Goodbye Claude
He hands me a metallic claw and tells me to hurt.
Hurt them. He says. Hurt them until they are no longer they and you are no longer you. Until their screams and blood and tears wake you deeper into the lovely dream you are living.
The claws dig deep into flesh. Vulnerable, they are. Men with beards, women with beards, and children, lovely children with wide open eyes and red mouths open in horror. Open. I open each of them with my weapon. They scream before my arm strikes and quiet when the silver enters into their soft warm bodies.
Claude is his name. Claude who is tortured, who hands me these beautiful weapons. Claude who makes no sense. Claude who rages on quietly with a vicious smirk and tells me his name is Baptisto-Ramonov.
The thigh is my favorite place to strike. It is the only place to strike in children. It is harder to aim for the glutes as they are constantly running towards me. Sometimes a backhand strike is just as delicious. I can see them, frozen, in space. The claw, firmly planted into their side.
Baptisto-Romanov screams to me that I am not producing enough pain. Too much blood has been shed, not enough pain! How do you know Claude? I ask. How do you know I am not producing enough pain? Sometimes silence hurts the most. No, he says, silence hurts you.
Claude hands me another weapon.
Shock them. He says. Make them jump three feet in the air. When they start to laugh I will give you a prize. I will give you a prize that is worthy of Baptisto and Romanov.
It is so clean, this heavy white belt. I cannot see myself in the reflection. I can only see my fingers gliding over the metallic square on the other side of this belt. It feels wonderful.
He brings me a young girl. He tells me to turn up the dial at the handle of the belt. He tells me to whip her and see how high she will jump.
So I do. And she jumps a foot in the air, screaming.
What is my prize Claude? What is the prize worthy of Baptisto and Romanov?
He does not answer. So I hit him.
Baptisto! He screams. I calculate that he has jumped three feet in the air. I hit him again.
Romanov! I hit him again and again. He jumps higher and higher until I don’t see him anymore.
Goodbye Claude! I laugh. Goodbye!
©hRj 2007
