I remember the sound of babies crying, but one sat there lifeless. A dead baby born from a woman who died right before giving birth, a corpse born from a corpse. But how could I who knew all not know this child? I knew the mother, the mother of her mother, but I did not know the child. It was as if he never existed.
"Nurse! Nurse! Get the ventilator ASAP!" The doctor yelled. They hooked the baby up to multiple machines in an attempt so save him but to no avail.
"Damn it! Fucking shit!" He cried out. The doctor walked outside the room and sat on a bench down the hall with his head hung low and his hands on his face.
"They said one more casualty and I'm done…. I-I still have to feed my kids, my wife will leave me I-I.... I can't let them know this ever happened."
A gloomy expression draped his face as these thoughts crossed his mind. He already knew what course of action he was going to take next.
"Amanda, make sure you erase the patients medical records… we don't need anything being dug up in the future." The doctor said nervously.
"Sir with all due respect t-this could get me fir-
"Embezzlement, intentional murder of a patient and theft of prescription pills. Did you think I wouldn't know? If I go down, you go down with me."
"... I'll get right on it sir."
"Trust me, I don't want to do this either but this is for my family, I-I can't lose this job." The doctor says quietly as he wraps the baby's corpse in a blanket.
"I'll throw this in the back and make it seem like it's just extra trash that needs to be taken out, place more trash bags in front of it later so it can be properly hidden." The doctor told the nurse as he walked to the side gate of the hospital.
"….I'm sorry little one, but only one of us has a life here and I can't afford to lose mine…. May you rest in peace." He said with a solemn tone. He carefully placed the baby's corpse beside the trash bags which were already there and placed his hands on where the baby's head was.
"I'm sorry." A tear dripped from his eyes as he walked away.
Later in the night after the baby's body was buried deep beneath the garbage from the multiple bags used to cover it, a faint and lonely cry could be heard from within the blanket.
"I'm sorry Mr. and Mrs. Johnson but there's nothing we can do…. I understand infertility can be very heartbreaking but there's still options such as a surrogate and-
"I think we've heard enough." The man said as he held his wife's hand, her white dress stained from the tears streaming down her face. "Honey let's go." He said as she sat there in shock. He grabbed her hand guided her out the building and to the car.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…." She cried profusely.
"Listen! It's okay, we can always adopt. It's not that big a de—
"But you said you wanted your own kids!" She yelled.
"…..obviously you're not in the state of mind to talk, so we can discuss this later." They remained in silence for the rest of the drive home.
"…can you stop ahead, i have to pee."
"At the hospital." The man said.
"No Anthony, in the sky! Of course in the hospital, where else would I piss when we're in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere!"
"Ight, Ight. Calm your horses, I'll stop up ahead."
"Thank you." She responded in an annoyed tone.
"You're welcome." He said with the brightest smile, only making her feel more guilty of what she said.
"….sorry."
"It's fine Samantha, I understand that you're under a lot of stress right now and we can talk about it when we get home."
"Yeah….. hey do you hear that?" The wife paused as she got out of the car.
"Hear wha-
"aaah…. ahhh…" a very distant cry was heard from behind the hospital.
Samantha dashed towards the cry without hesitation.
"Hey! Where are your going?!" Anthony yelled in confusion as he started to chase after her.
Samantha started searching for the location the sound was comfort from.
"It's here… it's somewhere over her-
"Hey! What the fuck are you doing?" Anthony asked baffled at the fact his wife was searching through trash bags at a hospital dumpster, the light from above beamed on their face in the dead of night.
"I-I don't know, I could've sworn I heard a baby cryi-
"Wahhhhhh!" The cry was heard loud and clear.
Both Anthony and Samantha searched profusely through the garbage bags and came across a pink blanket. They carefully but with a quick pace uncovered the blanket to reveal a baby, no longer a corpse.
"Holy fuck, it's a baby. Samantha stood there in confusion on why anybody would leave a baby in dumpster. "Who could do something like this….. it's must've not eaten." She said as she peeked at his body, his ribs could be seen from behind the skin.
"It's a boy….. just like what we wanted, he kinda looks like you." She said with a smile on her face.
"I'mma stop you right there, I don't think this is a good ide-
"Do you think it's a mere coincidence we found an abandoned baby after I was pronounced infertile!? She snapped.
"On top of that the baby looks like it could truly be our child!"
Anthony stopped to look at the child and was taken aback of how similar is resembled not only himself but Samantha too.
"….I think you're right."
A sigh of relief came from Samantha. "But how would the legal proceeding go? For all we know we would lose custody if the real parents were to show up."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there." She said confidently, grinning as she looked down at the baby.
"Also look at the sky, it's beautiful isn't it?" Samantha pointed out.
"Hmm, it's a twilight." Anthony said as he looked into the night sky. "….dusk, I think it fits."
"Cause it's dusk?" Samantha chuckled.
"…dusk.. I like it."
She nodded her head in agreement.
"ʞsnp ǝlʇʇıl ʇǝǝʍs ɹnO"
-chapter end.