“The sows in the pot are probably ready for their heads to come off.” Mr Rogers observed, turning to the two dads. “It’s best to do that before they start sinking otherwise you can end up with hair in the stew and nobody wants that!” They chuckled in agreement. “Do you think you can handle that while I finish parting out this meat?” He gestured to the tender remains of the two young women on the table then picked up a large knife in a hard protective case and offered it handle-first to the two men. They looked from one to the other nervously, both rather intrigued by the idea but somewhat lacking the confidence that they could pull it off professionally and Henry especially unsure whether, as willing as he was and as much as he was looking forward to her meat, as well as the experience of watching her and their daughter cooking, he could actually be the one to behead his wife. As the silent exchange between them continued, each second seemed to stretch into an eternity before Adoela reached out and took the offered handle.

“I’ll take that, I think!” She shook her head and tutted in mildly annoyed amusement. “Honestly! Why do I ever expect men to handle things for themselves?” This earned her a chuckle from the gathered audience of guests, some of whom were starting to drift off towards the patio, ready for the next big show, while others seemed to want to stay to watch the young meat parted out and secure their places at the front of the queue. Still others were heading back over to watch the teens on their spits, still humping them with shameless enthusiasm as they turned slowly over the glowing coals. The two dads hung their heads sheepishly.

“Have you done this before?” Mr Rogers asked as Adeola drew the blade from its sheath and looked at it approvingly. “I could come over and show you if…” He fell silent as she shot him a look that suggested if he continued talking, she might practice her beheading technique on him. “Okay! Well I’ll be here if you need me.” She gave him a curt nod and re-sheathed the knife the strode purposefully towards the stew pot with its three rather inebriated occupants.

“Uh-oh!” Emily giggle theatrically when she saw Adeola approaching, the large knife in her hand and a determined expression on her face. “Here comes the chopper to chop off our heads!” All three women giggled. As well as the two dads who followed her, Laura and Emily’s husbands were let through to the front of the huddle to watch their wives’ final moments.

“Okay piggies!” Adeola stood with her arms folded, tapping the blade against her bicep, her stern expression belied by the warmth in her eyes as she addressed her friends. “Who’s first!”

“Oh! Oh!” Emily bounced up and down, waving her hand like a child desperate to be called on by the teacher, causing the broth to slosh around and a little to slop over the side of the pot. “Do me first!”

“Yes, please do!” Laura rolled her eyes. “Or we’ll never hear the end of it!!” Beth raised her glass and shrugged to indicate that she had no objection. Adeola nodded and went to stand behind the bubbly and excitable women who had long since given up on her glasses since the steam from the stew made them fog up but was still wearing her wig and holding her wine glass.

“I think I’d better take that!” Beth offered, reaching forward to take Emily’s glass after she downed the last of its contents.

“Take this too!” Emily offered, pulling off her wig revealing the smooth dome of her head beneath but instead of passing it to her friend, threw it playfully in her face. Beth caught it and giggled before handing it off to Emily’s husband who was stood close behind her for the best view, facing his wife. Adeloa put her strong arm around Emily’s neck as if putting her in a headlock, yanking her chin upwards, the cut deeply across her throat. Emily’s eyes went wide as if from shock and she gasped and spluttered a little but Adeola worked fast, cutting deeply all the way around her neck before passing the knife to her husband who accepted it meekly, taking hold of Emily’s head with both hands then giving it a sharp twist to snap the neck, lifting it away with a look of triumph and the headless body fell forward, blood spraying rather weakly from the next stump onto the other two women in the pot and one or two observers who had stood too close.

“You might as well just put that back in!” Emily’s husband suggested as Adeola looked from the head in the hands to the three spikes that had been set up. “She shaved specially!”

“Good thinking!” Adeola nodded in agreement before taking the knife back from her husband, wiping it on her apron and using it to shave the brows above Emily’s eyes which had moved backwards. “Catch!” she grinned, throwing the head to Laura who caught it instinctively, dropping her own wine-glass into the stew.

“Here, let me!” Beth offered, passing the two glasses she held to Henry then leaning forward to fish around for the dropped glass. Reaching past a lifeless, fleshy bulge which was either one of Emily’s breasts or her belly, she found it behind Laura’s foot and pulled it up, passing it and the others to her husband who dutifully took them and set them aside. Laura dropped the severed head into the stew where it landed with a splash that made the two surviving pot-mates giggle again with many of the guests finding their amusement infectious and joining in.

“I guess it’s my turn next!” Laura grinned, as relaxed as if she was waiting to vote or use a public toilet rather than to be beheaded. “Is there anything I need to do?” Now that Emily’s body was floating what would have been face down if she still had a face, the space in the pot had slackened a little.

“Maybe sit on your hands.” Adeola suggested. “That way your arms won’t thrash and you won’t be tempted to fight me when your survival instincts take over.”

“You’re the boss!” Laura smiled, plunging her arms into the simmering broth and adjusting herself so that her hands were well and truly pinned beneath her meaty rump, her boobs still gently bobbing on the surface, being bumped now and then by Emily’s shoulder. “Okay!” she smiled up at her knife-wielding friend, “Ready!” This time, as she had something to grip, Adeola did not put her compliant victim in a headlock but rather took a good handful of her relatively short hair and tugged it upwards. The fact that Laura was sitting on her hands meant that her shoulders stayed down, leaving her neck perfectly exposed to the large butcher’s knife.

Standing behind her and starting under her left ear, Adeola drew the blade across Laura’s throat, cutting deeply so as to make the slaughter quick. Like Emily, Laura looked surprised then a little bloody saliva bubbled out from her mouth as she instinctively tried to breath despite the blood pouring from her wound into the broth. Not pausing for a second, Adeola cut all the way around, down to the bone, then, entrusting the knife to her husband once more, snapped Laura’s neck with a firm twist. This time, she went straight to the spikes and rammed the severed head onto the left-most one. Unlike Emily’s, Laura’s headless body did not slump forward but rather remained in a sitting position as it slid down, the fountaining next stump still projecting its gory display upwards until it disappeared below the surface, causing the blood to bubble up in a small dome for a second or two before it stopped all together.

Many of the guests pointed out to each other in excitement how Laura’s mouth seemed to be twitching as if she was trying to speak and her eyes continued to dart around for several seconds before she finally fell still, although whether these movements were deliberate, proving that her brain continued to function for nearly a minute after her head was cut from her body or whether they were simply the involuntary movements of dying nerves, nobody but Laura could know for sure, and she was certainly not in a position to explain her findings.

“And then there was one!” Beth remarked brightly, realising that she was the only one of her three friends to still have a head. “Well,” she addressed the guests, ever the gracious hostess, “thank you all so much for coming! I hope you have a wonderful afternoon and enjoy all the food and please,” she smiled warmly, “if there’s any left, please do take some home for later! My Henry might have a big appetite but I don’t think even he could handle all the leftovers on his own!” This earned her a warm chuckle from her guests and several called out their thanks, compliments on the party so far and assurances of their eagerness to taste her meat. “Okay!” she smiled up at Adeola. “Over to you! Goodbye everyone!”


To be continued...