mortuary

ˈmɔːtjʊəri,-tʃʊ-/

noun

a room or building in which dead bodies are kept, for hygienic storage or for examination, until burial or cremation

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10 August 2015

9:30pm

- KIM TAEHO

The skies were dark when my groupmates and I decided to sneak into the mortuary to do our project that night. The funny thing was that the project was due to the next morning and thus, we only had around twelve hours. I felt a pinch of regret for not doing it earlier but seeing how the rest of my groupmates seemed to be unbothered, I knew it was impossible to have finished the project earlier.

As soon as we stood in front of the mortuary, I whipped out my pass ID and unlocked the door before all six of us entered. The room brightened up as soon as one of my groupmates went over to the switch to turn the lights on. I closed the door behind me before gathering the rest in the middle of the room.

We looked around the spacious room to see white walls and a long stretch of metallic 'cabinets' on another wall. In those 'cabinets' called chambers, were dead bodies in which one of them would be used for our project. One of my groupmate, Park Jihwan, searched through his bag before taking out a folder.

"Okay... so it says here that we need to find for umm... Kwon Daejung, chamber number 13," Jihwan uttered as he read out the contents in the folder.

The rest of us turned around and scanned the long stretch of chambers before finding the chamber number 13 around the middle section. I was expecting someone to open up the chamber however, everyone seemed to be looking at each other, perhaps having the same jittery feeling I had at the thought of a dead body.

"I'll open it," Jeon Minhyuk volunteered upon seeing the nervous looks on our faces.

We all stood back as he pulled the handle of the chamber door where vapour started escaping from the chamber due to the temperature difference of the chamber and the room. The body was in a body bag on a long metal tray before Minhyuk pulled it out of the chamber. As soon as he unzipped the body bag, my hands began shaking in sudden uneasiness. I noticed a red mark around the neck of the deceased.

"He strangled himself," Jihwan said, realising that I was examining the red mark.

I clearly knew that however, seeing the deceased body of someone who strangled himself made me feel unsettled, knowing that he died a terrible death. I just nodded my head and looked away as the deceased body was transferred onto a trolley before being pushed to the centre of the room.

While the rest prepared the equipment we require for the project, I headed to the backroom of the mortuary to get some scalpels and scissors. I was searching through the cabinets when the lights in the room started flickering out of a sudden. Instinctively, I looked up to the LED lights above me, my eyebrows knotted into a frown. The lights stopped flickering however, they were glowing brighter than before.

I didn't seem to be bothered by this and continued searching for the tools I needed for the project. However, the lights started flickering again, making me slightly agitated. I was about to continue searching through the cabinets when the lights shut off all of a sudden. I instantly froze.

"Hey! Who switched off the lights?!" I yelled from my position, scanning around aimlessly in the pitch dark room.

There was no response. I was blinded with darkness and hastily turned around to find for the light switch. I felt a nearby wall and used it as a guide to bring me to the light switch. As soon as I found it, I quickly turned the lights on. I then stormed out of the room and approached my friends, frowning at the five of them who were preparing the equipment for the operation.

"So who's the joker who switched off the lights?" I asked, feeling annoyed.

"Uh- what are you talking about?" One of the other guys, Jung Changwoo, asked, his face looking confused.

"Ha-ha-ha, I know one of you did it so own up," I demanded.

"Huh?" They said in unison.

I rolled my eyes again, crossing my arms against my chest.

"You know what, forget it," I walked away and entered the backroom again.

I quickly grabbed the scalpels and scissors from the top cupboard before heading back to my friends to start our project.

It's going to be a long night.