Together At Last

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The flickering light shined out into the dense oak thicket where no life was around to see it. That’s what he wanted. The intimate privacy was necessary to carry out his performance without interruption or delay. It was just the two of them, together at last.

He made sure to keep his back turned, away from his prized possession, until an anal-retentive kind of ritual of precise preparation was performed to ensure peak satisfaction from the endeavor. Music was always the first step in all of his prior affairs; nothing felt right without a proper playlist to mirror his savvy craftsmanship. He fished his earphones and smartphone from his front pocket and pulled up the perfect playlist he’d carefully crafted for the occasion some time ago. He slid each earpiece into just the right depth and pressed play. He couldn’t contain the smile starting to climb up his freshly shaven face as the first movement of a classical piano piece began to swell.

He picked up his worn leather satchel, placed it on the table, and pulled out the velvet roll-up containing the instruments he would use to conduct his symphony. He glided his index finger over each handmade piece of smooth cold steel to conjure the sensual high he’d come to expect. To his surprise, the usual jolt felt more like a surge of electricity coursing through every part of his body. This made his thin lips stretch even higher in carnal delight until a giddy chuckle forced itself out. The newfound feeling provided a moment of pause to appreciate how all of the fine details, from distant observations to careful planning, propelled him from a mere dream into a vivid reality. All of the days, the weeks, and even months of hoping and pining were about to pay off in a spectacular fashion.

The trance of self-reflection was shattered when one of the tools slipped out of his hand and clanged against the splintered floorboards. He jerked his head downward to see which precious contrivance had escaped his grip, unaware that he even reached for it during his enchanted daydream. However, the moment his eyes fell upon it, he realized his slick subconscious had guided his hand and willed a wise choice into existence.

“Ah, so it’s you then, eh? You’ll do brilliantly,” he thought, lifting the precision instrument to admire the spotless shine of the sharpened edge glinting in the glow of the flame. He stood back up and inhaled with proud satisfaction as he began to turn around; it was finally time to be face to face with the reason for such beaming elation.

The reveal overwhelmed him when he saw the muse, bound and suspended from the ceiling like a regal butterfly caught in a spider’s web, awake and staring back at him with the dizzying dazzle of those peerless blue irises that sparked his obsession. He was in awe as their eyes kept stretching open further in panic and divulged his favorite part of every previous encounter who’d conveyed the exact same expression. It was the expression of pure fear. The look he prized above all else.

He began to shuffle his feet toward the vulnerable creature. It gave him a few more seconds to soak up every last drop of ecstasy from observing the futile struggle to break free of his elaborate apparatus of knotted ropes and pulleys. The steps ended when he was deliberately close enough to feel the rapid breaths of panic striking against his calm countenance. He reached his hand up to caress the tip of the blade along their abdomen before settling on the perfect place to make the first incision. He leaned in real close and removed one earpiece long enough to whisper a single question in their ear:

“So, my dear, shall we begin?”