Morose Marvin

Morose Marvin

At the center was a large wooden embalming table, and on it, the corpse of a man. An embalming machine stood next to the table, whirring quietly as it pumped the man's blood out, and a strange, red, glowing liquid in.

On one end of the room stood shelf after shelf of jars filled with the same pungent liquid, glowing very slightly and bathing the room in diffuse red light.

Marvin looked all around, but startled when he heard a moan from the direction of the corpse!

Terrified, Marvin fled; he ran up the stairs as fast as he could and did not look back. He found the spiral staircase and followed it up, slammed the secret door shut, and ran all the way up to his dorm, where he huddled on his bunk waiting for the other boys to return from dinner.

The next day, Marvin watched his professors with renewed suspicion. He boldly asked each the question, "What would make a corpse moan?"

In each class his question was met with derisive laughter from the other boys, and an icy glare from his professor. By day's end, he worked up the resolve to visit the secret lab again.

Martin went to dinner, but instead of returning back to the dorm with Peter and the other boys, he took a detour to the quiet hallway with the janitorial closet. He glanced around nervously, making sure nobody saw him enter it. He pushed open the secret door, its protests echoing from the stone walls below. He made his way down the steps, through the hall below, and into the lab.

There was no body on the embalming table.