"Seven pounds, eleven ounces." The doctor held up a squirming, potato-like baby. It was screaming incessantly and I fought the urge to put my hands over my ears. "Heartbeat normal. Lungs..." he smiled down at the baby, his eyes kind and patient behind his facial mask. "The lungs are obviously fine."
The baby was swaddled in cloth by a nurse and handed off to the mother.
She had curly hair that was sticking to her face with a sheen of sweat. She quickly snatched a pair of glasses off of a side table and shakily put them on her face, adjusting them on her nose. Her eyes widened at her child, snuggled warmly in her arms. "Eric..." she whispered, smiling at the baby nervously.
He squeezed her shoulder gently, looking down at the child with a slight frown. "Doctor?" He called anxiously, eyes darting back and forth between the child's face and his wife's, his eyes getting more suspicious by the second.
The doctor walked over briskly, his scrubs landing professionally on the floor. "What's wrong?" He asked in a clipped tone. He took in the child's squinted shut eyes, his own widening with surprise.
The baby was staring at them with a sort of pinched curiosity. I found myself approaching slowly, wondering absently at what they had found, knowing this was what I had to do.
They were all watching the infant, no one speaking. It hiccupped, whining a little more. "Jesus Christ, shut up," I begged, knowing it couldn't hear me.
I glanced over the doctor's shoulder, gasping and stumbling back at the first sight of the child. More so it's eyes.
The luminescent, wonder-filled purple eyes.
Eyes that were exactly like mine.
YOU ARE READING
Hell on Earth
Humor"Schizophrenia: a psychotic disorder (or a group of disorders) marked by severely impaired thinking, emotions, and behaviors. Schizophrenic patients are typically unable to filter sensory stimuli and may have enhanced perceptions of sounds, colors...
