Inversion

Into the Meat of It

 I hurried down the hall trying to catch up with Sparrow and the others, but quickly became lost in the winding maze of corridors. I stopped at an intersection of two hallways, and looked down both for signs of life, seeing none I arbitrarily chose one and took off.

I need to get to Biology, I'm probably already late. If Dr. Balder is any indication I don't think I want to be late for this class... I was hurrying down hallway after hallway thinking about how hopeless my situation was when I came across an open door with voices leaking out. I peered in, and saw a crowd of students in lab coats gathered around a table, with a slightly heavyset older woman handing out goggles and scalpels. This had to be the class.

“Is this Biology?” I asked, stepping into the room.

“Yo, Jacko!” Sparrow called out tossing me a lab coat, “Old Baldy didn't tear you a new one for being late did he? He can be a bit of a hardass.”

“No, nothing like that, he just wanted to talk,” I answered not sure how much to say.

“Talk? About wha-” he started to say but was cut off when the professor boxed him on the ear.

“Get back with your lab group Sparrow! Who is this now? Could you be the student I just marked absent?” She asked, arms crossed, looking severely peeved. She was a slightly plump woman with dirty blonde hair pulled into a tight bun, and a pair of oversized glasses dangled on the end of her nose.

“Yes, I think so. I stopped to talk to Professor Balder, and then I didn't know the way here. I kind of lucked out and noticed the door was open. I'm Jack Sloane.”

“Hmm, alright Mr. Sloane. Just don't make a habit of it. And take these,” she said handing me a scalpel and a pair of safety goggles, “It's going to be a bit messy, I hope you didn't wear your nice clothes. I'm Professor Janet Eir by the way. Go stand with your group please.” I pulled on the lab coat and goggles and headed over to my group.

“Late two classes in a row on the first day, truly you are an impressive and dedicated scholar Jack,” Jared said with a laugh. He looked perfectly at home in the lab coat and goggles, or at least more so than the rest of our group. Ceri and Aria both looked like little kids playing dress up and Sparrow and Devin just looked plain ridiculous.

“What can I say, I've learned from the best,” I said jerking a thumb towards Sparrow, “What are we doing in here anyways? I thought we would be looking through a book or something, but I've never needed a scalpel for that unless I've been doing it wrong my whole life.”

“Dissection.” Jared replied with a grin.

“Students! Today we are going to be dissecting some freshly caught specimens, because the best way to fight your enemy, is to know your enemy. I'm a hands on type of Professor, so rather than boring old diagrams and musty textbooks we're cutting right into the meat of the matter, so to speak,” Professor Eir said with a small chuckle at her own pun, “Now, if one member of each group would accompany me to the freezer to get your specimen we can begin.”

“I got this,” Jared said following her out of the room.

“What does she mean by 'freshly caught'...?” Ceri asked nervously, her already pale face turning a ghostly white.

“You'll be fine Ceri baby! Just fine. It's probably owls or little goat babies or something right Jacko?” Sparrow said, clapping a hand on her shoulder. She didn't look comforted by that in the slightest.

“I don't know, what was that bit about 'knowing your enemy'? I think I'm with Ceri on this one,” I said feeling how she looked. With a quick glance around the room I determined most of the students were in the same camp as us.

“Stop being babies,” Aria said sharply, “What difference does it matter what we're dissecting? Dead is dead is dead.” I wasn't sure that I agreed with her, but I guess it didn't matter in the long run. We were going to find out soon, and sure enough a few seconds later the students that left with Professor Eir shuffled back in carrying large black zippered bags. Jared had his easily hefted over his shoulder, despite it being nearly six feet long and looking quite heavy. He plopped it on the table in front of us,

“Whatever's in here was a bitch to carry. Hope it's something cool.”

“Alright everyone, if you will please open your bags,” Professor Eir said to the tune of a bunch of zippers un-zipping, followed by a collective gasp, “Good! Now, each of yours is slightly different, but they are all low-tier Forsaken, recently made, recently caught.” Several students immediately ran to the nearby trashcan to throw up, and the stench of formaldehyde was almost unbearable.

Ceri was practically in tears, and even Aria looked properly disgusted despite her earlier bravado. Ours looked like a partially decomposed wolf, but the parts didn't seem put together in the right way. Then I realized why, it was still somewhat human. The “paws” were misshapen hands and feet twisted and contorted to fit some unknown blueprint, and the flesh of the head was stretched and torn where it had grown like a tumor to replicate a muzzle. I started to gag and had to join the others throwing up in the trashcan. I wiped my mouth and looked up to see Professor Eir watching us with an impish grin.

“Now, if you're all quite done?” she asked those of us with weaker stomachs, but continued without waiting for an answer, “I suspect most of you haven't seen a Forsaken before. It can be a grisly sight the first time. Truth be told, it never really gets easier. These all used to be human, and as such it can be hard to treat them as what they are now. Monsters. Once the infection starts it is only a matter of days before they lose all self-control, and are generally fully transformed within a week's time. There is no cure, except the mercy of a swift death. These particular samples were captured and eliminated last week, before they could fully transform as I'm sure you've noticed by this point.”

I walked back over to the group, but was careful not to look at the thing in the bag. The only one who looked unfazed by the whole situation was Jared. He looked fascinated. I just felt like I needed more things in my stomach to vomit out.

“Today we are going to be searching through these corpses for two things. The tainted Shard that is inside them and the heart. To kill a Forsaken, one, or preferably both of those must be destroyed or removed.” At this statement a ripple of panicked chatter broke out, because if that was the only way to kill them, then weren't these technically alive? “Calm down everyone, these beasts are dead as doornails. I removed the heart's myself, and replaced them with pig's hearts so you can get practice. The heart is not where it would normally be, and since the whole body becomes re-arranged it could be anywhere. When hunting Forsaken it is important to have a good sense of where and how their innards are set up, as you could cut their head clean off and still not kill them.”

“Well, let's get to it,” Jared said grabbing his scalpel and making a long clean cut down the Forsaken's abdomen. As soon as the flesh had been pierced an even stronger scent overpowered the formaldehyde, a scent of corruption and decay. I almost had to run back to the trashcan but managed to contain myself. He gently pried open the incision and we could see into it for the first time. The blood was thick and black like tar, and it didn't look like anything organic should look on it's inside. Jared stuck a gloved hand down in it and the squelching sound it made was even worse than the smell somehow. After groping around for a minute or so he pulled out a long gnarled shard of wood and wiped it clean of the black gunk on his lab coat.

“Professor, is this the Shard?” he asked holding it up for inspection. She walked over and took it from him, rolling it between her fingers deftly like a baton.

“Very good Dawson. That was quick. Now find the heart,” she said before turning to the rest of us, “And you five, try and be more useful than a bunch of seasick sailors, eh?”