by Paul Allih
Inside of Emma's bedroom, Matt closes the window and drops the shades. He tip toes around the room as he listens to the loud television screaming from the living room. Wondering if anyone is in the living room, he stands perfectly still in the darkness. Hanging on the edge of his steps, he listens for anything that sounds remotely human. Hearing nothing but the loud television, Matt looks around Emma's room for a small mirror. Finding a handheld flip mirror on her dresser by her bed, Matt makes his way across the room and carefully opens the door. Slipping his hand out through a small crack, he holds the mirror out towards the living room couch. Seeing Kelly and Parker sleeping in the reflection, he mauls over his next move.
Looking across the hall, he sees the bathroom door is wide open. Stuffing the mirror into his pocket, he readies himself to dash from the bedroom and into the bathroom.
Matt opens the bedroom door slowly as he takes a deep breath. Peering around the corner, he makes sure the couple is still asleep. Keeping his eyes on them, Matt creeps across the hall and slips into the bathroom. Once he is in the bathroom, he looks around the corner again. He watches as Parker's eyes slowly crack open with a yawn. Ducking back into the dark bathroom, he hears Parker yawn loudly as he lumbers down the hallway. Thinking fast, Matt gently steps inside the bathtub and pulls the curtain closed.
With his eyes barely open, Parker walks into the bathroom and turns on the lights. Matt breathes softly to not give away his hiding—lurking patiently as Parker closes the door. Staying completely still, Matt glares through the murky 220
plastic curtain while Parker urinates. When Parker finishes, he flushes the toilet and walks over to the sink. With the rushing water, Matt quietly slides open the shower curtain.
He finds Parker washing his face with soap and water. Taking his steps carefully, Matt takes advantage of Parker's compromising position.
Matt draws his Bowie knife from his sheath as Parker reaches for a towel. Bringing the towel to his dripping face, Matt quickly grabs him by the head and drives the blade through the left side of his throat. Feeling his muscles convulse, Matt twists the blade and pushes it outwards; severing Parker's vocal chords. The blade tears through the arteries and severs the tendons—cutting through the souring flesh like wet paper. Blood rushes like a river from his from the gaping, shredded hole as he tries to cry out with a gargled gasp for air. Holding him steady, Matt looks at him in the bathroom mirror—viciously staring into his dying eyes.
Coughing up chunks and clots, Parker's eyes slowly shudder closed. Matt grins manically, feeding off of his energy as it drains out from Parker's body.
Coming to by the sound of running water, Kelly awakens to find Parker is gone. She looks down the hall and sees the bathroom door closed with light glowing from the threshold.
Figuring the obvious, she stretches and sits ups from her lazy position. Looking at her watch, she sees that it is only two o'clock and she lies back down. Pulling the blanket over her, Kelly snuggles up in the corner of the couch to get comfortable. Closing her eyes, Kelly starts to doze off again—still trying to sleep off the night before. Cushioned by the soft couch, she quickly falls back to sleep.
Suddenly she feels soft tickles caressing her face. With her eyes still closed, she smiles and reaches up to find Parker's hand. She pulls his pointer finger towards her mouth and starts to gently nibble on the side. Letting out a coo, she starts to seductively suck on his finger. Mouthing over the joint, she tongues the tip as she moans. Pulling back, she 221
drags her teeth along the length. Kelly slowly opens her eyes and moves to give her lover a passionate gaze. As her eyes wander upwards, she finds that she has been sucking on Parker's severed hand that is being held in a stranger's grasp.
Barring a look of terror, she looks up to find a figure who is wearing Parker's face like mask.
Kelly's bottom lip quivers as she her body is taken over total shock. Tremors of panic rush through her at the sight of her lover's face dripping around this stranger's face. Her eyes cannot help but wander to the view of Parker's bleeding limb dripping upon her hardwood floor. Matt grins at her demeanor through his gruesome cover, waiting for her to make a move. He looms over her as she curls up on the couch in fright. Kelly's eyes grow with horror as her lower jaw slowly shudders downwards. Judging that she is working towards a scream, Matt draws back and hits her in the temple with Parker's bloody stump. The force to her head suddenly knocks her out and he body falls limp on the couch.
