Consumed

Tammy jumped off the bed and pulled the duvet from underneath Dan, with some effort. As soon as he was clear of it she threw it over his dying body to hide what she had been doing. A quick look around the room to make sure everything was okay. She nodded with satisfaction. If she just stood in the doorway, to greet her brother, he wouldn’t be able to see the blood which had sprayed the wall next to her bed.

Another knock on the door.

Tammy casually walked over to the door and opened it ever so slightly — enough for her brother to see her but not enough for him to see into the room without having to strain past her and, even if he did, the blood wouldn’t be as noticeable as a body on her bed.

“You’ve been snacking, haven’t you?” he said.

“What? No. What are you talking about?”

He pointed to her face which, she had forgotten, was coated in bits of Dan. Johnny pushed past her and stepped into the bedroom, “What have you been doing?” he asked when he stopped by the blood splatter on the wall. His eyes fixed on the lump underneath the duvet — the duvet which was also starting to show blood slowly seeping through it. “What the hell, Tammy?”

“Don’t tell dad!”

“Not sure how we’re going to hide this,” he said. He pulled back the duvet and saw the full horror of what she had been doing whilst left to her own devices. “Fuck… Was he at least still drugged whilst you… Well… That….” he pointed to where Dan’s penis used to be. Tammy looked to the floor in shame. “Brutal.”

“I got carried away.”

“Yeah, you did. Damn Tammy, you know mum hates it when we snack between meals. And this… This is just wasteful. You know she’s preparing dinner as we speak right now, right? We won’t get through that and this before it goes bad. I don’t even want to know what dad is going to say.”

“We could hide the body,” Tammy said, suddenly, as she desperately clutched at straws.

“You know that won’t work.”

“Could make it look as though he ran away?”

“They wouldn’t stop looking for him. They’d be too afraid he’d bring someone back to help his friends. Jesus Christ, what were you thinking?”

“I was hungry!”

“And you couldn’t wait a couple more hours? Or even have a biscuit? We can’t hide this from mum and dad.”

Tammy sat on the bed, deflated. The bliss she had from the taste of flesh was all but a distant memory now as she realised the disappointment and anger she’d cause her parents when they discovered what she had done.

“You’re better off telling them sooner rather than later,” said Johnny, “you never know, she may not have started preparing the meat… Could save her selection for another day.” He paused, “Do you want me to tell them?”

Tammy nodded. A scared little girl.

* * *

Even though the picture of Robert made him out to be tall — it’d still have come as a shock had you seen him face to face for the picture didn’t do his true height, six foot five inches, any kind of justice. He was an imposing figure with muscles clearly bulging under his tight v-neck t’shirts, despite the fact he was in his sixties. His face, mostly hidden behind a shaggy grey beard which didn’t match the colour of the hair on his head, permanently seemed to have a scowl upon it — something which made his height even more scary in reality.

He was standing in an old wooden barn, set back behind the house, muttering to himself whilst skinning a deer which hung from the barn’s rickety rafters. Hayley was hanging, next to the deer, by her feet. A look of sheer panic on her gagged face. Robert pulled the knife he was using, from the deer’s carcass, and gave the blade a careful lick.

“Dad?”

Johnny’s voice from the barn’s doorway startled Robert, not that it showed.

“Didn’t I tell you not to disturb me whilst I’m working, boy?”

Johnny didn’t answer him. Instead he waited, with Tammy by his side, for his father to turn to face him — something which didn’t take long. Robert noticed the state of Tammy’s face immediately.

“Speak!” he demanded.

“I’m sorry, dad,” she whispered.

“What’s happened?” he asked. “Who’s blood is that?”

Tammy didn’t say anything for he knew what his temper was like and could tell he was already in one of those moods she had known from when she was a youngster — and had always feared so much. Johnny stepped in to help his sister.

“It’s the guy we put in her bedroom,” Johnny said.

“What about him?” Robert demanded.

“He tried to run,” Johnny lied. Tammy didn’t deny it. Instead she let her brother continue lying for her. “She didn’t have a choice…” he insisted.

“Where is he now?” Robert asked.

“He’s in the bedroom…” said Johnny. “She didn’t have a choice…”

Robert snarled as he pushed his way past his children to see what had happened. He knew the only way of knowing for sure was to see with his own eyes.

CHAPTER NINE

Tammy was sitting at a large kitchen table with tears in her eyes. Her face was still bloodied from her earlier feeding frenzy. Her hands rested, shaking, on the table surrounded by various bowls of vegetables.

Johnny was sitting with her, “It’ll be fine,” he told her.