This story is a commission from Digger but I hope everyone enjoys it!

Pt 1

“Well shit.” Sam slumped at the kitchen table and ran his fingers through his thinning hair. The cup of tea his best friend and long-time colleague Keith had made for him sat untouched and cooling rapidly. “That’s us ruined. Guess the dream is over?”

“What about the compensation?” Keith asked. “They said on the website that anyone subject to the action would have their losses covered?”

“Yeah.” Sam signed sardonically. “In six to eight months! Fuck…” He tried a sip of the tea but found it too cold so stood up and took it to the microwave, as much out of a need to occupy himself as a desire for the tea. “Guess we have to start looking for proper jobs after all…”

“There could be another way.” Keith observed.

“How?” Sam rounded on his friend somewhat aggressively, his frustration at the situation coming out in miss-directed anger. “We’ve been doing this for years! Buy a small pig, raise it for a year, butcher said pig and sell the meat, buy a new small pig and start over, putting the profits from the meat into the business keeping the rest of the farm afloat! No way we can afford a new piglet, even if there were any to be had which I doubt there are, let alone everything else we need to keep ticking over! Not it the fucking government are going to take the best part of a year to send us any money!”

A particularly virulent new strain of Swine Flu had been sweeping across Britain and the government had recently passed legislation that all domestic and wild pigs, whether they be in farms, zoos or private homes were to be destroyed and their carcasses removed for disposal. Teams were travelling around the country carrying out these instructions and in the mean time, a ban had been placed on the sale of all pork and derivative products. Some larger companies could potentially weather this setback but Sam knew there was no way he could.

He and Keith had been running the farm together as co-owners since Sam had inherited the property nearly ten years ago but they had been friends for far longer. At first, it had been Sam who had the resources but Keith who had the know-how. Over the years, however, Sam had learned enough to feel like he was pulling his weight although he knew he would never be half the farmer Keith was.

“There is another option.” Keith looked out the window to where their respective daughters, only weeks apart in age, firm friends and thick as thieves, were playing on the lawn. “Of course we may not be able to get another piglet but maybe a few sheep or even a calf? There’s room for a cow in the barn after all, if we partition it off.” Sam sighed.

“Well yeah it doesn’t have to be a piglet but to keep going and even think about getting another animal to raise we need meat to sell right now and, unless you know about a secret stash that I’m not aware of, we don’t have any!”

“Oh you know about it alright!” Keith chuckled, looking out the window again but more pointedly.

“What do you…” Sam suddenly realised what Keith was suggesting. “No, we couldn’t… could we?”

“It’s not illegal!” Keith shrugged. “Plus we’ve got the new little one and your Rita is pregnant so she’s going to have her hands full soon with a three year old and a newborn!”

“Well yeah I guess…” Sam looked intently out at the two cheerful, chubby little six year olds. Certainly the two of them combined would provide a similar amount of meat to the pig they were losing and, although he had never before traded in it himself, he knew that girl-meat sold for a higher per-kilo rate than pork or beef. Plus, if their usual buyer wasn’t interested, there would be plenty of others who would be. In practical terms, it made perfect sense. Could he do it, ‘though? Cut his own little girls’ throat and butcher her like a pig? He noticed that his younger daughter, three year old Anna, had wandered over to join the older girls that she looked up to greatly, considering them both to be her big sisters.

“It would make sense.” Sam conceded, taking a deep breath and removing the now-warmed cup of tea from the microwave. “Good money in that kind of thing too. Don’t think I could do it unless they were willing ‘though. What do you think? Maybe if we explain it to them and how important it is for us and the little ones they’d be up for it?”

“I think they just might!” Keith nodded slowly, thinking of the times he had caught her daughter Sophie looking at the farmyard butchering equipment and cuts of meat hanging in the freezer with fascination, and all the questions she had asked that time they’d driven past a girl-meat restaurant when visiting relatives. He was pretty sure that if she was asked, Sophie would be a willing volunteer and if Sophie was game then Becca, Sam’s daughter, was unlikely to say no. Perhaps, he thought, it might be as well to square it with their wives before asking the girls who might actually not just be willing but very excited at the prospect and disappointed if it didn’t happen because their mums vetoed the plan!

Realising it could be quite a hard sell but hoping that his wife would understand the circumstances, Sam called his wife Rita in from the next room where she was watching TV and catching up on the latest gossip with Keith’s wife Brenda. Both came in and joined their husbands at the kitchen table. Their facial expressions went from amusement when they first heard the idea, thinking it was a joke, to incredulity when they realised it was not and their the men were seriously proposing butchering their daughters and selling their meat in place of the pig that the government agents would be taking away within the next forty-eight hours, according to the phone call Sam had received.

As the men put the case, however, both mothers started to realise that it really was the only way, unless they were to uproot the families and potentially face ruin, losing everything they had all worked so hard for over the last decade. On top of this, as sad as they would be to lose their children, both had to admit their lives would be greatly simplified by having one less to care for! Eventually, they agreed to the farmers’ plan but on the condition that, as Sam had said, the girls would have to be willing.

“Hey!” Sam’s eldest daughter, thirteen year old Melissa wandered in, having heard the sounds of earnest conversation from her room above and wanting to know what the adults were plotting. Sam and Rita had had her when they were very young, only in their late teens themselves and still just dating. She had been a mistake, or a happy accident as they preferred to put it, and neither had been ready for a child yet learning to care for her had brought them closer together and cemented their relationship, resulting in their eventual marriage. Becca, Anna had been planned although the one who was now on their way had not been. “What’s going on in here? Why’s everyone looking so serious?”