Emma and Donnie are finishing their meal at the sports bar and grill. After becoming honest with one another, they have cleared the way for pleasant conver-sation and cheap laughs. They have spent their time mocking their waitress behind her back while Donnie as slipped Emma two for one margaritas. The waitress never bothered to ID Emma or Donnie in the hopes that she will snag a healthy tip. Emma has downed one glass and is now halfway through her second. With the two of them buzzed, they tell each other things without a single shred of regret.
Pulling her lips away from her straw, Emma randomly says, "I wanna tattoo."
"Really?" Donnie asks as he takes a sip from his beer.
"Yeah, I don't know what I want but I know where I wanna get it…"
"Where do ya want it?"
"On my lower back…"
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"That's sexy, but it's kind of cliché…"
"Eh, I know it's a trendy spot, but I'm a fem."
Donnie shrugs, "Hey, it's your body…" Pausing to take a sip from his beer, Donnie continues, "I can probably get ya one done for free."
Pricking up, Emma asks, "Really, how so?"
"Well, I know the guy who owns Wicked Marks, the tat shop off of 12th street. He owes me a hundred bucks for a bag of herb."
"You're shittin' me?"
"Nah, you can get a cool tat for a hundred bucks nowadays… I mean, so many people are getting 'em and every area is crammed with shops so they're all in competition with one another and pricing as low as they can go."
Taken back by Donnie's offer, Emma asks, "You would do this for me?"
"Sure… I'm not getting inked."
"Shit, why not?"
"Honestly, I just can't think of anything I want permanently etched on my body."
While Donnie guzzles another swig from his brew, Emma touts, "It's not about that… it's about living in the moment."
"Living for the moment? Nah, fucking a girl just to blow a load is living for the moment… getting a permanent imprint on your flesh is a lifelong choice. It's like nailing a girl with AIDs and contracting it… something you'll live to regret for the rest of your days."
With a laugh, Emma replies, "That's a hell of a comparison that you're drawin' there!"
Donnie shrugs, "I don't think it's so far-fetched… when ya think of the risk of hepatitis."
Emma rolls her eyes and changes the subject, "So, when can I get my ink?"
"It's early… so, probably after we're done here."
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"We don't have to call for an appointment?"
"Nah, he'll hook us up."
They finish their drinks and Donnie takes Emma straight to the tattoo parlor. Emma squirms in the passenger seat as her nerves twitch. She is filled with the kind of angst that she has not felt since before her first day of High School. Not only is she awaiting the sensation of the needle, but she is left with hoping that she will get the chance to finally know what it feels like. Biting on the inside of her bottom lip, Emma fights the urge to explode with excitement. In this situation she views her tattoo as a potential life changing experience.
Reeling over her drinks, she thinks that this artwork upon her flesh will somehow push her into the realms of being an actual adult.
Parking his car in the front of the tattoo parlor, the two walk to the front door. Stepping inside the shop, Donnie's friend, Greg, greets them with a stunned smile.
"Holy hell, Donnie! What's goin' on, man?!"
Donnie nods, shaking Greg's hand, "Not much… you?"
> "Eh, I'm doin' alight… business is slow but we're making it, ya know?"
"Yeah, well… this girl here wants some lower back work done."
Greg looks her up and down with a grin, "Oh really?
Well, I think I can hook her up."
"That's what I was hopin' for… y'know that hundred you owe me? Just knock it off of that."
With a sigh, Greg up-beat attitude deflates, "Yeah, no problem."
He walks them over to a wall that displays three giant frames that hold the models in Emma's price range, "Anything here you can have for a hundred bucks or less… take a look and let me know what ya want."
Donnie steps back as Emma looks over the sketches carefully. She sees nice specimens of beautiful art, but she wants something personal. Shifting her eyes to the second 224
batch, she finds the one she wants. It is a withering rose bud with bat wings protruding from the sides. Taking in the image, Emma translates its meaning into her own life. The fading rose bud symbolizes her old ways and the wings represent her lifting herself up from the cycle of sadness that she was lost in.
