I nodded and set my clipboard down. “Yeah,” I replied as I thumbed through the paperwork. We were silent for a while, each absorbed in our own work, until I made it to Enzo’s results.
Just as I had observed, Enzo’s abilities surpassed his teammates’ abilities. He was more than twice as efficient and strong as his teammates… And when I compared his results to the national average, he was bordering on superhuman.
How was this possible?
James must have noticed how stumped I looked, because he came around the table to look at what I was doing.
“Hmm,” he said, scratching his head. “Are you sure your data is correct?”
I nodded. “I’m positive,” I replied. “I was very careful while I was collecting the data. Everyone else’s results look normal.”
James took Enzo’s data sheet out of my hands and studied it closely. “Ugh, Enzo,” he said with an eye roll. “His results are always skewed. I’ve always thought that he’s taking steroids or something, but I can never prove it.”
“You don’t sound like much of a fan,” I said.
James shrugged and handed back my paper. “As a senior assistant, you pick up on all sorts of gossip.”
I was intrigued. “What sort of gossip?” I asked.
James smirked and folded his arms. “Curious about Enzo Rivers, huh? Got a crush?”
I shook my head and bent over my work again to hide my blushing. “Just curious,” I replied.
“Let’s just say that there are certain rumors,” James said as he circled back around to his side of the table. “Rumors about a certain hockey team only being so successful because a certain somebody is related to the team.”
My eyes widened. “Are you sure?” I replied.
James shrugged again. “I’m not entirely sure, but Enzo is still a rookie. He basically just appeared out of nowhere and was suddenly the school’s heartthrob and a famous hockey star. It all just seems a little fishy to me… And same with those results.” He nodded his head toward my paper.
For some reason, the grad student’s words irked me.
“But I was there,” I snapped. “I saw him perform today. He’s like a superhuman.”
All James did was scoff and smirk. “I thought you didn’t have a crush on Enzo Rivers.”
…
After my shift ended, I had to go to an anatomy lab to finish a project before I would have time to meet up with the dean to discuss my reassignment.
We had been working on cadavers for the past couple of weeks, and my lab report would be due soon. With everything going on lately, I had had little time to finish my work, which was why I rushed to the anatomy lab to take the rest of my notes.
I made it to the empty lab and put on my lab gear, sanitized, then got to work cutting into the cadaver’s abdomen with my scalpel and inspecting his organs.
As I inspected the organs, however, something caught my attention. There was something off about this body.
Maybe my eyes were deceiving me, but… the cadaver’s heart was much larger than the average human’s.
Perhaps the cadaver simply had an enlarged heart, I told myself. It wasn’t terribly uncommon; maybe that was how this person died to begin with. But something about it made me unsettled…
I kept inspecting the cadaver’s organs. There was no visceral fat — in fact, the cadaver looked perfectly healthy. The layer of muscle was far thicker than the average human’s.
My mind flickered back to Enzo’s superhuman strength. Was it possible that this cadaver was once a person who also possessed such strength? How would that explain the enlarged heart?
Suddenly, I had a strange intuition. I couldn’t explain it, but… I wanted to check the cadaver’s teeth.
Almost as if I was in a trance, I set down my instruments and walked over to the cadaver’s head. There was nothing out of the ordinary about his outward appearance, but when I pulled back his lips to see his teeth…
Fangs.
I stumbled backwards involuntarily and knocked into a table behind me, my heart racing as images of Enzo’s red, wolf-like eyes flashed through my mind.
What sort of monster was this?
Nina
Without removing my lab coat and goggles, I ran from the laboratory and down the hall. I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing, but I had to tell someone.
As I ran down the hall, I nearly ran straight into none other than Jessica. She had her hair up in a bun and a stack of textbooks in her arms, which she dropped when I almost ran into her.
“Geez!” she said, clutching her chest with one hand as she looked at me. “What the hell happened? You look like a crazed murderer.”
I caught a glimpse of myself in the reflection of a classroom window. Jessica was right; my lab coat had blood on it from opening up the cadaver, and my goggles only emphasized my wide eyes. But that wasn’t important right now.
“Follow me,” I said. “I have to show you something.”
We returned to the lab, Jessica grumbling behind me about how gross cadavers were as we entered.
“There,” I said, pointing at the table with my cadaver on it. “Look.”
She walked over, clutching her books to her chest, and peered at the body with a scowl on her face. “What is it?” she asked, sounding confused.
I stomped over to show her the body, but the chest was completely healed and the fangs were no longer there. How?
“Someone switched the body,” I said, whirling around to see if someone had moved my cadaver elsewhere. Jessica only looked on in confusion.
“Um… Nina, are you alright?” she said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Are you overly tired or something?”
I shrugged her hand off and shook my head. “No,” I replied. “I’m fine. I swear my cadaver’s heart was massive… twice the size of a normal human’s. And I checked his teeth. He had fangs. Like a wolf.”
Jessica furrowed her brow and looked at me with concern drawn across her face. “Nina, that’s ridiculous,” she said. “I think maybe you should go home and get some rest.”
“I know what I saw!” I snapped. My hands were shaking and my eyes began to fill with tears. “That cadaver was no ordinary human, and someone switched it.”
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