The scream wasn’t Ivy’s. It wasn’t even human.
It rose from the floorboards, poured from the walls, howled from the vents like the house itself was in agony. The rafters above Clara groaned and twisted. Nails burst from wood. The attic door slammed shut again without anyone touching it.
Clara stumbled toward the far wall, dragging herself up as Ivy hovered, not walking now, but gliding, her feet inches above the floor.
Blood still leaked from the wound in her side, but she seemed unfazed.
"You stabbed your baby," Ivy whispered, voice layered with hundreds.
Clara spat blood from her mouth. "You're not my baby."
Ivy blinked slowly. Her smile fell.
She lifted her hands.
And the walls bled.
From the wooden seams, from the cracked beams, black ichor seeped, dripping like tears from the very bones of the house. The paintings ignited in flame one by one, faces of Ivy grinning through the fire until they burned into ash.
Clara ducked as the chandelier fell from the attic rafters, smashing beside her in a spray of glass and sparks.
The entire structure shifted, groaning violently.
Then a voice came from beneath them.
Daniel.
"She chose me first, Clara. You were just the vessel."
Ivy’s head tilted back. Her mouth opened wide. Too wide.
And Daniel’s voice spoke from her throat.
"The blood bound us. The ritual completed. You gave her to me."
The lights in the attic flared.
Every window shattered outward.
Clara screamed and dove into a pile of rotted boxes. Ivy surged after her, arms outstretched, fingernails sharpened into hooks.
Clara grabbed a metal pole from the floor and jabbed it up. Ivy caught it mid-strike, bent it again, and threw it across the room. Clara rolled beneath the crib.
There, beneath the slats, her hand touched a bottle.
Gasoline.
The old emergency jug. The one she forgot she left there when the power had gone out weeks ago.
She stared up at the ceiling, blinking tears, coughing blood.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Then she unscrewed the cap and poured it across the floor.
Ivy paused.
“You wouldn’t.”
Clara struck a match.
The flame danced, trembling, in her fingers.
"You don’t get to take her from me. If I have to burn with her, I will."
Ivy hissed, lunging
And Clara dropped the flame.
Clara backed toward the stairwell, her breath ragged, vision red-lined with panic. Ivy, her daughter, her tormentor watched with hollow joy. Behind her, the hallway shuddered.
And then it happened.
The house began to move.
The wallpaper peeled away in strips like shedding skin. The ceiling groaned, beams warping inward as if the second floor was about to kneel. Doors that once creaked gently in the morning breeze now slammed, sealing off exits one by one.
Clara turned and sprinted.
She didn’t get far.
The hallway lengthened.
Literally stretched.
With every step she took, the staircase seemed farther. The floor beneath her bowed and warped, groaning like it held the weight of centuries.
Behind her, Ivy’s bare feet didn’t tap.
They echoed.
Like footsteps in a cathedral.
"Don’t run," Ivy said calmly. "The house likes it when they run."
Clara turned a corner only to find herself standing in front of the same broken mirror Ivy had shattered earlier.
Blood dripped from its edges.
And from it, her reflection smiled.
But she wasn’t smiling.
A low creak sounded behind her.
She whirled around.
The hallway was gone.
In its place, a narrow corridor lined with nursery wallpaper and hanging mobiles twisting slowly, their shadows long and grotesque.
She stepped forward.
The walls breathed, their pale blue surface rising and falling like lungs gasping beneath flesh.
A mobile spun. Each shape not stars or moons or cartoon animals but small teeth, strung by human hair.
The air smelled like old milk and fire.
She gagged.
From down the hall came a soft sob.
"Mommy?"
Clara froze.
It was Ivy's voice. But not the one layered with demons.
It was her baby. Small. Afraid.
Clara stepped closer.
The walls narrowed.
The ceiling lowered.
She had to crouch.
At the end of the corridor, a tiny door.
She opened it.
Inside, Ivy sat on the floor in her pajamas, hugging a stuffed animal with no face. Her cheeks were wet.
"I don't know where I am," the child sobbed. "It's dark in here. Mommy, help me."
Clara fell to her knees.
"I'm here, baby. I'm here."
She reached forward
Ivy looked up.
And smiled.
Not sweetly.
Not sadly.
Triumphantly.
Her eyes flashed black. Her mouth tore wide.
"Got you."
The floor dropped.
And Clara screamed into darkness.
Flames were climbing.
Smoke began to seep through the floorboards, curling around Clara’s ankles as she landed hard, rolling across broken wood and soot. Her shoulder struck something sharp a snapped beam or shattered stair but she didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop.
The air was thick now. Choked. Each breath scraped her lungs.
Somewhere above, a beam cracked and fell. The roar of fire thundered overhead like a collapsing cathedral.
The house was burning.
