Andrea Lepri - The Last Christmas On Earth

"My God, what reduced them like that?" He exclaimed turning to look somewhere else and instinctively taking a step back.

"What do you mean?" Helen asked, turning, and seeing the dead bodies she let out a groan. The two corpses were in the process of mummification, their faces were already dug by very deep furrows and their orbits seemed almost empty, the bones protruded overwhelmingly from beneath the skin throughout the body and the stitches of the "Y" incision on the chests were completely loose.

"There are two options, or this is a nightmare or I'm just going crazy," she murmured.

"What the hell ...?" The chemist said as soon as he caught his breath.

"I don't know ... they've been dead for two days and now it seems like a few decades have gone by. There is not a single minute to lose, "she replied, reaching for the electric panel.

"Wait, what are you going to do? I do not..."

"I have to turn off the lights."

"Are you kidding? Do you want me to shit myself?"

"It's the only way I have to show you what I have to, but I can't force you. If you don't feel up to it, we'll leave right away, I didn't expect to find this situation," she said discouraged.

Larry thought about it for a moment. "Do what you have to do, but do it as quickly as you can, I can't wait to get out of here!"

"Me too," she replied, hastening to turn off the light and, although much less intense than a few hours before, the corpses immediately began to shine.

"Do you see it?" Helen asked him, raising the switch.

"Of course I see it ... but what is it?"

"I was hoping you would tell me. Certainly, it is not radiation, it is a kind of very fine and adherent powder. That's the thing you'll have to analyze," she said, pulling a nylon bag and a pair of scissors from a pocket. "Forgive me, I'm doing this for you," she murmured approaching their bodies; she cut a few strands of hair and put them in the bag with trembling hands, then handed them to the chemist. "You have to get to work right away, the glow is already much less intense than this morning and I hope it won't disappear completely right now," he said. Larry chewed his lips in puzzlement, he had no idea what he could get out of it. "Then I have to run home and get to work right away," he replied, checking that the zipper on the bag was tightly closed and walking towards the exit.

"Larry," Helen said after she closed the door.

"Yes?" He replied annoyed, like to say: "what else now?"

"Thank you."

As soon as she returned to the office, Helen dialed the doctor's phone number. "You have to run here right now," she said without even saying goodbye as she heard the receiver pick up.

"You are out of your mind, today I've already done so many miles that I became Shell's shareholder ... what the hell happened?" He replied.

"I ... I don't know how to tell you, I'm afraid you think I'm crazy!"

"After the outburst you had this morning, there is no doubt about it. Come on, spit it out, I'm busy and I can't stay on the phone all day," he informed her.

"Fine! Is there a logical explanation to the fact those two dead bodies are already mummifying?" She then asked. The coroner took a few moments of silence and Helen feared he was about to shoot one of his usual, stupid jokes.

"Of course I do!" He answered confidently, confusing her.

"...Really?" She hesitated.

"I am sure, indeed, I am absolutely sure ... the explanation is that we are in the middle of an episode of X Files " he confirmed with his usual irony, provoking a tide of anger that she kept for herself thinking "I knew it!".

"I'm serious," she told him frustrated.

"Whether you're joking or not it doesn't change so much, now I don't have the chance, and honestly I don't even want to ride for three hours in the car to come and see it. I promise that I will be there the morning after tomorrow, when we will also have the results of the toxicological exam."

"The day after tomorrow? But it's an eternity!"

"I know, but I'm not just following your case ... I'm really sorry," he replied. Helen told herself that in two days, going ahead at that speed, corpses would remain nothing but dust. On the other hand, even if the coroner came back and found that a mummification process was in progress, without the lab reports and the results of the analyzes written by Larry, they would still not know what to do.

"All right, I'll wait for the day after tomorrow. But don't blow it off, I don't know where to hit the head anymore."

"You can count on me, I'm dying from curiosity," he assured her, using a tone that once again didn't convince her at all.

"Mom's coming!" Harry said happily as he heard Eve's car roar. Immediately after he ran out because he had a mad desire to hug her and show her the new glasses and the model. And then he wanted to make peace with Toby and play with him as always. James looked out on the patio, Harry reached Eve and dived into her arms, then peered inside the car without being able to see his beloved dog.

"Mom, where is Toby?" He asked, moving away from Eve, she put her hands on his shoulders and bent to look him straight in the eye to prepare him for the news. "Love, a very bad thing happened to Toby ..."

"Where is Toby? I want Toby! Where's my Toby?" Harry began repeating around Eve's Voyager, she chased him and grabbed him by his shoulders again. "Love you must be strong," she whispered in his ear.

"What did you do to him? He didn't bite me on purpose, he didn't bite me on purpose! Why did you hurt him, he didn't bite me on purpose!"

"Honey, I didn't hurt him! When we left the clinic he ran to the middle of the road chasing a cat, and a car could not stop in time ... it hit him," Eve explained to him, but Harry shook his head struggling to repel the tears.

"I don't believe you!" He shouted, showing his fists.

"Harry ... honey ..." the woman tried to calm him.

"Leave me alone!" Harry repeated, then ran into the house and went to lock himself in his room. Eve and James followed him up the stairs and waited ten good minutes at the door calling him, but he didn't show up.

"He's able to stay in there for two days, it's better if we go back downstairs," suggested Eve to James. She went down to the kitchen and started fumbling with the microwave to warm up the dinner. James remained still for a while, leaning against the handrail, staring at the door of Harry's bedroom with his arms folded, then decided to join her.

"What happened to Toby?" He asked, helping her set the table.

"I've already told you, he ran in the middle of the road and ended up under a passing car, the driver couldn't brake in time. Luckily no other cars passed by, otherwise, someone would have been hurt."

"It shouldn't happen," said James. "But even if it is ugly to say, I must admit that after his behavior of last night I feel almost relieved because this incident has taken away from us a big problem," he added, ashamed of himself for his petty statement.

"Yeah," she agreed, continuing to slice the tomatoes.

"But you should have brought him home, didn't you think Harry wanted to bury him here in our garden?"

"Of course I thought about it, but if I had brought him back, Harry would have liked to see him and it wasn't really the case ... that poor beast was torn to shreds," Eve replied without turning around. "He said he would think about it ..." She added, but cut off short the sentence there because she did not want to discuss it again.

"Let me guess ... Dr. Parker, isn't it?"

"That's right," she replied, ignoring his provocation, then placed the tray with the chicken nuggets and chips on the table. She distributed them in three plates and covered Harry's with another upside-down plate, then sat down and began to eat. James drowned the fries in the ketchup and began fiddling with a fork against a croquette, continuing to turn it over thoughtfully without putting anything in his mouth.