There is always a place for the dead.
Anytime, anywhere, where there is the living there must be a place to store the dead. Even if there's not, there soon will be. It's not something man can control. When you die you die, without the body you left behind.
Have you ever seen a corpse in its natural state of decay? It's all perfectly natural, a part of a cycle as old as time. So common there are even songs in children's movies.
It used to be so normal.
Yet for many people, the thought of death, of decay is unspeakable. It is the sewers of society, running filth away out of sight. No one wishes to see it, smell it, or even think about it. Death has become a taboo in modern society.
Do not speak of it. All is well.
Look not upon it. It is a truth better left buried. Out of sight out of mind.
"This is what a corpse could look like after an estimated 4 months in water. Now notice the extent of the disen-"
"Sophie stop. I beg of you please. STAHP!"
"Enough with water deaths? We have been on it for a while, it must be looking all the same. Alight let's move on to-"
"No no no not the water, or the bloats or bogs or the anything! We've been flipping through more than enough creepy pics to fill a gore trilogy!"
"June. Shut up and suck it." grimaced Mattie.
But June did not shut up, not now that she had finally revived. After the first few minutes of horrified screaming, the teen girl had gone deathly quiet, as if her soul and spirit had left her. After over half an hour of Sophie's slideshow lesson plan, she finally broke. More from the fear of her own siblings' serious study faces than anything. Sophie sounded like she was practicing for a class demonstration while Mattie was actually taking notes?
"Why do you have so much!? Did you hack serial killers anonymous or a necrophiliac porn hub!!?! What the fuck!? And Mattie how are you just rolling with this?!"
"You caught me, I'm a necrophiliac porn site admin and Sophie is the founder. No June! It just pictures. And I aced bio class. Just pictures! "
It's not like he personally enjoyed looking at the wonders of nature and human decomposition either. It did do a great job of making the summer island feel cold from the goosebumps he got. Somehow Mattie gets the feeling it was better to watch Sophie's laptop right now than face the real thing later on with fresh eyes.
There was a reason to everything Sophie did, even if it was hard to understand.
This, however, was a very clear message. Loud and clear. Dead bodies incoming. Get ready.
"Body Farm archives are available for students, I used my old university account to access and download some more detailed case studies before we boarded the plane but a good number of the pictures are available online. " calmy stated Sophie.
That.
That steady unwavering calm was what scared June most. How Sophie didn't even gulp at a single thing. As if nothing outside herself could scare her.
"Old??! Body farms?!!! You're in the Business dept.!!!"
"Was I now?"
Does it matter? Majors? School was so long ago, lost in the flow of time and alcohol. There was no point when she got back, nothing left.
There were some classes, yeah. Some specialized things that her doctors signed her up for. Had to reintegrate into the modern world somehow. Her old academics, however, meant nothing, nothing to her on the island and nothing to her after. It changes nothing.
"Was it too much info at this point? Let's call it a night."
"The info wasn't the problem?!!"
"Ehhh, kinda info-dumpy yeah but rather understandable. Maybe if you seperated time frames since they really do all look the same at certain points. Especially the eaten by insects subjects."
"I don't know what's scarier: the creepy HD body farm picture tour or you two."
Sophie knows the answer, deep down they all do. She just doesn't bother to say it. It was honestly a surprise how well Mattie took to the lessons but then again, he was always good at holding himself back.
A person who considers themself normal in these times, can't bear even a whiff of death.
Maybe when they live in the country, more directly with nature and its cycles. Where there was no one to hire to do the cleanup. Those were for the cities, where there was work in the industry, or professionals like that old doctor. Not Ryo, man like Ryo couldn't be counted as normal.
Sophie knows what she sees when she closes her eyes. She knows the grave she has buried herself in only to crawl out barehanded. Burnt and bleeding, raw to the bone but alive. Too much. It's all too much.
Because she has seen too much, she can recognize now those of her kind. Those that have tasted death and had it lodged and settle into the pits of their stomach, never to digest.
There is a stone, a bone, stuck in Mattie's. Her little brother.
It is something she had never noticed all those years ago and she feels like punching herself that can only see it now
Sophie has seen more than anyone's fair share of death. She knows what she see's when she closes her eyes. She knows chaos and carnage. The deepest instinct of humankind when stripped bare and back to nature. Sex, drugs, of humans and all the reasons why they may cry. The laws of the jungle and the screams of the asylum halls. All that and more, decomposing in every pose and scene.
She does not know the silence of the morgue.
Years ago, before all this started, before there was a story of an island, Sophie was a seemingly normal college girl. Then the rug pulled out from under her.
