Who is - or was this man?

They say it feels cold when surrounded by the spirits of those who have passed away

Gone and maybe forgotten

A warning was given to her

Before she walked through those doors

Queasy and unsettling it will be at first sight

But it will get better with the passage of time, of course

And true to those words

Rising from the pit of her stomach was the feeling of dread

As she approached the dissection table

With her hair tied up and scalpel in hand

For a second, she disassociated herself from the chatter in the background

Placing the scalpel down on the table, she tilted her head to the right

Subconsciously staring at the face

Of the body that lay as still as any inanimate object on a table

Absorbing in every detail about his face

The faint creases around his eyes, the wrinkles on his forehead and his graying mustache

She began to question his existence

And with every fleeting second, her mind was plagued with queries

Who is – or was this man?  How old is he? What is his name?

She thought feverishly

Of course, he has a name! I mean a person’s name,

It is the most integral part of their identity...

Then all of a sudden, a gasp escaped her lips as she was shaken back into reality by her friend

With a deep breath, she picked up the cold scalpel and signed a part of her humanity away

So, when they say it feels cold when surrounded by the spirits of those who have passed away

They do not refer to external environment, but that of the within

And so, as she walked out the doors of the Dissection Hall

She felt as if a process was complete -a part of her died

A shiver ran down her spine as she realized that all those warnings had been true...

For she had turned into the Ghost of the Dissection Hall

- Musfira Khalid (Batch of 2020)