When i was in my 20s, my goal in life was to be a coroner. It was a job i found so intriguing, in some weird morbid way. I had always wanted to work in the medical field, and due to shows like CSI or law and order, the prospect of figuring out how someone passed in was very fascinating to me. It was a job i knew most people wouldn’t understand, most would be freaked out being surrounded by dead people all day. It wasn’t something that really bothered me though. I didn’t fear death, at least not until i found out the truth.

I was in college working on my degree in forensic science. In order to get a job as a coroner one day, i needed to take up an apprenticeship with an active coroner. That’s when i met Dr. Gerber. He was a spry old man, About 65 years old. He was a relatively short fellow, with pale skin and a bald head downed with liver spots. He wore thick glasses with thin frames and often had a headlamp on while working. He certainly was eccentric and seemed to speak in riddles and strange idioms that i could sometimes understand, but other times he left me wondering if he was starting to lose it.

“The names doctor Gerber, sport? What’s yours” he asked with an outstretched hand the first time i met him. “It’s Eric, Eric Pazzuti. Nice to meet you sir.” I replied with enormous respect in my voice. Dr. Gerber was technically a medical examiner, which is different from a coroner, but he had far more education than id be getting so i figured he’d make an excellent mentor. “Eric. That name is just fine. The name of Vikings. Your name is the first thing you ever get to wear, so its important to have a good one!.” He said with a smile that accentuated all the folds and wrinkles he’d collected in his face over the decades. I laughed and nodded to pretend i understood what the hell he was talking about.

“So, shall we get started?” He asked. I nodded silently. “First, your gloves. Gloves are like you second skin in this room, and you cannot do anything without your skin right?” He says with a chuckle. “N-no… i guess not.” I said with confusion as i washed my hands and slid on gloves. I didn’t understand him quite yet, but this was my first taste of his strange smilies and metaphors.

Once i was suited up and ready to work, he had me roll in the first cadaver. The wheel of the gurney squeaked as it glided across the linoleum tiles, and i could how cold that metal was even through my thick gloves. It crossed my mind how uncomfortable it would be to lay on, but i suppose for the dead comfort doesn’t really matter. Dr. Gerber helped me lift the cadaver and place him on the exam table gently. He rolled a table full of tools between us and pulled a small recorder out of his pocket, and hit record. “Date; December third, 2010. Adult male, 52, Caucasian. Name: [redacted for privacy] No tattoos. Contusions on head, lividity also visible on back. This is constant with the scene.” He said. My job at this time was to silently hand him tools, tag and bag the bodies, and do some of the simpler paperwork after the fact.

This is the first time it happened. As Dr. Gerber was cutting into the chest of this man i heard a noise coming from one of the occupied cold lockers. It was a quick and faint groan. “What was that?” I asked as i turned my head to look at the lockers behind me. “Gas escaping the body. Pay attention to this.” He said quickly and sternly. This was quite the tone change from the upbeat old man he had been all day. “Sorry.” I muttered out of shame as i turned my head back to watch his work. He has the chest cavity open and is examining the state of the organs. “There appears to be some internal damage to the spleen and liver. Some internal bleeding. Consistent with the fall as described.” He said.

Then i heard it again. Another slightly louder and longer groan. This one i swore it almost sounded like a groan of pain and anguish. “Sir, should we do something about that noise?’ I asked him, admittedly a little freaked out. Every scene from ever horror movie id ever seen up to that point was rolling through my mind. This made him slam the tools in his hand back on the tray with a metallic clash. He slammed them so hard even the resting tools jumped up in fear. He angrily turned off the recording device and got merely inches from me. “Hear me, boy. We’re doing important work here. If you’re easily distracted I’ll find someone who isn’t. When you hear the dead talking you better not listen, understand? Our work is to important for your eyes and ears to be running off.” He said with irritation seeping not his voice. His anger shocked me. He could go from a jovial old man to a person with an animalistic rage behind his eye at the drop of a dime. I sheepishly looked at my feet. “Yes, i understand, im sorry.” I apologized like a child be reprimanded by his father. “Good. I’m- im sorry for popping my lid. It’s just- i- you need to ignore things like that, boy. Okay?” He said with a friendly pat on my back. I smile at him and nod, wanting this uncomfortable confrontation to be behind us. Little did i know, however, that this would not be the end of this topic.

