Unseen -2

The morgue door slammed open, the sound echoing through the sterile hallway. Detective James Callahan stepped out, eyes scanning the narrow corridor, his mind still racing from what he'd just witnessed.

Ryan was behind him, trying to steady his breathing. His hands shook, and the blood drained from his face. "What just happened?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"I don't know," James muttered, rubbing his temple. He had seen his fair share of gruesome crime scenes, but nothing like this. The corpse moving, the unnatural strength... It didn't make sense. The body had been dead for hours—there was no way it could've reacted like that unless something was terribly wrong.

James glanced at Ryan, his eyes narrowing. "Get yourself together. I'll call in a report to the station. You're not going to like it, but this isn't just a murder anymore. Something else is going on. Something we don't understand."

Ryan nodded, still trying to clear the fog from his mind. He didn't have an explanation, but he knew one thing for sure: he wasn't going to be able to go back into that morgue. Not after what happened.

Before James could turn to make the call, a soft voice interrupted him.

"Detective Callahan?"

James looked up, surprised to see Jessie standing there. Her dark eyes were sharp, scanning the area, her stance professional and calm. Unlike Ryan, she wasn't visibly shaken. But then, she'd been dealing with cases like this for a while. As a fellow detective, she had seen things that most people would never understand.

"Jessie," James greeted, his expression guarded. "I was just about to report in. Something's... off. We've got a problem."

Jessie raised an eyebrow. "What kind of problem?"

"I'm not sure yet. But the body in there—it didn't act like any corpse I've ever seen." He hesitated, unsure if he should explain further.

"Dead bodies don't move on their own, James," Jessie said, crossing her arms. Her tone was sharp, but there was concern hidden beneath the cool exterior. "You need to tell me what happened."

James hesitated for a moment longer, then relented. "It attacked Ryan. The body—it moved, grabbed him, tried to bite him. Like it was still alive."

Jessie's brow furrowed. "That's not possible. A body would be rigor mortised by now. You're saying this corpse somehow broke free of that?"

"I don't know," James admitted. "But it wasn't just that. When it attacked, there was something... wrong with it. Its skin was too pale, its eyes too vacant. It didn't feel human."

Jessie thought for a moment. "I'll need to see it for myself. But first, I want to talk to the coroner."

A few hours later, Jessie and James stood outside the morgue once again, waiting for Dr. Hughes, the city's chief coroner. He was an old acquaintance of theirs, and though he didn't always trust their methods, he knew better than to refuse when they were involved in a case.

Dr. Hughes emerged from the morgue, his expression tight with frustration. "Detectives," he greeted them. "You're not going to like what I'm about to tell you."

"What happened?" Jessie asked, her voice even but full of anticipation.

"The body," Dr. Hughes began, his voice low, "wasn't dead. Not completely."

James exchanged a quick glance with Jessie. "What do you mean, 'not dead'?"

Hughes rubbed the back of his neck, clearly uneasy. "I've been doing this long enough to know the signs. This man's body had no signs of life. But... when I checked the brain activity, there was a slight pulse. It's faint, almost imperceptible, but it's there. I've never seen anything like it."

James felt his stomach tighten. "So, what? The man wasn't really dead?"

"I'm not sure," Dr. Hughes replied. "It's as though something's been keeping the brain alive, but it's not natural. Something's wrong."

"Is it possible it could have been some kind of drug or chemical reaction?" Jessie asked.

Dr. Hughes shook his head. "I've run the tests. There's no chemical compound I can find that would explain this kind of response. It's like... he's been brought back. But that's not possible. The body should have been in full rigor by now."

Jessie's eyes narrowed. "What about the infection theory?"

"Don't jump to conclusions," Dr. Hughes warned, his tone more serious than they were used to. "Whatever this is, it's unlike anything I've encountered before."

"Then we need to figure it out fast," James said, his voice grim. "I'm calling in the rest of the team. This isn't just a case anymore. It's something much bigger."

As the three of them stood there, the weight of the situation settling in, a distant scream echoed from somewhere deep within the city.

It was a scream of panic, a scream of terror.

And it was just the beginning.

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