"How could you? My own daughter committing such a vile, disgusting -"

     "I'm sorry, Mum. It won't happen again."

     "Promise me."

     "I promise."

     She watched me cowering in the corner of the cupboard, the stench of urine overpowering.

     "I've tried to bring you up properly," she continued, unfastening my chains and helping me to my feet. "I couldn't believe it when old Mrs Lucas next door first complained. Told her she'd got it all wrong. That my daughter hadn't got a sadistic bone in her body. But when the police came round last night-"

     "I won't do it again," I insisted, trembling beneath her stony glare.

     "Too right you won't do it again," she growled, her gnarled fingers still gripping the bloodstained tin-opener. Unaccountably, her tone softened. "Your old Mum believes you. This time." She held out her hand. Cautiously, I tiptoed out of the darkness.

     "Do you forgive me, Mum?"

     She smiled. "I forgive you. Come to Mummy."

     She threw her tattooed arms around me and gripped me in her familiar powerful embrace. Sobbing like a baby, I buried my head into the soft folds of her maternal breasts, breathing in the smell of stale biscuits and nicotine.

     "There, there," she crooned, rocking gently.

     My stomach rumbled and I realised food hadn't passed my lips for three days. Shut in the darkness it's easy to lose all sense of time. To lose all sense.

     "Is my baby hungry?" she murmured. "Doesn't Mummy feed you properly?"

     I was vaguely aware of her screams as I sank my teeth into the warmth of her flesh and began to eat.

Back to Zinery Short Stories TOC