The call came at 1 am. It was a school night and she was tired from exams. Her dorm roommates were as equally dead. Seeing June's name blare again and again on her phone, the then young Sophie couldn't keep ignoring it.
Her world first fell at 1:13 am, by the glowing light of an old humming vending machine in the dorm hall. Her parents were dead. June was sobbing so hard that she couldn't even speak right but it was enough. Her parents were dead. That's all the Sophie of then needed to know.
When she had finally made it back home, there was nothing left but ashes. Ashes and urns. She didn't even get to see them.
"You wouldn't want to" they had assured her and a grief striken June.
Someone had to. Had to identify the bodies, had to see through to the cremation and such matters.
Her parent's death was a tragedy, a deep tearing of roots from their system yes. But it was so far removed for her that Sophie no longer feels any shame from the lack of pain. The care she can't seem to really muster up anymore.
It was sad, it was awful, it changed their lives forever and maybe, just maybe if their parents were around there would have been no death island vacation to hell in the first place.
But the sick joke that was time didn't send her back that far. That is not the pain that drives Sophie, it hasn't been for a long time. It hurt yeah, but the scar muscles had long healed over the once gaping wound.
Sophie is fire and acid rain, rivers of blood and rage behind a contradiction of rusty soft hands and cherry chapstick flavored smiles. She is burns and scars that don't exist here and a bloodlust that can't be sated simply.
Mattie is too much coffee at 1- 2 -3 - and 4 am. His shoes squeak and scuff from running too fast too hard, down the court, down the dark road in the middle of the night, round and round the kitchen tiles. He is all snark and bleach, broken shards methodically swept clean as if nothing had ever shattered in the first place.
He should have known only of red pens and papercuts. Sports balls to the face and after school squabbles- these were supposed to be the best years of his life.
Somewhere down that road and back, with or without Sophie, he had already changed.
He had uncovered the sheet, the rug. He ripped it off himself and watched with eyes wide open as the world crashed in stillness. In silence.
He covered the wreck back up with nothing but a cold white sheet. Requested the cremation immediately. Called his uncle, called whoever- just to get it done. No one else had to see the wreck that was left. No one needed to know what it looked like.
"It's just some pictures June, don't be so scared. It's all professional, just think of it like health or biology class. They staged everything, set up the experiments with all the variables and recorded the results. Just pictures." drawled Mattie cooly.
Case studies. Files. The graphic images were no different to him than a lecture in a laboratory. Science was gross sometimes, and what was science but the study of life and the world around them?
"I know they're pictures Mattie but that doesn't mean they're not messed up scary as fuck!"
"Think of it as a movie or T.V. show then. Don't you love crime and action stuff?"
"Uh totally not the same thing? Pew pew is very different than that. That was...that was oh god tv prop could never. Ewww I still see them. It's like it's burned under my eyelids! I'm not all nerdy and cool like you dude, I can't be like 'oh that's science' and just flush it out my brain after class. Bleck. I think I'm going to have nightmares tonight."
She won't.
Mattie may fall asleep the easiest but June is the sibling that sleeps the soundest. He knows best what she's talking about. He still sees them too.
Even when the glasses come off and the world turns blurry, dark. They're burned under his eyelids and he's the one who learned this lesson by heart.
This is what Sophie had missed years ago, lost in herself.
The damage was done, covered up with a thin sheet. Burned up and ashes swept, nice and clean.
She doesn't miss how her brother's face slightly morphed, expression barely changing with every case photo. The rotting parts and pieces don't bother him any more than any steady strong hearted med. student. What people find the most disgusting parts of decomposition, even mummification, doesn't affect him at all. Her brother had the guts to make a good whatever it was he wanted in life, one day in the future.
But it's the fresh ones, blunt force twisted and unrecognizable as the people they once were, those are the ones that get him to silently react.
She should have known.
"I don't expect you all to remember everything and you can review it over when we have down time. My laptop is always here if you need to use it. But....do you guys know what happens when the body dies?"
A pause. Crickets chirping and sea waves lazily laps at the rocks. The sunlight wasn't out yet but the nighttime insects were starting their songs.
"When your heart stops beating, cells and tissues stop receiving oxygen. Brain cells are the first to die, usually within three to seven minutes. Blood begins draining from the capillaries, pooling in lower-lying portions of the body, creating a pale appearance in some places and a darker appearance in others.
About three hours after death, rigor mortis, a stiffening of muscles, sets in. Around 12 hours after death, the body will feel cool, and within 24 hours, depending on body fat and external temperatures, it will lose all internal heat, or algor mortis."
