Alexandra, Lexi for short, was working late one night in her morgue when a body came in. Exhausted, she checked the body in and wheeled it to the freezer figuring she would get to it in a little bit, and also figuring that she needed to hire an assistant or at least a receptionist. She was placing the body in the freezer when something hit the floor. Puzzled, she looked around and found a flash drive. Without giving it another thought she put the drive in her pocket and closed the freezer door. Being as it was late and she was tired, she shut everything down and made her way into her secret private room in the very back. She didn’t quite know why this room was built into the building, but seeing how she was a single female in a fairly bad part of town, she didn’t mind having a secret room that was easily overlooked. Plus it saved her from having to rent an apartment and that was more money in her pocket; a win-win for her. Not that she was terribly worried about people breaking into a morgue, because who would do that? Turing in for the night, she had just put her head on her pillow when she heard a crack from outside. Then came another one, followed by a crash then glass hitting the ground. So much for her theory about people not wanting to break into a morgue. She called the police once she knew for sure there were people inside her building. Within a matter of minutes the sirens from the police cars could be heard and then the sound of running. Taking her chances she slowly opened the door from where she was staying and peaked out into her office. She didn’t see anyone so before the cops came in she snuck out into her office and into her private bathroom. It would be easier to explain to the officers that she was hiding in the restroom instead of letting the world know she had a secret room. When she came out and got a full look at her place she was kind of impressed. They weren’t there for long but whoever it was had done a considerable amount of damage. She had answered all of the officer’s questions about the break-in and told him the only other person that had been there that night was the delivery guy dropping off a body and the guy in the freezer. As the cops were finishing up they informed her that there was going to be a car left behind to keep an eye on the place in case those who weren’t caught try to come back.
Leaving them to do their thing she went to her office and retrieved the drive from her pocket. This must have been what they were after, she thought to herself, whoever they were and whatever this is. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, and one of the reasons she didn’t tell the police about it, she plugged the flash drive into her computer. “How many times does something like this happen to a person? Damn straight I’m going to take advantage of it,” she started thinking out loud. The window for the flash drive came up on the screen with one folder in it. She double clicked it and it opened. “Lucky for me it wasn’t password protected,” she laughed to herself. Opening each document offered up photos and writings, highly detailed stuff that was way over her head. Then she got to one that had a picture of a blueprint with a post-it-note. The note gave an address and had six words: in the wall behind ugly painting. The last item in the folder was a video. Without much hesitation she opened the video and began to watch.
“I am here to show you what I have accomplished,” an older man said in the beginning of the video. “With this technology we will be able to change the world. Let me demonstrate.” With that he walked over to a man sitting in a chair and placed a mask over the man’s face. The older man pushed a few buttons and the mask lit up. After a moment, the lights died down and the man removed the mask from his subject’s face. Alexandra let out a huge gasp and fell back into her chair. The man’s face was gone!
“As you can see,” the man in the video continued, “I have removed this man’s face.”
“No shit,” Alexandra said out loud.
“But do not worry as he can still breath and see; however, eating and talking are not an option. Like all of the king’s horses and men, I will now put him back together again… only successfully.” There was a weak chuckle from the man.
Wouldn’t want to be the guy in the chair after that mishap, Alexandra thought as she watched the next few minutes unfold, holding her breath, not thinking that it would work and not believing what she had seen. When the lights in the mask faded down the man’s face had returned and appeared he had full functionality.
“Ah ha ha ha!” the man laughed and cheered. “I did it! Not only did I remove your face, but then I gave it back to you.” The man in the chair looked a little uneasy, which was understandable, but after a moment gave a sly smile and began to celebrate with the doctor.
“If this was a movie I would say the guy in the chair has something else planned for that tech,” Alexandra said to herself. The video faded to black and she was about to close it when the doctor appeared again.
“Whoever finds this, you need to help me. I chose the wrong person to back my work and now they are after it and after me.” Then there was blackness and the video ended.
“I guess I’ll go take a look at the body,” she said to no one. “I should find out if it was foul play or not.” Since she was awake anyway and wasn’t about to go to sleep after what she had seen and been through, she started brewing a pot of coffee and began setting up for the autopsy she was about to perform. Hours went by and she finally completed the autopsy. “My findings,” she said into her recorder, “are that this man died of a heart attack and that there were no external forces at work.” Relieved that being killed wasn’t the reason he passed away calmed her nerves a little. While getting cleaned up her mind kept going back to the mask and what it was able to do. Man, what could I do with something like that? She kept thinking of that over and over as she went about her day. Stepping outside to get some air, she witnessed a couple walking by her. The man was fairly large, a little rough around the edges, but not a bad looking guy, although he had what appeared to be a permanent scowl on his face. The woman, however, appeared to be walking reluctantly beside him, her face hidden behind a scarf. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she is scared to be with that guy, Lexi thought to herself. Then it dawned on her what she could do with that mask from the video. I could help those who are too afraid to help themselves. I could help them hide and get away from the life they are in now.
