The coroner waited for his next 'patient'. He sipped on a hot cup of coffee as they unloaded the corpse from the ambulance. " Poor bloke... he's frozen stiff," one of the men said, shaking his head. The coroner did some calculations in his head, trying to figure out how long before he could perform a proper autopsy. Unfortunately, the dead during this time of year sometimes came in slightly frozen.
" The found him on the bank of the Thames, didn't they?" The coroner asked, waiting to write down the information. The talkative nurse nodded. "Wait until you see what he's wearing... bit of an eccent..." The coroner gave the nurse an ugly look and his words trailed off. " The man is dead, what does it matter now?"
"Honestly, you do this every time you bring in some unfortunate soul in to my office..."
No one spoke the rest of the trip down the hall. The two nurses knew the coroner took his job very seriously; he made sure the dead in his care were treated with dignity and respect. "Stop here just a moment, would you?" The grim procession halted in the hallway. The coroner pulled the sheet back in order to examine the dead man. Thankfully, his eyes were closed and his expression was fairly peaceful. The coroner was a bit surprised to find the man's garments to be odd; his clothes were very turn-of-the-century.
The coroner frowned. He placed a hand on the dead man's cheek, pressing slightly. The man's body did indeed seem to be frozen almost solid. "You may want to place him in my office for now, otherwise he won't thaw enough for me to take care of him" The talkative nurse stifled a guffaw. " Henry, I don't want to have to tell you again..." The coroner warned, pinching the bridge of his nose. The nurse grimaced, murmuring an apology.
The coroner took his time getting back to the frozen man, taking care of several other people before he deemed him thawed enough to examine. He worked with his assistant; prying the difficult wet clothing off the body and preparing it for it's final examination.
The coroner thought it a bit odd that the corpse didn't smell at all. Usually, even a frozen body had some sort of odor about it. He set the thought in the back of his mind for contemplation later.
"We have a white, Caucasian male, black hair..." He stopped dictating to his assistant to lift the dead man's eyelid. The coroner's brows knit together as he examined the dead man's eye. He let the eyelid go, sat still for a moment, and then lifted it again. " Eyes are... well, they look red..." The coroner's assistant walked over to take a look. " Funny, he doesn't look like an albino..."
The coroner examined the roots of the dead man's hair. It was a glossy black all the way to the scalp... certainly his natural color. The coroner shook his head. Everything about this case seemed more and more peculiar as his examination went on. On a whim, he pushed the dead mans lip up to expose his teeth. The coroner was a bit shocked to find the man with very prominent set of elongated canines.
He heard his assistant drop his clipboard. " He's a vampire!" His assistant squealed, plastering himself against the far wall. "Oh, don't be ridiculous..." The coroner said, not feeling entirely confident in his own statement, " These can't possibly be real..." He went to remove a canine, gripping it firmly on either side. He pulled. The tooth didn't move. The coroner pushed the man's lip back as far as he could, looking for signs of oral surgery.
What sounded like a death rattle began to emanate from the body being examined. The coroner; shocked by the noise, leaned in to see if it was indeed emanating from the body. He could feel a cold breath emanating form the body on his cheek. What could be causing this phenomenon?
"Ge ye hns ah ma mfh." The garbled sentence made the coroner jump away form the dead man. Like a scene from a horror movie, the man began to rise off the table with a terrible moan. " Blech, latex." He muttered, trying to get the taste of the coroner's gloves out of his mouth.
The coroner's assistant began to scream in high, piercing intervals. The coroner froze where he stood, shock making his body lock up. The man on the table turned his attention to the wailing coroner's assistant. " Shut up." The coroner's assistant ceased his wailing. The supposedly dead man turned his attention to the coroner.
"Where are my clothes?" The man on the autopsy table asked, looking embarrassed. " We had to remove them... so... we could examine you," The coroner felt as if the words were forced form his body, " We were able to remove your coat in one piece... but we had to cut the rest off of your body."
"Then fetch it for me."
Arthur sat in his office, desperately trying to focus on a seemingly endless list of numbers and forms before him. Sadly, he had other things on his mind and couldn't concentrate at all. The phone began to ring suddenly, making him jump. "Hello...?" He mumbled, still lost in his own thoughts. "Arthur? I need you to send someone to pick me up at the morgue..."
Upon recognizing the voice on the other end of the line, Arthur jumped out of his seat, neatly knocking it over. " Alucard! Holy, Hell, where did you disappear to?!?" The vampire on the other end was silent for a moment. " How many days has it been?" He asked.
" You've been gone nearly a week and a half! I was beginning to think you'd run off somewhere..." Arthur paused. "... Why are you at the morgue?"
Alucard hesitated again before answering. " ... I'll explain later."
Walter walked into the morgue, glancing around for assistance. He caught sight of a coroner standing by an office door, sipping on a cup of coffee. "Yes, hello, I'm looking for someone, have you seen...?" The coroner turned to Walter, white-faced, and pointed to the door. A little baffled, Walter followed the man's silent instructions and stepped inside the office.
Alucard sat hunched over in a chair, covered only in his greatcoat. "What on earth happened to you?" The vampire moaned, standing up. " Do we really have to talk about this now? I'd really like to finish thawing out and get a decent pair of pants back on."