Mattie recites as if shorthand reading from a textbook, face blank in a good show of professionalism. He's 18 now, no longer a child. For all the goofy moments this boy has, he hasn't been one for a long time now either.
It makes Sophie's cold numbed heart beat again in an unpleasant way.
"As the cells die, bacteria within the body begin breaking them down. Enzymes in the pancreas cause the organ to digest itself. Decomposing tissue emits a green substance, as well as gasses such as methane and hydrogen sulfide. The lungs expel fluid through the mouth and nose."
"Gross but at least it doesn't come with pictures." shrugged June in between Mattie's technical pauses.
"Well if you want, I can easily pull some up." Sophie offered.
It was hard for strangers to tell when she was joking and when she wasn't, tone perfectly even. June quickly declined, joke or not she's had quite enough imagery for the day.
"Oh no no no I'm fine. Mattie please go on with the recipe for dead things dying."
"You know what, I sure will June, because you know what's next? Bugs. Human bodies are chock full of substance. Flies and their maggots are extremely efficient. Allow me to whisper to you in the dead of night before you fall asleep all the things they do."
"Oh ewwwww. No thanks, Sophie already showed us the squishy pics for that one. I think I'm good on the review. Wrap up?"
"Yeah sure. Not bad Mattie."
"Sheesh Soph, you're so hard to impress. Way to pull a mom."
The way he smirks, half-joking and half truly arrogant in the way young people are, looked absolutely insufferable to one sister and unbearably fond to another.
Perspective was a funny thing.
"Yeah....good enough for now Mattie. Alright then, let's go get our minds off something else, find something to eat. Maybe the traps caught something good."
"Finally but can we not hang the carcasses in front of my good clean bathrooms? Again?"
"Hmm, maybe if you make another drain site."
"You guys can still eat after that? You want to?!"
Despite what she says or how she complains, June follows closely along anyway. Always does when it comes to Mattie or Sophie. That and no matter what she says, a girl has to eat.
If there's anything that would cheer her up from studying, it was food. Even if the study contents were a lot more gruesome than what she was used to. A lot of things were looking that way lately.
One of their traps below the mountain had caught a mongoose sort of creature. There wasn't all that much flesh on it but meat was meat.
Soft fur, lean body, but longer and larger than any rat. It would do.
When the rains came there would be plenty of rats. Quantity over quality in terms of fresh meat to eat, if people were willing that is.
"Alright June, since Mattie got the last lesson down, it's your turn."
"Yeah, gooooo for it."
The youngest stuck her tongue out before grappling with the bamboo and vine trap. The pitiful creature wasn't much larger than their own pet dog back home and the realization almost made June hesitate. Good thing it body was much longer and squirreled.
*Crack*
There goes its neck, still warm but dead as a doorknob. If it was this much even June wouldn't have any problem. Girl had to eat somehow.
Now came the hard part, skinning and processing. This was the work that Mattie would rather throw to anyone else, aka June. It was just messy.
Sure Sophie could easily do it. Too easy it was creepy.
No one in their little family had known how to cleanly skin and gut game before this flight but here they were now. Learning under their sister's psychic hands and knife. Another message made loud and clear.
You need to know how to do this yourself.
How to kill without guilt. How to make it clean, efficient. If one wanted to eat well, live well, you needed to know how to kill.
Baby steps. Sophie was letting them start small and working up to the bigger stuff. If anything it was only an advantage if they knew how to hunt and process meat to feed themselves. How to crack something's neck and stop their hearts without the instilled fear and hesitation that modern society seemed to teach.
It wasn't like she was trying to raise them into murder machines.
She doesn't even know if she could. June was young and idealistic to the core. Mattie had his morals, stern and steady. They were normal kids. Too normal.
It was enough though if they could be a little more prepared. Tougher and more resilient than the average person, someone who could survive. Nothing she could say right now would make them ready or willing. Only time and experience would if they so chose.
It would be nice though, to have some help in the future.
But it wasn't time to strike preemptively. Not yet. No matter how much her palms itched.
That's why Sophie tried not to look at the other survivors too much. Tried not to recognize anyone too closely unless she could help it. It was just too tempting.
It was itchy.
A sign she was alive and well. She itched like a crack addict back on the streets. Even if she had been sober for this long, the itch strongly present and now so was the setting.
In another way, other than the literal, it was like a dream come true.
The modern world had rules, laws that dictated on one's control over life and death. No other human had the legal power to decide another's fate like that. Not without a complicated but 'just' system behind them. A court or people, a judge, layers playing tennis back and forth with their stockpiles of carefully verified evidence.
You couldn't just rip someone's trachea out the good old fashioned way. No that was insane and awfully messy to clean.