With that she rushed inside to her phone and dialed the one person in the world she knew would help her, no questions asked.
“Hello?” a voice on the other end said.
“Shade, I need your help. Are you in?” Alexandra said.
“Lexi, you know I am,” Shade responded.
“Good. Get over here quickly. We’re going to change the world,” Lexi said with a huge smile on her face.
Shade arrived about 20 minutes later and rushed in.
“Holy hell, what happened here?” Shade said.
“Shhh…” said Lexi with a glare, “I don’t want to wake the whole neighborhood. It’s a long-ish story but it won’t take much time to tell. Do you want to hear it?” Shade nodded. “Well, this evening there was a body that was brought in and, figuring how I was tired and all, I went to place him in the freezer. Well, while I was doing that this flash drive fell out and onto the floor.” Shade’s eyes widened as she listened. “So I picked it up and put it into my pocket, not thinking anything of it, and wrapped up with everything and then headed to bed. Once I put my head down on the pillow I heard someone trying to get in and then the window was smashed in and there were people roaming around in here in the dark.”
“Oh man…are you alright?” Shade asked.
“Yes, I am fine, but during their time in here I called the police, and then they showed up and the other people ran away. So I figured that everything might be because of the guy in the freezer. Realizing I still had the flash drive in my pocket I took it out and…” Lexi was cut off.
“NO! No, no, no, noooooooo… Don’t tell me you gave it to the cops. How stupid could yo….” Shade trailed off because during the little rant Lexi pulled out the drive and stuck it in Shade’s face.
“No, I most certainly did not give it to them. I put it in my computer to see what was on it,” Lexi said matter-of-factly.
“AND?!” Shade said. “Com’on, if I were sitting I would be on the edge of my seat. What is on it?” Lexi motioned for Shade to follow her to her office and patted the chair in front of the computer. Lexi put the drive in, opened the video file, and hit play. For the next few minutes she watched Shade’s face wondering if she herself had made the same expressions the first time she watched it.
“That’s amazing,” Shade said when it was over, “but now what?”
“I am glad you asked,” Lexi said as she opened the picture of the blueprint and post-it-note. “Take a look.”
Shade’s mouth dropped as she studied every inch of the picture. “Do you think that the mask thing is there?” Shade asked.
“Do you?” Lexi asked in return.
“Yes,” Shade responded.
“Me, too,” Lexi blurted out before anything could be said. “Do you want to go see if it’s there?”
“Uh-huh,” Shade muttered with a huge smile on her face.
“Great. Let’s go!” Lexi said as she dragged Shade out of the office and into the early morning air.
“The first time I saw Shade she had burst into my morgue in a panic and frantically asked me for a place to hide. I didn’t know her at all, but the fear and kindness I saw in her eyes told me I could take a chance on trusting her. I led her to the back and placed her in my secret room. No sooner had I sealed it shut, a large man burst through my front doors. I walked out of my office calmly and was headed towards the man who was now occupying my main hallway. He demanded to know where she was and that I let him go get her. I assured him that I was the only one there but if it would get him out of my morgue then I would take him back to my office. He agreed and together we walked to my office where he looked around, snorted, glared at me, and then left. After I was sure he was gone I went back to my office and informed the scared girl that a man had come and gone. She welled up with tears and gave me the biggest hug, whispered thank you, and then left.
It would be months until I saw her again, but the problems that led her back to me would still revolve around that man. The next time I saw Shade she was covered in blood and had a crazed look in her eyes. Please help me, she begged through tears, I didn’t know where else to go. I took her in and got her cleaned up, burned all of her cloths, and gave her some of mine. I made some coffee and the two of us sat around talking like we were the best of friends. I found out that she had started taking self-defense classes of all sorts since we last met and that she had always been on the wrong side of the law, mostly B&E and a few other less notable things. She told me the guy she was running from was a stalker. He had convinced everyone that they were a couple. Since he was an upstanding citizen and she was an outcast with a criminal record, they believed his story over hers.
