A quiet morgue in a small town becomes the stage for an unexplainable event when the lifeless body of an elderly woman disappears—replaced by the form of a young girl whose presence raises more questions than answers. Haunted by what he witnessed, a man’s grip on reality begins to slip as he unravels the boundaries between life, death, and something far more incomprehensible. In his search for truth, he is forced to confront his deepest fears: Was it a trick of the mind, or has he glimpsed something not meant for human understanding?
Allow me a moment to observe.
This cannot possibly be real—surely, no one will believe it.
I beheld her in that moment, yet it wasn’t truly her. An elderly woman lay on the cold, sterile autopsy table. Her wide, unblinking eyes held a haunting stillness, her pupils drifting to the edge of their sockets. The eyes of the dead never waver; they remain fixed in a chilling, eternal stare.
And yet, before me, the lifeless form changed.
The woman’s body seemed to dissipate, her features fading like mist, vanishing as if she never existed. In her place, a younger girl emerged, her tan skin glowing faintly in the dim light. A prominent black mole rested on her upper left arm, its delicate shape resembling a butterfly poised for flight.
It was as if the old woman had never been there at all. The form before me now was undeniably different—a young girl where an elderly woman had just been.
I felt a cold weight settle in my chest.
This cannot be real. The dead do not transform in such a way. Yet, I swear, with every fiber of my being, that what I saw was no illusion. The elderly woman and this girl were the same, but impossibly different.
My thoughts spiraled as I grappled with the unfathomable. A voice—steady and soothing—cut through the chaos in my mind.
“You’re troubled,” he said gently, as if sensing the storm within me. “Perhaps… there is more to this than you understand.”
His words, though kind, only deepened my confusion. What was I missing? What truth was hidden just beyond my reach?
After that day, I couldn’t bring myself to return to the workplace. Fear gripped my heart, its hold tightening until I could no longer stay in that tiny town. I left, abandoning everything I had known.
But even now, I cannot shake the image of her—the girl on the autopsy table—and the moment that shattered my understanding of life and death.
What I witnessed was real. And it will haunt me for the rest of my days.
Prompt: You are a forensic assistant who witnesses the impossible during an autopsy—a lifeless body transforms into a completely different person right before your eyes. Stricken by fear and doubt, you leave your job and town behind, but the memory of that moment haunts you. What truly happened on that table? Who—or what—did you see? And why do you feel like it wasn’t the end of the story?