Read Online Blood in the Water (Kairos) by Catherine Johnson - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Catherine Johnson
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of inhibitions ensured his brothers were all far more aware than they wanted to be about the extent of his body art. It seemed that sometimes he forgot that his tattoos weren’t actual clothes.
“The trick is not to go too fast, or too slow. You wanna get the pace just right or the shock brought on by pain’ll kill ‘em. It’ll kill ‘em anyway, but you want to be the one to decide when that happens and if you want to speed it up some.”
As he was talking, Maguire added toes to the growing grisly pile. “The trick with this bit is to get the tip of your knife in between the joints. It’s easier than just hacking away and blunting your blade on the bone.”
The remnants of the human being swaying on the rope seemed to be cycling through stages of unconsciousness without fully coming to by the time Maguire had finished with its feet. They couldn’t repeat the process with the hands as they were in an awkward spot, but from the dark, mottled purple color of the skin, it looked as though the restricted circulation was doing a dandy job without their help.
“We gonna speed this fella up?”
“Fuck no! This little girl won’t last much longer, but he’s goin’ hard all the way. Or not, as the case may be. Move over, son.”
Paul stepped back to give Maguire room to start working the knife around the flaccid penis of the condemned man, who flinched back into almost full awareness. The animal-like noises picked up in frequency and pitch, melding into one continual sound as the man’s crown jewels joined his facial features in the dust. This was standard for Maguire’s method of instruction. The first time he would show Paul how it was done. The next time he would stand back and observe Paul as he put what he’d learned into practice.
Blood flowed freely in feeble spurts from the three small arteries which were just visible, peeking from the newest wound. Paul was fascinated by the different shades of red of the blood in the human body, from the vivid scarlet of arterial blood, to the deep crimson of the blood that came from veins to the black blood that signified liver damage. The huge loss of that vital fluid caught up with the hunk of flesh that had once been a person. A final breath rattled out from the disfigured mouth as the heart pumped itself empty. Riding the wake of that last breath was the foul stench of the bowels releasing what little they hadn’t already given up.
Paul helped Maguire to wrap the body in a tarp, along with the excised bits and pieces. It would be hauled into the boot of the stolen car waiting outside and then dumped on the edge of a small town near the border, where it would be found, but not for some hours. The message would be loud and clear, or at least it would be once the body was identified. Having loaded their macabre cargo, Paul and Maguire utilized the cold water that still trickled from a rusty tap in the barn to wash the worst of the blood away. They’d been wearing gloves and none of the cuts that Maguire had made had resulted in any sort of spray. Most of the mess had been spread by the thrashing of the body during the first few slices. Once they’d delivered the body they planned to abandon the car and then find a cheap motel, the kind that dealt in anonymity, where they could rent a room for an hour, just long enough to wash up before calling the club to collect them. All in all, Paul considered it a very satisfactory day’s work, considering it was his twenty-fifth birthday.
2007
Ashleigh didn’t recognize the woman staring back at her from the mirror. The lady in the glass was beautiful. Her reflection was so perfectly put together she looked like a china doll. She looked cool, calm and collected. Ashleigh felt like her heart was about to beat out of her chest, or at least it would if it could get past her ribs, which were almost painfully constricted
“The trick is not to go too fast, or too slow. You wanna get the pace just right or the shock brought on by pain’ll kill ‘em. It’ll kill ‘em anyway, but you want to be the one to decide when that happens and if you want to speed it up some.”
As he was talking, Maguire added toes to the growing grisly pile. “The trick with this bit is to get the tip of your knife in between the joints. It’s easier than just hacking away and blunting your blade on the bone.”
The remnants of the human being swaying on the rope seemed to be cycling through stages of unconsciousness without fully coming to by the time Maguire had finished with its feet. They couldn’t repeat the process with the hands as they were in an awkward spot, but from the dark, mottled purple color of the skin, it looked as though the restricted circulation was doing a dandy job without their help.
“We gonna speed this fella up?”
“Fuck no! This little girl won’t last much longer, but he’s goin’ hard all the way. Or not, as the case may be. Move over, son.”
Paul stepped back to give Maguire room to start working the knife around the flaccid penis of the condemned man, who flinched back into almost full awareness. The animal-like noises picked up in frequency and pitch, melding into one continual sound as the man’s crown jewels joined his facial features in the dust. This was standard for Maguire’s method of instruction. The first time he would show Paul how it was done. The next time he would stand back and observe Paul as he put what he’d learned into practice.
Blood flowed freely in feeble spurts from the three small arteries which were just visible, peeking from the newest wound. Paul was fascinated by the different shades of red of the blood in the human body, from the vivid scarlet of arterial blood, to the deep crimson of the blood that came from veins to the black blood that signified liver damage. The huge loss of that vital fluid caught up with the hunk of flesh that had once been a person. A final breath rattled out from the disfigured mouth as the heart pumped itself empty. Riding the wake of that last breath was the foul stench of the bowels releasing what little they hadn’t already given up.
Paul helped Maguire to wrap the body in a tarp, along with the excised bits and pieces. It would be hauled into the boot of the stolen car waiting outside and then dumped on the edge of a small town near the border, where it would be found, but not for some hours. The message would be loud and clear, or at least it would be once the body was identified. Having loaded their macabre cargo, Paul and Maguire utilized the cold water that still trickled from a rusty tap in the barn to wash the worst of the blood away. They’d been wearing gloves and none of the cuts that Maguire had made had resulted in any sort of spray. Most of the mess had been spread by the thrashing of the body during the first few slices. Once they’d delivered the body they planned to abandon the car and then find a cheap motel, the kind that dealt in anonymity, where they could rent a room for an hour, just long enough to wash up before calling the club to collect them. All in all, Paul considered it a very satisfactory day’s work, considering it was his twenty-fifth birthday.
2007
Ashleigh didn’t recognize the woman staring back at her from the mirror. The lady in the glass was beautiful. Her reflection was so perfectly put together she looked like a china doll. She looked cool, calm and collected. Ashleigh felt like her heart was about to beat out of her chest, or at least it would if it could get past her ribs, which were almost painfully constricted
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