"Back already?" Ryan snickered as Ricky returned, slamming the door behind him.

"Oh, shut your ass," Ricky panted, still a bit out of breath from how quickly he ran down the street. "I stayed there for almost an hour, and I explored the entire house, just like I figured you wanted me to."

"And what made you have to rush back here so quickly?" Ryan asked with a smirk. "You look like you saw a ghost or something."

"Yeah, or something is more like it," Ricky muttered.

"What do you mean?" Balz questioned. "What did you see?"

"Oh, nothing much, just a cut up corpse," Ricky scoffed.

"Oh, bullshit, Rick," Ryan laughed. "It was probably a spider or some shit like that, and you're just trying to freak us out with some stupid joke. Why don't you just tell us what really scared you?"

"I did," Ricky responded. "I saw a dead body in there, all cut up on a table. I found a key in the house and it unlocked some weird lab room. That's where the body was."

"Y-You can't be serious," Balz said, his eyes widening.

"If you want proof, I can bring you both down there right now and let you smell the scent of rotting human flesh," Ricky replied in a snarky tone.

"No thanks, I, uh, I'm good here," Balz responded quietly.

"But I'm not," Ryan said, standing up. "Alright Rick, why don't you give me this proof of the creepy shit in that house."

"Fine," Ricky agreed after a moment of thinking. "Follow me."

--------------------------------------------

"Okay, Rick, lead the way," Ryan chuckled as the two of them stood in front of the old abandoned house.

"My pleasure," Ricky scoffed, walking in front of his friend, stepping towards the house, letting Ryan follow behind him.

Ricky picked up the flashlight he had dropped on his way out of the house as he walked in, turning it on as he let the door shut behind the taller of the two. He gestured for Ryan to follow him up the stairs, so of course, he obliged to his friend's request, venturing up the stairs and down the hall behind him.

"You might want to, uh, cover your nose, or something," Ricky suggested to Ryan as they reached the end of the hallway. "Hold your breath, at least."

Ricky held his breath as his hand reached for the doorknob, preparing for the awful stench that would emerge from the room. He decided that if he was going to be coming back here again, he would need to find a way to mask the smell, at least partially.

Sure enough, as Ricky opened the door, the body was still laying there in pieces, on the table just feet in front of him and his friend. He slowly made his way towards it, Ryan cautiously following behind him, his fingers still pinching his nose.

"There's no way this is real," Ryan muttered as he approached the table, standing next to Ricky.

"Oh, believe me, it is," Ricky replied. "If it wasn't, would the room really smell this awful? I don't think fake flesh would smell this bad."

"Hey, this place has been abandoned for hundreds of years, Rick," Ryan pointed out. "Anything in this place could smell as bad as a dead body, we don't know."

"I doubt it," Ricky scoffed.

"Look, Rick, you're the only person that's been in this house in past ten years at least, probably even longer than that," Ryan told him. "For all I know, you could just be trying to pull some sort of shitty prank on me."

"I didn't do any of this," Ricky retorted. "All I did was unlock the door. I'm telling you, this is an authentic human corpse, and it was already here when I opened the door."

"How can I be sure of that?" Ryan replied.

"Touch it," Ricky challenged after a moment of thought.

"What?" Ryan asked, looking up from the table to meet the eyes of his friend.

"Touch the body," Ricky smirked.

"Gross, dude, no," Ryan responded.

"Fine, I'll do it for you," Ricky said, grabbing Ryan's wrist, leading his hand towards the corpse.

Ryan cringed as Ricky lead his hand closer and closer to the body on the table. Within what felt like the longest six seconds of his life, Ryan's hand was met with the rotting leg of the corpse. He gagged a bit as his fingers grazed the flesh of the body, quickly pulling away.

"Alright, alright, I believe you now," Ryan sputtered, yanking his wrist out of his friend's grasp.

"Now do you understand why I ran home so fast?" Ricky questioned.

"Yeah," Ryan exhaled. "Jesus Christ, what are we gonna do with this thing?"

"What do you mean?" Ricky asked.

"We can't just fucking leave this dead body here, dude," Ryan replied.

"I guess you're right," Ricky huffed.

"So what do you wanna do with it?" Ryan asked again. "Maybe throw it in the river the next town over? Bury in the backyard of this house?"

"Honestly, I was kinda thinking we could maybe, uh, clean it up, and, maybe... Try to bring the guy back to life," Ricky responded.

"You've gotta be kidding me, Rick," Ryan chuckled. "There's no way you could bring some dead guy back to life. That shit only happens in books and in the movies. And, last time I checked, we're not in a book or a movie. This is real life."

"Hey, how would any of us know whether we could make the dead come alive or not?" Ricky questioned. "No one's ever tried it before, so how would anyone know whether or not it could work?"

"You're fucking crazy, Rick, you know that?" Ryan sighed. "You're really serious about trying this, aren't you?"

"Well, sure," Ricky nodded. "Come on, you aren't even the slightest bit curious?"

"Not really," Ryan replied, "because I know it won't work. Besides, man, it's not like this guy was ever important to you or anything. We don't even know when he was killed."

"Well, I still wanna at least try to bring him back to life," Ricky said. "He looks like he was just a bit older than us when he died. He must've had a lot more life to live out, and then... This happened, whatever it was. I think he deserves to live the rest of his life out."

"I'm telling you, dude, it's not gonna work," Ryan responded, shaking his head.

"That won't stop me from trying," Ricky retorted. "Think of all the good that could happen if I can make this work."

"Look, Ricky, I doubt that it will work," Ryan sighed. "But good luck to you, I guess. I for one don't want any part in this."

"I'll figure something out," Ricky replied. "Besides, now that's you've practically offered me a challenge, I'm just more determined to make this happen."