The door had a sign upon it, a man with a mask over his mouth, rubber gloves over his hands. Charles entered and found himself at the top of a dark stairwell.

“I used my wallet as a stopper. I was hoping that enough of that neon light from out on the street would follow me down there…help me until I could find the real overheads. But it was obvious I’d be in total darkness very soon.”

He was. And he used the stone walls as guideposts on the way down the stairs.

“But I misjudged them and stumbled down the last step. I hit a metal tray table on wheels and the crashing sound scared me deeply. I thought for certain I would get caught. That somebody would emerge from the darkness, a hand would grab my own. You know how they say a person’s heart beats heavy when they’re scared? Mine was beating so hard I thought it was my hand on my chest, but my hands were out in front of my face, trembling in the darkness. I felt along the wall for the lights. It took me quite a while, many minutes, and those minutes down there in the dark were very hard. Andi would be happy to know that, despite the horrors, I didn’t once consider turning back. Love, Richard. Legendary love.

“Oh, I wish you could have seen it! When those lights came on I was privy to a side of Goblin that not many people see! I was beneath the city. Beneath even the graves, I’d say, as the graves are where the bodies rest. But at the morgue? Goodness, Richard, the morgue is a physical purgatory. Nobody stays at the morgue. Not for long. And so it struck me, looking to the many square metal doors in the walls, that whoever happened to be there that night also happened to have been unlucky enough to meet me in purgatory. Me, a creature with bad intentions.

“There were a number of steel tray tables scattered about. And on them were scalpels, needles, stitching. Clear canisters with chemicals. There were sinks against the far wall and many faucets of different colors. Green smocks hung from hooks on the walls. Face masks and safety goggles, too. They take great pains to keep a place like that sanitary. And here I was, breaking every rule.”

Charles stepped to the square drawers, eyeing the clamps that held them closed.

“I got started right away.”

Charles counted the drawers, saw there were eighteen total. Three rows high and six across.