The incident happened roughly two weeks later. We got called in in the middle of the night to do a report of a poor woman, only 21 years old, who died under very mysterious circumstances. It’s neither here nor there to this story, but her boyfriend later admitted to poisoning the coffee he bought her because he thought she was cheating.

Anyway, on the way to the morgue it started snowing, pretty damn hard. I made it there without a hitch and got inside to see that Dr. Gerber was nowhere to be found, so i used the office phone to give him a call. He answered after just two rings.

“Hey Doc, where are ya?” I asked him lightheartedly. “Eric, boy. You’re not going to believe this. Some old coot T-boned me at the red light. He says he was distracted by the snow. Buy a snow globe if you’re that impressed by it….. Luckily though everyone is fine. You wont be seeing any of us on the examination table tonight haha!” He morbidly joked. “Oh okay, well im glad you’re safe and sound. do you need me to come pick you up?” I ask him. “No no, this kind young officer will bring me in after he assesses the scene. You can prep the deceased for tonight’s exam. Just make sure to stay focused and stay on task.” He warns me. “Ill do my best sir, see you soon.” I say with conviction before hanging up.

I go to the cold lockers and pull out the victim to put on the gurney. Her cloud blue eyes stare blankly up at me, her head fixed towards the ceiling. I accidentally plop her down a little too hard. I check the tag, make notes of how there are no immediate outward signs of trauma and roll her next to the examination table. I decide to wait until doctor gerber arrives to place her as to not drop her too hard again. So until he gets here i just sit in the office doing the necessary paperwork to prepare for tonight’s examination.

There i was in the office, the only audible noise is my pen scratching against the paper and a buzz coming from the fluorescent lights. I’m deep in focus when i hear a faint “huh?” I stop what im doing, thinking its doctor gerber. “Hello?” I call out to him. “H-hello?” I hear a faint and horse voice call back. This was not his voice. It sounded weak and feminine. I got up from the desk chair and step out into the cold linoleum room, to see nothing. “Is someone in here?” I ask. I pause for a moment and hear no return to my call, so i shrug and go sit back down in the office.

“I want to go home.” I hear the weak voice say. I slam my pen down, thinking this is some janitorial crews idea of a joke. I step out into the room again and see no one, but i notice the cadavers head is turned toward the office door, those lifeless milky eyes staring right in my direction. I couldn’t explain it, but it really felt like eye contact. Something about this made my heart flutter with anxiety and the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I quickly half jog over to her and put her head upright. This is the first time where a body has freaked me out. I use the sides of the body bag to hold her in place so she wont move again. I shake off the eerie feeling so i can continue my work.

Only a few minutes go by when i hear the same weak voice, say this time still in just a whisper but with more desperation “please take me home. I don’t want to go back to the darkness.” I hesitantly get up from the safety of my chair and step after painstaking step walk just outside the door frame. That’s when my blood runs ice cold

Shes fucking sitting up. Those empty eyes staring at me and mouth gaping unnaturally wide. Her teeth are grey and gums are pain from no longer having blood flow. The blood and adrenaline pump through my veins harder than I’ve ever experienced. Before I’m able to comprehend what’s happening before my very own eyes, i can hear the door slam shut behind me, and the gurney lurches forward to pin me between her and the door. Her thin, pale arms reach forward to grab me by the shoulders. “Don’t send me back Eric.” She begs as tears pour from her clouded eyes, i now notice they’re darting around, like she’s trying to figure out her surroundings . I don’t recall making a sound during this, but rewatching from watching the security footage im screaming.

