THE BABY MILL [[{SHINee}]]

THE BABY MILL [[32]] PREMATURE

            Sometimes the chatter outside was loud enough to hear, other times not so much. Key often was able to discern the deep baritone voices of one man part from the soprano of another’s, but more often than not that was all he’d be able to comprehend of their conversations. With the never ending dark now contributing to the lack of time in the box room, he had nothing better to do than sleep and fantasize about the past. Or so he tried to convince himself. He had to revisit his past constantly in order to ignore the cold spot in TaeMin’s bed.

            Not a hint was given as to where TaeMin had been taken. Key had woken up from a fainting spell and noticed his roommate gone. The stagnant odour of his ill body had remained in the room as well as the dark brown freckles on the bed sheets, but the younger boy never returned.

            Chancing getting up was a risk Key wasn’t willing to make. Especially since the last time he’d tried movement vertigo had consumed him and painted colours over his eyes.

            Nonetheless, he persevered through bouts of exhaustions to strain his ears, desperate to pick up on snippets of conversation in case they carried news of TaeMin.

            But he would never admit that to himself. Not unless he was freed from this place or touching his donor’s face.

            The poor boy looked like a whale every time Key turned to him. Beneath the uniform white shirt they both wore it was easy to see the purple turrets marking his stomach. Grungy sores picked at the bits of skin still clinging to his frame while that innocent child face distorted into pained expressions. Key was all too familiar with it. He’d been living the luxury life compared to TaeMin… But some times he swore he could feel his monster baby turning in his stomach still. Rubbing a hand over his deflated tummy only reminded him of how truly alone he was.

            Not another living soul in the room.

            Where could they have taken him so close to his due date? If it was an examination he wouldn’t have been gone for so long…

            “They’ve bee asses… power outage.”

            Outside the room Key heard workers talking loudly with someone else whose voice could barely be heard. He lay as still as possible in order to hear what they had to say. All they talked about was something about the power which didn’t concern him much being he was confined to the bed for the rest of eternity anyway. Nothing pertaining to TaeMin, therefore nothing useful.

            What if he had suddenly delivered the baby when he’d been conked out and hadn’t survived…?

            No… Key wouldn’t allow himself to travel in that direction. There was still hope that his roommate would return to him. That he would have another human to sympathize with and take care of him like no one had been able to do for him. Like a mother passing her wisdom on to her child.

            Babies. They were everywhere. If Key didn’t cease his thoughts of them he’d end up a heaping mess of tears…

            Nodding on and off Key had a hard time doing his espionage. Conversations flew right over his head as his body demanded the rest it needed. Between the cramps and naps it was hard to remember what he was doing any more.

            Every time he felt like his memory was failing it would attack him with a ferocity he’d never known to be active in his mind. He would be waking up (or attempting to stay awake) and a spiking pressure would poke at his toes. Persistent, but easy to ignore. Until it decided that it didn’t want to stay under the radar. With an enormous hate it shocked up Key’s spine like lightning and flash brilliant images of TaeMin before his eyes. In those moments he often confused the ringing in his ears for the crying of a baby and he’d end up sweating while trying to figure out how he’d forgotten the very boy that had kept his grip on life.