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Sunday, September 12, 2010
title: Autopsy Room Four
author: Stephen King
published: 2002
genre: horror/short story
first line: It's so dark that for awhile-just how long I don't know-I think I'm still unconscious.
This week I re-read Autopsy Room Four which is
one of the stories in Stephen King's short story collection, Everything's Eventual. This short tale has always been a favorite of mine, King taps into one of our deepest fears, being buried alive.
Howard Cottrell finds himself laying on a cold steel table with two doctors ready to perform an autopsy on him. However, Howard isn't dead, but is paralyzed and unable to move or speak, yet fully capable of feeling, seeing and hearing. The doctors don't know this since Howard was presumed dead after being found unconscious by fellow golfers. It looks like he suffered a heart attack. Little do they know that Howard is alive and was bitten by a snake when he went looking for his golf ball. The snake bite rendered him paralyzed for a few hours with all the classic symptoms of being dead.
A fully conscious Howard tries to figure out what has happened to him and is horrified as he comes to the conclusion that he is going to be opened up alive on the autopsy table.
What's going on here? I yell, but the yell is only in my head. My lips don't move. I can feel them-and my tongue, lying on the floor of my mouth like a stunned mole-but I can't move them.
If you're looking to read something deliciously creepy, something that will make you squirm in your seat, pick this one up. The suspense keeps building as the doctors, one of whom is in training, examine the body and discuss which instruments to use.
I always enjoy King's short stories, and this is no exception.
Autopsy Room Four was adapted into a short film along with a few other of King's stories in the summer of 2006. I remember watching this one on tv and thinking they did a good job. Reading the story is of course better.
R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge
