Unlike the others, the two playing-card soldiers who came forward with high-pressure hoses to dissipate the blood on the lawn before it could get to sticky, and spray any of the children who requested or demanded it, which was most of them, were not members of Melanie’s team but were in face groundskeepers on the Miller’s permanent staff. The distraction they caused was enough for the metal bands holding the lobster’s limbs together to be snipped and removed and for the meat to be allowed to cool a little.

The only one of the cast-members still alive and, in fact, not yet even in any particular discomfort, Tania stood and leaned over the front of the pot for a better look at her friends. There was a delicious smell in the air for sure but she could not be certain how much of it was from them and how much originated with the broth in which she was gently simmering, broth to which she had now added another very special and personal seasoning. Andrea’s face was not visible but the expression on Becky’s was not that of anguish, rather she looked like someone frozen in the moment of climax, a pink trail of melted marshmallow trickling out of the corner of her mouth and pooling beneath her crispy red cheek.

Instructed by Melanie, the children began to line up, many of them now either dripping wet, smeared with blood or both but apparently enjoying themselves no less for it. Paper plates with the Cheshire Cat’s eerily grinning face were handed out and the children were invited to come help themselves to lobster-meat, encouraged to pull it straight off the carcasses and eat it with their hands. Strawberry was front of the queue of course and was allowed to take some from both girls. Unsurprisingly, she hungrily tore a whole breast from Becky and a piece of her leg then a big handful of rump from Andrea. Her friends followed, guided by the soldiers to pick from one or the other with promises that they could come back for seconds.

The deep-fried meat, crispy on the outside yet moist and tender within pulled away from the bones with ease, especially in the fleshier parts of the bodies that the youngsters tended to be drawn to. Pushing her way back to the front of the line before everyone had quite been served their first helping, as she saw as her right as both Birthday Girl and Queen, girl-grease and flecks of crispy red skin smeared around her mouth, not to mention the front of her dress, Strawberry reached out and clawed Becky’s plump fillet from between her legs then asked surprisingly politely for Andrea to be turned so that she could get hers too.

With so much of the flesh from the originally-presented sides torn away, now happily being munched upon by the wealthy and privileged children who seemed, as small children in such circumstances tend to do, to have devolved into little savages, the decision was made to roll both carcasses on their sides to allow easy access to all their remaining meat. Once all the children had their share, some already following their hostess’s lead by coming back for more, although most of them asking politely if was allowed, the adults were invited to come and partake which most of them did with great enthusiasm.

With the girls both on their sides, their fronts towards the cooking pot and rumps, or what was left of them at any rate, facing where the audience had sat, the caterers in their soldier costumes cut their bellies open and pulled out their viscera, putting the cooked edible organs such as liver, kidneys and heart back on the platter for anyone who might fancy them and removing the intestines and other inedible offal which would be offered as a treat after the party to the Miller’s three dogs as a reward for their good behaviour while locked inside for the duration.

Although not officially announced as part of the entertainment, several of the children had noticed Gemma’s carcass being hung by the ankles from a portable butchering frame to drain, sharp hooks through the backs of her ankles, and had gone to watch the processing, Strawberry included, plate of crispy lobster meat in one hand and chunk of deep-fried flesh that had once been part of Andrea’s vulva in the other from which she took bites from time to time. They watched in fascination then giggled as her belly was sliced open and innards tumbled out with a wet splat in a steaming pile of the grass.

One of the expert butchers on the team then carefully carved out her lovely plump fillet then made several chops with a heavy cleaver, splitting flesh, sinew and bone, until the two halves of the carcass swung apart and dangled freely. The same high-pressure hose that had been used to clean Gemma’s blood off the lawn, not to mention the party guests, was now employed the clinging gore from her insides.

“Excuse me?” Tania sat up in surprised. Once the children had started helping themselves to her deep-fried friends, she had sat back down and enjoyed the increasingly warm broth, closed her eyes and resumed adding her own personal seasoning to the mixture. “Excuse me, Miss Turtle?” The voice came again, not angry or insistent, just with the tone of someone who thinks they may not have been heard the first time. Looking over the side, she saw a small girl, five years old at the absolute most, in a cute Cheshire Cat costume, a furry onesie with pink and purple stripes but no hood and matching ears on an Alice band poking out from in amongst her pretty blonde ringlets.

“Hello, my dear!” Tania smiled down at her in her character voice. “What can I do for you? I’d invite you to join me in my bath but I fear cats do not make very good soup! Especially Cheshire ones! It’s the whiskers, you see!” she explained as the small child giggled. “Quite indigestible!”

“Oh no!” the little girl grinned. “I was just wondering if you would like to try some lobster? It’s very good!” She picked up a piece of indeterminate origin for her place and held it out to Tania, offering it to her. Pulling her hand out of the water, the parboiled girl shook most of the trips off then graciously took the proffered treat. As the sweet child looked at her expectantly, she took a bite, then another, then popped the final piece into her mouth and chewed, savouring the delicious flavour.

Getting to try her friends’ meat was not a treat she had expected and the taste was even better than she could have anticipated. The tender, moist, fast-cooked meat melted in her mouth and carried a feeling of decadence, of no expense spared, just as lobster is supposed to! She only wished that her fellow cast-members could know how delectable their deep-fried bodies were!

“Thank you, dear child!” she beamed down at the happy little girl. “Most tender and exquisite! But pray, do leave room for some Mock Turtle and oyster soup!”

“Oh I will!” the cute little cherub grinned. “Don’t worry! You look absolutely yummy!” and with that she skipped off, whether to fetch some more lobster for herself or to watch Gemma being butchered Tania could not say for, once she had turned away, the green-skinned girl closed her eyes once more and sank back down into the steaming, gently-bubbling broth and waited for delicious oblivion to claim her.


To be continued…