Helluva Autopsy

Shadows

        "Max?! Ya didn't break my flashlight, did ya?!" Mr. Blitzo called out from the embalming room, much to Max's irritation.

        "No! I just shattered my kneecap like a dinner-plate but your flashlight's A-okay! Don't worry, Sir!" Max reassured with minor sarcasm in his voice before heading over to the basement where the fuse-box was located.

        "Max! Be careful on the basement stairs!" Mr. Blitzo announced a warning to his employee as Max pried open the old door to the basement.

        "Oh, really? Because I thought I'd go down backwards, hopping on one foot while-Oh, crumbs!" Max's second attempt at sarcasm backfired tremendously when he accidentally tripped and began to tumble down the old, rickety, wooden, basement stairs, swearing the entire way down until his fall was broken by something soft. Dread began to fill Max when a yelp rang throughout the pitch-black basement along with a sickening crack.

        "Great golly o-mighty!" Max was horrified when the power miraculously roared back to life and the lights switched on, revealing that Max had accidentally landed upon his boss' dog, snapping her neck in the process.

        A few months before my trial, I was arrested and thrown into prison, where horrible, unspeakable things were done to me...I still remember it so vividly...Forgive me but I would rather not talk about my time in prison...I begged my girlfriend at the time, Mimzy to bail me out on numerous occasions but she did not believe I was innocent either so she refused, even after she saw my tears...Needless to say, that was the end of our relationship...I just could not bring myself to forgive her after what she allowed me to go through, even after I was proven innocent...

        I was proven innocent by the court of law when they searched the house I owned at the time and realized that my house did not have that so-called "basement" that brat accused me of molesting her in. Even after my innocence had been proven, I was shunned by the entire town. The final slight that broke me was when I was fired from my own radio show and they gave my spot to Vox Hamill of all people. I still have never forgiven Vox for stripping me of my last, remaining passion in my lifetime. I remember standing on the bridge above the lake that night, contemplating ending it all when I heard a voice.

        "Everyone has turned on you...Nobody believes you but I know the truth...I am all you have left now..." It was that same voice I heard in the woods when I saw that creature on my last hunting trip with Fabian. I looked up and through my tears, I could see that same creature standing by the lake's shore, staring into my soul with its large, red, glowing eyes.

        "Stop denying me, Alastor..." Even though the creature's voice held a demanding tone, I felt comforted by its presence.

        "It's you...It's me...It's us..." I sobbed as I made a deal with the creature that I had yet to understand the full gravity of and just like that, the Wendigo became my shadow...

       "Sir, I am so sorry..." Max sincerely apologized, feeling a terrible sense of guilt as Mr. Blitzo placed the body of his beloved dog into the cremation oven and tearfully turned it on. Naturally, Mr. Blitzo was distraught by the loss of his pet since she truly was the only family he had left.

        "She was more than just a dog to me, Max...She was my daughter...She was the only child I will ever have and ya had to go and crush her with your big, fat, ass!" In a fit of grief, Mr. Blitzo of course blamed Max for the death of his pet since he had been the one to fall on her.

        "How is everything bad that happens to you somehow magically my fault?!" Max finally snapped after nearly a year of verbal abuse from his boss.

        "I...uh..." Mr. Blitzo was at a loss for words, taken aback that timid, little Max was finally standing up for himself. More importantly, that Max was finally standing up to him of all people.

        "You blame me for everything that could possibly go wrong and I'm sick of it! After all the sacrifices I've made for you...I hate you, you horrible, little monster! No matter what I do, you never appreciate it! What do I have to do to get some respect around here?!

        Chew someone's head off?!" As Max began to rant at his boss, he forced himself to begin walking away before he would say something that he may truly regret later. That was until he slipped in a small puddle of suspicious liquid, most-likely formaldehyde and fell flat on his bottom.

        "That's it!" Max growled as he picked himself back up from the floor, his bruised rear now soaked from the chemical substance.

        "Max?" Mr. Blitzo began although, his words became trapped within his throat as Max turned around to face him with a glare of pure hatred.

        "No! I am done! I am crispy-fried done! You can't even stick a fork in me right now because I'm burnt! I'm a piece of charcoal!

        I quit..." Max finally worked up enough courage to quit his horrible job on the spot. Mr. Blitzo appeared stunned as Max turned to storm out of the room, feeling as if a dead weight had been lifted off of his chest.