The day I helped her get away she was able to avoid him for months, but she was always looking over her shoulder. Then two days ago she saw him again and their cat-and-mouse chase picked up again, only this time she was able to stand her ground. Over the next two days he got closer and closer to her. She wasn’t able to go home or really get any kind of rest. Then today he approached me in an alley and that’s when I started fighting back. She threw the first punch and then he swung back making contact with the side of her face, knocking her to the ground. The next thing she knew he was on top of her talking and grabbing at her face. In a panic she started reaching around and felt something cold and metal. Before he could start doing anymore damage to her she swung the object as hard as she could at his head hoping against hope that it was sturdy enough to stop him. It ended up being a crowbar and it worked quite well again and again. With a little help from me there was no evidence that Shade was ever involved and the two of us became the best of friends and have been ever since.”
At this point the player will have made it to the house and will need to find a stealthy way inside. Once inside the player will search the rooms until the ugly painting is found. The player will then examine the painting, which will trigger a cutscene.
“There’s a safe here!” Lexi exclaimed upon removing the painting from the wall.
“Uh yeah, there usually is,” responded Shade.
“Well now what?” Lexi said, defeated.
“Now we open the safe,” Shade said removing her bag and bringing out a bunch of tools.
Lexi just sat back and watched, totally mesmerized as Shade worked on opening the safe, or at least appearing to know what she was doing. As the time passed by Lexi became bored and found a comfortable chair and eventually dozed off. She was awakened by Shade nudging her arm.
“I did it,” Shade said. Lexi noticed a hint of surprise in her tone.
“Have you looked inside?” Lexi asked.
“Nope, we are going to look inside together,” Shade said proudly.
They walked up to the slightly open safe and opened it all the way. Lexi was a little disappointed that there wasn’t any victory music or shimmering lights as they revealed their trophy. The safe contained what would otherwise have appeared to be items of little interest to them: stacks of papers and a box. Unsure of what it all was they decided to take everything.
Shade was all ready to go when Lexi said, “Wait, we should get his computer or something, shouldn’t we?”
“Yeah, but let’s hurry. We’ve been here way too long,” Shade said, slightly panicked. As they roamed around the house they didn’t see a laptop but they did find the office with a huge desktop. “There is no way we can carry that back without attracting attention,” Shade said.
“I know,” Lexi said, a little bummed out. “Let’s at least hide it in case those other people come here.”
“Fine,” said Shade exasperated, “but take a picture of the back of it first so if we are able to come back we can hook it up again.”
“Good idea,” Lexi said pleased with Shade. “I knew there was a reason I brought you along.”
“Can it, smart ass, and just get it done,” Shade said. Lexi took a photo of the computer’s power cord configuration, unhooked everything, and found a remote location in the house to hide the tower.
“Okay, let’s go,” Lexi said. Soon after, they were out of the house and on the way back to the morgue.
Back at the morgue Lexi and Shade unpacked the box and all the paperwork and began going through it. “What are we looking for?” Shade asked.
“Instructions,” remarked Lexi.
“Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?” snarked Shade. “Here what about these?”
“I do believe you have found them, my dear Watson,” said Lexi.
“Why am I Watson? If anything I should be Sherlock,” snapped Shade.
“You? I have the brains and the looks. If anyone’s Sherlock it’s me.” Lexi stuck her tongue out at Shade and Shade responded by punching Lexi on the arm, hard. Rubbing her arm, Lexi looked over the instructions and compared them with the mask.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” replied Shade, “Okay what?”
“Okay, I think I understand how this works. Let’s try it out and see… Ummm, why don’t you go sit over there and I’ll put this on you.”
Shade cut in, “You are crazy if you think I’m going to let you put that on me first. Why don’t you go sit down and –”
“Me?” replied Lexi. “Not me.”
“Well, then who?” asked Shade. They both looked around in thought. Suddenly it dawned on them at the same time.
“THE GUY IN THE FREEZER!!!”
“But should we?” asked Shade.
“Why not? It’s his invention. I’m sure he would be honored to be our test subject,” Lexi said nobly.
“You have a weird way of finding loopholes in morality,” Shade said.
“You’re just jealous,” Lexi replied.
“Of what?” Shade asked.
“Me, of course,” and with that, Lexi opened the freezer and pulled out the dead guy’s table. “So here we go. Just going to put the mask on like this and push this button first, and then this one, and then I think it is this one.”
“YOU THINK?!” Shade yelled.
“Yes, I think. Anyway, it’s too late now. I guess we will just have to wait and see if it worked.” A few minutes passed and the light from the mask faded down. Lexi and Shade looked at one other in anticipation. “Ready?” asked Lexi.
“No,” replied Shade.
