Remember Me (Hayley Williams fanfic)

Chapter 3

It was a chilly November evening in Fairfax, Virginia. The sun has neared the close of its trek on the winter sky. On this chilly evening, Seth Williams was finishing up on his last corpse for the day. Calm down, he wasn't a serial killer. If your next guess was that he was a medical examiner, you would be accurate.

On the dissecting table in front of him, prepped and ready for autopsy, lay the wrinkled body of Bernard Walker. The name was written in the body tag. The deceased was somewhere in his early 70s on the day of his death, which was only a day ago.

Seth put on his medical gloves and firstly initiated the external autopsy. Upon examining the obvious head wound, he saw that it was consistent with the nature of blunt force trauma. This corresponded with the evidence at the scene of death. A humble abode in middle class suburbia, with the front door lock broken, the inside of the house turned upside down and a dried patch of blood found on a bookcase in the living room with poor old Bernard lying dead on the floor beside it.

It all seemingly pointed to a robbery gone wrong. However the inquisitive Seth had other questions. Why did the robbers have to smash the victim's head onto the bookcase when he was a frail old timer who barely posed a threat?

Seth carried onto an internal autopsy. Better safe than sorry he thought. Upon the internal examination, he noted signs consistent with a heart attack. Not something that occurs post mortem thought Seth. To satisfy his curiosity further, he examined the victims other internal organs. Not to his surprise, there wasn't anything he didn't expect to be present in the old man's internal organs. However Seth did uncover interesting things on the corpse.

There was a scar of an old gunshot would on his left thigh and a few incomprehensible scars littered along his limbs. It told a story of life in the military. Bernard was too young to have been a soldier during the Second World War. However he was old enough to have been in the muddy trenches in Vietnam. Not many survived those. On the other hand, a life in law enforcement was sound explanation as well. Or maybe it was a life as hired thug or a hit man for gangsters back then.

Bernard had no wife. His body was only found by the next door neighbor who saw his front door banging against the front wall. No next of kin either owed to the fact that there was no one to claim the body. In all aspects, he was seemingly a lonely old man.

He reminded Seth of himself; a glimpse into his likely future. But there was still the possibility of less lonely outcome. What happened the other night was bound to change things. But he didn't want to dwell on that right now.

Next, Seth grabbed an electric saw. Using that and other equipment, he masterfully removed the victim's brain and placed it inside a plastic bag. He removed the rest of the victim's internal organs and used similar plastic bags to contain them for later reference. Following that procedure, he put the breastplate back to its original position and meticulously stitched the torso along its incisions. Then he managed to wipe clean the outside of the body from any and all traces of internal fluids left over from the autopsy. Seth presumed that the Bernard would take a trip to the incinerator since there was no one to claim him.

He never complained about his working position. Although with his IQ, graduating high school at the age of 16 and finishing medical school far earlier than most talented doctors, and with the numerous job offers he received from multiple prestigious hospitals, he had no difficulty landing elsewhere. Much to everyone's wonder, his choice was rather humble considering his talents. He stayed unnoticed in his quiet room. Catching wind of this, the other medical examiners questioned among themselves about his capability on decision making. Christie didn't make a fuss on him working in a place that was unfit for his intellect. In truth he preferred the silence and solitude. However, he did have the company of those unlucky enough to arrive inside body bags. They conveyed their stories and their expiration while he was not even obliged to utter a single word (Not that he could if he tried). Naught was required of him other than his attentiveness. What could Seth want more?