Kiss and Die

Chapter 40

Ruby picked up the black doll and held her at eye level.

‘I’m sorry, baby. I should have never brought your daddy here but I was lonely. I never meant to hurt your daddy. I got frightened. He shouldn’t have tried to touch me. I am sorry, baby. Your daddy was special to me; he was the first that I kept here; he was the first that I…’ She couldn’t bring herself to say it. ‘I never meant to hurt him but then I couldn’t stop.’

She grew angry, shaking the doll without realizing. Its eyes banged in the plastic sockets.

‘I told him not to touch me. I told him. He didn’t listen.’ She stopped and breathed hard, calmed, she kissed the doll and placed it back down on the shelf. She put the photo of Ishmael in its lap. She turned back and smiled at all of the dolls. ‘Who wants to get a last look at Daddy before Mummy has to let him go?’ The dolls’ perfect little ruddy plastic faces smiled back. ‘Of course you all do,’ she laughed. She scooped the dolls up in her arms and pulled back the curtain and opened the door to her bedroom. His breathing was laboured. Ruby had removed the ball gag. There was no need to keep it. No one would hear him now. She crept in the room in the dark.

‘Shhhhh,’ she whispered into the nylon doll’s hair, ‘Daddy’s sleeping.’

He stirred as she came close. He let out a gasp of fright. It sounded strange. He had no nose, no lips, no side to his face.

Ruby put the light on, it bounced off the white tile still visible beneath the blood splatters. It threw deep shadows around the room. Steve’s wounds were still oozing.

‘Oh, Daddy’s very naughty. He’s just pretending to sleep. Shall we wake him with this?’ She picked up the electric saw.

Steve thrashed around. He tried to speak. Ruby tiptoed around him, placing each doll around the room.

‘What’s that you say? See if he’s ticklish under his arm? So sweet baby, so clever…’ She switched the saw on and knelt beside him. His arms were stretched above his head.

She brought the saw down into his armpit. He screamed. Blood and bone sprayed around the room. Ruby carried on until she had sawn through the shoulder joint. ‘There…’ She stood with the dripping saw in her hand. Ruby picked up another doll and held its mouth to her ear again. ‘What? See if Daddy is ticklish there? Ruby giggled. ‘You’re a very naughty baby. But okay…’ Ruby fired up the saw again and ran it up the length of his leg towards his groin.