In the Graveyard Antemortem by Stromp Stephen

Author:Stromp, Stephen
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Kindle Press
Published: 2016-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

Part IV

Chapter 20

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Body Factory

Boom! Boom! Boom! I came to understand that being awakened in a startling panic was quite customary with life at Grand Hallow. Predictable even, on any given night. It was the same loud banging Tina and I had heard that first night in the green room, like someone striking a large bass drum. The noise reverberated from the morgue and down the hall. It was then followed by those same scraping noises, as if someone were dragging a heavy filing cabinet across a gravel road.

Yet unlike the first time Tina and I had heard the unexpected noises in the dead of night, I decided then and there I was not going to cower like a frightened rabbit. This time, I’d find out exactly what was going on. And who was responsible. Swiftly, I crept from beneath the covers and grasped the doorknob with a prayer that my bargaining chip with Uncle Clayton had worked. I twisted the knob. And much to my relief, I was free. I pulled open the door, just a bit, and peered down the hall.

With the coast clear, I cautiously tiptoed toward the morgue. As I got closer, I noticed only the lights along the back wall were lit. Suddenly, a figure stepped before the lights. I couldn’t make out its detail, but it cast a long, slender shadow. The shadow stretched down the hallway and intersected with my own. I was quick to slip into the darkness along the edge of the hall, watching the figure as it moved chaotically like some marionette being tossed to and fro by a frantic puppeteer. In the frenzy, dropped trays and fumbled instruments crashed onto the porcelain tiles. Undeterred, I scurried forward until I finally made it to the morgue’s entrance. There, I peered from behind one of the pillars. The slender figure had abruptly disappeared, leaving the morgue in disarray.

Three fresh corpses occupied the slabs at the far end of the room. I knew they were fresh because they had not been prepped in the least. Their mouths were agape. And the smell that carried into the hall told me they had not yet seen the inside of a cooler, much less been embalmed.

The doors to two of the walk-in coolers were wide open. Clustered around them were four cadavers upon gurneys. Two were zipped in body bags while the other two were fully exposed. About half a dozen of the singular cooler drawers also were open along the wall. It looked as if someone had haphazardly opened the drawers of a giant card catalog and then abruptly walked away without finding the needed book.

Yet among all the chaos, most conspicuous was the reappearance of the objects of much contention during the first night Tina and I had stayed at Grand Hallow: the collection of plastic barrels. Instead of being discreetly stacked in the back of the morgue, they were chaotically placed throughout the room. Some were sealed. Yet several others were empty with their lids tossed aside.

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