"Go on! Touch it!" Jonna jostled Rob, nodding towards the purple-faced, bloated body that they had uncovered in the trash.

"You touch it!" His friend hissed, swatting his hand away. 

"Don't be a coward! Just touch it!" Jonna jeered, shoving his friend closer to festering body. 

Rob bristling, his shoulders tensing and his fist clenched tightly at his sides. He hated being called a coward, more than he hated being called a bastard by his uncle. Rob knew that if his uncle were here, he would have twisted his ear until Rob was sure that he was going to pull it off, calling him a cowardly little bastard. 

Rob would give anything to spit in his uncle's wide, hoggish face. Even if it meant robbing the dead to prove it. 

Rolling up his sleeves, he crept closer to the decaying corpse that laid in a motionless heap in the gutters. He could hear his friends snickering behind him. 

Up close, the corpse looked it was about to burst. Bile rose to the young boy's throat at the horrendous smell that emanated around it. 

Two black holes where the eyes had been started hollowly back at Rob. The young boy couldn't even decipher if the body he was looking at was a man or a woman, it was too badly engorged. 

Unease spider-crawled itself down the nape of his neck to the base of his spine as he drew closer to it. Everything in him screamed at him to walk away. To just suck it up and let Jonna call him a coward.

But the nagging voice in his head was overshadowed by his uncle and his pock-marked face sneering at him. 

First, he touched the body's clothing. It wore a rough cotton tunic stained yellow. Before his fingers brushed the icy cold flesh of the corpse's throat, devoid of breath and life-blood. 

Something moved underneath its skin; undulating up and down its fatty throat. A sharp cracking could be heard deep within the swollen tissue. Rob yanked his hand back in fright when the corpse's mouth cracked open and what looked like worms slowly emerged form between its lips. A cloud of black mist burst out after it. 

Rob erupted into a coughing fit as the black mist flooded into his airways. He waved his hands in a lame attempt to swat it away but it seemed to cling to his throat. 

He was choking! He couldn't seem to catch his breath. He was vaguely aware of Jonna shouting out to him. But he ignored it or couldn't comprehend it, his lungs weren't functioning properly. 

Another snap as its jaws seemed to open wider and low gurgling groan came from deep within its chest. The body's distended stomach deflated, releasing another plume of black mist and horrendous gas. Reducing the boy into a gasping heap. His vision tunneled and filled with tears. 

Jonna fisted a handful of Rob's worn cloak and hauled him backwards away from the body and the suffocating cloud. 

"Come on stupid bastard! Get up!" Jonna's voice was high pitched and frantic as he yanked his friend to his feet. 

Rob scrambled to get his feet under him, his vision still fogged and his lungs still seizing. He felt a pull on his cloak and together the two boys fled the area; coughing and sputtering. Leaving behind behind the festering corpse in the gutter, the dark mist cloud moved with the breeze. 

Another series of sharp cracks and one of the body's rotting arms twisted and moved.