashed in my mind—
Seventeen men.
Seventeen trousers.
Seventeen years.
“No…” I whispered.
Jane nodded, tears streaming down her face.
“I was desperate. I wanted a better life. I wanted love… stability… a family.”
Her voice broke.
“So I asked for a husband who would love me endlessly… who would never leave me… who would give me a beautiful child…”
Emilia tightened her grip on me.
“And in return?” I asked, my voice barely steady.
Jane closed her eyes.
“I promised them something in return after seventeen years.”
Silence.
Thick.
Terrifying.
“…what did you promise?” I asked.
She opened her eyes again.
And this time…
I saw it.
Guilt.
Fear.
Regret.
“I promised them… your life.”
Everything inside me went cold.
Emilia gasped.
“No… no, that’s not true!” she cried.
But Jane couldn’t stop anymore.
“They gave me everything,” she said, her voice shaking uncontrollably. “You… this house… our daughter… all of it.”
She looked at me like she was seeing me for the last time.
“Seventeen years of happiness… in exchange for you.”
My legs felt weak.
“So all this time…” I said slowly, “I was just… what? A loan?”
“No!” she screamed, crawling toward me. “You were never just that! I fell in love with you for real! I tried to find a way out—I swear I did!”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?!” I shouted.
“Because I was afraid!” she cried. “Afraid of losing you sooner… afraid they would take you immediately!”
The room fell silent again.
I looked at the torn trousers on the floor.
Then back at her.
“…and now?” I asked quietly.
Jane’s face collapsed.
“Now the deal is broken.”
A pause.
Her next words came out like a death sentence.
“They won’t take you anymore…”
Relief rushed into my chest—
But only for a second.
Because she kept speaking.
“…they’ll take something worse.”
The lights flickered.
The temperature dropped sharply.
Emilia screamed.
And then—
From somewhere deep in the house…
We heard it again.
Footsteps.
But this time…
Not seventeen.
More.
Much more.
Jane’s eyes widened in horror.
“No… no, this isn’t right…”
I grabbed Emilia tightly.
“What now, Jane?! What did you do?!”
Her voice came out as a whisper.
“I didn’t just break the deal…”
A tear rolled down her cheek.
“…I invited them all.”