"Move." Moira said breathlessly. "Quickly." 


The dead man's body was still warm when they dragged his carcass into the convenient store, locking the door behind them. He left a trail of blood and his limbs were stiffening now, his skin pale with the all too familiar scent of decay assaulting their senses. He was thrown on the counter as the dead boy clawed at the man's insides. 


Moira stood over the carcass, her shoes sticky with blood as she took off her hoodie, exposing her starving bones. "I think if I put them inside me... I might come back."


The corpse-boy tilted his head, one eye rolling loosely in its socket in an attempt to blink as a clump of lashes cascaded down his peeling cheek. He didn't have to speak to understand, so he moved matching her pace. 


"Help me," She whispered as she dug her hands in the mans chest cavity, working her hands through layers of muscle, blood and organs. Her fingers curled around a kidney first that was purpling around the edges. Moira pulled it free with a grunt, strings of connective tissue stretching like gum until they snapped. "It's lighter than I thought." She commented. 


"Can you sew?" She asked him, looking around for a needle and thread. 


Dragging his ruined legs, the corpse approached the man and pulled a loose thread from his sweater and found a fishing line in one of the isles. "Good enough." Moira shrugged, tossing the man over the countertop. 


She laid down. "Cut me," She told him. 


The corpse-boy leaned over her, his flesh sloughing in ribbons, teeth clacking as his jaw worked unconsciously. He took the fishers hook as a blade and dragged it down her lower abdomen, his movements slow and deliberate and intimate. Despite the sloppy incision, Moira did not scream, yet corpse-boy paused. Motioning for him to continue the surgical procedure, he pressed both hands into her separating her skin. 


Foaming at the mouth in blood, Moira struggled against him as corpse-boy tore out her kidney with the fishing hook, tearing the organ in the process whilst trying to insert the dead mans kidney. He applied more pressure trying to attach the new kidney into Moira as her guts spilled out at an alarming rate. Corpse boy worked through her body with the needle and thread. 


The convenient store smelled like rot and metal. "I need more bodies." Moira grinned through the pain. 


Moira rested against the counter, trembling with anticipation and coughing up blood. "Do the liver next."


He crouched beside the dead man and split open the abdomen, peeling the flaps of skin apart and the scent assaulted their senses. The man's opened chest cavity was currently being thoroughly disturbed, churning Moira's stomach with hunger. 


The corpse boy noticed the way Moira was practically chewing on her lip as his hands worked. His hands knew how to dig through tissue, how to snap the ribs and lift the cage. He acted with familiarity as if he's done this before. Soon enough the liver came free, glistening in blood. 


She reached for it and the corpse boy slapped her hand away. "Lie down."


She obeyed, laying her body across the counter top as he brought the liver to her, slipping his fingers in her body, spreading her flesh apart. "Are you ready?" He asked. 


"Do it." She confirmed. 


Blood oozed instantly, falling from her gaping wounds like an avalanche. She thrashed involuntarily, biting the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper. He held her down with a hand on her shoulder, working methodically, pulling her open, her muscles parting like red curtains.


He reached in and touched her liver. She sobbed. Not from pain but from relief that she would come alive again. 


It took a while to rip apart the man's guts as corpse boy sliced through the ligaments, clamped arteries, and tied off veins with thread. 


"You're bleeding out." He said. 


"Then hurry." Moira smiled, lips cracked. "Finish it."


Corpse boy didn't have any gauze to stuff into her abdomen so he used tissues from the restroom. It slid in with a slick sound, nestling into the cavity like it belonged there. He sutured vessels together with shaky precision, tying knots with fingers that trembled more than he was used to.


When the liver was in place, he gave her a moment. Her lips had gone blue, her face pale and ghostly. He slapped her cheek lightly. "Stay awake."


Next corpse boy opened her side along the back curve of her torso. The scalpel slipped once and nicked her hipbone. She didn't flinch. He dug around her old kidney, which was shriveled and grey. With a snip and a tug, he freed it and tossed it into a metal bucket with a wet plop.


The new kidney was plumper, a healthy color. He inserted it quickly, connecting tubes, blood vessels, pressing it into place. Her body twitched beneath his hands. He thought maybe her pulse was gone, but he didn't stop.


Stitches followed. Thick, black thread, weaving her together like a doll. Her insides hidden again, her skin criss-crossed with crude surgical lines and his hands were soaked to the wrist with her blood. 


She began to wonder if he was a doctor when he was alive. He certainly knew his way around the body but he didn't look the type.


When it was done, he sat back on his heels. The corpse boy stared at her face. She wasn't breathing. He shook her gently. "Moira."


Her eyes fluttered and her lips moved with effort. "Do I... look alive?" No response. 


Her fingers curled weakly, touched the blood-caked edges of her new incision. Her face twisted into something between pain and joy. "I feel... full. Like I'm more whole." 


The corpse boy stood and looked down at her. She was white as bone, covered in her own gore. 


"We need more," she whispered. "Heart next time. Maybe lungs."


He nodded slowly. "You'll need to heal first."


"I need to be fully whole by the time..." Moira trailed off, cut off by corpse boy shushing her, urging Moira to rest. And so she slept, surrounded by blood and corpses, and with a shallow breath, but still there for now.