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CHAPTER Sixteen
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The Final Cut CHAPTER Seventeen
CHAPTER SEVENTEENThe camera moved from the first victim to the woman on the operating table. The one who was identical to Melissa. As the blurry figures went to work, she looked heavenward with eyes every bit as blue as Melissa’s.Oh shit. Oh no. What was she going to think of him now?Melissa hands fell from Sam’s shoulders to his waist as she leaned over to get a better look at the screen.“Look, Melissa, it’s not what it looks like,” Sam said. “Okay, it is what it looks like and I know what you must be thinking, but I swear to God I was just about to . . . ”Melissa put a finger to Sam’s lips. “Shh,” she said. “We’re missing the best bits.”“What?! You’re not . . . ? I mean, I thought you’d be like . . . livid.”“What I am is wet. And this film just makes me wetter.” Melissa ran her fingers over Sam’s crotch. “I notice our friend here has gotten a little shy. I do hope he’s going to put in another appearance.” She stroked Sam through the front of his jeans, coaxing him back
The Final Cut CHAPTER Eighteen
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN“Course, Hackney’s nothing like it used to be,” said the Big Issue vendor, as Jimmy fished around in his pocket for change. “Ten years ago it still had an edge. You could get all manner of dodgy goods from the market. And the squat parties, that’s what I miss the most, them and the crack dens with the boarded up windows. All these yuppies who’ve moved in, they’ve fucking ruined it.”“A wise man once told me it’s still all there,” said Jimmy. “Underneath the surface of the city”“The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”“How should I know, I’ve never driven a mini cab.” Jimmy handed the guy his money and headed off down the street still smiling.The house he was looking for was in a little cul de sac, off the Lower Clapton Road. It was one of those Victorian terraces that were popular round these parts. It hadn’t been renovated, as so many of them had. Melissa’s sister Suzy had told him where to find it.Incense and patchouli wafted out as she answered the door. Suzy wa
The Final Cut CHAPTER Nineteen
CHAPTER NINETEEN“Wait a minute,” said Suzy. “You came here with information about my sister. I’d like to hear it now.”“Why now?”“You may not realise it, but your aura’s changed. When you came here your colours were guarded, deceitful and conflicted. The crying and the confession have opened you up, something’s been unlocked, your chakras are more in synch. I think you should tell me what you know.”“You don’t really believe all this new age claptrap do you?”“And here we are back to being cynical, in spite of what just happened. You’re not fooling anyone you know. This isn’t the only weird thing that’s happened lately is it?”“You couldn’t possibly know about that.”“Know about what?”“It doesn’t matter.”“You say you employed my sister, was this recently?”“Yes, we’re supposed to be shooting now. That’s why I’ve been looking for her, she’s disappeared again. We’re losing money on the shoot and . . . ”“Yes?”“Well she asked me to come and look for her, if something like
The Final Cut CHAPTER Twenty
CHAPTER TWENTYThe footage ended and the screen went blank. Sam got carefully up from the sofa, so as not to hurt his cock. It was so chafed and raw it hurt to even look at, let alone touch.He couldn’t decide whether to re-watch the footage, or grab a beer and some left over pizza. He hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in over eight hours. He looked around the room at the chipped paint on the floorboards, the mouldering furniture and the curtain-less windows. There wasn’t any pizza left. The discarded box was empty and so were the beer cans scattered at his feet.His stomach rumbled in complaint. He was hungry, but he’d run out of provisions. He could order another pizza but that would mean going downstairs to the pub; the delivery guy wasn’t allowed up to the room. Going downstairs meant he’d have to interact with the people in the bar. It also meant putting pants on, and he wasn’t sure his poor cock could take that.Maybe it was best if he just stayed in his room and watched th
The Final Cut CHAPTER Twenty-One
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONEWhen he’d gotten back to his apartment, even though it was late, the first thing Sam did was get straight in the shower.In a repeat of the night he got back from the lock up, Sam stood beneath the scalding hot water and tried to wash away the memories of the previous hours. He was no more successful this time than he had been the last. No amount of soap or water could wash away the spectre of Melissa’s touch. He could still feel her ragged skin pressing against his, her breath on his cheek and her blood spilling out over his loins. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her face and the gaping hole in her throat.His skin was red and smarting when he left the shower. The images in his mind were just as vivid. They weren’t the only thing he couldn’t escape. His whole body was filled with an invisible pressure, an insatiable need for release. He’d fought off his desire to come with Melissa and now it dogged him mercilessly.Sam was reminded of a Sunday afternoon he’
The Final Cut CHAPTER Twenty-Two
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWOSam had been in the room above the pub ever since. Though he’d watched the footage more times than he could remember, he’d never seen the exact same sequence twice. The footage changed every time he watched it. That’s why he’d never been able to edit it.To begin with the changes were quite subtle, but in time everything was different from the first time he saw it. At first Sam noticed how the blurry, shadow figures altered the way they tortured the three victims. They seemed to get crueller, more extreme and increasingly creative in the ways they flayed and dismembered them.After this, the victims began to change, the two men he’d originally seen with Melissa were replaced with others, including the men who’d been in the lock up with Ashkan. The only constant throughout the whole of Sam’s viewing was the presence of Melissa. That and the almost transcendent way she bore the torture of the blurred figures.In time Sam began to suspect that the footage itself had
The Final Cut CHAPTER Twenty-Three
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE“Yeah, like I said,” the barman called over his shoulder, “we ain’t seen him in days, mate. Landlord reckons he’s done a bunk.” He was a bulky man who huffed a lot as he led Jimmy up the stairs. He was losing most of his hair, even though he was only in his late twenties, and had grown a huge pair of mutton chop whiskers to compensate.“Landlord’s coming back this evening to clear the room, so if you want anything you best go through his stuff and grab it now, alright? Good luck though, it’s minging in there.”“That’s okay, I’m only after one thing, I shan’t be long.”The barman coughed, looked at the floor and scratched his neck, waiting for something.“Oh yeah, sorry,” said Jimmy and pulled two twenties and a ten from his pocket.“Cheers,” said the barman, taking the money. He produced a key, unlocked the door then turned and lumbered back down the stairs.The smell hit Jimmy the minute he opened the door. The air was stale and stank of Sam’s unwashed body
The Final Cut CHAPTER Twenty-Four
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURJimmy let himself into Sam’s apartment and put the laptop on the coffee table in the living room. The presence of the laptop in the apartment seemed to confirm Sam’s absence. He was never coming back. Like Jennie he was dead and lost to Jimmy forever.Jimmy sat on the sofa and stared at the laptop as though it was booby trapped. In a way it was. It contained the last surviving copy of the footage. Someone, or something, connected with that footage had killed Sam. Jimmy was afraid to even open the laptop, let alone switch it on.He knew the footage was dangerous, toxic on some level he could barely comprehend. Everyone who’d watched the footage, since Ashkan first played it in the lock up, was dead. Everyone except Jimmy. Was it simply a matter of time before it claimed him, too?The wise thing to do would be to destroy the footage, but it was more important to his plans than it had ever been. Using it in a film had been all about redeeming the terrible situation
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