Dead Babies Creep the Hell Out of Me

This is a work of fiction. No real people, places or events were used. Copyright ã 2011 Plot Roach.

Dead Babies Creep the Hell Out of Me


By Plot Roach“I like horror movies, but some things bug me more than others.” Olivia said, putting a DVD back on the shelf. They had stopped into a rental place to pick up a movie for the night, but could not agree which movies to rent.

“Like what?” asked Larry.

“Like, I’m okay with zombies and ghouls and stuff… But dead babies creep the hell out of me.”

“I think that they would creep the hell out of anyone, really.”

“No, I mean, personally. It’s not just a scary or gross out thing. I really take it to mean like it’s aimed at me or something.”

“Like Hollywood has spies lurking around your life to figure out what freaks you out…”

“They might make better films that way.” Olivia said. “But, no. Those damned dead babies get me every time.”

“Just dead babies?”

“What?” she asked. “Like you don’t have a phobia that pops up in horror films?”

“I do, but it’s not dead babies.”

“Well?”

"Let’s talk about this baby thing that you’ve got going…” he said. “Is it just zombie babies, or any dead babies in general?”

“Well, you know that scene in Zombie Hookers From Mars, where the mom gets bitten by a zombie and turns in the bathroom? Then when they kill her, her stomach starts moving and they cut the baby out, only to discover that it’s a zombie too?”

“That bugs you?”

“Yeah, I mean, who wouldn’t be weirded out by that? If the mom is a zombie, why did they think that the baby would be okay? Why not leave it in her belly to die?”

“Well, maybe it would have just chewed its way out…”

“Okay. That’s gross.”

“And letting the baby die inside of her is any better?”

“But it was a zombie. I mean, what the hell were they thinking? How would you feed something like that? Even if you wanted to keep it.”

“And what did they do in the movie?”

“They shot it in the head.”

“That seems a waste of a good bullet. I mean, it’s not like the baby has a fully formed head, you could have just stepped on it or kicked it in or something…”

“Way too much imagination there. And not something I want to think about.”

“What other dead babies are there that spook you?”

“Like in Darkness Creeps Two, where the shadows devour almost everyone in the town, but leave their clothes behind. And they show the empty baby clothes in all the preemie incubators in the hospital.”

“Empty clothes scared you?”

“It’s the idea of dead children. Like in Apocalypse Death Cloud, where they show the dead mom and toddler mummified in the truck at the opening credits. I can understand using adults, but why kids?”

“To add a realistic touch to it. About the only place you wouldn’t see kids is in a military lab -unless its about cloning, that is.”

“It’s just…” Olivia made a face, unable to put her thought into words.

“What happened with a baby in your real life?” Larry asked.

“My sister’s kid died.”

“Oh, crap. I’m sorry.”

“It happened a while ago. She put her daughter down for a nap and she ended up dying of SIDS. We were right there in the room when she stopped breathing And we never even knew until it was too late.”

“It wasn’t your fault, you know. They still don’t know what causes it.”

“Yeah, I know. But I felt like, hey, I was there, why didn’t I see it happen? Why didn’t I do anything about it?”

“And now dead babies haunt you, both in real life and in movies?”

“Kind of.”

“Two things: one, you couldn’t have done anything to prevent your niece’s death. And two, the babies in the movies aren’t real.”

“Yeah, well, tell that to my subconscious. You have issues too, as I recall.”

“Yeah.”

“Spill it.”

“Balloons.”

“What?”

“I’m afraid of balloons. Especially when they end up flying off into the sky.”

“What-why?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”