Ok-ok-ok calm down. a heart, where am I gonna get a human heart… black market maybe… it’ll cost me my life savings… damn it! but it's my fault, I’ll pay what I have to… Heather's brother is a druggie or a dealer or something, I'll ask him if he has any connections. That’s the first course of action.
I spent a few moments preparing a believable and reasonable explanation for why I would need a human heart before calling her on my phone.
“Heather.”
“Hey Liz where are you-?”
“-I need to speak to your brother, it's important.”
“What? why?”
“I can’t explain but its urgent I- I majorly fucked up and he might be able to help me.”
“…with what?”
“eh… some illegal shite.”
“Christ Liz…” she sighed.
“I know! I know ok but please I need- I need his help.”
“…ok… I’ll get him to call you.”
“Thank you! thank you so much!”
About three minutes later I received a call from an unknown number, I picked it up.
“Hello? This is Liz?”
“This is kestrel information services, you have been reported for-”
“-WHAT?! REPORTED FOR WHAT?!”
HEATHER YOU TRAITOR! HOW DARE YOU-?!
“-Hey, hey woah calm down it's a joke.” said the voice on the other line
“Jesus Christ man! Don’t do that shite!”
“Sorry, I didn’t know you’d freak out like that.”
“I’m going through a lot right now!”
“I can tell… heather told me to call you, I'm her brother-”
“-Yeah, yeah I know, Desmond right?”
“Kenneth…”
“Oh sorry.”
“It's fine, you uh, interested in some ‘camping supplies’?”
“Eh aye, kind of but eh… not the usual kind of stuff.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“uh, sure, what do you need?”
“I need a heart, a human one.”
“The fuck?!” he nearly shouted.
“i-it’s for a transplant, my friend is sick and badly needs one but she can’t go to the hospital because she’s in trouble with Kestrel and in hiding, I was wondering if you could get one for me, or point me to someone who can.”
“Jesus- Look I don’t- I have no idea what-…” I heard him take a deep breath from the other side.
“I have the surgeon and everything else prepared. I just need a heart.”
“I-… look, whatever you’ve gotten yourself into, you sound like you’re in way over your head. my honest advice would be to cut your losses and run.”
“that… isn’t an option for me anymore.”
“Yeah I figured… look, I can’t help you, but assuming you're telling the truth… If I was in your shoes and I was truly desperate I’d probably go to the smuggling federation. I know they operate a nightclub called Mariposa down in the central district. Your best bet would be to go there, they’re very dangerous, but they'll be civil as long as you don’t step out of line.. though you’ll also need a small fortune to pay for it.”
I’ve got some savings at least.
“h-how much are we talking about?”
“I have no idea but I’ve heard a kidney goes for two hundred K so I'd say a lot more than that.”
“m-more than two hundred thousand?! are you sure?”
“Definitely wouldn’t be less than that.”
FUUUUCK!
“Th-thanks- Th-that’s all I wanted to know.”
“Alright, good luck.”
I hung up.
NOOOOO!
What was I thinking?! Believing I could afford a heart!
There was another person trying to call me, it was Heather.
“Christ Liz what have you gotten yourself into?” her voice came from the phone.
“I just-I made a mistake and I’m trying to fix it ok?”
Heather let out a sigh.
“Liz…”
“-I know- I know, I fucked up.”
“Is there anything I can do that wont get me dragged into this?”
“I don’t think so, but thanks… also I… want to thank you for sticking up for me in school the other day, for believing me.”
“You’re wrong I’m afraid.” she replied.
“Eh?”
“I didn’t do it because I believed you, I did it because you were my friend.”
“I-“
“-You literally said you would curse those girls, it was a bit hard to think otherwise… But if I knew you were going to kill them I don’t think-”
“-I-I didn’t know it was going to kill them!”
“Is that really true though?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t- you know I wouldn’t-“
“-I honestly don’t know Liz… you always had that side to you…”
“I’m not- really a bad person, you know that right?”
There was a long pause from the other end.
“I don’t think that’s my call to make… but you treated me better than most people did…” she finally said.
…
“alright, I can accept that…”
“good luck, with whatever you’ve got.”
“Thanks… goodbye Heather.”
“Goodbye Liz.”
…
Christ…
So, that’s not gonna work.
But I have a back up plan; stealing one from the morgue.
It can’t be that hard right?
Like only fresh organs are worth the trouble of stealing for trafficking, a bunch of old rotten bodies would only be of interest to super obvious creeps and weirdos.
No one would suspect me of anything.