Experimentation (Warning! Warning! Bad Stuff for Kids to read!)

I had an idea for a story. It is a horrible story. It came from a dream. Why do I dream like this?

Experimentation

A woman goes out with this nerdy guy at her work to be nice. Somehow, he takes over her mind and she finds herself naked in his shower, then naked in his bed. He comes in with a bucket of liquid metal and tells her to place her legs in it. She says no again and again and blacks out.

She wakes up in a hospital room, drugged and pregnant. She is in an insane asylum and has no idea who she is. The man comes in, rubs her baby bump and sits down. "It's a girl," he says. She smiles at him and feels the baby kick. He has a bag with him, a shopping bag from a well-known shopping center. He takes out a pair of bronzed feet. They remind her of bronzed baby booties, but they are size sevens. She smiles at him uncertainly. Why is he showing her this? He says, "Surely you remember, Barbara." Memories suddenly cascade through her mind.

She sees him over her, pumping into her fiercely while she screams in pain. Her legs ache horribly and feel heavy. He is raping her, and has raped her again and again for the past few weeks. Suddenly he stops, and says, "I can't do it. You're getting rank." He gets off her, covers her up, and finishes on her face. It's quite disgusting. She spits and continues to scream. She tries to sit up and pain encircles her brain. She uncovers herself and stares down in horror at what has become of her legs. Her feet are encased in bronze and just above the metal her legs are shriveled and black. Bright lines of blood flow up her legs, past her knee, nearly to the middle of her thigh. There are maggots feasting freely in the flesh of her calf. Her legs radiate pain like a light bulb radiates light, and she wonders that he can't feel it as well. "What have you done?" She asks.

He laughs, shrugs, and says, "Just something else to add to my trophy room." Her mind drifts to other memories, they happen in a quick succession; she is reliving months of pain and horror in a matter of seconds. She removes the blanket and see the stumps that are her legs.

"Oh, good." He says, "You've removed the blanket for me. That will make this so much easier." He cracks his knuckles, a habit she is sure has always grossed her out. "I realized after I found out you were pregnant that I do want a baby to raise." He smiled, but it never reached his eyes. That was one thing that had never changed in his face. His bald head now was full of hair... his eyes were no longer brown. He didn't even go by the same name as he did when she worked with him. She was starting to remember more than the pain and hurt he inflicted in the past.

"I'm not Barbara." She whispers. He reaches into his shopping bag and brings forth a metal hanger and slowly starts straightening it out. She tries to scoot away, but she doesn't have the strength. "What are you doing?"

"We'll just have to try again, love." He says. "I want me a son." Then he forces her stubs apart and slowly inserts the hanger. "You may feel a pinch." He says with the same soulless smile. Then he forces the hanger home and says, "Don't be in such a hurry to push me away."

She wakes up again. It's a new day. A nurse walks in and taps the I.V. hanging out of her arm. "How are we today, Mrs. Cleever?" She asks. The woman remembers her pregnancy and reaches down to feel her now flat stomach. It isn't the smooshy softness she expects, it has an odd firmness she doesn't associate with the loss of a baby.

"My baby?" She asks.

The nurse rolls her eyes. "Not again, Mrs. Cleever. We've been through this before."

The woman feels tears course down her face. "What happened? Please? I don't remember."

The nurse seems to feel some pity and finally tells her she lost it. "Spontaneous abortion. If you'd been a couple weeks further along, it'd be called a premature birth." The woman decides the pity idea was wrong and lets herself cry. She cries until she vomits all over herself, bringing the nurse back in, and she's drugged into another sleep.

She wakes up to "Ted" walking into the room. She feels fear at his presence, but doesn't know why. He smiles at her and whispers, "Hello, love. Ready to try for a boy? I have it on good authority that you are ovulating today."

She looks at him and almost says no. But then she thinks, a baby... I need a baby. She nods and he shuts the door to her private room. She willingly takes him into her arms. She doesn't know it, but this is the first time she allows him to kiss her. He takes his time with her, makes love to her as he perhaps has always wanted to. She wants to wrap her legs around him, but she can't; they are gone. Instead she clasps him to her, they finish together and he whispers, "I love you, Susie."

"I love you too, Ted." The fear is beginning to ebb away. He smiles again, but it reaches his eyes this time. She doesn't quite remember the other smiles, but she does remember that he's always been there for her. During this whole hospital stay, he is the only one who has come to visit her. He is the only one to show he cares.

"It's time for you to come home." He states. She sighs with relief.

It's good to be going home with the man you love.