The sun had just set and the shadows were growing deep as Dr. Jared Cartwright, a renowned pathologist, made his way home from a long day of work. He had been up all night, studying the results of his latest autopsy and he was exhausted.
He was just about to turn the key to his front door when he heard a strange noise coming from the darkness. He stopped, trying to identify the sound. It sounded like a low moan, almost like a dying animal. He cautiously looked around but he couldn’t see anything in the darkness.
Suddenly, the moaning got louder and he could make out a figure in the shadows. But before he could move or scream, he was paralyzed with fear. It was a corpse! It was walking slowly towards him, its skin decaying and its eyes bulging out of its head.
Dr. Cartwright couldn’t move, he could only stare in horror as the corpse approached him. He was about to scream when the corpse spoke. Its voice was raspy and low, yet strangely familiar.
“I have come from the grave to show you something,” the corpse said in a whisper. “My name is Dr. Jonathan Stiles, I was your predecessor and I have an important message for you.”
The corpse then pointed to a nearby grave, where a body lay in an open coffin. The corpse said that it was Dr. Stiles’ body and that he had died of a mysterious illness that had plagued the city for months. He warned Dr. Cartwright to be wary of the illness and to be vigilant in his work as a pathologist lest it consume him too.
With that, the corpse vanished into thin air leaving Dr. Cartwright standing alone in the cemetery. He quickly made his way back home, shaken by his experience and determined to uncover the truth behind the mysterious illness.
Little did he know that his investigation would lead him on a journey into the darkest depths of human suffering and despair, a journey from which he would never return…