Necrosiac 4 (fixed) (948 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: Necro
Rating: 2 on 17 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Snark (View user info) at 2004-08-10 11:20:22 EDT
The first post cut the story in half for some reason.
Here it is in its entirety.
NECROSIAC PT4
4 hours later.
Nicholas Blaire was not impressed and he damned well was going to make sure everyone knew it. He'd had plans for his one day off and didn't appreciate being called in to work. All week he had been looking forward to a day of doing nothing but watching the game and drinking scotch, then when he was drunk enough, perhaps a vindictive call to his cunt of an ex-wife.
He'd just settled his bulbous frame into his recliner and took a sip of his drink when his beeper went off. He had ignored it, and hit the button on his remote to turn on the TV. After a minute the beeper stopped, and Nicholas took another sip with a grin. Now what channel was the game on? The beeper went off again, vibrating annoyingly on the stand beside his chair. "Not today" he'd muttered as he unceremoniously picked it up and tossed it across the room.
Nicholas didn't mind being the Chief Mystic Pathologist for the Agency, in fact he quite enjoyed his work. The pay was good and he much preferred working with the dead than the living. Throughout his life the living had been a constant source of conflict to him, he'd never fully grasped the intricacies of human relations, and more often than not prolonged contact with other people tended to end on a less than happy note.
The dead on the other hand didn't complain. They didn't chide or spout some bullshit half witty euphemism at the wrong time. They didn't make fat jokes and they didn't look at him with disgust. They were quiet and compliant, voicing no concern as he expertly took them apart.
Now there he was standing in the Morgue in the basement of the Agency, getting more pissed off by the minute. He had done his best to get out of this, he had turned off his beeper and eventually his phone, but the agency was persistent and within 20 minutes two security personnel had arrived at his door to escort him to work despite his protests.
The room was piled high with black body bags. He counted 33 in all, and a cadaver (probably the Necromancer) already undressed and on the main examination table. Brian his assistant was there as well, hurriedly preparing the instruments necessary for the gruesome task ahead.
Nicholas always found it amusing watching Brian at work. He'd instilled a fear of god in the boy early on in their working relationship, and the slightest hint of a bad mood on Nicholas part sent Brian into near panic. He imagined the term "boy" probably wasn't entirely correct, Brian was 25 years old after all (half Nicholas age) but there was something about his tall gangly body and innocent demeanor that reminded Nicholas of a child. He seemed more like a character out of a cartoon than an actual person sometimes, Ichabod Crane perhaps. He guessed he liked the boy as much as he could like anyone.
Nicholas adjusted the surgical gown where it had twisted around his considerable waist (They always made the damned things to small) and walked up to the cadaver. He reviewed in his mind the hastily put together brief he had read on the way there. The body in question belonged to what the agency believed might be a class 4 Necromancer, which if true, would make it the 3rd he had worked on in the last 10 years. Cause of death had been listed as a Redeemer slug to an undisclosed part of the body, but the term "Cause of death" he knew was probably a misnomer. Necromancers of this level typically had already ended their own life and were self re-animated. The belief was that only through death could a Necromancer fully come to grips with the true nature of his power. Many of them practiced their dark art on themselves, adding organs here, removing pieces there. For some reason self castration was common among the more powerful of the class.
Nicholas made a cursory scan of the emaciated body. He guessed the age of the subject to have been close to 60, but then one could never tell with a Necro. Short straight white hair lay atop a hawk like face. It was a face he thought should belong to a school principal, slightly distinguished yet stern. Its grayish pallor stood out in stark contrast to the polished metal of the table and the instruments surrounding it. The skin below the neck was a patchwork of scars from chest to kneecap with the exception of an obvious entry wound (probably from the bullet) high up on the chest just left of center. Some of the scars had purpose, while others were simply the results of self mutilation. Necros tended to prefer scarification over tattooing when inscribing runes upon themselves. Unlike the other class 4's he had examined, this one had not removed his genitals.
He gave Brian his trademark stern look and asked "Did you get photographs of the scarring?"
"Yes" replied his assistant. "Front and back. There are a bunch of symbols on this one I haven't seen before"
Nicholas took a closer look at the symbols carved into the skin. At first he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. The chest and stomach were inscribed with typical Necromantic runes, but as he continued to look he could pick out a symbol here and there that didn't fit. In fact they were from different classes all together, most were of the enchantment class, but there were others there that even he didn't recognize. According to everything he knew, they shouldn't be able to co-exist. Magical symbols applied to the body were like the workings of an old fashioned clock. They were intricate and fragile. Adding a symbol for regeneration to the latticework of Necromancy symbols should be the same as putting the wrong size gear in a clock. Everything stops working.
Nicholas took a step back and placed one meaty hand on his bald head in puzzlement, without the Necro runes working the subject shouldn't have been anything more than a rotting corpse before they shot him... unless, but no, the thought was preposterous and Nicholas made a mental effort to block it from his mind before it could fully take root.
"Well then." He gave Brian another look. "Let's get him apart so I can go home and enjoy what's left of my disastrous day off shall we?"
