Free Consumed by Matt Shaw Page A

friends. Jesus Christ, what were you thinking?”
     
    “I was hungry!”
     
    “And you couldn’t wait a couple more hours? Or even have a biscuit? We can’t hide this from mum and dad.”
     
    Tammy sat on the bed, deflated. The bliss she had from the taste of flesh was all but a distant memory now as she realised the disappointment and anger she’d cause her parents when they discovered what she had done.
     
    “You’re better off telling them sooner rather than later,” said Johnny, “you never know, she may not have started preparing the meat...Could save her selection for another day.” He paused, “Do you want me to tell them?”
     
    Tammy nodded. A scared little girl.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    Even though the picture of Robert made him out to be tall - it’d still have come as a shock had you seen him face to face for the picture didn’t do his true height, six foot five inches, any kind of justice. He was an imposing figure with muscles clearly bulging under his tight v-neck t’shirts, despite the fact he was in his sixties. His face, mostly hidden behind a shaggy grey beard which didn’t match the colour of the hair on his head, permanently seemed to have a scowl upon it - something which made his height even more scary in reality.
     
    He was standing in an old wooden barn, set back behind the house, muttering to himself whilst skinning a deer which hung from the barn’s rickety rafters. Hayley was hanging, next to the deer, by her feet. A look of sheer panic on her gagged face. Robert pulled the knife he was using, from the deer’s carcass, and gave the blade a careful lick.
     
    “Dad?”
     
    Johnny’s voice from the barn’s doorway startled Robert, not that it showed.
     
    “Didn’t I tell you not to disturb me whilst I’m working, boy?”
     
    Johnny didn’t answer him. Instead he waited, with Tammy by his side, for his father to turn to face him - something which didn’t take long. Robert noticed the state of Tammy’s face immediately.
     
    “Speak!” he demanded.
     
    “I’m sorry, dad,” she whispered.
     
    “What’s happened?” he asked. “Who’s blood is that?”
     
    Tammy didn’t say anything for he knew what his temper was like and could tell he was already in one of those moods she had known from when she was a youngster - and had always feared so much. Johnny stepped in to help his sister.
     
    “It’s the guy we put in her bedroom,” Johnny said.
     
    “What about him?” Robert demanded.
     
    “He tried to run,” Johnny lied. Tammy didn’t deny it. Instead she let her brother continue lying for her. “She didn’t have a choice...” he insisted.
     
    “Where is he now?” Robert asked.
     
    “He’s in the bedroom...” said Johnny. “She didn’t have a choice...”
     
    Robert snarled as he pushed his way past his children to see what had happened. He knew the only way of knowing for sure was to see with his own eyes.

 
     
    CHAPTER NINE
     
     

 
     
    Tammy was sitting at a large kitchen table with tears in her eyes. Her face was still bloodied from her earlier feeding frenzy. Her hands rested, shaking, on the table surrounded by various bowls of vegetables.
     
    Johnny was sitting with her, “It’ll be fine,” he told her.
     
    The door opened revealing Robert and Andrea. Both of them looked angry.
     
    “I’m sorry,” Tammy said to them.
     
    Robert didn’t say anything. He crossed the room towards her in two single steps. He raised his hand, high in the air, and brought it down hard on Tammy’s face causing her to scream in pain.
     
    “Don’t fucking touch her!” hissed Johnny. He leapt off his seat with his fists clenched, as though ready to strike back.
     
    “Stop it!” screamed Andrea from the doorway where she had remained. “It’s not the end of the world. I haven’t started on the meat yet...Nothing’s been wasted. I’m sure I can salvage something.”
     
    “What’s wrong with you?” asked Robert.
     
    “He