HER HORRORWEEN - Placentophagy

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[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_03] Listen up, thrillers. A quick note. Tonight's Devious Audio Delight contains adult content and language. Please see the content warnings in the show notes.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_05] My mouth waters as I lift the client's placenta from the cooler and place it on the cutting board. I carefully slice off a small piece of bruise-colored meat. Not much. Just about two or three ounces from an organ that weighs over 20. Its metallic, earthy smell intensifies, filling my kitchen, my whole apartment. A familiar, comforting aroma.

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_05] I tenderly replace the remaining placenta in the cooler, then add butter and oyster mushrooms to a heated pan. While that cooks, I cut my piece of placenta into thin ribbons of meat. Each strip glistens, and I fight the urge to devour them raw. Every second of cooking, then waiting for the meat to cool, is torture.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_05] But I'm practiced in restraint, and I manage. At last, I take a bite. Umami explodes on my tongue. The butter. The oyster mushrooms. The placenta. Transcendent. I close my eyes, letting the flavors sweep through me. This is a far cry from the first time I ate placenta.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_05] Gnawing desperately at raw, bloody meat while my ex-husband screamed at me through the door. Your fault. Your fault. This is all your fault. No. I shake the memory away. That was my old life. This is my new one. As I savor the final morsels, I scan my apartment. Even after five years, it thrills me.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_05] Everyone, especially my ex, said that I was too soft, too foolish to make it alone. But here I am. Between my hours at the bookstore down the street and my encapsulation business, I make all the money I need. My entire life transformed when I heard about placental encapsulation. I could steam, dehydrate, and blend placentas into pills that would ease the physical and hormonal rollercoaster of postpartum recovery.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_05] And here I am. Thriving. Thriving. I help people by making a real difference in their health. I jump. My eyes flicker over the kitchen. The cooler is shut and all my other supplies are tucked away in the cupboard. Only greasy, innocuous residue remains in the pan. Nothing to reveal my side business. I can't tell everyone about my encapsulation business. Many people would react with judgment and disgust.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_05] Calling it unnatural. Or even sinful. And I've read a lot of comments and articles online filled with junk science saying placentas are full of toxins and shouldn't be consumed. The so-called medical establishment recommends tossing placentas. Like garbage. It's terrible how modernity has taught us to be revolted by our own body's natural behaviors. I walk out of my kitchen. To the door.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_05] I glance through the peephole and see a massively pregnant woman clutching a bulging, oversized tote. She doesn't look familiar. But she must be a past client or referral. I occasionally give my address to people who need a little more convincing about my process. She shouldn't have come without making an appointment, though. It's barely ten on a Wednesday. I paste on the professional but gentle smile I've perfected over the years. My best customer service face.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_05] Good morning. How can I help you? Elizabeth Stevens? I stiffen. That's my old name. My legal name. A name I left behind. Have we met?

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_04] Not in person.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_05] Can I come in? She sweeps over the threshold, protruding belly preceding her. Something heaves and stretches beneath her maternity dress. The unborn child. Distorting her skin. She must be very close to her due date. Of course. Have a seat. The back of my neck prickles. Something feels off.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_05] She ignores my offer and strides past me, through the living room, into the kitchen. She taps the cooler lightly before moving to the stove and the still warm pan.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_04] So, this is where the magic happens.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_05] Before I can stop her, she runs a finger through the grease and licks it clean.

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_04] What? Don't do that. Oh. I'm sorry.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_05] Who the hell is this woman? The look of hate she levels at me is so intense it reminds me of my ex-husband's. It silences me.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_04] It doesn't feel very good, does it? When someone takes what isn't theirs to take. You need to leave. In time.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_05] The woman's eyes sweep over me and beneath her contemptuous gaze, I feel all of my shortcomings. After I reclaim what you took. Before I can ask what she means, she closes the distance between us. I step back and trip, sprawling onto my sofa. She pulls a syringe from her tote and jabs it into my arm. A stinging pain. Then waves of numbness flow through me. I try to focus.

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_05] Try to push against whatever chemical poison she's injected into me. But darkness fizzles in the corners of my vision. As I lose consciousness, I hear my ex-husband's harsh, grating laugh. When I come to, I'm in the kitchen tied to one of my chairs. You're awake. Good. I try to scream, but nothing comes out.

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_05] She gagged me. I try to move my head, but something is wrapped around my neck, holding me in place against the chair. The world fuzzes in and out of focus. My body feels off, out of alignment, like my energy has been pushed sideways. Something. Duct tape. Binds my limbs to the chair. No point in struggling. It doesn't budge. The woman watches me, leaning against the counter barely a foot away.

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_05] She's donned a cheap, disposable rain poncho and one of those stupid face shields popularized during COVID. On the counter beside her are a bottle of disinfected, a box of nitrile disposable gloves, a carton of organic chicken broth, and assorted tools. My high-end food processor, bolt cutters, scalpels, and something like a cross between an eyelash curler and a torture device.

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_04] You're probably wondering, why is this happening?

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_05] The woman rests both hands on her stomach.

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_04] You're thinking, I'm not a bad person.

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_05] The hate has drained from her eyes. Now she looks tired, but determined. It's even scarier.

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_04] I wish you were a bad person. It would make this easier.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_05] Why do it? She frowns at me, as if expecting an answer. What would I say if I weren't bound and gagged? I could rattle off health and spiritual benefits. I could give her a dozen sophisticated reasons. But the truth is, I've craved placenta since I witnessed my mother's home birth when I was six. After my little sister screamed her way into the world, I saw the placenta emerge.

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_05] So unexpected. So bloody. Smelling like death. Like life. Like feminine power. My mouth watered. I touched my finger to the placenta and surreptitiously licked it clean when the midwife and my parents were distracted. I will never forget that first taste of divine meat.

