UPDATE 04/11/21


“Hello, Skye.” The Head Teacher, Mrs Williams, smiled as the nervous young girl entered her office. “Thank you for coming to see me. Don’t worry!” she gave a reassuring smile and waved her hand. “You’re not in any sort of trouble. Quite the opposite, actually! Would you like to sit down?” Skye did as she was asked, pulling one of the small but comfy chairs close to Mrs Williams’ desk and sitting down demurely, waiting to hear what the Head Teacher had to say.

“First of all,” the kind-faced lady smiled, “we are all incredibly proud of the show you put on Saturday night. I’m not sure if anyone’s told you yet but, combining the ticket sales and the donations made on the night, you set a new record in terms of money raised! No,” she chuckled a little, “that doesn’t really convey how well you did.” She leant forward in her chair, her hands clasped on the desk. “You raised just over four times what was raised last year!” Skye’s eyes were wide – she knew the night had been a success but this was beyond her wildest dreams! “So this school and the borough owe you a huge thanks!” Skye glowed with pride. “And I’m sure you’re aware that videos people made on the night have been attracting quite a lot of attention online?” Skye nodded, biting her lower lip a little.

“Well,” the Head Teacher smiled broadly, “this morning I received an email with a very exciting offer! It’s from the Sidney’s Entertainment Network and they’re planning a series of short educational films about historical and contemporary execution methods, aimed at eleven to fifteen year olds and they’d like you to host them!” She passed a sheet of printer paper across the desk so that Skye could read the offer for herself. Her eyes went a little wide when she saw the figure on the paper.

“Wow!” she gasped. “They’d pay me all that for twelve fifteen minute episodes?”

“No, dear.” Mrs Williams chuckled. “That’s the fee per episode!” Now Skye was truly dumbstruck. “The school would act as your agent in this case,” she explained, “since you would be filming mostly during school hours, so we will receive a fee of roughly twelve percent of what they’re paying you, on top of that figure there of course!” she reassured the young girl quickly. “So you will be helping the school too! Your parents will have to agree to it too of course but I can’t imagine that being a problem?”

“Oh no but…” Skye stared intently at the text on the paper, turning it over to make sure there was no small-print that she’d missed. “This isn’t one of those deal where I have to get executed myself in the last episode is it? Because I’d not be up for that I’m afraid! I’ve heard of girls getting modelling contracts only to find that by taking it, they’re obligated to be cooked at the product launch and stuff like that…”

“Certainly not!” Mrs Williams assured her. “In fact I went over all that sort of thing in a call with the producer earlier, it was already early afternoon where he was! They assured me there are no such catches or hidden clauses and, if it’s a success, they will want to option you for a further twenty four episodes and potentially other presenting work too. They said you had a natural charisma and way with an audience that is exactly what they’re looking for in a host.”

“Wow, it really sounds great!” Skye struggled to take it all in. “And they’re filming here? I don’t have to fly to America or anything?”

“That’s right. They have a studio about an hour away. They hope to film all twelve episodes across three weeks so there won’t be too much disruption for you. All costumes, equipment and volunteers will be arranged by them. Often you will be carrying out the executions yourself but sometimes there will be assistants to help you if it’s something that requires more than one person or needs an adult’s physical strength.”

This was very good news for Skye. Knowing that audience participation was the key to getting them engaged, making sure they had a great time and were more likely to make extra donations on top of their already fairly substantial ticket price, she had allowed members of the audience to put most of her volunteers to death, apart from the “witches” of course, but she relished the chance to carry out the executions but her own hand, to watch the light go out in her volunteers’ eyes and know that she was the one who had snuffed out that spark.

“I’m in!” she grinned. “So what happens next?”

“Well now that I’ve spoken to you,” smile the Head Teacher, “I will call your parents and get their permission, which I’m sure is just a formality, then I’ll set up a video call for you this afternoon with the producer in California and the local production team if we can get hold of them. I know their keen to start filming pretty soon. The show was already in pre-production and I think they were going to use a CGI host but they they saw your videos and decided yours was the face they wanted on their show!” Skye beamed happily, blushing a little. Mrs Williams looked at the clock on the wall above her office door.

“Hmm…” she mused. “It’s a bit late to go to your lesson now, we don’t want to disrupt the class. Go to the library until break time then you can join your class again afterwards. I’ll try to get the meeting set up and send a message for you at afternoon registration. Is that okay?”

“Yes, Mrs Williams. Thank you.” Skye smiled, standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder. “See you this afternoon I hope!”

