Brutality 21

After Isabel removed the man’s liver, Black Sally retrieved the box containing the instruments for dismemberment. She handed hacksaws to me and Brianna, then she pulled a hatchet from the box and hacked off Cedric’s head. The Gothic Girl dragged Atreses’s already decapitated body out from underneath a work bench. She grabbed a saw and started cutting off Atrese’s three remaining limbs.

I placed my blade across Cedric’s thighs and sawed. As I cut through the flesh, muscle and bone, Lavinia’s image invaded my mind. I saw her laid on the torture table, her face covered with bloody bandages; a grotesque line of stitches was all that was left of her right breast. I saw the doctor remove a saw from his bag, preparing to amputate Lavinia’s legs. As my saw tore through the backs of the man’s thighs, I could see the doctor’s saw cutting through her legs. She screamed and screamed without being able to make a sound.

In my mind, I saw a vision of Lavinia walking out of a burning house, she stopped in front of me. Everything behind her was aflame. She wore her blood-red Victorian gown and a black mask with a red stripe running down the center. She pulled up her gown to reveal prosthetic limbs. She said, “You know what they say slave, ‘You can’t keep a good woman down.’”

The Gothic Girl tapped me on the shoulder, bringing me out of my trance. “Let’s go Clarence, these two will finish up.” I followed her to house. Dread and terror weighed heavily on my heart. Anxiety and paranoia grew larger in my mind.

Out of the corner of my eye, I kept seeing shadows running beside me. Dark and unknown figures following me along, studying me, taunting me. The Gothic Girl led me back to Lavinia’s office. We took off our bloody clothes. She went into the bathroom and got in the shower. I went in behind her, standing back from the water to avoid getting my bandages wet. She took a cloth and washed my face, arms and body. She cleaned and massaged my dick and balls with the foaming, sudsy towel.

I grabbed the towel from her hand and spread the pearly-white suds all over her naked, wet body. The water ran over her breasts and down her stomach. The soap suds dripped from her pussy lips. Her long black hair hung to the middle of her back.

We stepped out the shower and dried each other off. She looked into my eyes and pressed her lips against mine. “Clarence, we have to get dressed. They’ll be ready for the ceremony soon.” She went to a closet in the office and pulled out two black paramilitary-style outfits. She tossed me one, “Just roll up your sleeves if it’s too big.”

After we got dressed, she sat down at Lavinia’s desk and typed at her laptop. I asked, “How much stronger is Lavinia than everyone else at the table?”

The Gothic Girl stopped typing. She leaned back in her chair, “There is no comparison. Dolores and Antonija considered her to be unusually gifted when we first got here. They went harder on her, trying to get her to realize her full potential. Lavinia suffered much in those years. From the time I can remember, Lavinia has always been torturing and killing things. Even before our father sold us, she was sneaking dead and mutilated cats into her bed at night. Your suffering helps you realize your power, the suffering of others makes your power grow stronger. Once she was introduced to the torture of human beings and human sacrifice, it became her obsession; then it became her insatiable need. Her telepathic abilities quickly grew. Antonija had taken over as Matriarch by then, and she began grooming her to be a future Second-Head of the table. She was sent down south to stay with one of the most feared telepathics in this part of the world. When Lavinia returned, her power had increased substantially. She was able to do things others had thought were impossible. She became sort of the house Inquisitor, while at the same time killing on her own for her own pleasure. With each kill, she grew stronger.”

“So, what you’re saying is that she’s basically unstoppable. She already owns the table.”

“We don’t even know if she’s going to survive.”

“She’s gonna survive. You saw what happened with Brianna. You know that was Lavinia in her head. She’s downstairs getting her legs cut off at the same time she’s inside Brianna’s head, torturing and killing Cedric through Brianna and having a fucking orgasm through her as well.”

“How do you know she got her legs amputated?”

“I…I saw it in my head.”

“If Antonija sees you make a slip like that, you’ll be the one getting something amputated. Watch your tongue closely Clarence. What else did you see?”

“She was standing in front of a burning house wearing a mask and prosthetic legs.”

“Don’t tell anyone else about this, do you understand?”

“There is something else, she called me ‘slave’. I thought I was released from that.”

“Clarence, right now, your status is just as uncertain as everybody else.”

“What do you mean?”

“Who do you think is control here?”

“Lavinia.”

“She’s going to take what she wants Clarence.”

“Why don’t you stop her?”

“Why the fuck would I want to stop her? Why would you?”

“Because I don’t want to end up like Alfred. That’s why.”

“If you don’t want to end up like Alfred, then I suggest you stay out of her way and do exactly what she tells you to do. If she didn’t favor you, she would have already killed you. You see her rising to the top. You said she’s unstoppable. Who else’s side could you possibly want to be on?”

“Yours.”

“You are on my side Clarence, and I’m on yours. Don’t you think I’m going to be on my sister’s side as well.”

“No, I don’t. I think you know that you’re more fit to lead the table than she is, and that she will lead this house to destruction. I don’t think you’re on her side any more than you’re on Sally’s.”

“That’s your opinion. Keep in my mind that it’s the opinion of a person who doesn’t know shit about what’s going here. This conversation is over Clarence. It’s time for us to go downstairs.”

We took our seats at the table. Antonija rose and gave the same short speech that she gave at the start of the previous ceremony. We removed the lids from our plates and consumed the meat. It was easier the second time. In fact, I looked forward to the euphoria, clarity and feeling of power that I experienced afterward. My mind struggled to rationalize and justify the fact that I had become a cannibal.

When the ritual was over, the Gothic Girl led Sally, Isabel and me into the den. Black Sally handed me pistol with a silencer attached. The Gothic Girl said, “This should be quick and easy. They will have guns nearby so don’t sleep on these guys or fuck around. Isabel and Clarence, when the time comes, you point your gun at the man’s face and pull the trigger three times.”

I went upstairs to use the bathroom and take a moment alone before we went out killing. I turned on the faucet and bent over the sink to splash cold water on my face. When I opened my eyes and looked in the mirror, I gasped and jumped. Selene was standing right behind me; still expressionless, still silent, still drooling. I went for the door. She grabbed my throat and held me in an iron grip. She looked at me and gave me a creepy wide-eyed smile. Lavinia’s voice came out of her mouth: “You still belong to me slave. Don’t ever forget that. I’ll kill you before I release you.”