Broken Bodies

1997, Lagos, Nigeria

He needed to get home as soon as possible. He was to be inducted tomorrow, and he was yet to get any sleep, but more important than sleep was the fact that he was yet to know how or if the suit fit.

Tomorrow would be the best day of his life, and he needed to look his best.

It was raining, but he could not wait as he didn’t know how long the rain would last. The street was bare; as people had gone on to retire early due to the rainfall.

He could see his apartment building and was just about to cross over to the other side when a hand gripped him.

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“You are the chosen one,” a voice said, just before he felt the prick of a needle on his neck and swift darkness took over.

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His shivering body woke him up, and he looked around, briefly wondering where he was until he recognized his apartment building across the road.

Gingerly getting himself off the wet floor, he crossed and went into the house, grateful he was not so late or his parents would have come looking for him, and if they found that he drank so much and lost control of himself that he slept on the road, he would never hear the last of it.

Getting into the house, he went straight to his room, took his bath and tried on his suit. It fitted perfectly.

Tomorrow would be the beginning of the best days of his life.

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The figure watched from a distance and felt a strange peace come over him. The handover was successful.

Now he could die in peace.

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2007, Indiana, USA

The victims all had the same apparent description; healing fractures, stitched wounds, and diseases with disappearing symptoms.

They all looked like failed experiments

Collins looked at the latest victim before him; still and waiting for the final experiment and asked himself why he had chosen a career in breaking further already broken bodies so he could find out what broke down their bodies in the first place.

He gave himself the same reply he always gave; since he couldn’t succeed at learning how to save people from dying, the least he could do was find out why they died, so the families could get closure.

Another reason was that he had always been interested in life and the different ways it leaves the body.

All that is needed is that a body be thoroughly broken, and the life will seep out. Each autopsy showed him over and over again, that no two deaths were the same.

Not even this recent case of a serial killer, who hurt and healed his victims until their bodies were too broken to be fixed, then they’d give up and allow the life seep out, had the same kind of deaths.

Although all the victims died from excessive injuries, each body chose the injury to be killed by, and each one healed at different paces from the different inflicted injuries, so a different mixture and degree of damage killed the victims.

Life was interesting but to Collins, death was more interesting.

His colleagues thought he was going crazy when he began talking about the different ways to die.

Although Collin's major was death, this time Collins was also interested in the serial killer’s identity; he needed to know the man who single-handedly made his job more interesting.

In the past few months, Collin looked forward to work, hoping that another victim would be found, so he could discover the unique way the person died.

He also played a guessing game with himself whether it would be a male or female this time, or he sometime guessed the race of the victim.

That was one interesting about this killer, he obviously believed that variety was indeed the spice of life, or in this case, death.

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Daniel felt so tired, although he knew that the tiredness was what paid the bills.

Since he came to the States five years ago, he was just beginning to reap the fruits of his labour.

The additional need for the US certification had robbed hom of some of the joys of being a doctor, but in recent times, he had found his joy again.

Walking into the store, he was pleasantly surprised to see not one but two of his former colleagues back home in Nigeria. It surprised him even more that he recognised them immediately.

"Collins!" he called out to the closest one. His last memory of Collins was a picture of him sobbing when he failed his MBBS.

It was a period of mixed feelings; happiness for his success, and sadness for his friends who failed.

"Daniel?" Collins asked, looking thoroughly surprised.

"In the flesh," Daniel replied laughing.

Dozie turned too. "Daniel the bookworm!"

"Dozman the dozer!" Daniel hailed back. Dozie was one of his colleagues who always managed to fool the whole class.He'd spend most times sleeping while others were reading, and many will be fooled into thinking he was going to fail, but he always came out one of the top three.

Their rackus attracted the gazes of other shoppers, but they didn't care.
It was not everyday that you met old friends from home.

"It's so good to see you guys! I was just wondering if the years of medical school was worth it. I just got my reply," Daniel said, enthusiasticlly.

"We should catch up sometime," Dozie said, "but I have to run."

"Yeah, me too," Collins said, even as he felt a thrill go through him at the remembrance of the call he received earlier.

They found another body.

"Alright guys," Daniel said, ending Collins' blissful thought. "Let's exchange contact details and set a date to catch up properly."

By the time Dozie and Collins left the store, Daniel was all smiles. His tiredness forgotten.

Life was good.

As he walked towards the isle of medical supplies though, he forgot about the meeting.

He was first a doctor before a friend.

He had a job to do.

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This story was inspired by @warpedpoetic... ask him how.

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Djoi Writes