Nicholas reached over to hit the switch on the voice recorder, but stopped half way when something else caught his eye. Something was imbedded just beneath the skin on the left side of the abdomen, a circular object the size of a wedding band. While body modification ran par for the course in the Necromatic arts, the insertion of foreign materials did not. In their own strange way, Necromancers were purists.
The thought that Nicholas had pushed out began to nag him again. He hoped to god that he was wrong. His heart began to race as his suspicions took root. He glanced up at Brian and could tell he had sensed the change in his demeanor from the quizzical look on his face.
"Help me roll him over" he commanded.
Despite the emaciated condition of the body, it was unnaturally heavy and it took a reasonable amount of effort for the both of them to get the cadaver flipped over. The absence of an exit wound told him the Redeemer was still somewhere inside, and almost immediately Nicholas found what he had hoped he would not. Two scars dead center of the back, each one at a one third point of the spine. The original part of the spine would be the top third, the other two thirds would have come from two separate donors.
His voice was almost frantic "Roll him back"
Nicholas knew what he was going to find when he opened up the body. The brain, heart and internal organs would be patch-worked in thirds just like the spine. He didn't want to believe what he was seeing, but his clinical mind wouldn't let him run away from it. With his left hand he wiped sweat from his forehead and looked at Brian again. Brian's expression had turned from inquisitive to concerned.
He looked at the thing on the examining table and whispered its name despite himself.
"Necrosiac"
"Pardon?" said Brian.
"Brian, get on the phone and get Director Stevens down here now, don't take no for an answer, quote whatever protocols you have to but get his ass in here!"
"He's going to want to know why" said Brian his voice cracking. The thought of calling the director personally scared him almost as much as the panic on Nicholas face.
"Tell him he'll see when he gets here... GO!"
Brian bolted to the other side of the room and made the call.
Nicholas looked down at the body and hoped he wasn't making a snap decision. If he was wrong and it got out he'd be the laughing stock of his profession, but if he was right...
Nicholas knew there was one way to be sure. He snatched a scalpel from the tray next to him and made a slit on the abdomen just below the object long enough to get a finger in and hook it. The skin parted easily under the laser runed silver blade. His practiced left hand manipulated the flesh while the little finger of his right fit into the slit to hook the object and gingerly slide it out. It stuck for a second and then came free with a sickening wet pop. As he slid it into the cold light of the examination room he could see his worst fears were true. Through the gore left on it he could tell it was a silvery metal ring inscribed with runes. He desperately needed to get it cleaned up and in a spot where he could examine it clearly but a small piece of plastic thread very much like fishing line was tied to it and somehow anchored to a point inside the abdomen.
"Brian" he called. "Do you have any idea what we have here?"
He thought he heard Brian say "What?" as he gave the line connected to the ring a cursory tug.
The explosion tore Nicholas head clean off.
User Reviews
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2007-05-07 09:28:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Thanks for this.
Submitted by PeterTheGreat (user info) at 2006-09-20 18:01:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I am apparently running like 24 months behind...but these KICK ASS!!!! I hope they keep getting better!
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2005-06-10 20:46:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
ah, so you are one of those writers who has no problem killing important characters. i like that in a novellist.
Submitted by Charred (user info) at 2005-03-31 16:38:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Seriously?
Find a publisher.
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2005-03-24 09:33:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
So, so good.
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2004-11-15 15:49:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Sis <sismo12345.at.hotmail.com> at 2004-11-01 13:51:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by wazzawazzayo (user info) at 2004-08-30 15:39:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yes.
Submitted by Cryopaul (user info) at 2004-08-11 12:38:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Damn, only one more part to read. I hope there's more later this week.
Submitted by Xena (user info) at 2004-08-11 12:37:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I didn't much like Nicholas' pissy-ass attitude anyways!
Submitted by Philst82 (user info) at 2004-08-11 12:11:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Awesome.
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2004-08-10 12:58:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2004-08-10 12:18:10 (#)
Ranking: 0
Ashk :)
It is because of your comments on Pt 2 that I have continued to post the series. Thanks a ton :)
______________________________________
I am glad I had a part in encouraging this to go on. It is truly impressive, and I am looking forward to more.
Submitted by jogging_monkey <kweejibow.at.hotmail.com> at 2004-08-10 12:52:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
amazingly written f*ing story don't stop tha music
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2004-08-10 12:18:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Ashk :)
It is because of your comments on Pt 2 that I have continued to post the series. Thanks a ton :)
Thanks to you too Mal and Cows. As long as a couple of people enjoy the series I'll keep posting.
I probably won't submit this to a magazine but once it's done I will probably flesh it out and get it bound. A nice gift for my kids when they grow up :)
Submitted by Malificent (user info) at 2004-08-10 11:45:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
So badass it needs a double +2.
Submitted by Malificent (user info) at 2004-08-10 11:45:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
OMFG, post every day until this is finished, PLEASE.
Submitted by cowstastegood (user info) at 2004-08-10 11:30:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is an awesome series. I look forward to reading the next installment every day. You should consider getting it published in a magazine or something.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2004-08-10 11:28:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
True that!
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2004-08-10 11:26:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Gak! Note to self, don't tug on metal rings tied to something inside a corpse.