Kiss and Die

Chapter 45

Ruby was satisfied. She opened the vent above the cooker to let out the steam. She had an urge to clean. She had washed the white tiles, scrubbed the bed, she had cut up Steven Littlewood’s body, stripped the flesh from his bones and now they were sawn into manageable pieces and boiling on top of the stove.

Ruby pushed her hair back from her face, she was sweating. She was naked. She had such a lot of work to do. Why were men always so messy? Did he have to get his blood everywhere? Ruby had worked for hours, cutting up his body. When she was finished she placed her dolls back on the shelves in the lounge. Some of them still had bits of flesh stuck in their hair. They had drops of blood on their faces but Ruby had decided she had better things to do than keep cleaning. Some things just didn’t matter any more. She mustn’t waste her precious time now.

She was going down to the government hospital that morning. She had been there many times. Ruby walked along the corridors and no one noticed her. Sometimes she wore a nurse’s outfit. Sometimes she wore a white coat. Now she could give a decent injection. She could keep someone alive long after they wanted to die. Today she wanted to see if any of the babies there needed her.

The government hospital. There weren’t enough beds. There wasn’t enough staff. They always needed another pair of hands.

Ruby smiled at the good-looking young doctor as she made her way along the corridor. It was late afternoon. It was a good time for her to visit, between the doctor’s rounds. There were people asleep on the floor in the corridor. There weren’t enough beds. People lay on mattresses. Their relatives cared for them. Ruby stopped by a family: an old woman was being fed by her daughter. It was hospital congee; a watery rice soup. Ruby knelt down beside them.

‘You must be very tired,’ she said to the daughter. ‘Go home now and rest. I will look after your mother. Don’t worry.’ Ruby smiled.

The daughter hesitated but accepted gratefully. ‘Thank you, nurse.’

Ruby smiled reassuringly at her. ‘That’s what I’m here for.’

Ruby watched the daughter leave. She tied a tourniquet around the old woman’s arm and tapped the inside of her elbow to raise a vein. She slipped the needle beneath the woman’s papery skin and into the vein and then she depressed the plunger and emptied the syringe. She repeated the procedure again. Then she moved to the other arm and delivered two more ten ml doses of air.

She leaned in and whispered, ‘Thanks for letting me practise on you.’ Then she stood and went on down the corridor to the maternity unit.

As she was walking out she heard the old woman scream in agony.