Chapter Four
“I have never killed a man, but
I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”
Clarence Darrow
I’m not sure,
when I opened my eyes again, everything was blurry, and a man was gently
shaking my shoulder. “Hey Doc, you okay?” I groaned in pain as my neck was at
an odd angle and it hurt when I pushed up on rubbery arms. “Come on Doc, you
know how John gets when you fall asleep.” I smiled when he mentioned my bosses
name; Paul Harvey sure knew how to make me watch my toes. I sat up from off the
desk, and looked around, everything was as it should have been, no blood, no
missing bodies, and no crazed, serial killer with a meat cleaver wanting my
head.
I yawned
and stood, stretching and testing my aching body that had been cuddling the
hard desk in the office area. “Sorry Paul, must of dozed off…” “It’s alright, happens
to me when things are slower than usual.” I nodded, feeling sympathetic towards
those slow nights when there was nothing to do but wait. He had a gurney with
him, which was why he was down here in the basement waking me up. “Who did you
bring in?” I inquired, even after that mad dream, I still was curious how
people died, not how I would die mind you, but it would be helpful to someone
in the future.
Paul took a
look at the sheet and grimaced with pain, his arthritis must have been acting
up again, poor guy. “Jason Mcreedy, the young man at the gas station off of
Main and Fifth, death was at approximately 11:15 P.M. A young lady had found
him dead, leaning against the counter. Cause of death, we don’t know, which was
why we came to you.” I frowned, Jason was always such a good-natured kid, if he
died, which was tragic, what did he die of?
“Thank you
Paul.” I said simply as I wrote on the paper signing the release of his corpse
to the hospital and me. He nodded and sighed. “Tell me what you find out
alright? His family is going to be devastated, told me last week when I stopped
in that his sister was getting married.” Life, and death, was the ying and yang
of our lives, once you were born, your life would always lead to death, one way
or another. What I didn’t know was that my life would end this night, the same
as Jason Mcreedy, who found his rest before his time was supposed to be up.
When Paul
left I looked down at the gurney and sighed, this was one of the worst parts of
the job. A friend or even a loved one that would show up in her Morgue made her
sick, the first time it had been an old boyfriend from High school. She had
thrown up when she cut open his chest, the teacher had sighed but didn’t yell
at her, she was later told that was a normal response for first time students.
She didn’t tell him that she had loved him, but it didn’t matter, not after
that, she kept a straight face, and did her work with a grim outlook on life.
The sheet
that uncovered the body of Jason, however, made her almost cry out with fear
and wonder. A normal corpse, freshly dead still retained some color, with
slight discoloration, the lips would still be red, but tinged with a light
blue. She got closer, placed a hand on his cheek, and jumped back with a shiver
that ran down her spin. Whatever had happened to Jason, he had been subject to
a cold death. His skin was as white as fresh fallen snow, his flesh did not
retain any residual heat, and his lips were the darkest blue she had ever seen,
This did call for an investigation…
While she
went to get her tools, the stainless steel doors that housed the dead changed
to a Scarlet color, a young girl, with black hair and a torn white gown
appeared. She looked around, and smiled, malice and anger appeared in her steel
grey eyes, a man had called her, but failing to find the source, she found the
next best thing, a woman in a white lab coat that played with the dead. But
before Casey had returned, she disappeared, waiting for the right time to play
with her prey.
I felt the
room grow suddenly colder, and I swore that for just a moment, I could see my
breath. I shook my head, and everything was the same again. I must have been
more tired than I thought as a yawn was stifled. ‘Maybe I should of asked for
the day shift, and be able to sleep at night, it would be nice to be in my
bed.’ The thought came to me, and I yawned again but didn’t try to abate it. My
neck began to hurt again, ‘damn dreams and their ability to seem so real,’ I
cursed silently, if this night could get any worse, I couldn’t see it.
“Subjects
name is Jason Mcreedy, sex, male, height about five foot seven, weight about
one hundred and eighty pounds. Subject announced dead at approximately eleven
O’clock P.M. on ten, twenty-eight two thousand and twelve. Hair is a dark red,
no lacerations located on the body, and no birthmark sighted.”
I sighed as
I clicked off the tape recorder, of all the people, it had to be Jason. I knew
him less, only talking to him when I went to buy something at night, and as far
as I could tell, he was a sweet kid. A little silly with the jokes he told me,
but as gentle as a butterfly. Mustering up the strength to see what had killed
him, I tried to take a blood sample but instead of slow moving blood, I got
nothing, absolutely nothing out of him. Growling in annoyance slightly I cut
open a small portion of his wrist, red ice crystals fell out instead of what I
expected, and they quickly began to melt into a small puddle of red blood.
Curious as
to what had happened I quickly put some of the crystals in a small vial and put
them in the freezer in the back. And returned to find that the blood, and ice
had simply vanished, nothing, no blood puddle, and no ice crystals. Nothing
this night was making sense, not the dream or Jason being frozen solid, or the
people yelling, I whimpered in my tiredness, as if God himself was laughing at
my misfortunes.
I took a
step back with fright as Jason’s corpse sat up suddenly and turned his head, I
think I screamed as I felt like my heart was going to burst. Nothing else
happened, I waited a few minutes, and cautiously took a step forward and held
my breath, I was losing it, the body was going through Rigor Mortis, and I
mistook it that he was still alive. I gently pushed him back down and wheeled
him to his locker and transferred him from the stretcher to the cold metal
table, pushed him into the meat locker and shut the small door behind the body.
I leaned
against the stretcher and rubbed my temples, I silently wished that tonight was
going to get better, that nothing else would go wrong. How foolish I was being,
the truth was right in front of me but I refused to see it, my life would be
distinguished in front of my eyes, and as my body would be lifted up and
drained with my throat slashed, my last thoughts would be of my husband, and my
cat…
I yawned
again, I needed to stop being so negative, things would not end like that, I
wondered if I was going crazy. Yeah, that would be a nice step in a new
direction, insanity from whatever was going on. Looking around, and noticing that I had
nothing to do now, besides rack my head for answers to questions I had no
knowledge of. A quick walk would do me some good, to clear myself of the
heaviness that seemed to have invaded my morgue and my senses.
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