(2011) The Gift of Death Read Online Free PDF Page A

As his friend opened the case, Raymond saw a flash of reflected light. He tried to focus on the object in the case, but it kept slipping out of view. As the man walked towards him Raymond realised his friend was carrying a scalpel.
     
    Again, Raymond tried to scream, but no matter how hard he tried he could not utter a sound.
     
    ‘ Do you know what I’m going to do?’ said the man. ‘That’s a purely rhetorical question, as I know you can’t answer me. So let me fill you in. By the way, just so you’re up to date and running with what’s going on, I’ve injected you with a drug that renders you paralysed and unable to speak. That does not mean, however, you will not feel pain. I think you’ll find that your nervous system will register every little cut that I’m going to make into your skin. Let’s see, shall we?’
     
    Raymond tried to struggle, but he remained as immobile and inert. Only his eyes seemed to register the terror.
     
    The stranger began by cutting the clothes from Raymond’s body, occasionally letting the scalpel graze his skin. He worked quickly and efficiently and, in a matter of minutes, had stripped Raymond down to his underwear. Blood seeped out of the tiny cuts on his body, gradually turning his white boxer shorts a deep shade of red.
     
    ‘ That’s better, we can see what we’re working with now, can’t we?’
     
    The man looked Raymond up and down like a piece of meat, ready to be carved and butchered.
     
    ‘ You’re most probably wondering what I’m doing and why I am doing it,’ he said, calmly. ‘By now you’ll have probably worked out that I am not one of your net buddies nor do I regularly visit web sites devoted to the abuse and exploitation of small children. In fact, you and your sort disgust me, do you know that?
     
    ‘ And it’s about time somebody taught you a lesson. You should realise that you can’t go about satisfying your every whim, satiating your sick appetite for filth and obscenity with as little thought as a kid reaching for another cookie from the cookie jar. There have to be consequences, you see. You have to be punished. You do understand that, Raymond, don’t you?’
     
    With one quick flick of his wrist the stranger cut Raymond’s boxer shorts from his tubby waist. He picked up the swathes of the blood-soaked material – they reminded him of something from his childhood, the jolly red ribbons at an Easter parade – and dumped them with the rest of the clothes in a large black refuse bag which he had placed next to Raymond in the bath.
     
    ‘ You see, Raymond, I’ve been watching you,’ he said, staring down at his victim, his penis a shrivelled, bloodied snail almost curled in upon itself. ‘Listening into a few of your chat room exchanges. And what you’ve been doing just isn’t right. Looking at the pictures of those poor kids. Night after night masturbating over those images. Swapping sick photos with your pervert buddies. But why choose you, I hear you think. Good question, Raymond. You’ve never actually touched a child, never done anything with a kid. True. But I always think prevention is better than cure, don’t you? And it would be awful if you ever did anything to hurt little David and Jo-Ann. Yes, that’s right, I know the names of your kids. And your wife, Toni. So you see, what I’m doing now is actually for your benefit, Raymond. You see the logic, right?’
     
    With his gloved hands the stranger manoeuvred Raymond on to his back. He took hold of his hairy legs and pushed them forwards, so that Raymond’s knees were almost touching his face. Drops of blood from his groin dropped on to his cheeks and a stream of dark red liquid ran into the corner of his mouth.
     
    ‘ Can you taste that, Raymond? How d’you like the taste of it? Nice, eh?’ He smacked his lips in mock appreciation, as if he were pretending to eat a delicious strawberry sundae. ‘My guess is you are in quite a bit of discomfort at the moment.