THE BABY MILL [[{SHINee}]]

THE BABY MILL [[22]] MISCARRIAGE

Darkness enveloped Key on all side, sealing him in like those vacuum seal baggies he'd used to pack his sandwiches in back during grade school. The abyss he was travelling in had no end in sight. There was no top, no bottom, so sides and yet his feet were touching a solid floor that was allowing him to walk. If there was any noise he wasn't able to hear it either. Key felt like his ears were stuffed with cotton and if he tried to pull the cotton out he would end up pulling at a neverending chain like those magicians and their infinite handkerchiefs.

On and on Key marched with no clear destination. With all the darkness it was difficult to even see his body. And yet he could see everything...

A breeze blew, seemingly appearing out of thin air (or maybe the side of the abyss had town and allowed some of the waking world's matter to fly in) riddling Key's arms in goose bumps. His body quivered under the feather like touch of the air. Something eerie was looming ahead. No matter which way he shifted his vision, though, Key couldn't pinpoint it.

There was that feeling of someone following him. Not like the paparazzi or magazine reporters that cluttered his shows and rehearsals. Those people came by the masses and weren't too subtle. No, the vibe wasn't right... There was just one perswon following him here; jumping into the concealed tracks that his feet left suspended in the abyss.

At first he paid no attention to it, but as the presence of the stranger grew more intense Key's self control dissipated. He found himself looking over his shoulder every two seconds, craving to catch at least a glimpse of the stranger. But he twisted and craned his neck until a kink formed under the right side of his jaw and still his eyes were unable to pick up on any form of life other than his. 

Blood rushed through his ears save Key was unable to hear it. The pressure was the only indication that he had about his quickened heart pace as all his other senses had dulled down to nothing.

Buddump, buddump, buddump his heart beat against his rib cage. Buddump, buddump, buddump it skipped across his bones like the batons on an xilophone.

And suddenly there were two.

Buddump, buddump. Buddump buddump. Buddump buddump.

For ever one of Key's heart beats another one joined milliseconds after. The time gap was barelky noticable but significant enough for him to hear. It unnerved him to say the least. The matching rhthym confirmed that there was someone else in the abyss with him, but where?

He turned in a full circle, eyes so wide that the whites stood out boldly. Darkness. That's all he could see. Black, black, black, white, black - white! Key turned again searching for the change in colour. Black, black, wihte. There it was. Could he reach it? He didn't know, but he had to try...

Step after step was meant to bring him closer to his newfound destination, but the white area never grew. If anything it was shrinking. This whole thing resembled a movie where the heroine was running to no avail as every time she reached a certain spot she ran through a portal that forced her back to the starting point, stuck in a time wrap for infinite.

That wouldn't be Key because he wouldn't let it shrink. He couldn't let it shrink!

He ran. He ran. Ran. Ran. To the psot. The white. It was there; he could reach it. The spot. Where was it? Where did it go? The spot!

A cry pierced the air. Like the white it was there, small and indiscreet, but it was in the abyss with Key. He drew to a standstill, rearing around to strain his ears for the noise. He still couldnt' hear anything. The rushing of his blood justfied that, but the cry was as prominent as ever.

But where was it? 

The wailing got louder, outperforming the percussion symphony in Key's chest. It increased in decibal, climbing so high that he feared he'd transformed into a mutt for real.

And then there was light. It flooded the whole area, spilling out in the hall tha tseconds ago had been an endless black hole. The white line continued to stretch and blind Key even after it disappeared and when his vision finally returned he could make out plain, white wall, a cart full of tools, and a metal table... The examination room cleared till Key could step out of the dark tunnel.

He'd made it.

And then there was the cry. Now that his senses were sharpening again it sounded louder than ever. Key's ears stuck ot the vibrato in the wail, stalking the rise and fall of the screech, the hiccup-coughs interrupting at random, and the high tone that told him it wasn't a boy of the experiment who yelling for attention. Innocence was imbedded deep into it, leaving only one option to choose from.

There was no time to ponder.

Key was running again, following the noise that preopelled him forwards with a need that the white in the black hadn't been able to instill in him. If he had stopped to think about it he might have realized how absurd he was behaving. Acting on impulse, running on a whim, not even pausing to digest the fear nipping at his heels.

Baby. Baby. Crying. Baby.

Where was it? Why couldn't he find it?

HIs heart was surely going to explode out of his chest. The need... He was so needy... Pulling him by a rope that was tethered to his tear ducts.

Baby. Babyyy. Baby!

"Baby."

There it was. The crib where the crying was originated. Key tripped over his own feet in his haste to reach the bed holding the child. Again, he could feel the blood pounding in his temples and his heart stuttering behind his constricting chest. With a trembling hand he reached into the crib to pull the white blanket back from the baby. He could see the shape of its body moulded within the sheet...

One tug.

The crying hit its loudest level yet. Key was taken aback, but not because of the sound. A tape recorder rested in the center of the thin mattress, the reel inside spinning and endless circle that wound itself around and around as the cry continued to play.

Despair was the only word Key could use to describe what he felt. Whoever was pulling on the rope knotted around his eyes won the tug-of-war and squeezed salty tears out of his ducts. A lone drop slid down the bridge of his nose, hanging precariously on the tip before skydiving to the tape recorder. In slow motion gravity pulled on it and the instant it touched the machine everything exploded in a cloud of fire.

Key woke with a jolt with his eyes flying open and fingers gripping deep into the sheets covering him as if they were the anchor keeping him from soaring off to who knows where. The land of the crazies most likely. The cieling blinked at him, unchanging with its smooth fact. In the middle was the light that permeated around the room, flickering slightly.

It took a long time for Key to convince himself that he was safe in his room, at the institution and all his limbs were still intact. To make sure he wiggled his toes, sniffed, scratched his fingers against each other. He tested his sense, too, making sure they had all returend ot him in their regular condition. For his final test he kept his ears peeled for any type of cry, but none could be heard.

It had all been a dream...

Something wet fell onto Key's arm. He glanced down and found a droplet of water. Or rather several since the one had splashed on impact and split to make mini clones of itself. The dream he had resurfaced, striking panic in his breast for a moment before he realized that he was in the waking world now and tape recorders weren't going to explode in his face. Another drop fell higher up on his arm. Instead of panicking this time round he moved his gaze up to try and find the place where the water was discharging. 

A darker spot patched the cieling in the corner above his bed, something he had overlooked before. 

Odd... He had never noticed that...

As interesting as it was, Key didn't have the energy to examine it any further. His eyelids fluttered shut, attempting to coax him back into the world where the doppelgangers tread. Even though his body desperately lusted for the rest, his mind was still in shock from the nightmare and Key found himself drifting until a worker came in to provide him with his meager portion of food...