• “Slipping away in the snow”

    The night was young; we were sitting out on one of the curbs on Cherry Street, just looking up and admiring the snow fall. Winter had not even begun yet, but it certainly felt like winter. Everyone was getting ready for the holidays and people were already setting up Christmas trees. The only problem is that it’s October.
    When I was a young boy, my mom always use to tell me that people get ready for holidays even when they aren’t really here yet. So, before Halloween rolled around I liked to get into the spirit and dress up in my little wolf costume. After I was all dressed up, I walked outside and hid in the nearest bush I could find and waited for a person or a couple to walk by and then I would jump out of the bushes and roar at them as loud as I could. They weren’t scared of me, all they really did was pat me on the head and tell me how cute I am, and then they would walk away.
    I started to wonder how this whole getting ready for the holiday’s early thing worked out; I guess I’ll never really know. All I know is that it’s almost thanksgiving and people aren’t dressing up as pilgrims, no, they’re putting out Christmas trees and buying weird little lights.
    “Gabriel!” My mother shouted to me from across the street, but I guess I didn’t hear her because I just sat where I was without moving an inch. The person sitting next to me stirred a little bit and said they were going to get going. I didn’t want to seem resentful of their leaving, so I let them, but inside I regret letting them slip away.
    I’m nineteen years old now, you would think by now that I would have a decent car and a decent job, but I really don’t. I’ve been working at the same shitty McDonalds restaurant for about three years and haven’t really put much thought into going to college. I take night-classes though at one of the near-by universities in the area, I’m not really studying to be anything, like I said: I haven’t put any thought into college.
    A lot of people never put any thought into college, this I realize, but they still fall through with that dream job and that amazing family that everyone wants; it’s because they’re trying. I am not trying; I don’t care about a fancy job or having a family. Hell, up until recently, I wasn’t even thinking of getting into a relationship, but I guess Lacey changed that for me.

    “The Dissection”

    I guess all of this started back when I was in high school, which was only about a year ago, considering the fact that I had stayed back my sophomore year. I wasn’t really a trouble maker, but I hardly paid attention in class. When I did pay attention in class, it was never to the work I was doing, no. I was more interested in women than anything.
    Lacey Fisher was a junior, like I should have been when I was staying back my sophomore year, but unlike me she had everything going for her. Lacey was smart and so beautiful with the pale, radiant skin and that flowing black and green hair that cascaded down her back. She certainly wasn’t like most of the girls you see in high school, I don’t think she took her appearance seriously because all she ever wore was band t-shirts and ripped up jeans. But I guess that’s what made her so special; she was different.
    I only had her in one of my classes during my second sophomore year and that was Biology; I guess science just wasn’t her thing. We had never interacted before being in this class and the only reason we did interact is because we HAD to. Lacey and I were lab partners for the duration of the year.
    We had a third partner, but we don’t really know what happened to her, some people think that she was a witch and flew off into the night on her broom. While that does sound interesting and far better than the truth, I am pretty sure she just moved to another town. Really the only thing that made me enthralled by our third partner moving was the fact that Lacey and I got to spend a whole period alone dissecting pigs and worms.
    “Gabe, can you hand me the scalpel?” The way she said my name was so alluring, I couldn’t help but stare and undress her with my eyes. Her body was so slender, so thin like a ballerina or a dancer. After I finished ogling her for five minutes, I finally reached out and grabbed the scalpel, handing it to her as she had asked.
    “Gross. What is this, the pig’s heart?” I wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing, but when I did, I was a little more than grossed out. The scalpel was about half-way into the pig’s stomach and there was a tiny fold of skin that she had folded back to reveal part of the creature’s insides.
    “Hey, I bet if we poke it, it’ll explode.” I wasn’t really sure why I had suggested poking the pig’s heart with a scalpel, I mean, I knew the outcome. Maybe I just wanted to see if she had balls enough to do it and unfortunately for me, she did. She picked up that scalpel like it was her job and started to lower it. She looked like she was concentrating greatly; her forehead even creased as she lowered the scalpel and slowly dug the scalpel into the pig’s heart.
    I’m not quite sure which was worse at this point: looking at the pig’s open heart or the horrified look on Lacey’s face when she cut it open. She looked completely mortified, and it was my fault for suggesting it in the first place. I think she nearly vomited at the sight of the dried blood and I’m pretty sure I almost did too, but the important thing was that she didn’t completely hate me for suggesting it to her.
    “That was… pretty gross.” I reached for a rubber glove that was sitting in a small bin on our lab table and slid it onto my hand.
    “What are you going to do…?” She inched away from me and I extended out my hand to the pig and stuck my finger inside of it. Lacey gave me a disgusted look and I just laughed, pulling my gloved appendage back out, blood covered and all. I didn’t know why, but my childish instincts started to take over and I reached out to where Lacey was sitting and wiped my bloody finger on her forearm. At first, she didn’t react and there was a very long, awkward pause that made me anxious, but she slowly got up from her seat and sauntered over to me. I couldn’t really make out what she was doing, but she was trying to tell me something. Before she could tell me, disgust got the best of her and she ran out of the room with her hand covering her mouth. That was the last time I saw Lacey that day.