Satisfied, she calls over Donnie to look at her chosen piece. Without telling Donnie the meaning that she found behind it, she lets him form his own opinion. He looks at it with an unmoved expression and asks, "This is what you want?"
"Yeah, I love it… it really speaks to me."
Looking at it again, Donnie shrugs and replies, "Well, it's your body."
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CHAPTER 28
Kelly's head is filled with a mist that is carried by soft hues and peaceful music. She walks through a quiet forest barefoot in a white gown while The Everly Brother's Dream, Dream, Dream plays with a strange, soothing echo. The forest is unlike anything she has ever witnessed, plush with deep green brush and soft grass beneath her feet. Making her way through this mysterious beauty, she is intoxicated by the surroundings. Peering through the haze she sees a shirtless Parker in the distance. With a joyous smile upon her lips, Kelly rushes towards him. Seeing Kelly, Parker grins and makes his way in her direction. Running towards one another, they jump over rocks and divert around the tall, thick trees.
Just as they are about to come together, the scene fades to flush white and Kelly's eyes open.
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Coming to, Kelly finds herself tied to a dining room chair in her kitchen. She is bound with bungee cords around her chest and around her legs with thick layers of duct tape covering her mouth, pulled around to the nape of her neck.
Her arms are tied separately, wrapped along the arms of the wooden chair. Kelly blinks her eyes awake while a piecing headache screams through her cranium. Looking down to her left, she sees Parker's butchered corpse strewn on the floor.
Suspended in shock by the sick display, Kelly cannot take her eyes away.
Stripped down to his boxer shorts, Parker's hacked remains drain out onto the kitchen tile. Parker's right hand has been severed, leaving only a chunky dressed stump with a piece of broken bone protruding. The skin of his face has been removed, haphazardly cut from his lower jaw to his hairline at his forehead. All she can do is stare at what used to be a handsome face, now exposing nerves and tendons, caked with drying gobs of blood. Taking in the horrid sight of her dissected boy friend, Kelly tries to scream through her muzzle of duct tape. Struggling in her seat, she fights to break free from her bounds.
Hearing that Kelly has revived, Matt steps out from the hallway. Dripping with Parker's blood—he waves his knife as he taunts Kelly with twisted grin, "Mornin', sweetie… do ya feel better after your little nap?!"
Kelly shakes with fear as she tries her hardest to squirm out of her constraints. Wiggling frantically, she rocks the chair side to side with tears filling in her eyes in panic. Matt laughs at her sadistically and says, "You can fight it all you want, but you aren't goin' anywhere until I set you free."
She sighs against the tape around her mouth and goes limp with weakness. Matt leans down and comes face to face with her. Looking her in the eyes, he tells her, "You're in my world now little girl…"
Staring into Matt's cold gaze, tears roll down Kelly's face. The salty fluid streams through the blood that has dried 227
upon her cheeks. She uncontrollably trembles as she tries to keep her composure, breathing heavily through her nose.
Flashing his sick smile, Matt pulls himself away and starts rummaging through the kitchen cabinets. Finding a plate, he pulls it down and starts going through the lower shelves. He pulls out a large frying pan and places it on the front left burner of the stove.
Pouring some olive oil in the pan, Matt shakes some minced garlic and shakes black pepper on top of it. Turning the burner down on low, he starts to heat the pan and says,
"Things didn't have to be this way, y'know? All you had to do was give me the respect that I deserve."
Pausing to look through the spice rack on the counter, he takes out some Cajun seasoning and some Cummins. "Soon you will come to realize the power of the flesh and you will know what makes me one with a higher conscience…"
Leaning down, Matt starts cutting into Parker's carcass.
He slices with sawing motions along the inside of the thigh, taking slabs that look like bloody chicken breasts. Kelly fights to close her eyes as she cries and whimpers. She hangs her head while snot and tears run down onto her lap.
Listening to the sounds of her boy friend being carved, she tells herself that this is all a bad dream.