And there was no way out.
Clara stumbled to her feet, coughing, her hands covered in ash. The hallway around her twisted again not just with fear now, but with flame. Tongues of fire raced along the baseboards, licking up the walls like they knew where she was running.
She ran left a door. Tried the knob. Locked.
She turned right.
Another hallway. Not there before.
The smoke grew thicker.
From the living room, glass shattered outward. A blast of heat followed. The drapes caught. The couch ignited.
Ivy appeared at the end of the corridor, untouched by flame, her dress fluttering like silk in the heat.
"You burn so easily, Mommy."
Her voice layered again. Daniel’s whisper inside it. Others too.
Clara grabbed a piece of broken furniture and hurled it at her. Ivy didn’t flinch.
"I warned you."
A gust of wind slammed Clara backward—but there were no open windows. The force came from within.
She hit the wall hard, head ringing.
The fire surged around them now, framing Ivy in a crown of smoke and light.
Outside
Sirens.
Voices shouting.
Neighbors screamed from their lawns. Mrs. Bellamy’s voice cracked the quiet with a prayer, shouted across the street.
Clara coughed, crawling toward the kitchen, dragging herself by the fingertips.
The floor beneath her burned red.
Ivy followed slowly.
"You gave me life, Mommy. Now I give it back."
Her arms raised.
The kitchen knives leapt from the drawers, hovered in the air.
Clara rolled beneath the table just as one embedded in the floor where her hand had been.
Fire bloomed overhead. The ceiling groaned.
Outside, a firefighter slammed against the back door.
"Clara! If you can hear me, get to the porch!"
She looked up.
Smoke. Ash. Blades.
Ivy, standing still in the heart of the inferno, smiling.
Clara made her choice.
And dove into the flame.
Clara’s collapsing hope her raw, desperate need to believe her daughter is still inside.
Ivy briefly glitching a flicker of her real self struggling to surface.
A flashback or echo of a moment when Ivy was a baby innocent, safe, loved.
Clara’s internal conflict does she kill the thing wearing her daughter’s face or die trying to save what might no longer exist?
Fire swelled behind Clara. Her skin blistered with heat. The house howled. The walls trembled like lungs convulsing in pain.
She crawled, hand over hand, through smoke and falling embers. Her knees burned. Her breath came in gasps.
Above the firelight, Ivy stood in the doorway.
The doll hung limp in one hand. Her mouth was a crooked smile. But her eyes
Her eyes flickered.
Just for a moment.
Blue. Wide. Human.
Clara stopped.
“Ivy?” she choked. “Baby… is that you?”
And then
A sound.
Not the voice of a demon. Not Daniel’s laughter.
But a soft whimper.
A little girl’s cry.
“I’m cold, Mommy…”
Clara dropped the kitchen knife.
Tears blurred her vision.
She stumbled forward through the heat. “Come here, sweetie. Come to me.”
But Ivy didn’t move.
She just stared blue eyes trembling, tears trailing through soot on her cheeks.
Then her lips twitched.
“No.”
A low voice not hers slithered from her throat: “She’s mine now.”
And the fire roared between them.
Clara fell to her knees. “Please… please let her go…”
But Ivy turned and vanished through the fire.
And Clara, screaming her name, crawled after her into the smoke.
again in another quick moment ,Clara dragged herself through the smoke this time, the fire roared like a dying god licking the walls, collapsing the rafters.
She reached the hallway the one that had once led to Ivy’s nursery. The door stood open.
Inside, nothing burned.
No flame. No ash.
Just soft yellow light... and the sound of a lullaby.
She stepped inside.
The crib was whole again. The wallpaper giraffes and clouds untouched. On the floor sat Ivy.
Not possessed. Not twisted.
Just a child.
Playing with her doll, humming softly.
“Ivy?” Clara whispered.
The girl looked up, blinking. “Mommy?”
Clara sank to her knees. Tears cut through the soot on her cheeks.
“I’m here, baby. I’m here.”
“I was scared,” Ivy said. “But you came.”
Clara reached out.
Ivy crawled into her arms, small again, warm and real.
“I love you,” Clara choked. “So much. So, so much.”
“I know.”
Clara buried her face in her daughter’s hair, held her like the world was ending
Because it was.
And then
A whisper.
“Too late.”
The warmth in Ivy’s body vanished.
Clara pulled back.
Ivy was gone.
Her arms held only ash.
And the nursery burned away around her like paper in the wind.
How to Use the University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository
This short guide explains what the Repository is, how to search it effectively, how to export citations and use the download statistics, and how to deposit work if you are a faculty or center author. The instructions are pragmatic and up to date as of the linked repository pages.
