the slaughter began quietly and painlessly. the first cut was quick and deep. stab after ruthless, thoughtless stab led to another and another. there was no crying, no sound to speak of. soon the tops were off and the scraping began. the insides became outsides and the stringy guts clung to our fingers. juices dripped off our fingers and we laughed like giddy children.

sprite wanted a look of jack skellington whereas monkey wanted a happy face. the beginnings of facial features appeared on the hollowed out "skulls" that rin and i had been callously scraping the brains out of. after about an hour of cutting, pulling and shaping, the faces were complete and candles were placed...