Death's Puppeteer

1908

For the first time, Enoch had been left alone in the funeral parlour to begin an embalming process on his own while both Owen and Uriah attended a funeral. It was almost too perfect an opportunity for Enoch to believe his luck. Had the fellow not died in the early hours of that morning, Enoch would be in his coat and hat and riding alongside his father on the wagon.

The body was that of a middle aged man in his forties who had suffered a fatal heart attack in the early hours of the morning. He had been dead before the doctor could arrive. Satisfied that Enoch knew enough to handle what needed to be done by himself, at least for an hour or so, Owen had consented to leave him behind from the funeral. Leaving he and his brother to be pall bearers for that morning's funeral.
The man lay, still half-dressed in his trousers and open shirt, on the table in the centre of the room when Enoch trudged in from the house as the wagon turned the corner down the street on its way to the church and cemetery.

Closing the door behind him, Enoch pulled out the homunculus from his pocket where it had been trying to squirm its way out since being confined to the cloth interior. It tumbled onto the floor as he dropped it carelessly and performed quite the comical somersault that would have had Faith in hysterical, bell like laughter.
The boy strode over to the ice box in the corner, opened it and leaned over so far he had almost half submerged himself in ice. After groping around for several seconds in the cold contents, his hand closed around what he was searching for. Pulling from within the pig's heart he had hidden two days previously for preservation, Enoch let the chest lid of the box crash closed. The heart was unsurprisingly frozen solid as he set it aside on the table where it rocked solidly. He cast an eye briefly over at the clay figure curiously running laps around the room and whistled to it as if it were a dog. It skidded to a halt and lifted a clay hand to its head as it faced him in a kind of salute. Enoch smirked to himself before quickly deciding to get a move on. He needed to be quick, and if it failed, he at least needed to start the embalming process before his father returned.

Enoch sucked in a breath and before he could think twice about it, drew a long, clean cut down the corpse's chest. Unlike the woman he had first tried to resurrect, this man had not been drained of blood. It would be far messier. The fifteen year old pursed his lips before shrugging off his coat. He immediately felt the chill as he stripped his bracers off his shoulders where they hung from his trousers either side and rolled up both sleeves to the elbow. Feeling a tug at his trouser leg, Enoch looked down to see the homunculus trying to climb up him and sighed before bending down to pick it up and set it on the table beside the dead man's leg.

As soon as he picked up the pig's heart he knew it would be too frozen to use. Cursing under his breath Enoch cast another careful look at the door and moved over to the small, seldom used furnace in the corner. A few stray pieces of kindling and half used coal were still stacked ready for use. Standing up straight, Enoch reached above his head to find the little matchbox on a high shelf. Dropping to his knees, he opened the slightly bent door of the furnace and nudged the more flammable pieces of kindling to the top of the pile. With slightly shaking hands he struck one of the few matches and waved it close to the coal and kindling. He only needed a small flame long enough to thaw the heart. After a few seconds, as the flame rapidly approached Enoch's fingertips, it caught and he dropped the match into the furnace. Quickly, he stood and hurried back to the table, seized the pig's heart and went back to kneeling at the furnace. As the kindling began to catch alight, Enoch carefully held the heart just within range of the little warmth. He felt it begin to soften and thaw in his fingers and turned it slowly until he could softly compress the flesh in his fingers. It would do. He needed to hurry.
Standing up, Enoch left the heart on the table, filled a near empty formaldehyde bottle from the sink and extinguished the small flames with a hiss.