"I think I got it clean now?"
"You punctured some of its organs though. More than punctures I think you just ripped them. Is that the kidney?"
"Dude, Matt, it has like super tiny wittle little soft guts. How do I not squish them?"
"By being careful? What are you, the hulk? Even King Kong can be gentle on breakable handheld bodies, you can do it too."
"Okay then you do it! Holding and skinning it is hard? It's worse than taking off wet skinny jeans!"
"Uh yeah I would think it would be. How about no? You already got bile on it."
"Urk, I threw the yucky parts away real quick? It just needs like a salt bath, into the brine it goes."
June shrugged, looking sheepish even with the raw skinned mongoose still dripping in her hand.
Raw fresh meat didn't bother her. Nor did the mess, at least not as much as Mattie. Had to say though, the little creature was harder to process than a duck or a rooster. It was just so small, probably not as tasty or satisfying. So not worth the effort in her opinion.
But if Sophie says so, then she'll go snuff out the giant squirrel looking thing and turn it into soup or whatever. Even if she's not really sure how one goes preparing this.
"You wouldn't happen to have some mongoose recipes on top of the creepy corpse pics now would you Sophie?"
"Afraid not. We'll just have to eyeball it." Sophie assured.
Sophie itched. Behind her calm and comforting smiles, a part of her snarled and gnawed, already deep into her bones.
Patience, her reason stressed.
It wasn't time yet, no big game to hunt. There were only so many. She'll get to them eventually, all of them. But maybe just a little taste? Some small fry, just to get by.
"You two go on ahead. Go wash up in the sea and gather the shellfish we set in the tide pools. I'll just check out some traps, set a few more up."
"Wait what? It's getting dark soon Sophie. You sure?"
"Of course June, unlike someone here I'm not so easy to scare."
Sophie smiles and that's that.
Mattie knows what that perfect smile means and takes his younger sister by the hand, away. Away from whatever Sophie doesn't want them to see. He quickly mouths at her 'later', and only turns when Sophie nods at him in assurance.
She really should have known with him.
Her brother both worries and reassures her, in ways Sophie didn't expect. Together they play house, with June as the only real audience. For who knows how long. Together they pretend everything is okay. It's really not but this is better, far better than what it was once before.
"Not bad."
Sophie says to herself when she can no longer see them, walking away, back to the main group.
"I'm going to set up some traps."
She narrates, with a bit of a hum.
"Gonna set up some traps, gonna catch something good. Going to have meat meat meat~"
Humming turns into a silly made up song, innocent sounding gibberish. She gives a little skip as she walks, her steps shifting her entire demeanor. A stone cold face softening into a darling little girl. Her eyes brightened like the stars beginning to make themselves known in the skies above.
Wildflowers littered the nearby shrubbery and no girl could resist the pops of soft pink and red. The color of washed off blood, as if it were diluted.
Gibberish humming, half sung songs in a voice softer than the flowers she was picking. It didn't matter what color. They would look wonderfully charming against her pixie black hair but something about pale pink looked particularly enticing. It set off her alluring natural blush, the tender pinks of her cheeks and lips. She looked as sweet as a summer fresh peach and the worst part was she knew it.
No need for comparisons, not to June, not to Aubrey or anyone. A flower does not compare, it simply blooms in its own way and waits. Either to be picked or for prey.
"Come out come out wolfie, come out come out piggie~ Gonna set up a pot and make a stew. Fill it up with nothing but all of you. Gonna set up some traps, gonna catch something good!~"
There was a madness to her frolicking. She had already given away a part of her control and it was freeing. Once in a while, this wasn't so bad.
She licked her lips with a diabetic sweet smile worthy of a billboard candy ad.
Any sane person should know to keep away. Anyone who ever heard a fairy tale story, or had common sense, shouldn't ever approach such a lone figure in the woods. Typically if you saw a singing little girl, so light and surreal she might very well be a spirit, in these deep dark parts, you run the hell the other way. Or well, you should
"What will I trap today?~ How about something easy? Super easy! Ah it's been so long."
She giggles as she adjusted her skirt, rolling away the sports leggings into her little knapsack. A crown of small bloody flowers now set upon her blushing face. Even grown adults, who weren't necessary perverts, may not be able to resist a face that cute.
She twirls and lifts her face up to the skies above. The summer sunlight fading into a cotton candy sunset. The breeze rustles the leafy trees. With one delicate hand, a doll's hand, she lifts it up as if asking for help getting up. But the starved look in her eyes is anything but helpless.
Her youthful laugh echos.
"Do you want to come along?"
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