Awakening the Dead: A Haunting Tale That Will Give You Goosebumps

Dr. Alfred entered my class that afternoon and joyfully announced the commencement of our dissection classes the next day and as preclinical students, we all howled. Some howled out of excitement, others, out of disgust and some out of fear; whichever way, everyone reacted to this news shared by our course coordinator. I was part of the percentage who howled out of excitement because to me, this was a dream come true! I could legally hold a scalpel, cut through a human body(though dead) and see, firsthand, all the organs I had only ever seen in my textbooks. I was practically skipping on my way back to my hostel and unsurprisingly, my excitement caused me a sleepless night.

I woke up the next day not feeling lethargic at all but with vigour, rushing to put in my laboratory coats, dissecting sets, textbooks and atlas into my bags humming one of Sinach's latest. The excitement rubbed off on my roommates and they all wished they were medical students. Oh! The envy!

I got to my class and met my coursemates who were also all prepared for our first-ever dissecting practical. Dr. Alfred entered our class once again beaming and giving us some last-minute instructions. Then, we were all lined into the dissecting hall.

For the first time in my life, I perceived a very bad odour - a smell more foul than the dirtiest garbage points and my nose mask did nothing in alleviating my irritation. I tried curbing my discomfort but by then, my excitement had already been halved. Looking towards my front, I saw an assembly - not of angels or humans but of dead humans; discoloured, deformed and without the breath of life in them. I backtracked, I tried to run out and quit this seeming craziness!

But Dr. Alfred had some other plans for me. He pushed me towards the nearest body and there I was, face-to-face with a corpse. It took all of the Psalms and hymns I knew to stop me from screaming but my lacrimal glands nonetheless, did their jobs. I panicked and my eyes were pooling with tears until my group members all arrived with me. I wasn't alone anymore and so, the tears stopped.

I called out all the courage I was born with and started the dissections with my peers. Scalpel, blade, tweezers, everything kept going in and it came as a huge surprise seeing my mates comport themselves. Their calmness sort of worked on me and I found myself taking part in the discussions too. 

Well, the calm facade continued until I noticed a twitch, then another and another and then, everyone ran out of the dissecting hall because the corpses all came back alive!!! It was a jumbled mess!

"Gbemi, scrape the fats out of this place", someone's voice brought me out of my reverie and I jolted, realising that I had spaced out while working and the corpses' twitch was all a figment of my rich imagination.

Culled: The true life experience of a writing medic.

Author's notes: The Dr's name used in this article is purely fictional and has been kept hidden for the sake of privacy.

Thank you for reading, loved ones!💖