Hysteria

Chapter III

Companionship.

Valì was extremely strong, Elias noted.

Both physically and mentally. First off, how was this man able to carry an (at least) 55 kilogram woman, and make it look so god damn easy? Valì wasn't straining at all.

And, while Elias was reduced to a bit of a shaky mess at the first sighting of the body, Valì seemed completely unfazed by it. It was as if it was just an everyday thing— as for him, it truly was. It was his job, after all.

"How are you doing that?" Elias's voice was more awestruck than he'd meant, although he did his best to ignore how rather impressive it was, and keep a generally straight face. "You're— you're carrying her over your shoulder as if... as if it's nothing. You're not straining at all... how?"

Valì couldn't help but laugh a bit, and looked down at his companion. "Listen, kid, when you've been pounding metal every day since you were ten, you gotta have at least a little strength."

Elias's somewhat curious look quickly turned to one of anger. "How many times must I..." he gave a shaky, almost nervous sigh through clenched teeth, his hands balled up in shaking fists, "Please refrain from calling me 'kid'. It's extremely disrespectful, considering the fact I'm almost your age."

"Really? How old are you?" A smirk graced Valì's features and a pale eyebrow was raised. "I'm twenty."

"I'm seventeen. And it's almost my birthday, you know— soon I'll be eighteen! And not long after that I'll be off to law school in France!"

Elias smirked, and that must've been the first time Valì had ever seen anything but a frown or a scowl on his lips.

Valì didn't have much to say in return, and so the conversation died out, as did the busy city noise. They left the main streets, sneaking through a few cobblestone back alleys before eventually, Valì lead Elias all the way to the police station, although they entered through a back alley door, with a lot fewer people to scare, as it wasn't everyday someone came in with a body. Well, actually. It was every day that Valì came in with a body, as he worked in a morgue, being a practicing coroner with the police force.

And so, he had his own sort of office, tucked away in the back of the building where most people rarely visited. It was there that Elias finally realized just how much respect Valì deserved for all of his work.

"You do this every day?" Elias whispered, his soft words echoing around in the fairly large, white room as Valì laid the corpse down on a steel table, making sure to grab one of the white, bloodstained sheets to cover her. There was another body covered by a sheet, on the second metal table, over by the far wall, and just the sight of it was enough for the temperature in the room to feel like it'd dropped at least a few degrees. Elias's throat tightened, eyes watering, threatening tears. He took a seat at the large oak desk, adverting his eyes to the pile of paperwork there.

His mother.

Valì then slipped off his gloves and his baggy jacket, hanging them up before he made his way over to the large steel sink to wash his hands, rolling up his sleeves to do so. He continued chatting as if it was nothing.

"Yeah, I guess... it depends on what you mean by that. I'm here most of the time, doing autopsies and stuff... mostly for the police." Valì shrugged, "It's just... part of my job. I find the cause of death with patients and or victims that die unexpectedly, and I clean them all up and make them all... not bloody and gross. I diagnose them, and lately, I've also been working on less invasive ways to determine cause of death, shit like that." He dried his hands, and then made his way back to his large oak desk, where Elias was sitting. "Just don't mess anything up, aight? It shouldn't be too hard." He slapped him on the back, and although it was supposed to be a friendly or endearing sort of gesture, he'd done it with enough force to knock the wind out of poor Elias's lungs. It was already hard enough to breathe with bandages on, he didn't need Valì's help.