Body Suit

The second true night terror I had as a child placed me inside of a hotel. I was a forensic scientist.

Surrounded by a group of cops, I was lead to a hotel room on a very high story. I arrived at the door, number 167, and was let inside. The officer closed the door behind me and began to lock and barricade it from the outside, yelling through the door and explaining that this was a "simple precaution taken in case the murderer tried to return to the scene and tamper with evidence".

I, god knows why, did not question this "simple precaution" and made my way to a living room area. Sitting on the couch was a body. A man who looked to be in his thirties sat dead, his head hung back over the cushion of the couch. Disturbingly enough, a very large hole was cleanly blown through his entire stomach as well as the couch. I walked to the back of the couch, entrails, dismembered organs and bloody, bile soaked couch stuffing lay on the carpet. It was quite easy to see completely through the hole in the couch and the man's stomach. I kept my composure, took a few notes and decided to press on.

I walked through a small mini kitchen and arrived at the bathroom, its door wide open. Laying inside the bathtub was the naked body of another, older man. His body had been ripped open from genital area to throat and the water was a dark red from the mass amount of blood that clouded within it. I took a few more notes and was about to turn around and walk out when I heard a squeak, like one's foot might make when stepping out of the shower onto a tiled floor. I looked around and noticed a hand gripping the side of the base of the toilet. I walked a little more around and there in the corner of the bathroom, crouched in the space between the toilet and wall was a man, his hands bloodied.

He darted out of the bathroom and slammed the door behind him, barring it with a chair. I stood still and listened as I heard him outside of the door, moving objects around frantically, breathing heavily and suddenly....silence. I kicked the door open and looked around, nothing changed, no sign of this mad man anywhere. There was, however, a new body lying on the kitchen floor. A young dead woman laid on the floor, her body naked. There was a thin slice traveling up each leg and arm, her body, throat and face as well. Her eyes were removed, yet the entire body was remarkably clean. No blood, no signs of mutilation other than the clean and very precise cuts and her missing eyes.

I began to study the body when suddenly, two eyelids opened, sunk down deep into the recesses of her eye sockets. From her open and gaping mouth I saw another mouth within it open and smile. Her fingers twitched slightly. The man had cut her open, gutted and de-boned her and was wearing her body like a suit. From her hollow face he uttered: "Do I look pretty?"