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_04] Consequences to taboo violations. There's a reason why cannibalism is dangerous and forbidden. And it's not just the ethical and health concerns. Do you want me to explain? Before I get started. I feel like I owe you that much.

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_05] I stare at the sinister tools, then nod. Anything to delay whatever she plans to do to me.

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_04] At the end of 2022, I had a late-term miscarriage. Very unexpected, according to the doctors. But not according to my family.

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_05] I breathe heavily against my gag. Desperate to speak. I can tell her that I understand. That I had a stillbirth. And it blew my whole world apart. I know the intimate grief of choosing to carry a child. Of feeling it grow and move inside of you. Of becoming attached. Of choosing a name. Preparing a nursery. Telling the people you thought were your friends. And then... The bleeding.

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_05] That life gone suddenly silent. Everyone turning their backs, your husband transformed into a raging, resentful stranger.

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_04] Everything was going well. It was a perfectly healthy pregnancy. And I didn't believe my mother's warnings about a curse. Handed down from mother to daughters. Which makes us miscarry. I should have listened. Or at least moved. I was living in Texas, you see. When I miscarried, the baby didn't come out right away.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_04] And suddenly, all those doctors and nurses who were so nice and kind turned their backs on me. Saying their hands were bound. Legally. I had to wait a week for that dead baby to come out of me. On its own.

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_05] She stares off into space. And my heart aches with sympathetic horror. I lived in Oklahoma before settling in California. I followed how restricted the laws have become. The harm they cause women under the guise of help. But there's no such thing as curses, right? She surveys my apartment. Eyes lingering on my protection crystals. And the shelf full of astrology books and wellness manuals.

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_04] Maybe you know curses are real. I had to learn the hard way.

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_05] She looks at me again. I try to show her how much I empathize with her. How much I share her pain. Even if the world doesn't. Maybe I do too good of a job. Because her brow creases and she glances away.

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_04] The curse can't be broken. But there's a way to limit it to just one child. Eat the placenta from that first miscarriage or stillbirth. After that, there aren't any difficulties. Well, none beyond the normal complications and dangers of childbirth and infancy.

[00:13:41] [SPEAKER_05] I long to speak. To tell her that I understand. Of tending to the overwhelming needs of that newborn while your battered body recovers. In a culture which is so unsympathetic. So cruel to mothers. It's a wonder we don't all succumb to postpartum depression.

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_04] Traditionally, we cook and consume the placenta at home. But my partner was horrified by the idea. And frankly, so was I. She glances back at the pan and the divot in the grease left by her finger. So, we decided to use an encapsulation service. Grandma said it wouldn't make a difference. As long as I consumed the whole placenta. She looks back at me. If you'd just done your job.

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_04] If you didn't sample your client's organs without their knowledge. She looks down at her swollen belly. My baby is missing a few things. Not much. And I would love her no matter what. What's an eye and a few fingers? Children are born missing more every day.

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_05] She walks to the sink and washes her hands. Scrubbing carefully before pulling on a pair of nitrile gloves. But she should have those parts.

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_04] They were taken from her. By you. Magic. The occult. I don't pretend to understand it. But there's only one way forward. I have to take the missing parts back. I have to reincorporate them into my daughter before I give birth.

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_05] She picks up the bolt cutters. And dribbles disinfectant over the sharp blades.

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_04] We'll start with the fingers.

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_05] I look down. Packing yards of gauze tightly around my hand.

[00:16:12] [SPEAKER_04] You won't bleed the death.

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_05] Her voice comes from so far away. A whisper. Almost drowned out by the buzzing in my ears. Her face. Sad. Determined. Remorseless. Blurs. As I sob. She drops my fingers into the greasy pan. Removes her gloves. And turns on the heat. Soon the delicious smell of cooking meat fills the kitchen.

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_05] Once my fingers are crisped to her liking. She moves them to the food processor. And adds the chicken broth. The blades whine momentarily. Grinding against resistant phalanges. It's a top quality processor. Capable of cutting through almost anything. She grinds my fingers into red brown slurry. Adding broth until it's the consistency of a thick protein shake.

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_05] She pours it into one of my drinking glasses. Brings it to her mouth. Tips it back. And drinks it. That was terrible. She fills the glass with water and gulps it down. Face flushed and exhausted. She rewashes her hands and pulls on a new pair of gloves. Then, she picks up the thing that looks like a torture device.

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_04] This is called an eye speculum.

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_05] She sloshes it liberally with disinfectant.

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_04] Don't resist. I want to get this over with as quickly as possible. For your sake.

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_05] She said her baby was missing a couple of fingers. And an eye. I understand why she secured my head. I can only blink rapidly. Uselessly. As she brings the eye speculum up to my face. I smell my own. Cooked fingers lingering on her breath. Cool metal. Smelling of disinfectant presses against my left eye. Then slides under my eyelids. Spreading them apart.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_05] An eye for an eye. I hear my ex-husband sneer. She picks up the scalpel with her free hand and disinfects it. The metal edge gleams brightly as it draws closer. Closer. Closer. She slides the blade in between my eye.

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_04] The fairy. Fairy.

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_01] Placentophagy. Written by H.V. Patterson. Performed by Robin Buck. With Gracie Lacey as the pregnant woman. You've been listening to Ominous Thrill. Her Horrorween. It's created, produced, directed, and sound designed by myself, Jeff Schmidt. If this is your first Ominous Thrill episode, please look back in the feed to find other stories you might enjoy. There's plenty of devious audio delights to choose from.

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[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_01] Thank you. This has been Ominous Thrill, Her Whoreween. And until next time, thrill you later.

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