LJ Idol - 3 Strikes - Surgery often looks like murder if you judge it halfway through

[ofearthandstars]

The below is an entry for Week 11 of therealljidol.

Sam jolted awake, greeted by a searing bright light. He tried to close his eyes, eager to shut it out and return to sleep, but his eyelids felt weighted, edged with cement, and refused to comply. Instinctively he tried to turn his head, willing the muscles of his neck to drag his skull to the right, away from the burning light. Nothing.

His head and limbs were heavy, as if gravity had come for him and him alone. Everything felt thick, his own thoughts moving at a swamp-like pace. The room around him was gray and dull, its edges washed out by the halo of light. Sam wondered briefly if he were dead, but he was aware of the cold steel of the table beneath him, and he could not recall any discussion of tables in the afterlife. He could hear an enormous clatter to one side, and underneath, the sound of distant voices, murmurings that his brain struggled to make clear.

As the fog in his head lifted, he realized he was naked. This seemed…irresponsible. Once again he willed his head to lift, eager to move his body off the table and find a decent covering. Nothing. His only view was the scorching light and downwards, toward his feet, which he could not see for the fullness of his own belly.

He couldn’t remember how he got here. Sam wondered whether there had been an accident, or a kidnapping. He tried to think back through his memories, but couldn’t recall anything before he woke. The clattering grew louder. A figure appeared at his side, a shadow blessedly blocking a portion of the light.

“You’re going to be okay, Sam,” the voice said. It sounded impossibly cheerful and optimistic, given his present state.

Sam tried to focus his burning eyes. The shadowy creature turned into a young girl, wearing an overly large medical coat, a brightly colored stethoscope, and a pair of googles on her head. Her hair fell in long, pale blonde ringlets that escaped her ponytail and framed a pair of rosy, cherubic cheeks. Her coat pocket underlined a name: Dr. Sally Little.

Hello, Doctor Little, Sam thought in his head, but his mouth refused to move. He remembered with horror the state of his exposure, and prayed that his most embarrassing bits were hidden.

“It’s okay, Sam,” Dr. Little said, patting the side of his arm. “My assistant and I – “ she paused, flipping her palm with a flair and jutting it to the side, “Dr. Timothy Young, will be helping you today.” She smiled down at him as she nudged towards her assistant, and Sam noticed that her smile was missing a few teeth. Sam’s brain struggled – was he dreaming? – Dr. Little couldn’t have been more than six or seven.

Sam tried to focus on Dr. Young, who stood only a little taller than Dr. Little, and who was sticking out his tongue in a very distracting way. Dr. Young had a head of dark brown hair that stuck out in all directions. He was also wearing an oversized lab coat and a pair of goggles, and kept rubbing his hands together with a great flourish.

“Let’s do it!” Dr. Young exclaimed, his arms opening wide, and Sam thought he might knock the table over with his energy.

Dr. Little smiled harder, her face almost a grimace, before she squealed and clapped her hands, jumping up and down. “Yesssss, let’s!”

The doctors turned away, momentarily distracted by what sounded like a rustle of paperwork.

Sam tried to ask what was happening, but his mouth was still frozen. He was beginning to worry. He was increasingly aware of the feeling of electricity moving through his body, as if all his nerves were suddenly newly alive. His throat felt large and swollen, and his chest, abdomen, and extremities burned as if on fire. Maybe this is a panic attack. It seemed like a good time to panic.

“You first, Dr. Little!” Dr. Young exclaimed, handing a large scalpel and tweezers to his mentor. Sam noticed a shiny wet dab of mucus at the base of Dr. Young’s nostril, and fretted briefly on their lack of masks and gloves, before remembering that this may be the least of his problems.

Waiiiittt! Sam screamed in his head. Stop! I shouldn’t be awake for this! Instead of words or sound, he found himself staring, unblinking, into the light.

Dr. Little hummed “Row Your Boat” a little off-key as she hunched her small body over the table, tools in hand. Sam felt a searing hot pain in his belly and wanted to scream and jerk away, but he remained paralyzed. He focused on the scorching bright light above as he felt the girl digging into his innards, merrily merrily merrily poking and digging aggressively with her instruments. The room filled with the smell of blood, hot and metallic.

