Nocticadia

by Keri Lake

I found what I was looking for in the prefrontal cortex–a pocket contained within a clear membranous sac wherein the purest toxin, aside from what could’ve been harvested from the liver about a week prior, remained perfectly encased. With a needle tip, I pipetted the fluid from inside and deposited it into a prepared test tube. I held up the bright purple fluid with its black marbled threads to the light. Might’ve been entirely too late to utilize anything, as she’d been dead for quite some time. Although I’d have gotten the best results within minutes of death, it was still worth hanging onto the sample. Perhaps whatever hell the woman had suffered in life, with her illness, might one day offer a sliver of promise in her death.