Those Who Fall

My body wouldn't respond to what my brain was trying to get it to do. Anger overload. I was sick of her suffering. I took a few deep breaths and tried again, this time my body knew what to do. I tried my hardest to get out of the metal cuffs and so did she but it didn't do anything, we were just as snuggly strapped to the table as before. I looked up at the ceiling trying to focus on my anger when he hopped off the table and turned my head toward her table then the metal head band thing popped out of the table again. He hopped back over her and I saw how she'd managed to get her knees as close to each other as possible. He tried pulling them apart but she'd hooked her feet to the table so she could have some reinforcement. He leapt off the table to the panel and held onto the button for what felt like forever. I started getting tired of the sound when I finally saw her head fall to the side and her eyes focused on me. A few tears that had been stuck to her face rolled onto the table under her head. He walked back over to her.

"Are we going to do this the hard way or the easy way?"

"Vic, please don't. I've g- you don't want this."

"Oh, but I do. Do you remember the last time we fucked? Because I can't."

"Please don't do this to me. You can't."

"Who said? Of course I can!" He walked back over to the panel. This time I tried counting. Her body was convulsing for 10 seconds when she finally screamed out.

"Stop it! Stop!" Her sobs turned the word into three syllables and a long 'op'. There was saliva spilling out of her mouth as her mouth remained opened continuing to plead. "Please stop. I'm. I- I'm pregnant. I have a baby. I don't know if it's a boy or a girl but it's yours. So please, have mercy. All I've done is try to keep you happy. Look. If you don't believe-"

He ripped open her jacket and shirt and her stomach bulged out. I'd never seen it before but it looked excruciating. There were blue and purple lines spreading from her sides. It looked like there was a blue ball stuck inside of her. It looked like it was pulsating too but that might have been my head throbbing. He put his hands on her stomach and felt around. I don't know why this made me angry, Jane didn't know what he was doing. He walked over to the panel of lights.

"But, Sir. Pardon me but...that could kill her."

"Not before that thing is dead."

"But sir, you said you wanted her alive."

"Henry-"

"Sorry sir, go right ahead." I heard him take a step back as I looked at Jane. I could tell she had heard what he'd said and I could see her panicking. As soon as he pressed the button I saw her body go up. She struggled in her restraints. Her teeth were clenched together harder than before and her fists were clenched too. Her body though, it moved up and down, banged harder on the table. Her body went limp on the table and her fists relaxed and there was a growing red splotch on her stomach that kept getting bigger. Her head rolled to the side. Her eyes were open but I wasn't sure if she was dead or not. Blood started dripping out of her nose, some of it resting on her upper lip. Some drops fell out of her nose and pooled on the ground near the table.

"Jane? J!"

Victor walked over to her body pushing it a couple of times with his hand. He then had Henry go to her table with a bunch of tools. I wasn't sure at first what they were doing until Henry started slicing open her abdomen.

It was so bloody that every few minutes Henry changed gloves but eventually. After a while the height of her stomach went down. Her stomach had pretty much deflated and then finally, there it was. I looked over to see if Jane was breathing and I thought that she wasn't so I panicked. Jane had chosen to keep this child and if that child was all I had left of her I wanted it. I looked back down where there was blood spilling off of the table and I saw Henry carrying the child away. I wasn't sure where he was going but I saw him pull a tiny piece of cloth around it.

"It's a boy, Sir. Where do you want me to put him?"

"Give him to me." I couldn't take it. I started freaking out again on the table. I was hoping I could draw some attention.

"Jane!" I could hear someone walking over to me but my head was still turned the other way. I felt the clamp on my head being moved away. I could finally look straight up where I saw Victor's face. He was smiling at me first. Then he started laughing, I wasn't sure why.

"You want to see him?" I didn't move my head when I realized no matter how I responded he was going to do something I didn't want him to. I looked at him, straight into the black part of his eyes. I leaned as far up as I could. The cuts in my stomach were starting to hurt again but I had to see. I looked quickly over to Jane and saw Henry back down at her abdomen with a needle and thread and some towels. I looked back at Victor and saw the child in his hands. It looked just like your average baby but with blue eyes and little blonde fuzz on its head. Of course he was covered in red gook but he was everything Jane would've wanted in a baby except for its paternal heritage. I knew exactly what she would have named him if she could've seen him. I tried not to show Victor my vulnerability when it came to the baby but it was hard. The baby was beautiful, I'd never experienced emotions toward a baby like that, a baby that was the spawn of a Dbag like Victor. The baby had been crying ever since they'd taken it out but it quieted when it looked at Victor. It was so weird.

