The silence held as the axe came down, broken only by the swishing sound it made as it cut through the air followed by a dull thud as the blade struck the hard wood of the block. Gemma had expected pain but all she felt was a little pressure on the back of her neck as the blade struck. For a slit second she thought that something had gone wrong, that the axe had not been sharp enough and had somehow bounced off. She felt confused and a little guilty, worried that she and her colleagues had somehow failed to provide the birthday treat Queen Strawberry so craved and wondering what would happen next. She was just started to wonder whether they would have another try with the axe or simply cut her throat instead when a loud cheer went up from the audience and she felt herself start to tip forward.

“Oh!” she exclaimed simply, in realisation as she fell the short distance to the grass below but no sound came out. There was a lot of noise going on around her but she could not really make any of it out as she bounced slightly, rolled a short distance and came to rest looking up at the sky where fluffy white clouds were gently scudding overhead. One of them looked a bit like a dragon, she thought, or perhaps a crocodile. Another like a pirate ship and one more like an elephant wearing a bowler hat. They were pretty to look at. She smiled. It was getting dark. Was it that late already? How long had she been lying there? Surely the party could not be over already! No, it wasn’t getting dark like it does at night time. Instead, the darkness was creeping in from the edges of her vision. She tried to turn her head to look to either side but could not.

The dragon was looking more like a hippopotamus now and the pirate ship had broken up into two pieces, one like car and the other like a… like a… like a blob of mashed potato? It was hard to think. To focus. She was tired. She knew that she had done her job well and hoped that it would be okay to sleep now. The darkness was drawing in like the edges of an old-fashioned photograph. What was that called? Vincent? Vinaigrette? That didn’t sound right but it didn’t matter too much. The hippo that had been a crocodile, or was it a dragon, was turning into another elephant but this one didn’t have a hat, or if it did it was a very flat one. She tried to close her eyes but her eyelids didn’t seem to work, but that was okay because the darkness from the sides filled nearly her complete field of vision. The noise around her was fading, growing more distant as her vision narrowed to a single point of light then this too went out and there was silence.

A loud cheer exploded from the audience as Gemma’s pretty head dropped to the ground and her restrained body, spasming a little in its death-throes, fell to the side, sending a high-pressure spray of hot, bright red blood fountaining in a broad arc towards the audience who giggled and pranced around as it hit them, those who got more covered than others lording it over those who just got a slight splash. The body came to a rest with the neck stump pointing towards the birthday girl, the last, now slowly-oozing blood pooling around her feet. One of the playing-card soldiers picked up the severed head and rammed it firmly onto the upright pole where it would stay for at least the rest of the party. The headless body was then carried away by one of the caterers and the chopping block by two of the others as the four who had forced the lobsters into their baths of boiling oil put their gloves back on and reached in to lift them out.

The cooked bodies were easier to manoeuvrer than when they had been alive, the muscle atrophy caused by the rapid cooking, not to mention the skin which had formed into something of a crispy shell meant they stayed rigid as they were lifted and transferred onto the platters, Becky, who had the larger breasts, laid face up and Andrea face down to showcase her deliciously meaty rump. Of course all the meat from both girls would be consumed and in due course they would need to turn the carcasses to allow access to other parts but, for the moment, the contrast made for a very appetising presentation.


To be continued….