“Where do you want him?” he asked, and I sputtered.
Where did I want him? Literally anywhere but inside my damn house!
“Do you have one of those human toasters? I don’t know much about funeral homes. Do you just do the embalming, or do you handle the urn shit too?”
“You mean cremation?” I asked, feeling like I was fucking underwater.
His entire face lit up, and he snapped his fingers with the hand that wasn’t balancing a corpse over his shoulder.
“That’sthe word.Cremation.Thanks. That was going to bug the shit out of me.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and did everything I could to focus on my breathing. Now was not the time to have a panic attack. This was madness, but… I didn’t know what I could do.
If I tried to call the police, I was sure he would fucking kill me. I should have called them before. Not calling them made me a fucking idiot; I knew that, but I couldn’t go back now.
He had already told me he would kill me if I didn’t help him with this. He clearly worked for a larger group of people that would put my family in danger, even if I managed to get him arrested.
I was royallyscrewed.
Beating back the panic, which was already triggering another boner, I resolved to focus on his question instead of worrying about how all of this was going to pan out. Staying in the present and focusing on what was happening right now was the only way I could make it through this without succumbing to a full-blown panic attack.
“We have a crematorium, yes,” I replied. “My dad had one installed a few years after I was born.” I remember him telling me how much of a pain in the ass it had been too. Crematoriums needed all kinds of permits, and the entire house needed to have proper ventilation added to it, but it had been worth it. Cremation was one of our most popular services, and the addition had more or less paid for itself.
“Great! In the basement, I’m assuming? What do I do… just toss him in and light a match? What’s the procedure?”
“No! Of course not. First, we need to make sure he doesn’t have any medical devices on him. The last thing you want to do is expose a battery to high temperatures like that. It could literally explode.”
Cal looked… fascinated, which isn’t a reaction I was used to when talking about my line of work. A strange, warm feeling stirred in my gut at the way his brown eyes were locked on mine. He ran his tongue over his lip and nodded in understanding.
“Cool. So, what, you want him on a table somewhere?”
“Ugh. Just… follow me,” I grumbled, finally giving in to whatever nightmare Cal had forcibly dragged me into.
Alexa, play: DArkSide - Bring Me The Horizon
Iled Cal out of the private part of my home and into the parlor. Jogging down the stairs to the basement, I flicked on the light, instinctively glancing back to make sure Cal was managing the stairs alright with his…parcel.
We passed Theo’s tiny home gym, and I unlocked the heavy steel door that led to the preparation room. I gestured to the stainless steel table in the center of the space, and Cal dumped the corpse on it unceremoniously.
On reflex, I nearly snapped at him to have some respect for the dead. I wouldneverhandle a body that way. However, the darkness I had seen in Cal’s eyes when he confronted the man inour foyer was back. I remembered exactlywhoit was that was on my table and sobered.
Slipping on my lab coat. I offered Cal an apron. He took it from me without comment and slipped it over his head, tying the waist straps around his hips.
He watched me slip on a pair of safety glasses, and I handed him a box of latex gloves. He looked amused but snapped on a pair and pushed his Ray-Bans back on, I assumed in place of eye gear.
I handed him a mask, but he shook his head and pulled up his skull bandana instead.
“What’s all this for? Dude’s dead.” He chuckled.
I sighed. “It’s to protectus.You don’t want someone else’s bodily fluids all over you; you can get sick. Also, I usually work with several chemicals that are harmful to the living, so personal protective equipment and proper hygiene are very important.”
Cal chuckled at the mention ofbodily fluids, but he nodded along. I couldn’t tell if he was genuinely listening or just humoring me. It didn’t matter.
I grabbed a pair of straight scissors and got to work unwrapping the body. It was clear that this was not Cal’s first time packaging up a body in this manner. The plastic was folded and taped neatly. The creases were arranged in such a way that any blood or leakage was expertly contained. Not one drop of blood had leaked out, and… there wasquitea bit of blood. Once I had the plastic open, I raised a quizzical eyebrow at Cal.
He had done somedamageto this man. Honestly, I had seen worse. You process enough car accident victims, and you quickly learn just how delicate the human body is.
However, this was somehow different.