Hearing the explanation, Melissa was intrigued but also a little concerned. Did their plans also involve her, she wondered? Would she find herself sold to some fancy restaurant to make way for the new baby? As if guessing her thoughts, Sam reached out and put a reassuring hand on her arm and promised that they only had plans to butcher and sell the six year olds. If she, at some point in the future, wanted to either volunteer or sell her meat that would, of course, be her own decision but not one that they would be forcing on her. Still, the young teen did not like the rather hungry way her dad’s best friend was looking at her. Maybe her own parents were not seeing her as potential meat but Keith certainly was!

Since there was no more discussion to be had, the men decided that they should go out and put the suggestion to the girls. Melissa and the two mothers stayed inside, looking anxiously out the window to see how they would react. It seemed as if the dads tried to get little Anna to give them some privacy but she didn’t seem to want to leave. The two pretty youngsters listened with interest as the plan was laid out for them. They looked at each other and exchanged some words while Sam and Keith watched anxiously. Then they bust out in giggles and happily made some announcement to the farmers. Keith turned to the watching woman and gave them a thumbs-up through the window. Anna then seemed to ask a question and Sam knelt down to talk to her but then she burst into tears and Sam stood up, looking confused. The whole party of five made their way down to the house and joined the others in the kitchen.

“Well, we’ve got ourselves two very willing little piggies!” Keith grinned, patting his own daughter on her denim-clad backside, “but a bit of an issue with the little one!”

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Rita knelt down and held out her arms to her youngest daughter who ran to her tearfully. “Are you going to miss you sister? Worried that it’s going to hurt? I promise Daddy will make sure she doesn’t feel very much pain at all!”

“No!” Anna replied through angry tears. “It’s not fair Becca gets to be meat and I don’t!”

“Oh!” Her mother wasn’t sure how to react. This was not an issue she had anticipated. She looked up at her husband who gave her an apologetic shrug, clearly as nonplussed as she was. “Maybe in a few years,” she began tentatively, “we could think about…”

“NO!” snapped Anna, furious now that her wishes were not being taken seriously. “If I don’t get eaten, Becca doesn’t get eaten!” She glared at her mother.

“Here’s an idea!” Melissa suggested. “You weren’t going to butcher the pig until tomorrow anyway, right?” She looked at her dad who nodded, “So you don’t need to do the girls tonight either. Why don’t you three stay for dinner,” she indicated Keith, Brenda and Sophie, “and we can have Anna tonight? Roast her like a chicken! Would be a nice send-off for the piggies, right? And Anna gets her wish too!” Rita looked a little uncertain at her eldest daughter’s suggestion but little Anna visibly brightened.

“Would you like that?” She asked her little daughter. “To be cooked like a chicken for dinner tonight?” Anna nodded very enthusiastically. “Well what does everyone else think?” She looked around the group a little desperately but all she saw was a sea of happy faces, already apparently imagining the little blonde stuffed, trussed up and in the oven turning a delicious golden brown. “I guess that’s decided then!” She glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. “If she’s going to be cooked in time for dinner, you’d better… you know, pretty quickly.” She set Anna down on the floor who ran first to her big sister, giving her a massive hug, then to her dad.

“Come on!” She grinned up at him, grabbing his hand and trying to pull him out the door towards the barn where she knew he kept the block and axe for cutting the heads off the chickens and geese they occasionally ate for dinner.

“Okay, okay!” Sam chuckled, kneeling down. “We need to get you undressed first. Don’t want your nice clothes to get all bloody!”

“I’ll be in the other room.” Rita informed him. “You guys do what you need to do. I’m happy to do the cooking but I don’t want to see the… other stuff. Just bring me a prepared carcass and I’ll do the rest.” She left, followed by Brenda and the two six year olds but Melissa stayed behind, apparently eager to watch. Sam thought for a moment about asking Keith to do the deed but decided he owed it to his little daughter to kill her himself.

Quickly, as if he were getting her ready for the bath as he had done so many times before, he helped the little girl off with her clothes. He knew she really needed washing but decided that would be easy to do once she was dead, especially as she seemed so eager to get on with it! Holding her hand, Sam led his naked daughter out the kitchen and across the lawn to the barn, followed close behind by his eldest daughter.

Once in the barn, Anna ran straight for the chopping block and knelt in front of it with her delicate young next exposed. Sam took off his shit and put on the leather apron he always wore when butchering any animal and advised Melissa to stand well back, out of the splatter-zone as he put it.

“Are you sure about this, darling?” He asked Anna. “You know you don’t have to…”

“Hurry up and cut my head off so Mummy can cook me!” Anna insisted slightly angrily before adjusting her attitude and grinning endearingly up at him. “I love you, Daddy!” She sent him an air-kiss.

“I love you too, pumpkin. Now close your eyes.” Anna did as she was told. With a deep breath, Sam raised the axe above his head, determined to make a clean cut and not let his little daughter suffer, then brought it down with a thud, neatly severing her pretty blonde head from her body. The head fell onto the ground and rolled a little while her body, blood spurting from the neck onto the surrounding straw, reared up for a moment before falling backwards. Anna’s cute little face looked surprised for a few moments, then confused, then finally peaceful as she stopped blinking and the light in her big green eyes went out.

Wasting no time, while his teenage daughter watched, fascinated, Sam hoisted up Anna’s headless body and hung it by the ankle from a meat-hook. He then took a filleting knife and slit her little round belly open from groin to chest and allowed her innards, intestines and other viscera to fall out, using the knife to free whatever remained attached. He then took a hose, uncoiled it and, using a narrow, high-pressure spray, cleaned the carcass inside and out. Finally, after kicking the bloody straw aside and putting down some fresh, he took the body that had once been Anna down and used the block and axe once more to remove her hands and feet. Even Melissa had to admit it was hard to recognise her sister in what appeared to be nothing more than a gutted piglet or plucked chicken. One thing she was very certain about, however, was that she was very much looking forward to dinner that evening!