Alicia should never have told her friends that her dad was a mortician.

She should have never bragged about seeing dead bodies, and she definitely should never have said she could swipe her fathers keys.

If she hadn’t done those things, Alicia would not have found herself in this predicament, her morality teetering towards the breaking point. She would not be holding four hairs from a dead man’s head.

“I don’t like this game very much.”

Alicia was inclined to agree with the boy who had spoken, but it seemed she was in too deep now. The day was already full of regrets, what’s the trouble in one more.

“Don’t be a baby Shawn,” she hissed at him, “it’s your turn.”

Shawn glanced at her, a hurt look in his eye, then turned to face the corpse in front of them. He looked slightly green in the dim lighting. Slowly, he scanned the body, trying to find an easy target.

He lifted up one of the hands. Turning away, he ripped off one of the fingernails like it was a bandaid, letting out a choke of disgust.

The rest of the group cheered him on before quickly hushing each other. Their faces wide eyed and flushed, as they grinned at each other mischievously.

Alicia was starting to feel a bit sick too. The game had gone on too far, but she could tell by looking at the faces around her, nobody was stopping any time soon. Already the group had amassed various parts of the body- hairs, lashes, skin flakes, scabs, stitches. A finger nail. Each participant trying to outdo the person before them. Alicia wondered how far they would take it. How far she would let them take it.

And now it was her turn once again. She knew what she had to do in order to finish the game. Slowly, she picked up the scalpel that lay on a nearby tray. She approached the corpse, careful to not look too closely, eager to further strip the humanity from it.

Taking a deep breath, Alicia plunged the scalpel downwards. If she retrieved the heart, she knew she would win and this gruesome night would be over.

As the knife sunk deeper, she was glad to hear the response from her entourage. There were a couple of gasps, a small shriek, and the sound of wrenching- most likely from Shawn. Her hand sunk deeper into the chest cavity and she dug around for her prize.

The group quickly dispersed, and Alicia found herself slightly disappointed that nobody was there to witness her pulling out the heart. Clearly the game was over, but who would crown her the winner?

Deciding that the aftermath would be an issue for tomorrow, Alicia turned tail and headed back home. Her parents rushed to her side as she entered the house, faces drawn in frantic worry, fretting about the blood that covered her.

“Don’t worry,” Alicia said, “it’s not mine.”