“It’s dark Eric, and cold. Everything is sorrow. Everything is suffering. Just a cold, black void of every bad feeling I’ve ever had. I miss my family. I miss light. I miss warm.” She says to me, with resentment growing in her voice with each word. I felt hot tears scream down my face, my arms were painfully cold where she was squeezing them. She ended up holding me so tight it left frail finger shaped bruises. “I- I can’t- I don’t know how to help you.” The words came out of my mouth without the permission of my mind. i was in shock, i still didn’t fully grasp the situation. I remember thinking that maybe she was still alive and the doctor made a mistake.

“Vita ad vitaum. I cannot leave the cold place for nothing. It needs a soul to consume. It’s hungry. It eats and eats and eats for all of eternity, even when you think you have nothing left to to be consumed, it keeps eating. Leaving only your sorrows. like a Venus fly trap. It feeds on you, leaving behind only your despair. I need a soul to take the place of mine.” She says as she peels a cold hand off my shoulder and wraps it around my trachea. The pain of her small freezing hands around my neck was searing. I’ve never known cold so intense that it felt like a burn. “A life for a life. It’s hungry. You have more to feed it than i do. I only have anguish. Please, i want to feel again. Feel anything. Anything other than this.” she says as she grips tighter and tighter.

As my heart pounds in my chest i look at the cold tile room around me. This can’t be the place i die, it can’t. My mind suddenly snapped into focus as the will to live overtakes the fear that had paralyzed my body before I use my leg to kick over the gurney. It crashed into the tool tray with a loud crash and a fleshy plop as her body hits the floor. I catch my breath for a minute and cautiously take in the stillness after the metallic cacophony. maybe she’s done. Maybe it finished her i foolishly thought to myself.

After what was only a couple seconds that felt like hours, she sat up from behind the gurney facing away from me. Every vertebrae in her back cracked loudly with her painstakingly slow movements. With slow shaking movements she pulls herself up from the ground and stands up right. That’s when I notice the bone saw she held in her hand. She took a few heavy and uncoordinated steps towards me, growing quicker as she regains her orientation in her own body. Her mouth is still agape as clear fluids pour from her mouth and drip on the floor and black blood blood leaks from her nose. “I’m sorry Eric. I just can’t go back. I never want to go back. I want to go home.” She cries as she sprints towards me. I run into the office and lock the door behind me. The closest thing to shelter i could reach.

I sit in the ground in the fetal position as i feel her jiggle the knob and pound with inhuman strength on the wooden door. I feel her try to cut through the wood with the tool but to no avail. She punched do has it causes my body to shake with each blow. I began crying at this point like a little kid. I felt there was no way I’m making it out of here. For a moment, the pounding stop. This made my heart race even harder. What could she be doing. Did she go outside to find another victim? Did she go back to whoever ever she came from? No, I knew that thought was naive to even entertain.

My thoughts were sharply interrupted by the shattering of glass above me. She punched out the frosted window in the door. I jump up and stand back to see her. Her pale, cracked lips and curled themself into an evil smile of victory. I watch as her hands sliced open as she pulled shards of glass out of her way piece by piece. The hand that she had just cut to ribbons is finally able to reach the lock. She unlocks and opens the door, holding the bone saw over her head. She begins slowly hobbling toward me.

I grab Dr. Gerber’s laptop from the desk and with every bit of strength i have i hit her in the head with it, black congealed blood and grey brain matter splattering on the wall behind me as i pull away. Part of me hoped killing the brain would kill her, but part of me correctly knew that was foolish. She laughed as she touched the new found hole in her head and made her way toward me. She kicked me in the knee, hard. Causing me to collapse. She walks over to me and grabs me by the top of my hair. “If it wasn’t for that stunt i would have made this quick.” She hisses in my ear. she took the bone saw and slashed across my chest. I cried out in pain as blood began to stain my white coat. She held the bone saw up to my throat, with enough force that the serrated points were ever so lightly beginning to draw blood. “You have much more for the void to feed on Eric. It’ll take its time with you, saver ever bit.” She says as she presses slightly harder. I began praying to anyone, anything to save me. Whatever forces of the universe existed i needed its help.

