her last mistake

It's a story of two men who enjoy their job, a woman who makes her last mistake

He stood quite still in the middle of the room, standing in front of her  waiting for moment when she would stop screaming and begging, waiting for that  moment when the realisation would sink in that there was no escape from him ,the man  waited he seemed almost oblivious to the noise, the woman continued to scream , he lifted his arm to check the time ,wondering how long this one would take, the longest he had scream so far was 20 minutes straight , he hoped this one would be quicker as he wanted to get hone for his dinner, his wife  was making  meat pie tonight  and it was his favourite he never got any unless he was on time as  his kids always ate it all before he got there, he yawned while  he waited, thinking I will give her ten more minutes then that’s it,  if she was still screaming and  begging for her life at that time then he would do it, he liked to wait it out ,he found the screaming and the begging almost relaxing, she  promised him anything , offered her body to him and  even in desperation, her family, shouting   hysterically ‘ please anything, take them not me, give me one more chance, I promise that next time I won’t “ , she continued to  babble  hysterically  for a short while longer  her voice falling on  deaf ears  and then finally running out of tears and her throat hoarse from the screaming , she stopped and looked at the man who stood so calm and  was looking straight at her ,she saw a small well-dressed man who was wearing a plastic overcoat and a plastic gloves ,a man,  who if you passed him on the street , you would nod and say good morning too without a second thought, thinking yourself safe ,not this time  that was to be the last mistake she would ever make.

In that moment she tried to remember what had happened, she remembered walking down to the shops, saying hello to this little man and then the next thing she remembered was waking up tied to the hook in this  room, arms stretched above her and her toes barely touching the floor, looking at the same man who she had just talked too he seemed to be   looking at her with such a strange look in his eyes, his body still with a small smile on his lips , she realised that this was it no coming back from this one , she had got away from a similar situation before but knew that this time it wouldn’t happen, this man was different unbending and seemingly untouchable , so  in her mind she said her prayers to which ever god happened to be passing and listening, said her goodbyes to her husband and children and realised that  her fate was sealed and there really was no way out this time, they had said that the last time was her last chance to repay the money she had “borrowed” from the dealer ,she had told her husband that she had been mugged to give a reason for the bruises and scrapes they had left her with. She  looked the executioner in the face, through eyes that had become red and sore  from all the crying and said in a croaky voice ,”make it quick, you b*****d “, the man standing before her was an artiste and prided himself on one slice, quick draw McGraw , he had  called himself after some cartoon character his kids used to watch , only once in his long history as the executioner had he allowed personal feelings to interfere with his work and actually allowed someone  to talk him out of the one thing that gave him delight , the one thing he was truly gifted at, his arm lifted and with a quick sidewards movement the job was done,  almost quicker than the eye could follow, the women gave a  muted gurgle as the executioner  did his job and then a thump as the body dropped to the floor, the blood ran across the floor in a red rivulet moving gracefully and slowly down a small channel that looked as though it had been designed for it and down a small drain hole, the executioner waited until the blood stopped spurting and finally slowed to trickle, then moved across the room and opened the door ,  the man inside the other room looked up expectantly as the door opened and the executioner  looked at him, without the need for words, he grunted at the man in the middle of the room, gestured with his eyes ,his right eyebrow rising and his lips pursing, the first man nodded  and pointing at the body on the floor gestured for a help to put it on the table.

The table stood proud in the middle of the room, its strong sturdy frame and scrubbed top, giving some indication as to the reason for its use, the odd old blood stain unable to be got out even with  the vigorous scrubbing he had put into it, he slowly walked to the body and without the need for any words as if they had done this a thousand times before they both took an end each and lifted the body up to the table , the middle of the body sagging and hitting the table first and the head of the body bouncing a little as it was dropped . When the body was finally on the table, one looked at the other and with a barely discernible nod at each other they went their separate ways, one to his wife and kids, thinking about his dinner,hoping that there was some pie left and those little buggers hadn’t eaten it all, the other turned to do his job, it was his turn now.

He stood there an ox of a man his hands calloused and arms thick with muscle from the everyday lifting and cutting, his white coat now covered with blood and other stains, he had long ago given up on trying to get them out and now saw them as old friends, he looked at the body and saw a women who must have been her thirties, it seemed as though she had looked after herself and would have been quite a looker before her appointment with executioner.

