He glided his fingers over the stone-cold body, a small giggle escaping his throat's clutches as he gazed upon his silent quarry. The corpse was perfect, its skin barely graying in the moonlight falling from his lab's window, its virgin insides ready for the taking. He would have to work fast. The sun was nearly up and he had class to teach in the morning.
Oh, Stein. You're so adorable when you're like this.
Stein started and nearly dropped his scalpel as he turned to face the figment of his imagination. They were becoming so real these days. The hallucination glided towards him, supplying him with what he wanted to hear with lascivious, lustful language. For a moment, Stein allowed himself to be taken by the madness, shivering and snickering in the darkness as the hallucination slid its fingers over his face. It was riveting. It was ravishing. It was-
"Enough!" Stein swung his arm outwards, dispelling the image with one definitive swipe. It was too early to give in. New enemies were running loose and it was up to him to train his students to be the best that they could be. Losing it now would only be a disservice to his students and a desertion of what little morality he had managed to construct within him. Despite what Medusa thought, he was far from totally lost. At least he wanted to believe so.
Sighing, Stein slid a sheet over the corpse and shambled away from the dissection table, defeated by his mind's illusions. He might as well get ready for the day ahead, especially if the hallucination was likely to return while he was dissecting a perfect brain. He didn't need to ruin his plaything and he didn't need to worry his housemate. She would never understand his passion for the unmoving body.
Stein felt his body tremble as another spasm shook him. For a moment, Medusa was there, laughing at his weakness and plunging her fingers into the stomach of his experimental subject. For a moment, he was with her, gripping intestines and pulling them from their cavity of flesh and bone, rending the fresh-
And then he was back at the doorway, his hands trembling and his face covered in sweat.
Fearing he would find a decimated body, Stein turned slowly towards the dissection table. The body was still there, covered neatly in pristine white cloth. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"Too early…" muttered Stein as he exited the room, the sun slowly rising in the window. "Much too early…"
