THE BABY MILL [[{SHINee}]]

THE BABY MILL [[31]] ULTRASOUND

            The faint roar of thunder penetrated through the thick walls of the institution. Barely audible it rang strong in the ears of TaeMin who found all his senses heightened as the child in his body grew. He could tell that Key heard it too by the way he jumped every time the sky laughed.

            Longing for the clouds and the feel of water droplets on his body struck TaeMin hard. Was it still the same? Maybe it had changed like his body… Turned from something innocent into something contorted by the sick passion…

            He groaned.

            Another spasm clenched his spine and had him writhing beneath his blankets. The sounds he made pierced the silence soothing the carrier, pushing the gift of sleep further and further away. His pain persisted, if not continuing in his spin choosing instead to pulsate in the organ’s suffering from claustrophobia.

            One intake of breath had him whimpering. The tips Key and Onew had fed him repeated in his head though his mantra won over in the end.

            One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

            Again and again, but he rarely ever got to reach his last number before discomfort overpowered him. It was a given that the more he grew stomach wise the more uncomfortable he was going to get – that TaeMin understood – but it was more than what Key had describe to him… It was like hell building a suburb in his body.

            The baby didn’t seem okay with it either. It was almost as week as he was, but its small kicks and punches came often. Like it needed to announce its displeasure.

Fidgety baby, he’d come to calling it. He’d asked it to stop sometimes, though it wouldn’t listen… Nothing in his body listened to him any more…

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…

“Are you okay?” Key croaked from his bed, bleary with sleep.

            “I-I can’t sleep…” TaeMin whimpered. An attempt to turn on his side rocked his center off place and crumbled him to a gasping heap tangled in the bed sheet. “Everything hurts…”

            “Where does it hut?” Key asked him.

            “My back,” TaeMin started. He refrained from saying everywhere, knowing it wouldn’t help any, and chose to narrow in on his biggest pain.

            “Have you tried putting a pillow in the curve of your back?”

            “I can’t move…” Something clamped on an organ of TaeMin’s and his voice died out to a squeak; a door hinge carried by a gust of wind.

            “Hold on… Let me try…” Key broke off as the limp noodles forming his arms strained to carry the weight of his torso. One, two, three tried it took just to get a good support with the mattress. Even then, his elbows trembled with the effort while sweat beaded on his upper lip. It was with one heaving intake of breath that he rose to a sitting position with his legs dangling off the edge of his bed. But even that small motion had bleached the grey colour out of Key’s face, leaving him pale like the ghost of his career.

            “Don’t…” TaeMin managed to whisper, knowing Key couldn’t handle this right then. However, his words came too late. There was a seizure like twitch and then Key’s eyes rolled back in his head, leaving the whites to frighten the young boy, and the tension disappeared from his limbs. The gap between the beds wasn’t wide, but somehow Key’s frail frame slid through it. There was a perturbing thud sound upon floor – body contact that set TaeMin hyperventilating.