Standing up, Matt walks over to her with a plate full of bloody meat and pulls her chair around to face him. Without warning, he rips duct tape away—snagging her hair and ripping the glue from her pores. After a grunt of sudden pain, Kelly breathes heavy, gasping for air. Holding the plate of disgust under her face, Kelly stares at it in horror as Matt tells her, "If you scream, I will cut your voice out your fucking throat."
"You sick fuck… you killed him!"
Matt chuckles, "Of course, I might be painted in a dark light to you now, but you'll see… after you're enlightened, you'll fully understand."
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Sniffling to hold back her tears, Kelly asks, "Why are you doing this?!"
Turning towards the stove, Matt lays the meat in the in pan and stirs it in with the oil and seasonings with a wooden spoon. Kelly watches him acting like some kind of deranged chef as he plays through the motions. Standing over Parker's gouged remains, Matt sprinkles the Cajun blend over the frying sickly entre. No matter how much she tries, Kelly cannot wrap her mind around the terror that is unfolding in front of her. Smelling the frying flesh, she closes her eyes and turns her head—shunning away from the ghastly sight in her kitchen. She gags when she is realizes that the scent of her boy friend's searing flesh is reminiscent of a good cut of fresh veal.
Turning the meat over, Matt casually says, "Do you smell that? Smells great doesn't it?! I'm just wingin' it! This is my first time doing this, my recipe, you could say. There really are no cook books on this subject, y'know?"
Kelly whimpers as she starts crying again, "You motherfucker… I hope you burn in hell!"
Matt laughs, "Sweetheart, we are in hell, and everyone is in line guzzling down their placebos. You're mother was a junkie whore, you're an alchy cunt, and your sister lives in a fucking fantasyland that only exists in her own head. Everyone is trying to escape from their pain, but the only thing that is real is the flesh."
Taking a deep breath, Kelly glares at Matt and replies,
"We may have our problems, we're all human, but you're a murderer who has no soul.”
With a smile, Matt nods and says, "Murder, killing, feeding… these are crucial links in the food chain. The only species on this planet that puts a bullshit stamp of moral sanctity on living are humans. Well, I'm above that… I'm above being human… I am the next step on the evolutionary ladder."
"You're fuckin' crazy…"
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Laughing at Kelly's response, he shakes his head and says, "You are entitled to your ignor
ant opinions… but you'll see in due time."
Taking the cooked meat from the pan, Matt turns off the stove off. Moving to the counter, he begins to cut it into small pieces with his hunting knife and a fork. Kelly watches as he takes his time, delicately dividing her once lover into bite sizes pieces. She gags uncontrollably as she tries to hold herself back from vomiting. Gasping, she takes deep breathes; breathing in the aroma of Parker's fried flesh. Her eyes water as she breathes in and out, wiggling her arms beneath the wrappings of the bungee cord.
Matt glances over at Kelly, continuing to saw through the seared meat, "What are you doing over there?"
Setting down the knife, Matt sticks a piece of the cooked meat with a fork and walks over to Kelly. Staring at the fork in Matt's hand ran through the juicy meat, Kelly's eyes grow wide in terror. He grabs by the hair and forces her head back.
With her mouth agape in pain, Matt stuffs the fork inside and slides the meat off with her top teeth. With the meat rolling on her tongue, she fights to spit it out. Before she can, Matt throws the fork across the kitchen and gets a hold of her lower jaw and her forehead. He forces her teeth to gnash the small piece of cooked Parker.
"Chew it," he yells, grinding her jaws upon the meat.
"Chew it and swallow it, you fuckin' cunt!"
Trying to fight him with all of her strength, she feels her lower jaw pop within his hands. In fear of him breaking her jaw, she gasps, involuntarily swallowing the chunk. Matt eases off with a twisted grin and backs away while Kelly tries to cough up the vile substance. Kelly coughs and hacks but it is no use, the meat is already on its way to being broken down and digested. Backing away from Kelly, Matt grins as he watches her react. She cries at the top of her lungs with tears pouring from her eyes inciting cackling laughter from Matt.
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Choking herself up, she coughs and slobbers to the point of almost vomiting.
Picking up the plate full of cooked Parker, Matt taunts her, "Hey now, get a hold of yourself… you don't want to ruin the rest of this fine meal, do you?!"