“You’ve truly been awaiting a moment like this, haven’t you?” Bart asked. “A carnage-filled gorefest to sate that grisly heart of yours.”
“Are you about to go off on another fear-induced tirade of yours?” replied June, nudging her brother forward. “Quit being such a chickenshit. Why would I be waiting for such a thing? Hm? You think I enjoy involving myself in a dangerous mission involving an insidious cult that could cost us our lives? Perish the thought, brother. I might be a little cavalier about the whole thing, but I truly want justice for this poor soldier. Especially if she’s one of ours.”
Bartholomew sighed and proceeded to walk carefully around the dead girl, glancing over at her every few seconds in a pitiable attempt to examine her. Suffice to say, his mind was not well-equipped enough to handle being so near to a mutilated corpse. He turned to June, who had released her hold on him but still inched slowly behind. “How exactly do you want to go about this…?”
“What do you mean? There’s an assortment of tools in this room, is there not? You’re the one with eyes, surely you can figure something out.”
“But, I mean…” Bart looked over at the body once again. The poor girl’s organs were splayed out and hanging from the sides of the table, some of it having dripped onto the floor. “We would have to stuff everything back inside of her first. She’s not exactly fit for suturing just yet.”
“Then use your hands? I’m not quite sure what the issue is here.”
“Ugh, Goddess… June… If you’re so keen on the mortuary rites, then you can stuff her entrails back in while I look around for something to close her up. I’m sure it shouldn’t be too difficult a job for you. Just feel around for anything out of place. Your hands must have wanted to get some blood on them at some point or another.”
“Oh, fine! Leave it to me. But you owe me a new dress.” June turned to what felt like the slab next to her. She rolled up her sleeves and placed her hands on the edge of the table to get a sense of its length. The stickiness of dried blood splattered all around was difficult not to feel against the tips of her fingers. She turned her head toward where she had last sensed her brother. “And not for any reason you said. You make me sound like some manner of psychotic killer. Simply because I admire hearing about their exploits. It's purely cautionary, I assure you.”
“Right. That's what all the hobbyists of true crime attest to.”
June ignored her brother’s scathing remark and began her work in earnest. She pressed her fingers into the side of the corpse in front of her. The skin was soft yet rigid; rigor mortis had already set in quite a while ago and made the body feel eerily foreign. Her fingers stretched over what she thought would feel like the girl’s abdomen, only for her to discover a gaping hole in its stead. The princess pulled her hand back on impulse before shakily diving back in. It felt somewhat disrespectful to go digging into a woman’s guts like this, but this seemed like a golden opportunity she never imagined she’d ever have. Her fingers poked and prodded around the intestines, only to find a large string of it trailing somewhere to the side and swinging off the side of the cold table. The damage to her insides had been much more extensive than she imagined. As she picked the goopy viscera off the floor, she noticed it felt lifelessly cold in her hands, and yet, there was a warmth to it that could only come from a once-living being. All the descriptions she had her brother read from her books paled in comparison to the real thing. The sensation was oddly exhilarating. June let slip the bloody mass from her hand and listened as it plopped back into the general location of its original placement. She wasn’t quite as skilled as a surgeon, but she felt her efforts were enough. June then paused, focusing her blind gaze toward the body below her, standing motionless as she hovered over it and imagining how painful this death must have felt for the victim. This morbid-like curiosity continued to assail her, and for a fleeting moment, she had so very badly wished she could see how the body looked with her own two eyes. The corpse sat silent on the slab and no sound aside from Bart’s rummaging could be heard in the stuffy room. Her brother was correct in his observation of her macabre fascination, but she also hated seeing him proved right.
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Bart, meanwhile, had been searching another nearby shelf. Stacks of dusty crates were lined up from end to end, and most were filled with useless documents in ancient languages that seemed a headache to read. Bart began to hyperfocus on his task, as the sickening squelching noises produced by his sister’s handiwork were now preventing him from turning around. Eventually, his eyes settled on a box filled with dusty implements whose purpose he couldn’t even begin to imagine. The first tool he pulled out seemed like some sort of torture device meant to keep its victim alive as it caused them excruciating pain. Having no need for that, he set it aside and picked up another, rather hefty instrument. It was some sort of metal rod, bent near the end that opened into a small, round slot. He hadn’t the foggiest clue what it could have been used for and set it aside. Next was a rusted axe, a large set of bolt cutters and an unpleasant device that looked like it went into the mouth. There didn’t seem anything useful to help them seal up a dead body. A part of him felt relieved, but he knew he would have to keep looking if they were going to get out of there.
“Bart,” called June. “Pause for a moment and come over here. I’d like to ask you for a quick favor.”
“Bart set the box aside and stepped over to his sister. He tried exceedingly hard not to look directly at the corpse in front of them. “Alright. As long as it’s not giving you a hand with your little reconstitution here. What is it?”
“This woman here. Describe her to me. What does she look like?”
“Is that really important right now?”
“Please, Bart. I’m already digging wrist-deep into her guts. The least I could do is get to know her a little better.”
Bart’s gaze trailed slowly towards the woman’s face. Her lifeless expression was frozen in a state of shock, causing him to glance away almost immediately. “Well, for starters, it appears this woman is an elf.”
“What? Really?!” June’s pitch shot up several octaves. She stumbled to the front of the table, using her hands to guide her. She reached out and excitedly fondled around the woman’s face until her fingers found the slender elfwin ear she was so desperate to touch. To say she was a fan of elfwin was an understatement. The princess’s hands, that were still caked in the woman’s blood, left trails of sanguine prints all over as she caressed the slender ears sticking out from the dead woman’s head.
“Keep it down, will you?!” Bart shushed his sister. “Can you not act like a freak until we are done here?”
“I’m sorry! It’s just, I had no idea we had any elfwin priestesses! You know how much I’ve always wanted to meet one! I’ve even been practicing how to speak their language. Do you want to hear?”
“No, thank you. Now do you want me to finish describing her to you or not?”