Child Chewer

Chapter 1

Baby meat, the taste is sweet
Eat it from the mother's teet

Chew it up while it's asleep

Chew it fast, don't make a peep

Chew it as its heart still beats

Baby meat, the devil's treat.

Eat it while the mother weeps...

***

The episiotomy went awry. Mrs. Chambers's skin tore from the base of her vulva to her anus. She gripped the edges of the gurney, screaming as a crew of nurses pressed gauze against the bloody fissure of skin and ripped muscles.

Mr. Chambers, her husband, hunched beside his wife practicing his own tantric breathing exercises as she dug her fingers into the ligaments of his hand and crushed his bones. Nurses threw wads of blood and shit stained towels into the cans on either side of the stirrups. Beeping machinery grew louder, its dings and whirrs more erratic. The doctor yelled incoherently. A twelve pound infant shot out of Mrs. Chambers's womb.

Emergency surgeons shoved the others out of the way and began addressing Mrs. Chambers's bleeding opening immediately. As they submerged their endless arrays of sharp pointed and razor edged tools into the damage, their arms came away drenched in heavy coatings of red muck.

Mrs. Chambers didn't struggle as they inserted stitch after stitch. Her fingers released their death grip on her husband's hand and she freed a massive sigh. She didn't reach out towards the baby as the L&D nurse examined it with wide eyes. Her body didn't tense when the baby didn't cry.

The baby with the pale and slightly purple skin.

The one not fretting as the medical professionals struck its back.

The infant that didn't move and didn't complain. The one the doctors and nurses surrounded on the worktable.

The only screams in the room came from Mr. Chambers as he fell to the floor.

***

No one sees me.

Not in this pretty white coat. They look at me a little funny, probably because I'm a bit broader than most of them; I have to turn sideways to walk into doors, but when they read my name tag and see my badge they let me through, all much too busy with all the blood I left at the door.

This is good because if they asked me questions, I would open my mouth and the cotton mask would fall off. That wouldn't only ruin my doctor's disguise, but then they'd see my mouth.

Everyone screams when they see my mouth.

I think it's because then they know I'm not like them. They'd see I have no chin or neck and my head grows out from my shoulders. They'd recognize the marble white pallor of my skin and the way my beady eyes possess no visible pupils.

Then, as always, they'd see my mouth.

The chasm that extends from end to end, horizontally across my chest. Then I open my mouth and they look upon the magnificence of my rows of sharp teeth. That's normally when they scream. The only way I've found to shut them up has been chewing off their little heads.

Then I'll have less room for baby meat. And I can smell a venerable buffet of it not too far away.

So fresh.

Pure.

Innocent.

I'm glad no one notices me as I skip through the endless maze of hospital hallways. If I get full on appetizers, then I'll miss out on dinner.