See The Light

Chapter 15

A/N: Thank you Dewdrop for helping me write this chapter and thank you Aether for helping me with the sciencey bit and all the chemical names. Thank you both for proofreading also. - Cumulus <3

Chapter 15

Celestial's POV

I grabbed the rotary phone that was on the Cardinals desk along with the clergy phone book and looked up the number for the Doctor. It rings for a few seconds before anyone answers. "Hello Brother Hunter here, who am I speaking with?" the Doctor says calmly. "Hello Doctor, It's Celestial. I hope you are doing well. I am calling to inquire if you have received the Papa's bodies? We were told to observe the autopsy and embalming by Sister Imperator." The two Ghouls and Cardinal sit, anxiously watching. "Ahh yes, Celestial I am very well. I just received the bodies you and the cardinal are welcome to come down to my office. I can't promise it'll be a pleasurable experience though." the doctor chimes. "Thank you we will be there soon, do not start without us," I said firmly. "Of course goodbye," he says hanging up.

I move the Cardinal's phone back to the corner before looking at him. "He has just received the bodies. He said we can make our way now and he won't start without us being present.'' I grimace. "Well let us make our way then, Amore," Copia says, offering me his arm. "Sunshine, Aether can you find Dewdrop and begin planning the memorial concert? We will help as soon as we are done with the body preparations." the Cardinal asks them before we leave they nod and bow before using the phone to I expect, call Dew.

We make our way upstairs to the doctor's office, and we wait a moment before entering Copia standing there looking extremely uncomfortable. "You don't have to watch this Cardinal. I can do this alone if you want to go back to the office" I say stroking his arm. "An offer I'd like to accept Cara, but a higher-ranking clergy member has to be present and I was nominated." he grimaces. He takes a deep breath before knocking on the door.

The door swings open to an overly cheery Doctor Hunter. "Ahh Cardinal, Celestial, it is great to see you both please, come inside!" he ushers us in. As we enter there are three Autopsy tables where the Papa's lay draped in a sheet from their waist to their knees. They didn't have any of their papal makeup on, they looked as if they were sleeping, not dead. "Please take a seat both of you. This is going to take a while. I have to mix the ingredients for the embalming fluid." the doctor says moving erratically through the morgue picking up random bottles.

Formaldehyde, Methanol, Sodium Borate, Sodium Nitrate, Glycerin, Colouring Agents, and water. He mixes enough to create nine and three-quarter gallon buckets, three and a one-quarter to be used for each Papa. The pungency of the offending chemicals makes my eyes burn. He starts with Primo, making a small incision into his side and begins draining his blood into a separate barrel before moving to the other side and making another cut into the side and placing another tube in which the concoction of chemicals he mixed up is forced through the main artery.

The sound of the blood filling the barrels makes me queasy. I turn to the Cardinal who looks as sick as I do and I grab his hand. He looks at me grimacing. The doctor proceeds to do the process to all of the Papa's at the same time. Once the process has begun he walks over to the three boxes placed on his desk and begins opening them one by one and hanging up the Papa's various robes, Mitres, and accessories. He goes to the draw and pulls out makeup brushes and white and black face paint. The embalming process takes a good few hours, in that time no one has spoken, the doctor sat at his desk typing his reports and the Cardinal and I sat queasy at what we were witnessing.

The Embalming was finally completed when the Doctor went over to Primo and Secondo and began carefully dressing them, leaving the face paint for last. He used a machine that he attached under their backs, waist and legs and began lifting them into what looked like a clear acrylic coffin and positioning their bodies.

He made his way over to Terzo and began feeling around his neck before turning to the tray near the autopsy table and picking out a scalpel. I turned to the Cardinal in disbelief. He wasn't going to do what I thought he was, would he? The Cardinal's eyes are wide confirming my fear when we hear a squelching sound. I look back to the autopsy table to see that the doctor had begun making slices into Terzo's neck, finally beheading him. At that moment my stomach turned and I ran to the bin in the corner of the room and began throwing up the breakfast I had eaten earlier.

The doctor wasn't expecting such a reaction and just stood there in shock, holding Terzo by his hair, the head hanging loosely, eyes wide open. I refuse to make eye contact as I make my way over to the Cardinal and hide my face in his arm. I can feel the Cardinal dry heaving trying hard not to throw up when more squelching sounds emerge and then the sound of a bone drill. I peek my head out of the Cardinal's arm to see the doctor had screwed a base plate into Terzo's neck and head making him look like a lightbulb. The doctor apologises saying "it's for the promotional shoot. The pictures? The concert?".

Those words set the Cardinal off who ran to the same bin I did and began throwing up. I grimace. He gets accused of their murder, beaten close to death, and now he has to plan a memorial concert and take pictures with his enemy's head? The doctor places the head down on the tray before using one of his arms to put the body in a seated position before grabbing the head and screwing it into place and laying Terzo down once more. He cleans up any leakages that occurred from the severing of the head and then turns to get his robes ready. Copia and I sat looking at Terzo for a moment.

I didn't like the guy but this was extreme and I didn't know what to feel about this whole situation. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch movement, I see Terzo's foot twitch. Impossible? He's dead? The man literally just got beheaded? His foot moved? I look at Copia silently asking with my eyes if he just saw what I did and he nods frowning. "It's probably our minds playing tricks on us. Do not mention this to anyone," he says and I nod. The doctor finally returned and began dressing him in the Papal robes before finally adding his Skull-like makeup. He used the same machine as he did earlier, placing Terzo inside, positioning him with his fingers linked, resting on his stomach and closing the lid.

"The bodies will be kept in the mortuary fridge until I receive word on when to bring them up." the doctor says heading over to his computer and finalising the autopsy report. "Thank you, doctor." Cardinal says grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the room. We arrive hand in hand at the Cardinals office where we find Sunshine and Aether had been joined by Dew. They were sitting in a circle on the floor talking quietly to each other, surrounded by plans for the memorial concert.

"How did it go?" Aether said being the first to notice our presence. "It was..." I gagged, unable to finish my statement remembering the horror of seeing Terzo's head removed from his body. The Cardinal put his arm around my back and sat me in his office chair. "Sister Imperator and Papa Nihil expect me to pose for promotional photos with Terzo's head," Copia says sitting on the edge of his desk, hands running through his hair clearly distressed.

"Oh, that's disgusting!" Sunshine says gagging. Dew and Aether nod in agreement. "We received a note from Sister Imperator that the photographer will be here tomorrow. You and Papa Nihil and Celestial will also have to be in some of the pictures so you have to wear something fancy." Dew said sorting through the papers and reading from the note.

Cardinal sighs before picking me up from his seat, my feet are no longer touching the floor and hugging me. This was going to be a long, disgusting week.