“I try to make sure I choose sensitive staff.”
“Everyone I’ve met so far has been lovely. I’ve never felt so... seen.”
She was on the verge of tears. I set the machine on the tray.
“You want to talk about it?” I asked.
She couldn’t hold it anymore and began to sob. I rested my hands in my lap and lowered my head in respect, giving her the space she needed to let out her emotions.
“I just—this is awful, and yet, I can’t wait.” She sniffled, wiped her tears, and stood quickly. I rolled my chair away as she stormed over to Brad, her fists clenched. “You raped me!” she screamed. I stood and went to the wall.
“You raped me! You followed me home and then stalked me to my apartment. I fought to shut the door, but you pushed yourself inside.” She swung her fist around, hitting the side of his face. Tightly secured to my chair, only his head spun. He fought more against his restraints, but it was pointless. He wasn’t going anywhere.
I crossed my arms and watched Hailey, a third shift waitress at a diner in a small town in Colorado, swing again at the man who hurt her.
“You put a gun to my head and told me to get on myknees.” She spit on his face, and he winced, but was unable to wipe it off, so her saliva settled on his reddened cheek.
“I offered you my tip money from that night. Do you remember? I cried, begged, but you didn’t care. You made me—” She collapsed near his head and sobbed.
My chest tightened as I watched the woman break down. I wanted to go to her, comfort her, but that wasn’t what I did here. Comfort wasn’t what she needed. This was all part of the process.
Hailey and Brad weren’t the first people in this room. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen the victim explode on their assaulter. It often happened like this. Once they were in the same room, their emotions took over and I let them say and do what they had to do. So long as they didn’t kill them.
That was for later.
I didn’t blame them for the violent reactions to seeing their abusers. Their rapists, their assaulters, the men and woman that hurt them beyond repair. The very reason they couldn’t sleep at night or go anywhere alone. These monsters took so much from their victims that when they finally saw them again, the response was… understood. I had the same reactions. Each and every time. When I got one of the army wives who raped me when I was younger in my chair, something took over me. Gatsby, the mysterious, kind billionaire, disappeared; replaced by Emile, the army brat who was used and abused for his entire teenage years. The boy who never got to know real love before sex was thrust upon him. Over and over again.
My mind went back to the last woman I had at my table.
Oh, how she screamed.
Hailey stood, her blurred figure making me blink. I nodded politely, then glanced at Brad. His eyes were closed. Frowning, I checked his pulse by pressing two fingers to his neck. He was still alive.
“Are you okay?” I asked Hailey. I looked her up and down. She was just an ordinary girl, trying to make it in this world like everyone else. She shook her head, her dark brown eyes hardened as she raised the sleeve of her shirt, revealing a large jagged scar on her wrist.
“After he raped me the second time that night, I managed to get to my kitchen. I’d already called 911, but I couldn’t wait for them to show. I grabbed a knife, and as I turned back, he was there, awake, with his disgusting dick, hard and ready to do it again.” She looked at him in disgust. “We fought over the knife, and he got hold of it, and shoved me to the ground. Then, he took my arm, and dragged the knife down.” She made the motion along the pink scar that marred her Black skin.
“He told me that he was going to make it look like a suicide. The police got there before he could do my other wrist. They still let him off though. Even after the rape kit and everything.”
“I’m sorry.”
I’d heard their stories. They were painful, and heartbreaking, and there was nothing I could say that would make it better. I could only listen. Hailey wiped her tears again and nodded.
“Thank you. For all of this.” She returned to her seat across the room, and I did the same, reaching for my tattoo machine.
“Of course. I hope, when you go home on Sunday, you’ll have some peace.” I stretched Brad’s scrotum and continued the hyena Hailey had requested he get tattooed there. This would be the first of many tattoos I did on him before his last dinner.
I always allowed their victim a say in what was tattooed on them and where. Jules would give them a basic rundown of locations on the body he’d beusing for dinner, so as to not taint the meat. Once dinner was decided, we would create art for the main course to enjoy throughout the night until dinner ended.
“I think I will.” She tugged on her sleeve. “I haven’t slept well in a year. I had my sister move in with me, and I have so many cameras and locks on everything now. I get escorted to and from work, and I don’t even have a smart phone or cable anymore. I couldn’t stand to see him on my screen.”
That’s right. Brad was a local news anchor. That made him famous in their small town. That made him untouchable. They never arrested him. I listened to her story about the justice system that wronged her while I tattooed. I finished his testicles and moved to his face, writing Hailey’s name on his forehead. In his police interview, he’d called her "Harley" and pretended he didn’t know why he was there. Hailey wanted him to remember her name before he died.
He was awake for that, and he kept moving, which made tattooing him difficult. I wanted to sock him, but I was a professional at heart, and simply waited for him to stop moving before continuing.
“What do you do with the leftover pieces?” Hailey asked, after I’d set my machine down for good and ungloved. I escorted her out of the room and down to the main floor, where she’d go through the back exit and take a tinted limo to her hotel two hours away. We used different hotels each week, with different plans for each person. Our meticulous planning ensured that no dots could ever be connected to them, me, or the person that would go missing.
I smiled kindly at her and winked. “Oh, our chefs are very good at using every part of the beast. Don’t you worry about that. Let’s get you back to the hotel. I’ll call ahead and sign you up for a massage, on me.”
