Alan opened the body bag and looked at the corpse. Her papers said that her name was Veronica Smith. She was skinny and in her mid-twenties, but it was the gaping hole in her throat that caught his attention. Her head was practically decapitated, the flesh torn away until her vertebrae were visible and they were only thing keeping her head from being completely separated from her body.
Who could have done this to a poor little thing like her?
Alan sighed and moved the corpse out of the bag. He quickly cleaned the body before he placed small towels over the dead girl's private areas. He washed her hair and neatly combed out any knots. He glanced back at the wound and groaned.
"Whoever did this to you is a real asshole," Alan muttered as he got out the embalming equipment. "Not only did they kill you, but they made my job more difficult."
"You're talking to bodies again," a voice said. Alan turned to Jenna as she entered the room, dressed in scrubs. She was tall, blonde, and blue-eyed with a smile that said she knew everything. "Well, at least we have a body to talk to."
"Hey, Jenna. I didn't think you'd show up," Alan said, turning back to the body.
"Can't I spend time with my brother?"
"I thought you had a date with Jim," Alan said, nonchalantly.
"I did, but I rescheduled. It's been a while since you and I have talked," she said, walking over to the table and looking at the corpse. "I saw this on the news and thought you might want help."
"You know I can't pay you, right? Any money made from this has to go to keeping this place afloat."
"I know," Jenna replied. "I just wanted to see if you need help."
"I don't, but since you're here, you can sew the severed arteries up so we can get her embalmed," Alan said, mixing the chemicals together in the machine. Jenna put on her rubber gloves and started her work.
The two worked in silence for a while before Jenna abruptly ran out of the room. Alan stopped his work and slowly followed her. He walked through the short hallway until he reached the restroom. The door was left open and he saw his sister with her head in the toilet, retching.
"You know, if you can't handle doing this, I can do it myself," Alan said, leaning against the door frame. Jenna lifted her head and looked into her brother's grey eyes as she wiped her mouth.
"No," she said. "It's morning sickness. I'll be fine."
Alan's jaw dropped. "Y-You're pregnant?"
"Yeah," Jenna said, smiling. "You're going to be an uncle."
"Does Jim know about this?" Alan asked. "He's the father, right?"
"Yeah, he knows," she laughed.
"How long . . . have you. . .?"
"About a month," Jenna replied. Alan crossed the tiny restroom and enveloped Jenna in a hug. She laughed and hugged him back. They separated for a moment and Alan looked down at his sister's stomach.
"I never knew you were pregnant," he stated. "No wonder you've been so bitchy."
"Shut up," Jenna scolded, slapping Alan. "I'm not bitchy."
"Okay, whatever you say. I just feel sorry for Jim."
"Don't feel sorry for him. He's been worse than I am. Speaking of which," Jenna said. "When are you going to find yourself someone to settle down with?"
Alan shrugged and stood up. "Let's get back to work."
========================
Kayden stared at the police investigators as he leaned against the wall of the building and lit up a cigarette. The investigators were still looking at the crime scene, trying to find any evidence he didn't leave.
The girl, Veronica, had it coming to her. She ran her mouth off, babbling about how her friend was a whore and that she was the saintliest of all the people she worked with. Kayden had played her like a violin and had led her down that alleyway before she even knew what was happening. That was when she had said the wrong thing.
"If we're going to fuck, you have to take out that gay-ass septum piercing. You look like a faggot."
"Bitch," Kayden muttered under his breath as he took a long drag of the cigarette. He exhaled the smoke through his nose as he pushed himself off the wall and began to walk aimlessly through town. "She just had to open her goddamn mouth."
Kayden let out another puff of smoke as he thought about how much he enjoyed tearing out her throat.
She had been in the middle of her self-absorbed rambling when Kayden had plunged his knife in Veronica's pretty throat. She had fallen to the ground, but Kayden wasn't done. He had continued to rip through the tender flesh of her neck until his face and hands had been covered in warm blood. Then he had thrown her cell phone in the sewer drain, took her money and credit cards out of her purse, tucked them along with his knife in his hoodie and walked to his motel through back alleys, periodically dropping her belongings in sewer drains and garbage cans as he went.
Kayden shivered in excitement as he remembered the feel of the blood gracing his skin.
Kayden finally made it back to his motel room and sprawled out on his bed. He was currently checked in under a false name and wanted it to remain that way until he could find a much more secluded place to stay.
"She was so dumb that she ended up dying for it," he smiled. "How quaint."
=======================
One Week Later.....
Kayden walked into the pub with a disinterested expression. The moon was high overhead that night and Kayden was bored.
He walked over to the bar and ordered a beer before looking around. Not surprisingly, there were many kinds of people in the pub: energetic college students, depressed problem drinkers, budding alcoholics, shy lightweights, and the like.
"Here you go," the bartender said, sitting the beer in front of Kayden.
"Thanks," he replied, taking a sip of the bitter drink as the bartender went to the other end of the bar to serve another customer. He took another sip and sighed.
Kayden heard the door of the pub open and shut before a man took a seat next to Kayden at the bar. Kayden looked him over curiously. The man next to him had cold grey eyes and dirty blonde hair. He was lean and wore a brown long-sleeved shirt and black jeans. He was attractive and looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties.
"Hi," Kayden greeted with a charming smile. "I'm Kayden."
"Alan."
"It's nice to meet you, Alan," Kayden said, offering his hand to Alan.
"You, too," Alan replied, shaking the stranger's hand. He looked at Kayden's wild black hair, his dark green eyes, his silver septum piercing, and his gorgeous smile. Kayden had the body of an athlete, with a toned chest, muscular arms, and long legs. To say the least, Kayden was an Adonis.
"I haven't seen you around before," Alan stated. "Are you new in town?"
"Yeah, I just moved here," Kayden said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"What brings you here?"
"Work," Kayden lied. "I heard there are some good jobs in construction."
Alan nodded. "You're not wrong."
"What about you?" Kayden asked. "What do you do?"
"Would you believe me if I told you I cut open dead people for a living?"
"Really?" Kayden said, not so much as a question, but more out of pure interest and thought. "That's cool."
"Yep, I'm a mortician," Alan said, not too enthusiastically. "But work's been slow."
"Why?"
"People aren't dying," Alan muttered with a shrug. "But I guess I should be happy."
It was at this moment, Kayden decided to make his move. "Bartender? Set up a round of shots for me and my pal."
"Huh?" Alan perked his head up and looked questioningly at Kayden. The bartender poured vodka into a pair of shot glasses in front of them and walked away.
"I want to propose a toast," Kayden said, taking one of the glasses while handing the other to Alan. "To life."
"Cheers," they said in unison before clinking their glasses together and throwing back the drinks.
Alan made a sour face as he swallowed his shot. "Gah."
Kayden smiled as he watched Alan's reaction. "You don't drink much, do you?"
"Not since college," Alan laughed, sheepishly. "I don't even know why I came here tonight."
"Maybe it's to blow off steam," Kayden suggested.
"Maybe," Alan mused.
"Let's get wasted," Kayden said, ordering another two shots.
"Yeah, let's drink until we're drunken assholes."
Kayden wouldn't admit it, but his intentions weren't innocent or friendly even though they appeared that way. Kayden was planning to put the mortician on the table he had always worked on.