The small candlelit theater was crowded with students, professors, and those drawn to the macabre. In the center lay a man strapped to a gurney, a black cloth draped over his face, his chest frantically rising and falling. A doctor in a crisp white lab coat stepped forward clutching a syringe.

“You must first incapacitate the patient" he announced, pressing the needle deep into the bound man’s neck. “Now, I will demonstrate the procedure.”

He uncovered the man’s face, then lifted a slender silver needle and small metallic mallet. The first tap rang out, sharp and dreadful in the dead silent chamber, each blow serving to solidify the dreadful act.

Applause swelled from the audience around me as the instrument drove deeper into the skull.

My pulse quickened, for the face on the table was my own. I looked down to find my body pale and translucent, vanishing before my very eyes.