Jeff Green concealed himself in the alleyway, nervously glancing from side to side. A mini-cooler was in his hand. He tried to play it cool, but he knew that if a cop came, he would have no explanation for why he was out here. Even if he told the truth…well, as they say, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
Jeff soon was lost in thought. He looked at the dreary Boston sky and reassured himself that he had done the right thing. But no matter how much he attempted to convince himself, there was this guilt that would not go away. The eyes of the child still followed him when he closed his own eyes.
But he had to fix himself. For his team. For his family.
“Good evening, Jeff,” said a voice from behind him.
“Aaaah!” Jeff yelped, turning around, thinking blindly that maybe he could punch out whoever was behind him and make a run for it. “Oh, it’s you, Courtney. I thought we just got busted for sure.”
“You gotta be more watchful man. If I was the FBI or something, you’d probably be dead right now. Anyway, you got the stuff?”
Jeff held up the mini-cooler. “Got it.”
“Okay, let’s roll. And Jeff?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re doing the right thing.” Courtney then slipped the blindfold over Jeff’s eyes.
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Jeff lay on the table nervously, a bright lamp shining on his torso. He didn’t know where he was, but that was, of course, part of the plan. From the decor of the room, he figured that this was an abandoned industrial facility of some kind. The beams on the ceiling and the discarded machinery on the floor really lent it a horror-movie-esque vibe. He laughed to himself at that thought; what they were about to do was a lot scarier than your average horror movie.
“I’m curious man. How did the acquisition go?” Courtney asked, slipping on a pair of latex gloves.
Jeff shuddered as much as his restraints would allow. “His kid was there. I didn’t expect that part. But I did what I had to do. I’m guessing that the police are just arriving there now.”
Cringing, Courtney responded, “Dang, that’s rough. So the kid watched the whole time?”
“Actually, I locked her the bathroom. But she definitely heard it.”
The cringe on Courtney’s face intensified. “Okay. Enough on that. The ice is gonna keep it in game shape for a while, but we should do the transplant soon.” He opened up the mini-cooler and pulled out a pale, bloody, human heart. With surprise, he said, “Wow, Jeff. No damage at all. I’m impressed.”
Jeff waved it off. “The only thing I care about is that this new one doesn’t have an aortic aneurysm like mine does.”
Courtney laughed. “Yeah, considering that’s the whole reason we’re trying to pull off an unanesthetized surgery in a decrepit warehouse.” He grabbed his scalpel and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. “Ready, Jeff?”
Jeff nodded. “Be careful man. I trust you.”
The scalpel pierced skin, and the first of many screams that night reverberated through the empty space.