“Good, here we go. On three… One… Two… Three.” Lexi pulled the mask up and the dead man’s face was gone. “We did it!” exclaimed Lexi. Shade just looked at the man with no face, now puzzled by how it worked and shocked that it actually did. Lexi walked over to Shade and lowered her hands. “How exciting is this?” Lexi said. Just then, they heard the sound of a wet splat on the floor. Lexi and Shade looked down and jumped back with a gasp.
The man’s face was on the floor.
“I’m not sure that was suppose to happen,” Shade said as she and Lexi both leaned in to get a look at the oddity on the floor in front of them. The eye and mouth jumped open. Lexi and Shade jumped back, screaming, pushing themselves as far away from the face as they could. When they couldn’t go any further they both started laughing uncontrollably for the next few minutes.
“Well, that is something you don’t see everyday,” Shade said. “I think I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life now.”
“I feel like there’s a good pun here that I’m missing. Oh well, I’m sure it’ll come to me in a few days or so,” Lexi said. “Um, I guess we now try to remove the face from the floor.”
“Sounds good to me,” Shade said. “I’ll go get the mop.”
“Funny. But we need to put it back on that guy before his autopsy tomorrow.” Lexi said.
“Great. Nothing like a deadline when have no idea what you’re doing,” Shade said.
“Well, first things first: put the mask on the face on the floor and suck it up,” Lexi said.
“Suck it up?” Shade asked.
“Well, I figured it worked like a vacuum. You know, suck the face up and blow it on,” Lexi said with a straight face. Shade was nearly rolling on the floor from how hard she was laughing at that point. Lexi was confused and tried replaying what she said in her mind until she reached what she figured Shade was laughing about. “Oh grow up and help me suck face.” That comment made Shade laugh even harder. “I can see you are going to be tons of help right now.”
With that Lexi placed the mask over the face, pushed the buttons, and hoped for the best. When the lights went off she picked up the mask and the face was gone from the floor. Walking back to the table with the frozen guy, and stepping over her incapacitated howling partner along the way, she placed the mask on the dead guy, glanced at the instructions, and pressed the corresponding buttons. Shade calmed down and was able to stand up. She made her way over to the table with Lexi just as she was removing the mask. Shade looked down at the dead guy and immediately fell down laughing again. Lexi, who was watching Shade, moved her eyes over to the dead guy and started laughing as well.
“Well that certainly isn’t right,” Lexi said as she looked at the man who now had a mouth on his forehead and eyes on his chin. “This is going to take some time to get used to.” An hour passed and between all of the laughing and mishaps they finally got the man’s face somewhat back in the correct-ish place. “It’s close enough,” Lexi said. “I can’t deal with this or your laughing anymore. During my autopsy tomorrow I’ll just say it’s botched plastic surgery and leave it at that. Now, off my floor and out of my morgue. I need sleep.”
“I’ll come by after the autopsy tomorrow,” Shade said as she left.
Lexi put the body back in the freezer, washed up and got into her bed in her secret room. She closed her eyes and was preparing to drift off to sleep when her alarm went off. “Of course it would be time to get up.” She got up, put on coffee, took a shower, and began the autopsy for the police who would be by later that morning.
—
Lexi had just finished the autopsy when the police arrived and began asking her the standard questions about what happened. She could tell they were trying hard not to look at the guys face, and that made her chuckle a little. She informed them that it was a heart attack and that there was no evidence of foul play involved. One of the officers then asked her if she was able to identify the man. This threw her off as this was not normally part of the questioning. She had no idea, and the thought crossed her mind that if they didn’t know, maybe no one else knew. It’s quite possible the guys who broke in the night before didn’t know what the man looked like, but knew a name and that’s why so much of her office was in shambles. They needed proof that wasn’t there, at least not at the time. The police officers then tried to get the man’s fingerprints, but when they ran his fingers over the paper it was just a smudge.
“What’s the deal?” one of the officers asked her. She looked closely at the man’s hand and was shocked at what she discovered.
“His fingerprints have been removed,” She told them.
“What? That can’t be,” the officer said as he picked up a hand and examined it.
“But it is, and it appears he’s been doing it for a very long time. His fingers are all calloused and scared. I will try a dental match but that will take some time; however, if someone has gone through the process of removing his fingerprints, then chances are the dental records aren’t going to be there either. You might just have to wait to see if someone reports him missing.”
“I guess you’re right,” the officer said. “Since it isn’t a murder, there really isn’t a rush. Can you keep him here a while longer?”
“Sure,” Lexi said, “but how long is a while?”
“A week, two at most, but if three comes around that means we have probably forgotten about the body and you can dispose of it,” the man said with a straight face.
“No problem,” Lexi said as she followed the group of police officers out of the morgue. “No problem at all.”