@Berenzen: Maybe you should try some more homeopathic remedies.
I sat at my dining table, restless with racked nerves and lamenting my answering of the phone just moments prior. It was before dawn, though I had been awake for hours. My most recent nightmare, God had I begged for it to just have been a nightmare, had me on edge. Fresh out of a new pack of cigarettes, the butts of which now pressed into a glass ashtray in front of me, I only sat and nervously toyed with my Zippo. I told myself to get dressed, to go to my office, to do the work that needed to be done instead of sitting around, but I felt as if I was rooted in my seat. I sat for a while before, after what felt like ages, my cellular phone started ringing again. It was the EMTs on the other line, informing me that they've arrived and I was nowhere to be found. Finally mustering up the courage necessary, I picked my pitiful self up from the chair and prepared for the day.
It was another half-hour before I arrived at the morgue, allowing the EMTs to finish their part of the job. While they transferred to body and filled out the necessary paperwork, I made myself a pot of coffee and opened a spare pack of Marlboro's I kept in my desk drawer. I'd already smoked a couple cigs before the coffee finished brewing and by the time I poured myself a cup with cream and sugar the EMTs were long gone. I don't know how long I sat there, cigarette in hand and coffee untouched, but a shaft of light finally reached my eyes and broke me from my stillness. I thought I had just fallen asleep and took a drink of my coffee. Immediately, I spat my mouthful back into the mug. It tasted like ash and that's when it dawned on me that I'd let my cigarette burn down 'twixt my fingers that hovered over my drink.
Tossing the singed filter aside, I looked into the mug and saw ash floating on the surface of my drink. I briefly considered making myself a new one when I remembered the body waiting to be stored and written up. I hurried over to Receiving and saw the body bag lying atop a gurney. An image appeared in my mind, the bag replaced by the head-case from the night before - eyes open in horror, looking into my own with its mangled face turned towards me, its hand stretched out, pleading for salvation from the dark figures looming over it. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, effectively washing the image away for when I returned my gaze to the gurney, nothing but the body bag and its contents rested on the surface.
I decided to keep the body in the refridgeration room for now, I wasn't feeling quite ready to begin the examination. Instead, I went to Records and looked through the files for the audio and video tapes from the previous night. After almost an hour of surfing through the tapes, I saw that last night's examination went as one might expect. I looked through the paperwork and saw that everything was documented accordingly. As hard I as I searched, I just could not find evidence of any nightmarish creatures eating corpses. I laughed a bit at how foolish I was to think otherwise. Feeling comfortable with moving along with the procedure, I followed through with the examination of the newest arrival.
It was fairly straightforward - a bullet to the head, standard 9mm round as the report read. After cleaning up the operating room and locking up the cadaver, went to my office and was son reminded of how little I ate that morning, which was to say not at all. I usually keep a granola bar in my office desk and that was the first thing I had in mind. I quickly removed the wrapper and devoured half of it in one bite. It took a moment to register just what it was I bit into before I began choking and coughing up a fine, grey powder. I looked down in my hand and saw the same stuff, pressed into a block which soon crumbled to dust. The taste lingered on my tongue and I knew it well. I tasted the same thing when I took a drink of my coffee. Ash. A pile of it laid in my hand and most of what I coughed up landed on my desk. I knew it couldn't be real, yet there it was - the evidence was in the very palm of my hand.
"Taste it..."
I heard the same voice I heard last night, whispering softly into my ears. I stared at the ash long and hard, not sure what any of it meant. Something told me I didn't want to know...
It was another half-hour before I arrived at the morgue, allowing the EMTs to finish their part of the job. While they transferred to body and filled out the necessary paperwork, I made myself a pot of coffee and opened a spare pack of Marlboro's I kept in my desk drawer. I'd already smoked a couple cigs before the coffee finished brewing and by the time I poured myself a cup with cream and sugar the EMTs were long gone. I don't know how long I sat there, cigarette in hand and coffee untouched, but a shaft of light finally reached my eyes and broke me from my stillness. I thought I had just fallen asleep and took a drink of my coffee. Immediately, I spat my mouthful back into the mug. It tasted like ash and that's when it dawned on me that I'd let my cigarette burn down 'twixt my fingers that hovered over my drink.
Tossing the singed filter aside, I looked into the mug and saw ash floating on the surface of my drink. I briefly considered making myself a new one when I remembered the body waiting to be stored and written up. I hurried over to Receiving and saw the body bag lying atop a gurney. An image appeared in my mind, the bag replaced by the head-case from the night before - eyes open in horror, looking into my own with its mangled face turned towards me, its hand stretched out, pleading for salvation from the dark figures looming over it. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, effectively washing the image away for when I returned my gaze to the gurney, nothing but the body bag and its contents rested on the surface.
I decided to keep the body in the refridgeration room for now, I wasn't feeling quite ready to begin the examination. Instead, I went to Records and looked through the files for the audio and video tapes from the previous night. After almost an hour of surfing through the tapes, I saw that last night's examination went as one might expect. I looked through the paperwork and saw that everything was documented accordingly. As hard I as I searched, I just could not find evidence of any nightmarish creatures eating corpses. I laughed a bit at how foolish I was to think otherwise. Feeling comfortable with moving along with the procedure, I followed through with the examination of the newest arrival.
It was fairly straightforward - a bullet to the head, standard 9mm round as the report read. After cleaning up the operating room and locking up the cadaver, went to my office and was son reminded of how little I ate that morning, which was to say not at all. I usually keep a granola bar in my office desk and that was the first thing I had in mind. I quickly removed the wrapper and devoured half of it in one bite. It took a moment to register just what it was I bit into before I began choking and coughing up a fine, grey powder. I looked down in my hand and saw the same stuff, pressed into a block which soon crumbled to dust. The taste lingered on my tongue and I knew it well. I tasted the same thing when I took a drink of my coffee. Ash. A pile of it laid in my hand and most of what I coughed up landed on my desk. I knew it couldn't be real, yet there it was - the evidence was in the very palm of my hand.
"Taste it..."
I heard the same voice I heard last night, whispering softly into my ears. I stared at the ash long and hard, not sure what any of it meant. Something told me I didn't want to know...