Right as i thought it was the end, Dr. Gerber appeared in the doorway, revolver in hand. He didn’t say a word, just blasted her head in. The force of the shot caused her to fall back and allowed me to get free. I ran to the old man and cowered behind him. “She’s dead. That wont stop her. She’s the cadaver.” I say quickly as i pull his arm in attempt to get him to run away. “I know that, boy.” He says as he shakes me off him. I hear a groan coming from the woman on the ground. There’s a fleshy void where her clouded eye once was and now black blood pours from it.

As she begins to get up Dr. Gerber pulls a lighter from his pocket and grabs the aerosol can of cleaner off the desk. He uses them to create a makeshift flame thrower and burns the woman. A high pitched screech leaves her mouth as what’s left of her soul exits the cadaver. She burned surprisingly fast. Her body turned to no more than ash in about 15 minutes. Dr. Gerber looks around the room, then back at me and in an exhausted voice mutters “You owe me a new laptop, boy.”

We clean up the mess, wash off the blood, collect parts of her skull that had been strewn around the room and start going through and erasing any evidence. “What did you mean you know it was the cadaver?” I asked him when i had a moment to begin processing what happened. “I told you boy, when the dead start talking you better not listen.” He says in a very matter of fact tone. I slammed the gallon of bleach i had been using to clean on the ground. “Dude what the fuck does that mean? I’m not in the mood for games right now i almost god killed by… by… god knows what!” I yell at him out of fear and anger.

He rolls over a chair and sits backwards in it. “Alright Eric, I’ll tell you. When some people die, not everyone but some, they’re not all the way gone. Somehow they’re able to muster up enough energy to used their mortal bodies and connect with the living again. And when they’ do, they’re angry. Or maybe resentful is a better word. They envy the living. They want us to take their place. They get more power when the cross over between the living and dead is acknowledged. It’s like your fear, empathy, curiosity or what have you, opens the door for them. This is why a corpses mouth is wired shut for a funeral. They’d be unstoppable if they began speaking in front of loved ones. They’re easier to ignore when they’re just a patient to us.” He explains somberly but calmly. Like the way your parents explain their divorced. This was the most serious the old man had ever been

“That place she was talking about, the cold place… is it… real?” I ask ask hesitantly out of fear of the answer. He sighs. “I don’t know. It is for some. Not all are able to break the veil, but those that do say the same thing. A cold, dark, nothing eating away at them for eternity.” This sent a jolt of fear to my very core. The possibility of experiencing whatever turned that woman into a sadistic evil beast is truly my worst fear. “Who else knows about this?” I ask him. “Only people in the industry. ME’s, morticians, doctors, funeral directors. We keep it quiet because we don’t need the average joe messing with the powers beyond the wold of the living. To get in to the industry you have to sign an oath to keep it quiet and violating is punishable by death. And if there’s one thing a bunch of experts on the dead can do, its take you out and make it look like an accident.” He says gravely. The way he said it makes me wonder if he’s ever had to make good on that promise himself before.

This was many years ago. The knowledge of this scared me off of my degree, and pushed me towards god. I dropped out of school to become a pastor at my local church. I stayed in touch with Dr. Gerber. He was like a father to me until his last day. I was even there with him when he died. It was last week on Thursday, 11;45 pm. When he passed on, I stayed with him. His wide had passed 5 months prior and he had no kids. How could you have kids knowing what he knows, knowing the fate they may be doomed to? I was heartbroken and crying while i held his hand. “Doc, im here. If you have something to say, say it.” I begged with a shake voice through tears. I got no reply, id like to think that means he went to a different place. A better place.

I now spend my days focused on god. praying, worshiping, preaching. Hoping he will save me from that dark place. Like i said, I never finished my degree never had to sign and oath. So i post this to Reddit, hoping you all will take an old mans wise advice. If the dead start talking, you better not listen.