It was a gruesome scene that lay out before me
In all my time on the squad I'd never seen anything like it
My partner had to leave the room
He was going to be sick
I just stood there
Smoking my cigarette until I calmed down
I smoked for something to do
It kept my hands busy
It kept my mouth occupied
Which had helped my career so far
Not saying much had gained me a reputation for being smart
But I sure didn't feel smart right now
Right now
Half the reason I was smoking
Was just to help drown out the smell
It smelled like a farmer's trash heap
And looked half as good
I took out my silver pen
I poked at the mess on the floor
Trying to figure out what I was looking at
Entrails
I let them slide off the end
Wiping it on my pants
Leaving a stain I'd remember for weeks
As it wouldn't come out with the first wash
Or the second
Only fading away with time and wear
And this thing over here
I still couldn't believe what I was seeing
I poked at it with my weathered wingtip shoe
In need of a polish for the past five years
The macabre disembodied grin moved lightly with my gentle probing
Shining orangely in the lamplight
"Lieutenant
We found the body!"
The beat cop called me over with his exclamation
His face green with disgust
I came out of the house
Down the porch steps
And around the bushes
The bile rising in my own throat
Like the mercury in an Orange Crush dimestore thermometer on a hot day
There lay Perry Pumpkin
Mutilated almost beyond recognition
Another serial victim
Carved into a Jack o'lantern
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