Page 17 of Love Obscene
“Mason. Don’t do this. This is wrong!”
“This isn’t wrong,” he scoffed, “Life is full of death. And death is never happy or pretty. This is the easy part.”
I stood, cemented to the floor, as a scene straight out of a late-night horror movie played out in front of me.
With quick efficiency, he buried the scalpel in her neck, hit a button on the side of the chair that freed her wrists, and did each of them next. I had never seen so much red in my life. Movies never showed someone’s body going into convulsions as they died.
Bile rose in the back of my throat; her blood sounded like rain drops hitting the floor.Thiswas his hobby? The metallic smell was too much. I began walking backward, searching for a door knob.
It was then I realized something was terribly wrong with me. Part of me wanted to worship the ground he walked on, bloody scalpel and all. The other wanted the man back from five minutes ago, and to remain oblivious to all of this.
They’re the same damn person.
“Katie.” He sat the scalpel down and stepped around the chair. I backed up so fast my back collided with the door.
“Don’t run.”
He didn’t have the second word out of his mouth before I was out of the room and racing down the hall.
Chapter Fifteen
Well,fuck.
That went almost like I thought it would.
Sighing, I looked at the lifeless blonde in my chair. I couldn’t leave her like this; that would ruin my whole process. Twirling the scalpel in my fingers, I brushed excess hair back from her forehead.
Gently pressing the blade to her hairline, I made an incision all the way around, lifting her head up to get the back.
I traced over the same line until the crown could come off with a firm tug. Gathering her blonde, bloody strands in my hand, I did just that. The sound reminded me of Velcro coming apart. There was a sweet littleplopwhen I flung the round mass onto the floor.
Pausing for a second, I listened for any sound from Katie downstairs. I wasn’t too concerned at the moment, though. It’s not like she could go anywhere. Lifting my cadaver from the chair, I carried her to the tub that was almost overflowing with hot water, and submerged her corpse.
After cutting the water off, I grabbed the hose from the wall and began to spray down the chair, thinking of how much worse things could have gone.
The last two women I’d shown this room to both screamed for the cavalry and ran for the hills. Sadly, they were no longer among the living, but I honored them with a painting. They didn’t mean much to me; none of the women that came and went from my life did. I was still a man, though, and sometimes I hated being alone.
People had a skewed sense of what was right and wrong. Society pushed its rules on them like a shepherd leading a flock of lambs.
Understand that I am not psychotic, deranged, or mentally ill. I can stop at any time. I’m well aware of everything I do. It’s not me that has the problem. People who turn up their noses at what they can’t understand do.
My avocation is much more relaxing than anyone else’s. I suppose my father could be the exception. He took the meaning of a snuff film to an entirely different level. Just because I didn’t like being on a live feed for an audience as I worked, didn’t make me condemn him for his work. Hell, I worked with him behind the scenes.
I was over people screaming bloody murder when they found out the truth. Katie was a solution for many things, all of them selfish on my end. I didn’t feel bad about it, and I regretted nothing.
I needed her and I would make her understand we were in this together. She was just like me, and needed to stop being afraid to embrace it.
Shutting the hose off, I hung it back on the wall and started the process of draining the tub. While the water ran out, I laid my chair flat and covered it with plastic drop cloths. After taking a second to crack my knuckles, I retrieved blondie’s wet, nude corpse, and secured it again.
Studying her for a few seconds was all the time I needed for my mind to start working out which pieces to keep and which ones to get rid of.
Everything needed to go but her head and torso. Retrieving my scalpel from its resting place, I cut from the top of her chest to her waist. Once she was wide open, I switched out my scalpel for a medical mask and a hammer.
Covering my face so I didn’t get a mouthful of noxious odor, I flipped the hammer around and used the claw to pull apart her ribcage. The gore never bothered me; neither did the sound of crunching bone. This was almost my favorite part.
I glanced at my surgeon's saw, debating if I wanted to dismember her now or get cleaned up and find Katie.
Unsurprisingly, Katie won. It would take me over an hour to cut through the sinew and remove her organs. Catching a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror, I flicked a chunk of something fatty off my ruined shirt.
