Kerry is in the basement of his cabin. Soft music is playing from a portable CD player and he is changing the blades on his scalpels. When he was taught the art of skinning by Maguya they used a simple long bladed knife that had been with the tribe for years. It was hard to keep sharp and the skin often broke because they had to pull more than cut. These scalpels make it much easier to separate the skin from the flesh.
He puts his scalpels away and walks up the stairs. Looking at the mannequins he starts with the two teenage girls by the dinner table. He carries them down to the cellar and leans them against the wall. Then he goes back up and does the same with the others until they are all against the wall. He steps back and looks at them, he smiles and walks up to Katie and arranges her hair a little. He has to hide them because his wife and son are coming the next day. He will go back down to town and the following day they will drive up together and spend a day or two in the cabin. He will take his son fishing and his wife will potter around her garden. He will play the happy father and the adoring husband, just as he has done every day since he came back.
He sighs, he feels he can’t breathe sometimes, all the people around him, the cars, the radios, the TV’s making noise. He wants to be back in the jungle, moving in the shadows with the other hunters, looking for prey, kill, tear and listening to the sound of skin ripping apart. He has his hideout, but he has to be careful, even though his mind tells him he needs to kill more. Is it his mind, or another voice telling him? Sometimes he doesn’t know.
He looks at his watch, it’s time to go. He turns off the lights in the cellar and up in the cabin he makes a last check that everything is as it should be. He changes the sheets in their bed so his wife doesn’t ask about the smell. He opens the windows and then makes himself a cup of tea and takes it outside. Sitting on the porch sipping his tea he sees a deer coming out of the woods. He can’t understand how people can hunt such a beautiful animal, what’s the point? His phone rings, and he looks at the screen. It’s the number of his house.
"Yes."
"Hi honey, when will you be back?" his wife asks in a sweet voice.
"In a couple of hours."
"OK, don’t be late, I’ll have dinner ready for you."
Kerry puts the phone back in his pocket. Dinner, he remembers how he and the hunters could go days without food when they were looking for their next sacrifice. All they did was drink water and eat some fruit they found on trees and bushes. He laughs to himself remembering the stomach pains and diarrhea he would have during the first month before his body got used to the new foods.
He finishes his tea and takes the cup inside and washes it. Then he closes the windows, and sprays some disinfectant with a flower smell to it in all the rooms. He double checks the door to the cellar and it’s locked.
On the drive back to town, he whistles and smokes a cigarette. When he passes the police station he sees Chief Hawk and his deputies walking up the path and with them is a young woman. Kerry slows down and looks at her. She is beautiful, her skin has that luscious glow to it, and just as he passes, she turns her head, and looks at him. Even though he is almost fifty yards from her, he gets goosebumps, and for a second he has a vision of the young woman hanging from his structure, while he is running his scalpel down her spine.