Dr. Young was leaning against the table, bouncing up and down at his feet.

Sam felt the terror and agony start to consume him. Stop! Oh god, please stop! I’m awake! Stop! He screamed in his mind, but neither Drs. Little nor Young seemed to notice anything, not even the terror in his unshielded eyes.

“I got it!” Dr. Little exclaimed, ripping through Sam’s flesh with a pair of tweezers as she shot up in excitement. Sam’s world exploded in hot red pain, his entire body buzzing and on fire. He could feel the void in his gut and he thought he might vomit. Still, he could not look away. Dr. Little giggled, swinging her tweezers and a fluttering chunk of viscera to the side.

“My turn!” Dr. Young called, snatching her tools and leaning across to peer inside Sam’s torn torso like a hungry hawk.

Sam felt tears forming in his eyes as the boy launched into his ribcage, stabbing haphazardly at his insides. Once again Sam’s body lit up like a firecracker, every nerve consumed by an electric jolt of pain.

“You have a spare rib!” Dr. Young chortled, yanking and tugging at Sam’s innards, oblivious to his patient’s plight.

Sam had never been religious, but he pleaded with the heavens as he stared into the light. His entire being was burning. He watched with horror as Dr. Young pulled a rib – his rib ­– from the dark cavity, soaked with blood. Sparks flew in front of Sam’s eyes. The boy laughed, a dark perversity settling over his features.

“Time! to! fix! his! bro!-ken! heart!” Dr. Little yelled, punctuating each word with a clap of her small hands. She put the stethoscope to his chest and waved her hand to shush the room, then paused to listen.

Sam lay open on the table, delirious with pain. He thought for sure she could see he was being tortured. But Dr. Little continued, her chubby fingers grasping at her knives as she dove underneath his breastbone. He felt her clamp down on his heart, pain shooting through him in a way he’d never experienced. Somewhere in the back of his disoriented brain he wryly considered whether this qualified as a “heart attack.”

Dr. Little’s instruments struck something. His body once again jerked and filled with heat, as if a thousand fire ants were rapidly chewing him apart. The girl continued to tug and pull at Sam’s torn heart, which repeatedly squelched and slipped from her grasp. She bit her tongue with frustration.

“Ugh, you try!” She thrust the shiny tool at Dr. Young, disgusted.

The boy grabbed the tool and lunged towards him, digging through bone and flesh. Sparks flew across the table, Sam’s entire world becoming a series of painful lights. Dr. Young tugged and squeezed inside Sam’s chest, clawing at the tattered heart.

Surely I should be dead by now, Sam thought.

“Ugh, this is stupid!” Dr. Young finally yelled, throwing down his instruments and backing away from the table.

“Yeah, it’s kind of boring,” Dr. Little said, her blonde curls bouncing as she flapped the lapels of her white coat with her hands. “Let’s put him away.”

Sam’s unblinking eyes looked down at the horror of his open body, a jagged collection of holes and bloody pulp. He was unsure of how he was still conscious.

Dr. Little roughly shook the table where he lay before lifting a stiff sheet – was that cardboard? – over Sam’s head, finally blocking out the cursed light in full. As the cardboard fell around him like a closing casket, he could hear the doctors’ voices still outside, slightly muffled.

“Let’s go find another game,” Dr. Little said.

“How about some snacks instead?” Dr. Young suggested.

“Ooooh, yeah, snacks it is!” Dr. Little agreed, giggling. There was the brief sound of laughter and running feet.

The room grew silent, and Sam cried into the newfound darkness.

--------

Hat tip to the game of Operation for inspiration.

Comments

[adoptedwriter]

Haha! This was cute! I liked how it evolved from some sort of dark, macabre old legend into just a kids' game! LOL I remember "Sam's" image! LOL. I think they drew a towel over his lap. LOL

[ofearthandstars]

:D Thank you! In writing this I went on a little bit of an explore of how the game has changed over the years. The version I had, there was no towel, but his belly was big enough to cover everything! In some he is wearing boxers. I always thought it was disturbing, and that his eyes were open!