At a glance: what this repository is
The University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository is the Law Library's institutional archive for faculty scholarship, student journal back issues, center reports, multimedia, and selected rare or digitized materials. Items have persistent links and many are available as full text PDFs. The Repository uses the Digital Commons platform, which also enables network search across many law school collections. For the official repository home page, see the University of Minnesota Law Repository homepage. 0
Quick links (copyable)
- Repository home. 1
- Most popular papers (top downloads / most popular). 2
- Repository FAQ and submission guidance. 3
- Faculty Scholarship collection. 4
Step 1. How to search the repository
There are two principal modes of search: quick search and advanced search.
Quick search, for fast results
- Open the repository home page at >https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/<5
- Use the search box near the top to enter a few keywords, for example, "administrative law", "Section 230", or an author's surname.
- After pressing Enter, use the left filters to narrow by collection, date range, or author, as shown on the results page.
Tip: Performance is best with short focused queries. Put exact phrases in quotes to find precise matches, for example "access to justice".
Advanced search, for precise needs
- Click "Advanced Search" on the repository front page. You can then search specific fields such as Title, Author, Abstract, Year, or Subject. This is useful for citation retrieval or systematic literature searches.
- Combine fields: for example, search Author = "Weissbrodt" and Year > 2018 to find recent works by that author.
Step 2. Interpreting most popular / download lists
The Repository provides lists that highlight most popular papers and recent additions. The "Most Popular Papers" page ranks items based on average full-text downloads per day since posting. That is different from total downloads; it helps identify works with steady, sustained interest. See the Most Popular Papers page for the live list. 6
To read an item-level download metric:
- Open the article page by clicking its title from a results or list page. For example, the item "Human Rights Conditions: What We Know and Why It Matters" has its own page with a download area and a stable URL. 7
- On that page you will typically see "Download" and a label showing "Downloads" and a time window such as "Since May 27, 2019". The public interface sometimes shows the numeric download count; in other cases the count is shown only in admin views or is updated dynamically by JavaScript. If a visible number is not present, the item still records downloads on the platform backend. 8
Practical implication: for quick assessment, use Most Popular and Top Downloads lists. For exact totals you may need to open individual pages and scroll to the Download area.
Step 3. Exporting citations and downloading PDFs
Most item pages include a PDF link and tools to export citation formats. Here is how to export and cite.
Export a citation
- Open an item page. Look for buttons or links named "Download", "Cite", or icons for citation export. On Digital Commons the citation tools often provide RIS, BibTeX, RefWorks, or EndNote formats.
- Click the citation export option you need and save the file. Import the saved file into your reference manager such as Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote.
Download the full text PDF
- On the item page, click the "Download" or the PDF thumbnail to open the file in your browser. Save it locally for annotation.
- If the PDF is not available due to publisher restrictions, the page will mention whether only an accepted manuscript or a post-print is permitted and if an embargo applies. The Repository FAQ explains copyright rules and permissible file types. 9
Step 4. How to deposit work (for UMN Law authors)
Only authorized contributors can submit content. The deposit process is straightforward and supported by the Law Library. Here are the steps in brief.
- Confirm you have the rights to deposit the work. If you transferred rights to a publisher, check whether the publisher allows repository deposit and which version (pre-print, post-print, or published PDF) can be uploaded. The FAQ explains common publisher policies. 10
- Prepare your file and an abstract. The Library accepts PDFs, Word documents, and some multimedia formats. 11
- Email the Law Library at law-ref@umn.edu with the file, citation information, and confirmation of rights. The Library staff will process permissions, add metadata, and publish the item. 12
Step 5. Practical research workflows and tips
- Use the repository plus the Digital Commons Law Commons network to search related works across institutions. The Law Commons aggregates many law school repositories and is useful for cross-institution reviews. 13
- Set up RSS or email alerts for new additions to a collection or for search terms to monitor developments. The repository provides "Notify me" features on searches and collections. 14
- If you rely on numeric download counts for impact metrics, snapshot the numbers and the date. Download counts change over time and are a running metric. For citation-based metrics, combine repository downloads with Google Scholar and Web of Science checks for a fuller picture. 15
Troubleshooting and when to contact the library
If you do not see a file you expect, or if an item you submitted is missing, contact the Law Library at law-ref@umn.edu. The FAQ contains guidance on embargoes, removal requests, permitted file formats, and policies about what materials can be included. 16
Example item and how to read its page
Example: the article "Human Rights Conditions: What We Know and Why It Matters" has a stable item page and a downloadable PDF. The page displays the recommended citation, a download control, and a Downloads label showing the tracking period. Use such item pages as templates when preparing your own metadata for deposit. 17
Further reading and official pages
- Repository home, University of Minnesota Law School. 18
- Most popular papers, repository page for top downloads. 19
- Repository FAQ and submission guidance. 20
- Faculty Scholarship collection sample listing. 21