He started to undress her just cutting the clothes away and dropping them on the floor they were destined for the furnace, along with the hair and any other parts he couldn’t use, finally she lay there naked before him, his hands moved over her body slowly stroking his way over the various parts, parting the pubic hair examining where the thighs met the hips and lifting and weighing each of her breast

He tore his eyes from the body in front of him and  gazed at the knife in his hand, The light glistened off the 10 inch knife as he slowly ran his fingers up and down the blade taking almost a sensual delight in the feel of the smooth metal, the edge of the blade so sharp it could cut a breath in two,  the handle was made of bone once very long ago, it would have been so bright, so white when first made ,now just a dull cream colour worn from the many times he had grasped it in his hands, he lifted the blade and  studied the way the light bounced off it. His tongue sticking out between his lips, his eyes glistening, watching his fingers move.

His mind went to the moment  when the blade would slice into the flesh , he waited, his mind winding up like a dynamo storing  power waiting, waiting until finally he thought he was ready, ready to do justice to the deed he was about to do.

 He looked down and saw it lying there her skin so clean and unmarked,  so ready to  take what he was about to do,  he laid the knife edge against the skin , he always cherished this moment ,cherished the moment so as  to imprint on his memory, how it felt ,how it looked then taking in a  small breath and then with a small hiss from between his teeth, he slowly and carefully started to cut, starting at the neck finishing what the executioner had started, this is what he lived for the feel of his blade as it sliced through flesh, the look of the skin as it slowly separated, first the skin , then the fatty layer underneath  down to the red meat, he stopped when he got to the meat and with almost orgasmic delight he looked at it , his breath coming quicker and quicker and nostrils started to flare as they tried to take every last scent the  meat had to offer, until finally with a sigh he sliced down even further, until striking bone. Most butchers would have reached for a cleaver but he wanted to savour the moment, he had plenty of time he was in his own way as much an artiste as the executioner and could cut meat with out any loss ,so lifting his knife he slowly cut around the vertebrate ,his tongue sticking out as he worked his knife between the discs until the finally the head came free, he picked it up by the hair,  blew her a kiss and placed   it between her feet facing him. He winked at it and moved on to the rest of the body cutting at the joints moving the knife into the joints to separate the limbs from the torso then cutting the torso in half, until finally, she lay in pieces on the table like some jigsaw puzzle waiting to be put back together.

He picked up the pieces and placed them in a large plastic tub, placed them on the floor and wiped his hands on a rag he took from his pocket.

Picking up the tub he walked into another room which  had a large industrial size mincer in it, he often used the mincer in his job as a butcher and thought of it as an old friend, it was a perfect way to dispose of the evidence of his hobby and also helped to create his prize mince, his special mixture that seemed to go so well with his customers,  he smiled to himself as he recalled winning first prize for his sausages made with his special mixture last year at a fair.

Turning the machine on he carefully placed each piece of the body into the mincer watching as a leg went in one end and mince came out the other, finally getting to the head he used the scissors to take off the hair and consigned the skull to the mincer.

Finally it was done, now he just needed to clean up the mess; he spent the next hour taking the mincer apart and cleaning it, putting it back together then  look around and made sure that there was no evidence he had ever used it, he  took the special mince into  the walkin cool room and mixed it with the mince that was already there waiting to  be used tomorrow for the new sausage recipe  he wanted to try out on his customers.

He walked back to the butchering room and taking his wire brush from the shelf ,sprinkled sawdust on the top of the table and scrubbed the bench top clean, he swept the floor and taking  the hair, the bloody sawdust  and the clothes to the furnace that was always on at the back of the shop where he had a small room in which he slept at night. He  opened the small door to the furnace the flames roaring inside, the heat assaulting his face, he looked for a moment and then threw everything in, watched and waited until the clothes and hair became ashes, he closed  the door with a satisfying bang and went to his room, took a bath and when he had finished ,looked at the clock and thought to himself if I am quick I might just have time for a quick pint, closing the front door went out into the night to enjoy his pint whistling softly to himself.