"Into the vat of acid you go little one!" He poked the baby's nose and walked over to a large cylinder full of blue liquid.

"Wait! No, bring him here!"

"Oh now you care?" He knew he'd hit a soft spot with that little boy. I wished I could've moved a little more on that table. If I could've gotten the right leverage I could've broken those cuffs easy.

"Don't do this. He's just a baby."

"He's an abomination that's what he is!"

"He's your child, how can you do this?" He walked over to me, placing the baby at the bottom of the table.

"Who the fuck wants to take care of a baby when they're conquering the planet?"

"Jane would. I'm sure she would be happy to know you saved her baby boy."

"This baby is a monster." I was nervous that the baby was going to fall off of the table because he was dangerously close to the edge.

"He's your son. You can raise him to terrorize kids. You can raise him to be you. Jane would forgive you, she could raise the child to do good. If this plan works she won't hate you forever if you save him."

"My plan will work!"

"Ok, when your plan works." He lifted the baby by its arm and dangled it in front of me.

"You would take care of this baby?"

"I would."The baby was covered in weird red goo and it's face sometimes would get all scrunched up but when it would open its eyes it was like looking into the ocean on the beach. The light part of the water not the deepest blue but it made me melt, like Jane's brown eyes. Even though this wasn't my child I wanted to give it everything.

"Well it isn't your baby." He grabbed the baby's other arm and started making his way over to the vat again.

"Wait. Stop! Don't do this. This is-" I wasn't sure what to say. I couldn't think of anything to keep him from killing the baby. But then I thought of the same reason why I wanted the child. "Don't you want something to remember Jane by? You made this baby with her."

"Henry, is the girl dead?" He walked over to Jane's throat. After taking off his gloves he checked her pulse.

"She still has a pulse." I thanked God in that moment for sparing her. Henry put on new gloves and went back to her lower half.

"See, she's still alive!" He started climbing the ladder.

"Stop! Just wait for her to wake up. Ask her opinion. If she says kill him, do it. You owe her that much."

"I don't owe that bitch shit. She owes me. All the times she's played with my emotions and led me on. That night. That night at the dance she was just begging to fuck. Before you showed up and ruined the whole night she was on my arm all clingy asking me when we were gonna have sex and now she doesn't appreciate the shit I do for her." I looked over at her. She was taking fuller breaths and the baby was screaming at the top of its lungs.

"Can I just see him one more time..." He looked over at me. And with a smile on his face he dropped the baby into the vat. I didn't want to see that poor child disintegrate or even drown. All I could do in that moment was pray for that little boy. His life was ruined by this man who thought he was big but was really so small because of his lack of moral integrity and honesty. I looked over at Jane one more time and saw her blink a few times. I thanked the lord again and called her name but she immediately started screaming. Victor almost fell off of his ladder.

"We need to give her some morphine, Sir," Henry said.

"No, we don't have to do anything. She wanted to give birth to that child, let her suffer."

"Sir, I know not to disobey your direct orders but we've been skating on thin ice. The amperage you gave to her should have killed her and now with all of this blood gone from her system and none of the correct, sterile tools it is very possible she could get an infection and-"

"Henry! I've had it with your speeches and insubordination. I want you to shut up and do whatever I say. I don't give a fuck if she gets a little infection-"

"A quite large infection actually because of the location and size of the orifice-"

"Henry, you say one more thing that isn't yes, sir or no, sir, I will kill you."

"Yes, sir." It looked like Henry still had a lot of work to do because, like he said, he didn't have the right tools.

"Step away from her, Henry"

"I- Yes, sir." Henry moved away from Jane as she cried out quieter this time.

"Please. Henry. Get me the painkillers or some- Ah..." Henry looked over his shoulder at her and threw away his tools and washed his hands in a grungy looking sink.

"Jane. Look at me." She tried sitting up but that put her in even more pain. "Stay down." I laid down too so she could see me at eye level. "I'm here."

"What happened to me. Did he touch me? Please tell me he didn't- he did didn't he- Oh, I can't believe you had to go through that. You-"

"Jane. He didn't touch you. It's alright. You- He took out the baby." She tried looking down toward her legs again but her head fell back hard against the table.

"What did it look like? A lizard? Six eyes?"

"He was beautiful. An ordinary baby, it looked like- with blonde hair and light blue eyes." She looked up at the ceiling and adjusted her body. I wasn't sure we would make it out of there but at least she knew that even with a monster, she could make a beautiful child.