Short stories

Baby blues

Eileithyia stepped into the darkened room, rows and rows of incubators were lined up in front of her. She started from the ones closest to her, she peered into the fluid-filled cubes a small smile gracing her lips as she watched the developing embryos float around. Now the humans thought they had childbirth all sussed out, but they were completely incorrect, the way Eily does her job is too complex for their tiny minds to wrap around. That is why the tale of the Birds and the Bees was passed on from generation to generation.

Whenever a couple of opposite gender, 'make love' an alert is sent to the control room, and that's where the magic takes place. Her thousands of workers are on the clock almost 24/7 responding to the alerts and sifting through them, deciding which ones should result in a child. It's not easy to have the power to create life –and sometimes end it- on your shoulders which is why only the strongest are employed for the job.

After this stage is complete and an empty cubicle is established, there's a minute flash and a ball of cells appear. Pregnancy in the human world is an illusion, the swell of their stomachs is fake, the uterus isn't actually a part of a female's body, it's just a fictitious organ fabricated on lies to convince the human race that the miracle of life is in their hands. Periods are non-existent, they're excuses for women to be moody once a month, the pain of cramps are from delusional girls believing that 'periods' are the source of this problem. When in reality it's due to their poor health.

Inside these pods the embryos are held for 9 months, usually. The time period depends on the strength of the child or the birth rate. If the birth rate increases drastically Eileithyia is forced to shave off at most three months to make way for the new arrivals, the humans have enough fancy modern technology to fend for themselves. However, high birth rates are most commonly caused by employees not taking their work seriously which wasn't a good sign. Now you're probably wondering, what about all the stillborn children, or babies born with defects? And for that, there is no answer, not everything can go smoothly all the time much to many people's dismay. Once Eily decides the time is up, then nature can take its course.

This day was going to be different to all the others, Eileithyia could sense it. Being a goddess gives you these kinds of gifts, a perk to life as an immortal and omnipotent entity. Carefully she scrutinized the tablets on each of the doors, this could take over an hour due to the masses of babies marinating in this room. Nothing seemed out of place, odd. As she swept through the aisles the growth of the foetus' grew until she reached the penultimate column, the children almost ready to exit Olympus to be born to their human parents. Eily's heart swelled as a green light flashed from one of the incubators tablet and she strode to it, normally she didn't do this process manually but she didn't mind carrying out the touching process just this once. She placed her thumb onto the keypad which unlocked the casket then lifted the damp baby out of it. Lovingly Eily kissed its forehead before replacing it and pressing a large red button with the word 'Send' emblazoned on it. The baby disappeared in a flash of light exactly how it came.

By now Eileithyia was tired and wanted to return to her home so she could collapse into her bed. An almost silent whimper jolted the goddess out of her sleepy haze, and she snapped her head towards the sound. She found herself in the most shadowed part of the room where the 'rejects' were kept. Usually they stayed in their pod until their flesh dissolved and they were no more but today was an exception. Eily approached the aisle with trepidation, unsure of what she would see.

The sight of an incubator with a door wide open almost let out a gasp from her open lips, warily the goddess moved closer and closer. Ready to slam the cube shut and make her escape, her actions were halted. A small baby with round cheeks and curly wisps of hair stared back at her in equal amazement, Eily let out a shriek which obviously alarmed the baby and it started wailing. With shaking hands, the goddess of childbirth picked up the squirming child, this was not what she signed up for when taking this job, be a goddess they said, it would be fun they said; Eileithyia thought to herself. A snort escaped her nose at her joke, she had no say in this at all, this job was given to her at birth.

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 Heyo, this was inspired by my younger sister who happened to be blabbering untrue facts about childbirth. Then boom, this appeared. I mean you can't blame a 6 year old for being innocent lmao.

Idk if this needs a part 2, as you've seen before my part 2's are kiiiiiinda crappy :p sorry

Leah x