The library was quiet – no classes in there at the moment, and after smiling politely at the Librarian, Skye found a table in the corner. With no homework she needed to be doing, she went and found her favourite book in the collection and brought it back to her table. It was a large hardback called “Crime and Punishment – A Visual History” and it contained detailed descriptions various torture and execution methods from ancient history up to the present day, complete with photographs, where available, of original devices such as the Maiden in Edinburgh museum, the block from the Tower of London, the electric chair from Sing-Sing and various medieval torture devices from museums around the world as well as lavish and very graphic photographs of modern replicas in action. This book, in fact, had been her main inspiration for the record-breaking Halloween entertainment she had arranged, although she had given many of the methods of execution a more theatrical spin of course.

This series, by the sounds of it, was going to be a chance to revisit some of her favourite methods and explore some new ones. She wondered how much creative control she would have and what kinds of “victims” she’d be offered. The pictures in the book had gone for historical accuracy, with mostly rough-looking adults meeting their end, probably real condemned prisoners who had agreed to take part in this project for some kind of Death Row perks. Fun as it might be to execute some adults, she couldn’t help hoping that the “prisoners” would be more within her own demographic, the age of the students that the series was aimed at.

There were so many ideas in the book that she had not yet had a chance to try out, either because they would take too long, lacked the required theatricality or required specialist skills that she could not rely on an audience to have. There was death by drowning, hanging by noose, both with long and short drops, covering someone in honey and leaving them staked out to be eaten by ants and, of course, the one that she dreamt of the most, the Blood Eagle where a prisoner’s back would be cut open and their rib-cage spread to resemble grotesque, bloody wings! Would there be a way to do that on the show, she wondered? The tingle between her legs was strong! She wished she was alone in her bedroom or, better still, somewhere alone with Mr Goode or even Valentine’s brother Marius! That was a thought – she must make sure that the producers knew she was already committed to Valentine’s parents’ party so wouldn’t be available in case they wanted to film that day.

About five minutes before the end of lesson bell was due to ring, Skye somewhat reluctantly put the book back on the shelf and went to wait outside the classroom where she should have been, ready to meet Valentine as she came out. The first thing she was going to buy when she got paid, she promised herself, was a personal copy of the Crime and Punishment book! Perhaps the Sidney’s Entertainment Network would want to put out a book based on her new show to accompany the series? That would be something else! As she walked to meet her friend, she imagined page after page with photographs of herself in various costumes, putting any number of naked boys and girls to death in a variety of creative and gruesome ways!

“Hey stranger!” Valentine slipped her arm through Skye’s again when she saw her waiting outside the classroom. The pretty Mediterranean girl tossed her thick, dark brown hair and giggled. “I thought you’d got arrested or something!”

“Oh no!” grinned Skye, “Nothing like that!” As they walked together to the bathroom, the excited redhead explained the proposition and about the meeting she would hopefully be having that afternoon.

“Wow!” Valentine’s eyes were wide and sparkling. “That sounds amazing! Look at you, Superstar!” She gave her friend a strong hug of genuine delight and warmth. “But you’re still coming to my party, right?”

“Hell yeah!” Skye playfully lifted her friend’s school shirt and slapped her tights-clad rump quite hard. “No way I’m missing out on a slice of this!”

“Hey!” Valentine protested, giggling as she pushed her skirt back down too late to avoid appreciative whistles from some Year Nine boys which she took with good humour. Just then, they noticed Marius coming around the corner, laughing with two of his friends. Seeing the girls, he quickly told his friends he would catch them up and came over to greet them.

“Hi!” He gave his sister a quick hug around the shoulders then turned to Skye, his olive cheeks flushed pink. “Hey there!” He flashed her the dazzling grin that made many girls swoon. “I enjoyed your videos!”

“Thanks!” Now it was Skye’s turn to blush, remembering what his sister had told her about his exact comments. “It was a fun evening!”

“Yeah…” Marius looked awkwardly to one side. “Did Val tell you about the party?”

“That you’re getting snuffed to entertain the guests and they want Mistress Skye to do it?” she giggled, feeling emboldened by his bashfulness and the memory of how powerful she she had felt on those high boots, whip in hand, and relishing the chance to give that persona another outing.

“Un-huh.” Marius nodded, blushing deeper.

“So,” the preteen took a few steps toward the handsome boy and spoke slowly, as seductively as she could manage, “you want me to get you up on stage in front of all your family and their friends, strip you stark naked then slowly kill you?” She ran a hand teasingly down his chest, not stopping when she reached his belt but continuing, feeling his member hard under his trousers before cupping his balls in her hand and squeezing hard. “To crush these while everyone watches you crying like a little girl then making sure you look like one?” she released his throbbing testicles and gave the hard bulge above them a hard flick with her index finger. “Then find some entertaining way to put what’s left of you out of your misery?” Marius, his face a deep crimson, nodded weekly. “Good!” Skye said brightly, stepping back and grinning in her normal happy go lucky twelve year old way, a stark contrast to the erotic dominatrix character she had adopted moments earlier. “I think that can be arranged!”

To be continued...