[drippedonpaper]

Very creative! Reminded me how, as a child, I was fascinated by books about dolls who really were alive. I tried to be very kind to mine, and would study them carefully after I returned to my room, trying to see if they had moved at all while I was gone.

So many childrens' games can seem very bizarre if someone thinks deeply about it :)

[ofearthandstars]

I think when I was very little (up until 6 or 7), I treated stuffed animals and dolls pretty carefully. Not so much after I got a bit older (I had an older sister who tied Barbies to the blades of our ceiling fans....:P).

This game I think was meant to inspire kids to think about being doctors, but it was definitely very weird!

[roina_arwen]

It took me until about halfway through to see where this was heading - it was very fun, with great descriptions!

Poor Sam. I think he had a red light for a nose? But including that would have been a dead giveaway, lol! Very creative!

[ofearthandstars]

Thanks! And yes, he had a red light for a nose. I did slide around that one, I confess, as I think most of the "angry" parts of his body would be at his various surgery sites. And he buzzed very loudly (I hated it as a kid), and sometimes sparks flew between the tweezers and the gameboard. I don't know if it's quite the same today!

[erulissedances]

A fun foray into days of my own childhood.

- Erulisse (one L)

[ofearthandstars]

I wondered while writing how universal this game might be to the audience and whether it would go over well - I'm glad that it's relatable to at least a few folks!

[erulissedances]

You would really have to know the old game to relate in all aspects of it, but before you realize the game, it has all the hallmarks of a great horror story.

- Erulisse (one L)

[bleodswean]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I started to suspect about 2/3rds of the way in. The opening was chilling and eeeeeee! Fun!

[ofearthandstars]

:D Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed!

[banana_galaxy]

It took me a bit, but I did reach the point of picturing the kids playing Operation. I liked that you named them "Young" and "Little" as a reference to them being children. This kinda feels Toy Story-esque, but without the game realising he's a game the way the characters in Toy Story know they're toys.

[ofearthandstars]

I am glad that my name choices did not go unnoticed! And I can see the Toy Story reference, though I did want to explore a little with the horror aspect of it, which is probably not very Pixar friendly. :D

[banana_galaxy]

R rated Toy Story ;) It definitely had more horror vibes!

[dsrmousey]

Uhm... That was one of my fears having the heart surgery. They do give you a paralytic, but God forbid they forgot the analgesics. Scary read for me! Peace~~~Desiree

[ofearthandstars]

I've only had major, knock-me-out surgery once, and I do think this was one of my biggest fears!

[dadi]

This is funny :)

[ofearthandstars]

Glad you found it so! :)

[hwango]

Truly a nightmarish existence! It will be a merciful release when the batteries finally die...or get borrowed for electronic battleship so they can rack up an even bigger body count.

[ofearthandstars]

Indeed! I believe that Drs. Little and Young would enjoy Battleship far too much!

[marlawentmad]

This is downright macabre! I am so delighted. I love how hard you lean into the horror aspects of such a wholesome and mundane scene. It made the horror all the more poignant as you pulled back the curtain on the children playing Operation. Very cleverly done! The names are cute, the descriptions of the kids are a great contrast to the details of the experience of the patient. This was great fun!

[ofearthandstars]

I'm so glad you enjoyed! Thank you for the very sweet feedback. I don't usually lean in to horror at all and so was a bit nervous with it, but I figured gameboard/toy horror probably allows for some flexibility/humor within the genre. :)

[mollywheezy]

This was great! I caught on about half-way through. Poor Sam, but LOL! I loved Operation as a kid. I actually took it with me on a vacation once and the tweezers fell onto the metal part in our luggage, so my dad was carrying a buzzing suitcase through the Phoenix airport. We got a lot of strange looks . . . ;)

I'm sorry you had a bad week and glad you were able to write this entertaining piece in spite of it! :)

[ofearthandstars]

I'm so glad you found it entertaining! I am cackling at the thought of your dad going through the airport with the game buzzing constantly (though this would be misery from Sam's perspective)! I can't imagine what ruckus that would cause with TSA today.

[alycewilson]

I never liked that game. Now I know why. ;)